"THE KURDS HAVE NO FRIENDS."

On Good Friday of 1991, Kurds heard the helicopters of Saddam Hussein's air force on the horizon. The Kurds had risen up against the Iraqi government following Desert Storm, but had been defeated. Now they picked up their belongings and fled into the mountains towards the Turkish / Iranian and Syrian border.

It had happened before. In 1988, chemical weapons poisoned Kurds. This time they feared annihilation. By Easter morning, the entire Kurdish population was fleeing. Hundreds of thousands of them walked away from their homes. A million and a half people climbed, struggling through spring snow towards Turkey. A similar number headed for Iran.

Promised a homeland following World War I, yet living under governments who regard even their spoken language as a menace to the state, Kurds in the Middle East have suffered without the world knowing. Whilst 1 200 Palestinians died in the intifadah, the Iraqi Kurds lost 200 times as many civilians in their own uprisings. But the world was not watching.

"THE LAND OF THE KARDA"

The Kurds are first mentioned in historical records in the Sumerian cuneiform writings (3,000BC). They talked of the "land of the Karda." From earliest times, the Kurds were unaffected by shifts in the empires around them. They tended their flocks and obeyed their tribal leaders, with a minimum of interference from outsiders; due to the inaccessibility of their area and their reputation for being excellent fighters. At some stage of their early history, many of them came under the dominance of the Sumerians, the Akkadians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Parthians, the Persians, the Romans and the Armenians.

In the 7th century A.D., the Arabs conquered the area, converting many to Islam by the sword. The Kurdish area became a border between the Muslim Caliphate and the Christian Byzantine Empire. In the centuries that followed, the Kurds also had to withstand invasions from Central Asia.

The most famous Kurd in history is Saladin. He emerges as the greatest military mind on either side of the Crusades, and the wisest Muslim ruler. He was born in Tikrit in Iraqi Kuridstan in 1137, the Arabs have exiled the Kurdish nation from this town. Tikrit is also the birth town of Saddam Hussein. At age 31 Saladin was appointed commander of the Syrian troops and vizier of Egypt. He became the sole ruler of Egypt and soon set out to unite the Muslim territories of Syria, northern Mesopotamia (Iraq), Kurdistan, Palestine and the rest of Egypt. In 1187, he occupied Jerusalem. He died in 1193.

As the Ottoman Empire rose to power in the 13th through 15th centuries, it extended its territory to what is roughly now the border between Iran and Iraq. From then until World War I, the area inhabited by the Kurds was about three-fourths subject to the Ottomans and one-fourth subject to the Persians.

Following World War I and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the USA, France and Britain pledged their support for Kurdish autonomy. In 1923 a treaty was signed in Switzerland that shattered the Kurdish dream of independence and gave western Kurdistan to Turkey. The Turks issued a decree in 1924, banning "Kurdish language, schools, traditional clothes, organizations and publications along with their religious fraternities and seminaries." The Kurds responded with a series of bloody uprisings. This rebellion sparked uprisings in Turkey, Iran and Iraq, which have continued to the present. Almost every decade since then, there has been a major Kurdish rebellion against their ruling government.

OVERVIEW OF KURDISH STRUGGLES & UPRISINGS SINCE W. WAR I

• 1919 - Kurdish political party called Khoyboun (independence) was formed. They strived for a secular, united Kurdistan.
• 1922 - A Kurdish kingdom was announced in northern Iraq by Sheikh Mahmud.
• 1924 - The British conquered Mahmud with the aid of his Kurdish opponents.
• 1925 - Sheikh Sai'd led a series of uprisings against the new Turkish Republic. Kurdish rebels took over several provinces, including Diyarbakir. The revolt was suppressed and the Sheikh hanged.
• 1927 - Iraqi Kurdistan was the scene of another uprising - led by Sheikh Ahmad Barzani. - A Kurdish government in exile declared from Lebanon, by Khoyboun party
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• 1929-1932 - Khoyboun's forces secured control over a vast mountainous region of Turkish Kurdistan.
• The Anglo- Iraqi treaty was signed in 1930 providing for the independence of Iraq from the British effective in 1932. The treaty ignored completely the existence of the Kurds.
• 1937-1938 - The Turkish army began a massive attack on Kurdish villages using every possible weapon, including poison gas, heavy artillery, and even primitive bomber aircraft. Entire villages were destroyed.
• 1940 - Iranian Kurds launched an independence movement resulting in the establishment of an independent Kurdish Republic in1945
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• 1958 - The Iraqi monarchy was overthrown by Abdul Karim Qasim. He was cordial to the Kurds and even incorporated a Kurdish symbol in the new Iraqi flag. When the Baath party toppled Qasim in 1963, the Kurdish symbol was dropped.
• 1970 - Saddam Hussein, vice-president of the new revolutionary regime, emerged as the most prominent leader representing the Baath party in his dealings with the Kurds.
• 1974 - Iraq granted autonomy to the Kurds, but kept real power in Baghdad. The Kurds were offered a limited autonomous region under strict government control.
• 1979-1982 - Iran's monarchy toppled by Khomeini. Iranian Kurds tried to take advantage of the anarchy that followed by staging armed uprisings. Iran's response was an all-out war on the Kurds. The Kurds were crushed.
• 1984 - In the middle of the Iran-Iraq War, The PUK (Patriotic Union Of Kurdistan) struck a deal with the Iraqi government. Iraq consented to creating a Kurdish autonomous area that even included oil-rich Kirkuk. Turkey objected to the deal. The treaty was never signed, sparking another four years of bloodshed.
• 1988 - Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons to subdue the Kurds. Several Kurdish cities in the Mosul region were affected. Thousands of civilians were killed and tens of thousands were left homeless. In Halabja alone, more than 5 000 perished due to the deadly chemicals.
• 1990-1993 - This genocide intensified after Saddam's defeat by Western allied forces. Iraqi troops ravaged Kurdish towns and villages. Over a million Kurds became homeless in Iran and an equal number crossed over to Turkey or hid in the mountains. The USA and other Western countries under the umbrella of the UN formed a security zone in northern Iraq and rescued survivors from annihilation.

"If there is one thing sure in this world, it is certainly this: that it will not happen to us a second time." - Primo Levi, 1958 Survival in Auschwitz

Too often history has repeated itself in Kurdistan. Iran, Turkey, and the former Soviet Union have all played dirty games with them. Supporting them enough to appease them, then withholding support to break them. The USA and its Western allies have also withdrawn promised support at crucial moments leaving the Kurds prey to their giant enemies.