Kurdistan news

Parliamentary	2009	2005	Average
Kurdistani List	57,34%	89,55%	-  32,21%
Change List (Listi Gorran)	23,75 %	00,00 %	+ 23,75%
Service and Improve List	12,8 %	4.86 %	+ 7,94%
Islamitic movement	1,45 %	00	00
Social Justice and Freedom list:	0,82	00	00
The rest	5 %

Presidential	2009
Massoud Barzani	69.57%
Kamal Mirawdily	25,32%
Halow Ibrahim Ahmed	3,49 %
Ahmed Mohammed Rasul	1,4 %
Hussein Garmiyani	0,59%

 
 Halwer
 
 Kurdistani List: 400,916 votes
 Change List (Listi Gorran): 112,000 votes
 Service and Improve List : 42,000 votes
 
 Slemani
 
 Change List (Listi Gorran): 286,664 votes
 Kurdistani List: 253,759 votes
 Service and Improve List: 133,527 votes
 
 Duhok
 
 Kurdistani List: 338,000 votes
 Service and Improve List: 44,000 votes
 Change List (Listi Gorran): 18,000 votes
 
 Team Kurdistan4all.com
 26-07-2009
 

The results of internet poll about Kurdistan election 2009

 

From 7-7-2009 to 24-07-2009 we asked the visitors to our website (www.kurdistan4all.com) three questions concerning the elections in Kurdistan. 1) Which party or list do you elect? 2) Who are you going to vote for president? 3) Do you support an independent Kurdistan?

 

The results of the poll are presented below. Nota bene: the results are not 100% representative for the following reasons:

The survey only was conducted on the internet. And not everybody has internet access.

The supporters of some of the parties are much more active on the internet than the supporters of other parties.

 

1.219 respondents answered question one. The results of question one are as follows: The Change List wins the elections with 50 percent, followed by the Kurdistani List with 47 percent and the Service and Reform List with 2 percent. The other parties did not get any votes.

 

On which politic party or List you will vote next elections in Kurdistan?

 

Total Votes: 1219

 

The results of questions two (1.111 respondents) are as follows:  Kamal Mirawadily wins the elections with 52 percent, followed by Massoud Barzani with 45 percent, Halow Ibrahim with 2% and Ahmed Mohammed Rasul with 1 percent.

Which person you will vote on?

 

Total Votes: 1111

 

Question three was answered by 642 respondents: 89 percent of the respondents support an independent Kurdistan. Only 9 percent is against an independent Kurdistan.

Do you support an independent Kurdistan?

 

Total Votes: 642

 

Campaigning is underway in the Kurdish Region ahead of elections for the Kurdish regional assembly on July 25. Twenty four political groups, including five alliances, have declared their participation in the election, competing for 111 seats (11 reserved for ethnic and religious minorities). In total, 507 candidates have registered to compete in the elections and more than 2.5 million people have registered to vote.

 

KURDISH ELECTION LISTS

 

KURDISTANI LIST:

 

The Kurdistani List is composed of the two main political parties in the region: the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by Regional President Massoud Barzani, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

 

The head of the Kurdistani list is Dr. Barham Saleh, a PUK official and the current Iraqi deputy Prime Minister. There is talk among KDP and PUK officials that Saleh will be the next regional Prime Minister.

 

The PUK and KDP have been controlling the Kurdish Region since 1991, prior to which they were the main forces of rebellion against the regime of Saddam Hussein.

 

The Kurdistan list says it will preserve all the political, economic and social achievements which the region has gained since 1991.

 

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP): Founded in 1946 under the leadership of Mullah Mustafa Barzani, father of Massoud Barzani.

 

“The KDP’s intent is that people in Kurdistan should live with honour, peace, safety, freedom, and democracy on our Kurdistan soil, our own soil which belongs to us. This is our national aspiration” says the party. The KDP says it is working for a strong Kurdish Regional government and parliament. Although the KDP believes that an independent state is a natural right of the Kurdish people, it says it prefers to remain within a federal, plural and democratic Iraq.

 

The KDP says the oil rich city of Kirkuk and other disputed areas in northern Iraq belong to the Kurdish Region and should be annexed accordingly. Although the KDP believes that an independent state is a natural right of the Kurdish people, it prefers to remain with a federal Iraq.

 

Massoud Barzani is the current leader of the KDP; Fadhil Mirani is the head of KDP politburo; Nechirvan Barzani is a member of politburo and regional Prime Minister; Hoshyar Zebari is a member of politburo and Iraqi Foreign Minister.

 

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK): Founded in June 1975, two months after the collapse of the Kurdish rebellion of 1974-1975.

 

The PUK proclaims that it struggles for democracy, freedom and equality and against dictatorship, war, occupation, as well as national, class and religious oppression.

 

The PUK wants to attain the right of self-determination for the people of Kurdistan and says it wants to establish a democratically elected Kurdistan National Assembly, which would be the highest power in Kurdistan. The Assembly will be elected in free, direct, and secret elections. The Executive authority of Kurdistan will be elected and dissolved by the Kurdistan National Assembly. The PUK says it will establish an independent judiciary, not subordinate to any power except the law.

 

The PUK supports a federal region for Iraqi Kurdistan calls for Kirkuk and other disputed areas should be returned to the Region. The party facilitates the return of Kurdish deportees to their original homes.

 

The current Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, a former student leader, lawyer, journalist and resistance leader, has been Secretary General of the PUK since its founding in 1975. Kosrat Rasul, the Kurdish Region’s Vice-President is considered number two in the PUK; and Dr. Barham Saleh, Iraq’s deputy Prime Minister is number three in the PUK.

 

CHANGE LIST:

 

The Change List is headed by Nawshirwan Mustafa; a former PUK party leader who left the party in December 2006 in protest at the lack of internal reform.

 

The List is considered as one of the main lists in the upcoming parliamentary elections and there is expectation that those who are not happy with the PUK and KDP will vote for the Change list.

 

Most of the leaders of the Change List are former members of PUK. They say they are working to separate the government from political parties and to create a parliament which is not controlled by the political bureaus of the political parties. They also want to strengthen an independent, non-corrupt and just judiciary. The Change List wants to limit political interference in the regional economy and supports a more transparent budget.

 

The List believes that problems between Baghdad and the Kurdish Region can be solved through dialogue on the basis of the Iraqi constitution. Regarding the conflict with Turkey, the Change List says that only a political solution in Turkey can resolve the issue.

 

The List supports federalism for the Kurdish region.

 

Nawshirwan Mustafa heads the Change List. Born in 1944, Mustafa is a prominent Kurdish politician and academic. He was a co-founder of the PUK and deputy secretary general until December 2006.

 

THE SERVICE AND REFORM LIST:

 

The Service and Reform List is composed of four political parties: the Kurdistan Islamic Union, the Islamic Group of Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party and the Future Party.

 

The Service and Reform List says it will fight against corruption in the Kurdish Region and will give women a real role in regional life.

 

Kurdistan Islamic Union: Describes itself as “an Islamic reformative political party that strives to solve all political, social, economic and cultural matters of the people in Kurdistan from an Islamic perspective which can achieve the rights, general freedom, and social justice.” The party secretary is Salah al-Din Baha al-Din. The group is closely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood.

 

Islamic Group of Kurdistan: Established by Ali Bapir in May 2001. Bapir is a former member of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan.

 

Bapir says: “Our policy is that we enter into fraternity and cooperation with all Islamic groups. We seek such fraternal relations with Islamic parties and organizations, Islamist figures, and groups that follow a Salafi tradition or a Sufi or a scientific tradition. In the Komele Islami, we believe that the group must be open-minded and seek fraternity with all those who call or act for Islam. If we see a mistake, we will try to correct it through dialogue and by creating a fraternal atmosphere.”

 

Local newspapers in the Kurdish Region say the Islamic Group of Kurdistan has a strong relationship with Iran.

 

Bapir was imprisoned by American forces in July 2003 and released in April 2005. The Americans accused him of planning attacks on coalition forces, assisting extremist Islamist group Ansar al Islam and maintaining relations with Saddam Hussein’s government and with Iran.

 

The Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party (KSDK): Led by Muhammad Haji Mahmud, the KSDK is a left-wing nationalist party. The party has one seat in the Kurdish Regional Parliament - Mahmud holds the seat.

 

Aynda (Future) Party: Led by Qadir Aziz, who until recently was head of the Kurdistan Toiler Party (KTP). Aziz was forced out of the party by the KTP central bureau “because he didn’t commit to the party’s internal system.”

 

Aziz says the KDP and PUK have failed to return Kirkuk and other disputed areas to the Kurdish Region.

 

THE KURDISTAN CONSERVATIVE PARTY LIST:

 

The Kurdistan Conservative Party List is led by Zaid Surchi. The List represents tribal leaders and is dominated by the Surchi family. In 1996 KDP forces clashed with fighters from the Surchi family’s home villages, killing Hussein Surchi, Zaid’s uncle. The PUK supported the Conservative Party during the short-lived conflict. The Surchi tribe is found in Erbil, Duhok and Mosul.

 

THE ISLAMIC MOVEMENT OF KURDISTAN LIST:

 

The Islamic Movement of Kurdistan List was founded in 1979 by Shaykh Uthman Abdul-Aziz and several other Sunni mullahs who were part of the non-political “Union of Religious Scholars.” The party’s main support comes from in and around that town of Halabja, which was bombed with chemical weapons by Saddam Hussein. In regions controlled by the Islamic Movement in Kurdistan, the party has established its own infrastructure but has not sought to apply Islamic (Sharia) law. The head of the Party is Sidiq Abdul Aziz, but the head of the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan List is Dr. Ahmed Warte.

 

The Islamic Movement of Kurdistan List says Islamic Law must be the main source for the Kurdish Region’s constitution. It also calls for greater government transparency.

 

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND FREEDOM LIST:

 

The Social Justice and Freedom List is composed of six leftist parties: the Kurdistan Communist Party, the Kurdistan Toilers Party, the Kurdistan Independent Work Party, the Kurdistan pro-Democratic Party and the Democratic Movement of Kurdistan People.

 

The list demands equal rights for men and women, promises to solve housing problem and gives priority to the rights for farmers. The list says it works for a secular Kurdistan.

 

INDEPENDENT YOUTH LIST:

 

The Independent Youth List is headed by Hiwa Abdul-Karim Aziz (known as Hiwa Fryad Ras), a 30 year old journalist. The list consists of 10 people, made up of lawyers, university teachers and journalists who promise to make the Kurdistan Regional Parliament more active and give more attention to youth issues.

 

KURDISTAN REFORM MOVEMENT:

 

The Kurdistan Reform Movement is headed by Abdul-Musawwar al-Barzani, a cousin of the incumbent regional and KDP president Massoud Barzani. Abdul-Musawwar al-Barzani says he is against corruption and the list focuses on human rights and rule of law.

 

PROGRESSION LIST:

 

The Progression List is headed by Halo Ibrahim Ahmed, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s brother in law. Halo Ibrahim is also a candidate in the presidential election.

 

The Progression List says it will work to improve the standard of living of the Kurdish people and that its candidates will resign from parliament after six months if they do not fulfil their promises.

 

Ahmed, who has lived in Sweden and Britain, used to be a PUK member but was dismissed last year for creating a bloc inside the Union.

 

THE KURDISTAN DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL PARTY LIST:

 

The Kurdistan Democratic National Party List (YNDK) was founded in 1995 with the aim of creating a Greater Kurdistan including Kurds and territory from Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. YNDK worked closely with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the late 1990s. Today the party remains hostile towards Turkish regional policy but has moved away from the PKK to cooperate with the KDP.

 

In this election, the party is campaigning to solve the housing problem and also to work on youth and women’s issues. Ghafur Makhmuri is the party’s general-secretary and holds the party’s only seat in parliament.

 

KURDISTAN TOILERS AND WORKERS PARTY LIST:

 

The Kurdistan Toilers and Workers Party List proclaims that it will work to improve justice and the rule of law in the region. The Party has been working as an organization for 14 years.

 

IRAQI CONSITUTIONAL PARTY:

 

The Party was founded by Iraqi Interior Minister, Jowad Bolani, in 2005. Although Bolani officially stepped down as party leader when he was named interior minister he retains considerable power.

 

KURDISTAN BRIGHT FUTURE LIST:

 

The Kurdistan Bright Future List is led by Dr. Muhammad Saleh Hama Faraj, who lived in exile in the UK from 1980 to 2008. Dr. Faraj says he works to separate government from the political parties, strengthen an independent, non-corrupt and just judiciary and that if he becomes a member of parliament he will demand a rewriting of the constitution.

 

The Kurdish Parliament has set aside five seats for the Turkmen community. Four Turkmen lists are competing for these seats. (Turkmen only live in Erbil province.)

 

ERBIL TURKEMN LIST: This list is led by five well-known Turkmen persons in Erbil: Sherdil Tahsin Arsalan, Ta’fa Rostam Qasab, Thaura Saleh, Nafeh Rostam and Ahtham Abdul Karim. The List wants Kirkuk to be part of the Kurdish region and they are against Turkey’s interferes in Turkmen affairs.

 

TURKMEN REFORM LIST: This list is led by Abdul Qadir Zangana and its main goal is to strengthen the political role of the Turkmen. The list is against Turkish interference.

 

TURKEMEN DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN KURDISTAN: The party is headed by Karkhi Alti Barmak, who wants to unite all Turkmen. The list wants Kirkuk to become part of the Kurdish Region and is against Turkish interference.

 

INDEPENDENT TURKMEN LIST: This list is headed by Kanhan Shakir Aziz; the list says Turkmen are the majority in Kirkuk and that it should be an independent region.

 

Five seats have also been set aside for the Christian community. Four Christian lists are competing for these seats.

 

UNIFIED CHALDEAN LIST: This list is composed of the Chaldean Union Party and the Chaldean National Council.

 

CHALDEAN SYRIAC ASSYRIAN AUTONOMY LIST

 

AL-RAFIDAIN LIST: This list is headed by Yunadam Kanna, a member of the Iraqi Parliament. The list says it works to employ Christians in the security forces in the Kurdish region.

 

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHALDEAN SYRIAC ASSYRIANS: Headed by Sarkis Aghajan Mamendo, an Iraqi Assyrian politician who was appointed Minister for Finance and Economy in the cabinet of Iraqi Kurdistan on 2006. The List wants to unite all Christians in Iraq.

 

The Kurdish parliament has set aside one seat for the Armenian community. There are about 200 Armenian families living in Zakho, near the Turkish border in Duhok province. Three people are competing for this seat: Aram Shahine Dawood Bakoyan, Eshkhan Malkon Sargisyan and Aertex Morses Sargisyan.

Sources:

Niqash.org

 

www.kurdistan4all.com

info@kurdistan4all.com

Team Kurdistan4all

 

Dear all,

For a time we have been conducting a survey on the elections in Kurdistan which are going to take place on 25 July 2009. We ask the visitors to our website three questions concerning these elections. Who are you going to vote for president, which party or list do you elect and finally, do you support an independent Kurdistan? Please take a couple of minutes to answer the three questions. This gives us an insight into how people perceive the elections.

 

Use this link and vote!.

www.kurdistan4all.com/poll.htm

 

www.kurdistan4all.com

Thank you very much!

Team Kurdistan4all.com

PNA- هولير: نشرت الهيئة العليا المستقلة للإنتخابات، أسماء الكيانات السياسية في إقليم كوردستان، وسيبدء تسجيل تحالف الكيان السياسي، إعتبارا من يوم غد، ولغاية يوم الخميس القادم.   بحسب منشور وصل لوكالة أنباء بيامنير نسخة منه، نشرت الهيئة العليا المستقلة للإنتخابات أسماء الكيانات السياسية، وسيبدء منذ يوم غدا 1/5 تسجيل تحالف ذلك الكيان السياسي المثبت، وستستمر لغاية 7/5 . وبحسب المنشور، سيكون التسجيل في مكتب هيئة إقليم كوردستان. ونشرت الهيئة العليا المستقلة للإنتخابات أسماء الكيانات السياسية بالشكل التالي:   أسماء الكيانات السياسية المشاركة في الإنتخابات:   التسلسل        الرقم                       الكيان السياسي 1              22                       الحزب الوطنی الاشوری 2              59                        قائمه‌ الرافدين 3              98                       الإتحاد الوطني الكوردستاني 4             102                      حزب كادحي كوردستان 5             119                      حزب المحافظين الكوردستاني 6             123                      التجمع الإسلامي الكوردستاني - العراق 7             162                      حزب المحافظين الديمقراطی الكردستانی 8             165                      الحركة الديمقراطية الشعبة الكوردستانية 9             166                      حزب الاتحاد الديمقراطى الكلدانى 10           167                      الإتحاد الإسلامي الكوردستاني 11           175                      حزب بيت النهرين الديمقراطی 12           177                     الحزب الشيوعى الكوردستانى / العراق 13           178                     الحزب الإشتراكي الديمقراطي الكوردستاني 14           193                     حركة الدعوة الديمقراطية الكوردستانية 15           195                     الإتحاد القومي الديمقراطي الكوردستاني YNDK 16           198                     الحزب الديمقراطي الكوردستاني 17           308                     حزب العمل المستقل الكوردستاني 18           655                     المجلس الشعبى الكلدانى السريانى الاشورى 19           657                    المجلس القومى الكلدانى 20           795                    الحزب الدستورى العراقى 21          890                    ( التغيير ) 22          891                     الشباب المستقل 23          892                     ( قائمه‌ التقدم ) 24          893                     حزب عمال وكادحي كوردستان 25          894                    الحركه‌ الديمقراطيه‌ التركمانيه‌ فى كوردستان 26          895                                     هيوا 27          896                    قائمه‌ الاصلاح التركمانى 28         897                     قائمه‌ كلد واشور الديمقراطيه‌ 29         898                     المستقبل المشرق لكوردستان 30         899                    الديمقراطي الوطني 31         900                    وارتكيس موسيس سركيسيان 32         901                     ارام شاهين داود باكويان 33         902                    شانت اكوب مراد مراديان 34         903                    ايشخان ملكون سركيسيان 35         904                    المستقبل 36         905                   قائمه‌ المستقلين التركمان لحمايه‌ تراث اربيل 37         906                   التجمع المسيحى للتاخى 38         907                   الحركة الإسلامية في كوردستان/العراق 39         908                   قائمه‌ اربيل التركمانيه‌ 40         909                   القائمة المستقلة البيضاء 41         910                  حركه‌ الاصلاح الكوردستانى

 

The Kurdish People:

Victims of Capitalist Nation-State Requirements

 

[Published in Bulletin In Defense of Marxism, No. 90 (November 1991): 25-31]

 

Despite the extensive media coverage of recent months, the Kurds remain a people seen but not known. Who are they?

A Brief History

Long before the kings of Persia, the caliphs of Baghdad, and the sultans of the Ottoman Empire came to sit in their palaces, the Kurds settled in the valleys of northeastern Mesopotamia and the surrounding mountains that lie astride the borders separating present-day Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and the USSR. For thousands of years they have worked the soil and grazed their animals here.

The Kurds are a people of Indo-European stock who have lived in a geographically cohesive area called Kurdistan, and who constitute a nation with a distinct language, culture, and heritage. By the seventh century, they were writing poems in their own language and introducing music into the palaces of Arab princes. Ensuing literary works were at certain historical periods of high quality. For example, Ahmed Khani’s 17th century masterpiece, Memozin , continues to rank among the chief works of epic literature.

Through thousands of years the Kurdish people fought the Sumerians, Assyrians, Persians, Crusaders, Mongols and Turks for their freedom from oppression. And they gave Islam one of its best defenders–Saladin (Salah el-Din Ayyubi), who battled Richard the Lion-Hearted and the Crusaders to regain Jerusalem in 1187.

Despite their long and proud history, this ancient people have the unfortunate distinction of being perhaps the only community of over 21 million which has not enjoyed some form of national state in the post-WWI period.

While the Kurds, like many other non-Turkish peoples, were officially part of the Ottoman Empire prior to WWI, they in fact enjoyed a high degree of autonomy. The Kurdo-Ottoman pact formally recognized sixteen independent Kurdish principalities, with many of the attributes of sovereignty: they could even strike coinage, they did not have to pay tribute to the sultan, and they were not accountable to him.

Although the defeat and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire during WWI gave birth to a number of independent nation-states of the non-Turkish minorities (for example, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Palestine/Israel), the Kurds who were also promised self-determination were actually denied this right. The Treaty of Sevres, signed by the allies and the Turkish government on August 10, 1920, specifically stipulated the right of the Kurds to self-determination.

This promise, however, was soon rendered meaningless by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne which effectively divided Kurdistan among Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. The Iranian Kurds had long ago been separated from the rest of Kurdistan in the 16th century when the Ottoman and Persian Safavid Empires set their borders right in the middle of Kurdistan (1514), following a long and bitter war.

As far as the Kurds are concerned, the Treaty of Lausanne represented a deal between Britain and Turkey regarding the division of Kurdish territories: as Britain detached the oil-rich province of Mosul from Kurdistan and attached it to its mandate (Iraq), it in return gave Turkey a free hand to subject the rest of Kurdistan to increased oppression. Soon after the Treaty, Mustafa Kemal, the xenophobically nationalist leader of Turkey, banned all expressions of Kurdish national identity such as art, music, literature and, in particular, the use of their mother tongue. To deprive the Kurds of all rights, Kemal passed laws that denied altogether the very existence of the Kurds in Turkey, by calling them “mountain Turks”!

In return for the forceful attachment of the Kurdish oil-rich province of Mosul to Iraq, Britain promised the Iraqi Kurds national autonomy. A 1922 joint Iraqi-British declaration recognized the Kurds’ right to “form a Kurdish government within the Iraqi frontiers.” But when the Iraqi government reneged on this promise and the Kurds rebelled, the British Royal Air force aided the Iraqi army to crush the rebellion–once in 1932, and again in 1945.

This brutal breakup of Kurdistan was countered by the constant struggle of the Kurdish people to reestablish their national identity. In Iraq alone, the recent uprising of the Kurds, triggered partly by President Bush’s call on the Iraqi people to rise against the tyrant in Baghdad, was only the latest of some eleven such insurrections since WWI.

President Bush’s green light to Saddam Hussein to quell the uprising was likewise only the latest in a series of such cynical turnabouts. For example, In the early 1970s, the United States collaborated with the Shah of Iran to supply a similar Kurdish struggle with arms in Iraq. That struggle was prompted by Baghdad’s default on an important autonomy agreement it had signed with the Kurds in March 1970. When the Kurds revolted in protest, the U.S. and the Shah maneuvered to derive political dividends from their national cause for their own purposes.

Their “support” of the Kurds was therefore designed not to help them gain their national autonomy, but to teach the Iraqi regime a lesson for (a) having just signed a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union, and (b) making repeated territorial claims concerning the border waterway between Iran and Iraq. The 1976 congressional Pike report provides a powerful testimony of how the Kurds were used:

“Neither the foreign head of state [the Shah] nor the President [Richard Nixson] and Dr. Kissinger desired victory for our clients [the Kurds]….They merely hoped to ensure that the insurgents would be capable of sustaining a level of hostility just high enough to sap the resources of the neighboring state” of Iraq. The report adds: “Our clients, who were encouraged to fight, were not told of this policy. It was a cynical enterprise, even in the context of a clandestine aid operation.”

In March 1975, when the Kurds gained the upperhand in the fight and forced the Iraqi army to retreat, the U.S. and the Shah abruptly dumped the Kurds in exchange for the Iraqi concession on the border waterway between Iran and Iraq. As a result, the rebellion turned to rout, and the Kurdish people were once again subjected to all kinds of brutalities by the Iraqi regime: expelling some 300,000 Kurds to Iran ; demolishig about 4,000 Kurdish villages and deporting hundreds of thousands of the Kurds to other parts of Iraq; poison-gassing some12,000 Kurds in the city of Halbja in August 1988; deforesting the hills, burning hundred-year-old walnut trees and choking springs with concrete so the Kurds could not live off their land. All these brutal measures were taken as part of the genocidal conspiracy of “Arabization of Kurdistan.”

But all of this, and even the chemical bomardments, did not end a struggle for autonomy that has gone on now for more than 100 years. The Kurdish drive for their national identity has frequently been used by the big imperialist powers for their own geopolitical purposes in the region. Each of these powers has at one point or another offered help and promised self-determination “when the job was done.” Each time, although they fought bravely and honorably, the Kurds were abandoned in their struggle. Successive regimes of the countries where the Kurds live have systematically subjected them to forced assimilation and genocidal schemes, while the world powers have stood by in silent compliance.

The Roots of the Problem

The Kurds have never made territorial claims over other peoples’ lands. They have demanded only the right to be identified with their historic heritage and culture, and the economic resources in the lands where they have lived for centuries. Why then have they been subjected to all these atrocities?

A number of answers limited to anti-Kurd policies of this or that regime, geopolitical interests of international power brokers, mistakes of this or that Kurdish leader, and so on fall way short of satisfactory explanations. For one thing, they do not explain why, for example, the regimes that rule the countries where Kurdish people now live oppose the Kurds’ use of their mother tongue as their language of instruction, while the regimes that ruled these countries prior to the emergence of modern, 20th-century national state in the region did not oppose such cultural expressions. Nor do they explain why major world powers go along with brutal policies of cultural and ethnic annihilation of the Kurds.

A closer examination of the forces denying the national rights of the Kurdish people, as well as those of other ethnic minorities, reveals that these forces have their roots in concrete economic requirements of the modern capitalist nation-state. An essential requirement of a relatively smooth functioning market economy is unity of language. Expansion of markets, contact between economic factors and agents, instituting and implementing of economic rules and regulations, marketing and sale of commodities, and the like are made more cost-effective in a society whose peoples speak a single language than in a multi-lingual society.

This is the fundamental reason for opposing the use of ethnic minority languages. It also explains why the loosely centralized pre-capitalist regimes of kings, Sultans, Emirs and emperors were more tolerant of cultural and ethnic diversity than are the modern nation-states of capitalism.

Diversity of languages is not the only “burden” on the free-functioning of a market economy. The market mechanism also requires uniformity in currency and tax systems, in trade and investment rules, in labor and business laws, and so on. In addition, it requires politically united territories within the nation-state. These needs of a market economy for standardization and uniformity are diametrically opposed to the needs of ethnic minorities for diversity and self-determination.

The plight of the Kurdish people can best be understood in the context of this historico-economic framework. It shows why successive regimes ruling the Kurdish territories have systematically suppressed their struggle for self-determination. It also shows why major world powers go along with the oppresive policies of these regimes against the Kurdish people.

This is why, for example, despite Western powers’ calculated assault on Saddam Hussein, they nevertheless salvaged the dictator as the “guardian” of Iraq’s nation state and as the “lesser evil” in the face of the recent popular uprisings against his dictatorial rule and the prospects of self-determination in Kurdistan.

Nation-state requirements are not the only factors thwarting the struggle of the Kurds for self-determination. Their struggle has been further hamstrung by their geography, their economic backwardness, and the rigidities of their past methods of national struggle. Their once-strategically-valuable mountains turned out to be their scourge in the 20th century. As long as pastoralism, feudalism, and other pre-capitalist formations were the dominant socio-economic structure in the region, their high and relatively secluded lands served them well: on the one hand, they provided favorable grounds for both pasture and agriculture, on the other, they served as defense/security fortresses against territorial ambitions or military incursions from the outside world. Indeed, these geographic properties contributed greatly to the Kurds’ national survival through so many centuries, as well as to the fact that their national identity and cultural characteristics have remained rather pure and intact.

These factors contributing to their national survival in the past became, however, a threat to that survival in the 20th century. Their rugged, mountainous and relatively secluded lands, with no access to the sea, has meant that most of the 20th century developments in the region–development of markets, of industries, of modern nation states, and the like–have passed the Kurds by without seriously touching them.

This does not mean that all their economic underdevelopment is due to their natural conditions. Surrounded and divided by hostile regimes, Kurdish provinces have been left out of the most of development projects of the central governments ruling their lands. It has been only in the past fifteen or twenty years that minimal industrialization projects have been implemented in Kurdish provinces.

Lack of economic development has in turn impeded social development. Thus the process of social differentiation and the emergence of modern social classes, characteristics of a social transition from feudalism to capitalism, did not arrive in Kurdistan in time to help the Kurds establish their own nation-state. A modernizing bourgeois elite versed in statist traditions did not develop in Kurdistan until very recently. Nor did an industrial working class or a radical intelligentsia equipped with a revolutionary ideology. To the extent that these modern social strata are belatedly developing among the Kurds, they largely represent a process of integration (i.e., integration of the Kurds into the ethnic majorities of the countries to which they are attached–mainly Turks, Persians, and Arabs). Considering that the language of instruction and education, hence of progress and “upward mobility,” in all these countries is non-Kurdish, the mechanism of forced integration and assimilation of the Kurds becomes clear.

Because of small, insignificant modern elites, traditional tribal-feudal elites dominated the leadership of the Kurdish struggle for national liberation until very recently. Even now strong influences of traditional methods of struggle manifest themselves within various ranks of the leadership. Without discounting all the sacrifices and contributions of the traditional leadership, it must be pointed out that its tactics and strategies are not suitable for the 20-century requirements of national liberation. Gerard Chaliand, an authority on the political history of the Kurds, epitomizes the weaknesses of the traditional leadership in the following sentence: “Tactical cunning instead of political analysis, clientist maneuverings instead of political mobilization, and a few revolutionary slogans instead of a radical practice.”

Such methods of struggle have at times cost the Kurdish national cause very dearly. Although traditional methods have in recent years come under serious analysis and severe criticism, present leaders of the Kurdish movement have been less than successful in entirely extricating themselves from their past methods. This is perhaps due to the fact that traditions and modes of thinking cannot be changed at will: as long as the economic structure and living conditions of the Kurdish people remain in the grip of geopolitical constraints and economic underdevelopment, the burden of past rigidities is bound to weigh heavily on their national movement.

The Future of the Kurdish people

Requirements of capitalist nation-state are seriously threatening the survival of the Kurdish people. Kurdish national identity and continuity is threatened not just by forceful relocation of the Kurds or by periodic wars and bombardments launched against them by the armies of the regimes ruling their territories. More fatally, their survival is being undermined through a gradual process of integration and assimilation–a kind of a slow death. As the Kurds are deprived of using their own language, they are forced to abandon their mother tongue and learn Arabic, Turkish or Persian in order to be able to go to school and educate themselves. And as the Kurdish language thus becomes an increasingly oral language of older generations and, therefore, obsolete, so does the Kurdish culture and national identity.

Thus if the status quo and the ban on the use of the Kurdish language continues for a long time, survival of the Kurds as a nation will gradually come to an end, perhaps within the next few generations. One might argue that this is extreme pessimism, since the Kurds (and many other nations) have lived for centuries without a written language. True. But those were different times. In our time, survival of a nation without a written language is simply impossible–it is only a matter of time before that nation becomes extinct.

Does this mean that the Kurdish people as a nation are therefore doomed? Not at all. The pessimistic scenario projected above is a conditional scenario: “If the status quo…continues for a long time…” This is a big “if.” None of the regimes suppressing the Kurdish national movement enjoys long-term prospects of stability. Nor is the dominant capitalist world order guaranteed a permanent life. Social changes always take place despite the opposition of the ruling powers. For example, very few people predicted the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, in which the Kurds played an important role.

True, they did not achieve the national rights for which they fought. But that was not due to a fault of their own. It was, rather, because their coalition partners in the united front against the dictatorship betrayed them. The Tudeh party (the Iranian pro-Moscow communist party) and a number of other leftist organizations and parties that followed the political line of Tudeh, played a most shameful part in that betrayal.

The present turbulence in Iraq serves as another example. Not long ago, Saddam Hussein’s regime seemed invincible and the prospects of the Kurds challenging his regime inconceivable. But a series of events, largely orchestrated from outside Iraq, quickly put his regime on the verge of collapse. Once again, the Kurds played a major role in the national uprising. Had Washington not given Saddam Hussein a green light to use his air power against the uprising, Saddam would have been overthrown and the Kurds could have been liberated.

The process of forced integration of the Kurds into the non-Kurdish societies noted earlier is not unidimensional. While it tends to undermine the national identity of the Kurds, it also helps their national cause. It does so by creating counterbalancing developments that somewhat offset the integration effects. One such positive development is the breakup of traditional societies in Kurdistan and the emergence of new social classes and new elite groups among Kurdish people. This is increasingly changing the composition and the character of the leadership of the national liberation movement.

There are indications that the new leadership, or at least sections of the new leadership, is increasingly becoming conscious of the fact that liberation of the Kurdish people is inseparable from that of other oppressed peoples in the region, and that a solution to their national cause cannot come about in isolation from broader social changes in the countries in which they live. This new perspective is partially reflected in the ongoing negotiations between Saddan Hussein and the Iraqi Kurds. While Saddam is eager to strike a bilateral deal that would involve only his regime and the Kurds, the Kurds are insisting on broader social reforms and multi-lateral dialogues that would involve other democratic forces in Iraq. Their motto is “Democracy for Iraq, Autonomy for Kurdistan.”

Penetration of new ideas into the ranks of Kurdish national movement is adding another significant dimension to their struggle: the international dimension. The Kurds are increasingly learning that they have long been unmindful of the importance of making their cause public on an international level. And they are gradually opening up political offices and establishing liaison networks in imperialist countries in order to reach out to the media and sympathetic democratic forces there.

To conclude, economic exigencies of the modern nation-state constitute the major obstacles to the national liberation of the Kurds, as well as to that of other national minorities. To overcome these obstacles, it will be necessary to change the economic foundation of the nation-state in a way that it would not be in conflict with the language or cultural diversity of ethnic minorities and their dire material and social needs. This is a task way beyond the power of the Kurds alone. But the Kurds are not alone in their suffering from the evils of the capitalist nation-state. There are other minorities, both ethnic and non-ethnic, and especially the growing working class and the poor who are likewise kept down. Only a concerted struggle of the broad layers of the oppressed can bring about a meaningful socio-economic change in the status quo, thereby ushering in a dawn of liberty for them all, including the Kurdish people.

 

 

 

Geography: Iranian Kurdistan is the name of the area occupied by Kurds in Iran. It shares borders with Iraq and Turkey and includes the greater parts of West Azerbaijan Province, Kurdistan Province, Kermansham Province, and Ilam Province. Iranian Kurdistan is bordered by Iraq in the south, Syria in the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia in the northwest, and Turkmenistan in the northeast. The total area is approximately 113,655 sq. kilometers.     People: The Kurds number about 30 million in all areas, in Iran they constitute approximately 7% of Iran’s overall population; around 5-6 million people. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslim, although in southern Iranian Kurdistan many Kurds are Shi’a Muslim. They speak Kurdish and have a long legacy of struggle for self-determination of Kurdistan. In 1946, the “Republic of Mahabad (Kurdistan)” was established and existed for 11 months until it was overrun by Iran. Since then, Kurdish aspirations for self-government have been systematically opposed by Iran. History The struggle history of the Kurdish nation is one of the longest and bloodiest history of the world’s oppressed people. Early History From the 10th century to 12th century AD, two Kurdish dynasties emerged in Iran. The Hasanwayid Dynasty ruled from 959-1015 and the Ayyarids ruled from 990-117. The later Ardalan state was established in the early 14th century controlling the territories of Karadagh, Khanaqin, Kirkuk, Kifri, and Hawraman. The Ardalan empire ruled until the Qajar Monarch Nassar-al-Din Shah in 1867 CE. In the 12th century, Sultan, Sanjar established a province of Kurdistan centered at Bahar. The Safawid Period The Safawid family hailed from Iranian Kurdistan before moving to Azerbaijan and finally settling at Ardabil in the 11th century. During their rule, the government tried to extend its control over Kurdish inhabited areas of western Iran. At this time there were a number of semi-independent Kurdish Emirates: Mukriyan, Ardalan, Shikak tribes of Lake Urmiye and northwest Iran. The Kurds resisted this policy and tried to keep self-rule. After a series of bloody conflict, the Kurds were defeated. As punishment for the rebellions, the Safawids implemented a program of forced relocation and deportation of the Kurds in the 15-16th century under the reign of the Safawid King Tahmasp I. After the war of 1514 AD between the two Safawid and Ottoman empires in Chalderan, Kurdistan was practically partitioned between these two empires. Additionally, between 1534 and 1535, Tahmasp I started the systematic destruction of old Kurdish cities and the countryside, deporting the Kurds in the area to the Alborz mountains and Khorasan as well as to the heights of the Central Iranian Plateau. In the year 1639 with the signing of a treaty between King Abas Safawi and Soltan Morad Osmani, made the partition of Kurdistan with the Ottomans official. The Early Twentieth-century Liberation Movements The liberation struggle of Sheikh Obidolla Nahri (1880) was the birth of the Kurdish national struggle for an independent Kurdistan. The early years of the 20th century witnessed a burgeoning national liberation movement where numerous Kurdish political movements emerged across Kurdistan; Ismael Agha (also known as Simko) chief of the Shikak tribe, established his authority in the area west of Lake Urmia from 1918 to 1922. Jaafar Sultan of Hewraman region also took control of the region between Marivan and north of Halabja and remained independent until 1925. In 1922, Reza Khan (who later became the first Pahlavi monarch), took action against Kurdish leaders. Simko was forced to abandon his region in fall 1922, and spent eight years in hiding. When the Iranian government persuaded him to submit, he was ambushed and killed around Ushno (Oshnaviyeh) in 1930. After this, Reza Shah, shah and dictator of Iran, pursued a crude but effective policy against the Kurds. Hundreds of Kurdish chiefs were deported and forced into exile. Their lands were also confiscated by the government. World War II When the Second World War started, the struggle of the free-willing nations against reactionism and fascism advanced. Concurrently, a historical necessity was felt to establish a political organization in the Iranian part of Kurdistan, conditions to carry on the struggle forward were favourable. The Kurdish leaders took advantage of this historic opportunity and formed the Democratic Party of Kurdistan in August 16, 1945. In 1946, a Kurdish state was created in the city of Mahabad by the Kurdish Movement Komeley Jiyanewey Kurd under the leadership of Qazi Muhammad. However, due to its small geographic size, most Iranian Kurds did not approve of the experiment. The Republic of Mahabad lasted less than a year. As soviet-occupying forces withdrew from the area, the Iranianl government was allowed to defeat the Kurds and return Kurdistan to Iran. Iranian Kurds and the Islamic Revolution Following the fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty in the winter of 1979, Ayatollah Khomenei, new religious leader of Iran declared a jihad (Holy War) on the Kurds. Kurds were later denied a seat in the new assembly responsible for drafting the new constitution. As a result, many Kurds were deprived of rights in the Iranian Constitution due to their Sunni religious status. that referendum institutionalized Shia primacy and made no provision for regional autonomy. As early as 1979 armed conflict broke out between armed Kurdish factions and the Iranian government’s security forces. In the spring of 1980, government forces under the command of President Abolhassan Banisadr conquered most of the Kurdish cities through a huge military campaign, sending in mechanized military divisions to Kurdish cities including Mahabad, Sinne, Pawe, and Marivan Organizations: The organization represented in UNPO is the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) (http//:www.pdki.org/) which was founded in Iran in 1945. PDKI replaced the “Komalay Ziyanaway Kurd” (Council of Kurdish Resurrection) which had been formed three years earlier. PDKI has held thirteen congresses. The 1st congress was convened in 1945. During the 20th Congress of the Socialist International held in the US headquarters in New York (9-11 September 1996), PDKI was given the status of UN observer member. In 2005, PDKI’s membership was elevated to consultative status. The highest body of PDKI is its Central Committee, which is usually composed of 21 permanent and 10 substitute members. The Central Committee also elects about 7 of its members as the Political Bureau, which also includes the Secretary-General. Statistics: Area: 113,755 km2 Population: 5-6 million Language: Kurdish

by Kamal Said Qadir
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2007, pp. 19-26

A chronology of key events:
1918 - After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, British forces occupy the oil-rich Ottoman vilayet (province) of Mosul, bringing extensive Kurdish-populated areas under British rule.

Tension between main factions spilled over into civil war in 1990s

1919 - Mosul area is added to the new Iraqi state, which comes under a British mandate.

1920 - Treaty of Sevres, signed by the defeated Ottoman government, provides for a Kurdish state, subject to the agreement of the League of Nations. Article 64 of the Treaty gives Kurds living in the Mosul vilayet the option of joining a future independent Kurdistan.

1921 - Emir Faysal crowned king of Iraq, including Mosul.

Uprising

1923 - Shaykh Mahmud Barzinji rebels against British rule and declares a Kurdish kingdom in northern Iraq.

1923 - Kemal Ataturk’s newly founded Turkish Republic gains international recognition with the Treaty of Lausanne. The Treaty of Sevres is not ratified by the Turkish parliament.

1924 - Sulaymaniyah falls to British forces.

1932 - Uprising in the Barzan region to protest at Iraq’s admittance to the League of Nations, while Kurdish demands for autonomy are ignored.

Home life: A Kurdish woman prepares bread
1943 - Mullah Mustafa Barzani leads another uprising, and wins control of large areas of Irbil and Badinan.

1946 August - British RAF bombing forces Kurdish rebels over border into Iran where they join Iranian Kurds led by Qazi Mohamed, who founds an independent Kurdish state in Mahabad.

1946 - Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) holds its first congress in Mahabad. Within a few months, the “Mahabad Republic” collapses under attack from Iranian forces, and Mustafa Barzani flees to the Soviet Union.

1951 - A new generation of Kurdish nationalists revives the KDP. Mullah Mustafa Barzani is nominated president while in exile in the Soviet Union, but the real leader of the KDP is Ibrahim Ahmad, who favours close ties with the Iraqi Communist Party.

1958 - Overthrow of the Iraqi monarchy allows Kurdish nationalists to organise openly after many years in hiding. A new Iraqi constitution recognises Kurdish “national rights” and Mullah Mustafa Barzani returns from exile.

1960 - Relations between the Iraqi government and Kurdish groups become strained. The KDP complains of increasing repression.

1961 - KDP is dissolved by the Iraqi government after Kurdish rebellion in northern Iraq.

Autonomy granted

1970 March - Iraqi government and the Kurdish parties agree a peace accord, which grants the Kurds autonomy. The accord recognises Kurdish as an official language and amends the constitution to state that: “the Iraqi people is made up of two nationalities, the Arab nationality and the Kurdish nationality.”

1971 August - Relations between the Kurds and the Iraqi government deteriorate. Mullah Mustafa Barzani appeals to the US for aid.

1974 March - Iraqi government imposes a draft of the autonomy agreement and gives the KDP two weeks to respond. Mullah Mustafa Barzani rejects the agreement, which would have left the oilfields of Kirkuk under Iraqi government control, and calls for a new rebellion.

1975 March - Algiers Accord between Iran and Iraq ends Iranian support for the Kurdish uprising, which collapses. Barzani withdraws from political life.

Kurdish Iraq is oil-rich, but insurgents have targeted pipelines
1975 June - Jalal Talabani, a former leading member of the KDP, announces the establishment of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) from Damascus.

1978 - Clashes between KDP and PUK forces leave many dead.

1979 - Mullah Mustafa dies, his son Massoud Barzani takes over the leadership of the KDP.

Iranian involvement

1980 - Outbreak of war between Iran and Iraq. KDP forces work closely with Iran, but the PUK remains hostile to cooperation with Tehran.

1983 - An Iranian counterattack opens a northern front in Kurdish northern Iraq. With support from KDP fighters, Iranian troops take the key town of Hajj Umran. Human rights organisations say Iraqi troops killed around 8,000 men from the KDP leader’s home area of Barzan in revenge.

1983 - PUK agrees to a ceasefire with Iraq and begins negotiations on Kurdish autonomy.

1985 - Under increasing Iraqi government repression, the ceasefire begins to break down. Pro-Iraqi government militia men kill Jalal Talabani’s brother and two nieces.

1986 - Iranian government sponsors a meeting reconciling the KDP and PUK. Now both major Kurdish parties are receiving support from Tehran.

1987 - Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani join forces with a number of smaller Kurdish factions to create the Kurdistan Front.

1988 - As the Iran-Iraq war draws to a close, Iraqi forces launch the “Anfal Campaign” against the Kurds. Tens of thousands of Kurdish civilians and fighters are killed, and hundreds of thousands forced into exile, in a systematic attempt to break the Kurdish resistance movement.

HALABJA

5,000 Iraqi Kurds were killed in the 1988 chemical gas attack

2003: Powell visits Iraqi gas attack town
Eyewitness: Halabja gas attack
1988 16 March - Thousands of Kurdish civilians die in a poison gas attack on the town of Halabjah near the Iranian border. Human rights watchdogs and Kurdish groups hold the Iraqi regime responsible.

1991 March - After the expulsion of Iraqi troops from Kuwait in March 1991, members of the pro-government Kurdish militia, the Jash, defect to the KDP and PUK, but the uprising grinds to a halt and US-led forces refuse to intervene to support the rebels. Around 1.5 millions Kurds flee before the Iraqi onslaught, but Turkey closes the border forcing hundreds of thousands to seek refuge in the mountains.

Safe haven

1991 April - Coalition forces announce the creation of a “safe haven” on the Iraqi side of the border. International aid agencies launch a massive aid operation to help the refugees. Meanwhile, Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani open negotiations with Saddam Hussein on autonomy for Kurdistan.

1991 July - Talks continue in Baghdad, but Kurdish peshmerga forces take control of Irbil and Sulaymaniyah, in defiance of Iraqi government orders.

1991 October - Fighting between Kurdish and Iraqi government forces breaks out in earnest. Saddam Hussein fortifies the border of Kurdish-held northern Iraq and imposes a blockade.

1992 May - Elections held in areas under Kurdish control give KDP candidates 50.8% of the vote, while the PUK takes 49.2%. The two parties are equally balanced in the new Kurdish government.

1992 September - Newly-established Iraqi National Congress (INC), which brings together a wide-range of Iraqi opposition groups, meets in Salah-al-Din in the Kurdish-held north. KDP and PUK representatives take part.

1994 May - Clashes between KDP and PUK forces spill over into outright civil war. The PUK captures the towns of Shaqlawah and Chamchamal from the KDP.

Statue of Kurdish poet Ibn Moustafa surveys northern city of Irbil
1996 May - UN agrees “Oil-for-Food” programme with Baghdad; 13% of the proceeds from Iraqi oil exports are earmarked for the three northern governorates, which are largely under Kurdish control.

1996 August - Masoud Barzani appeals to Saddam Hussein for help to defeat the PUK.

1996 September - With the help of Iraqi government troops, KDP forces seize the northern city of Irbil and take the PUK stronghold of Sulaymaniyah. A new KDP-led government is announced at the parliament building in Irbil.

1996 October - PUK forces retake Sulaymaniyah.

1997 January - PUK announces a new government based in Sulaymaniyah. Both the PUK and KDP claim jurisdiction over the whole of the Kurdish-controlled north.

1998 September - Jalal Talabani and Masoud Barzani sign a peace agreement in Washington, but government of the Kurdish region remains split between the two rival administrations.

2000 November - In a letter to the United Nations secretary-general, the PUK accuses the Iraqi government of expelling Kurdish families from Kirkuk.

2001 September - Fighting breaks out between the PUK and the Islamic fundamentalist group Jund al-Islam, later renamed Ansar al-Islam.

Moves toward unity

2002 June - PUK and KDP officials take part in joint discussions with other Iraqi groups aimed at coordinating the work of the opposition in the event of a US-led military campaign against Iraq.

Working together: KDP’s Massoud Barzani (left) and PUK’s Jalal Talabani

Profile: Massoud Barzani
Profile: Jalal Talabani

2002 October - Joint session of the Kurdish parliament convenes in Irbil. KDP and PUK parliamentarians agree to work together during a “transitional session” until new elections can be held.

2003 February - US Secretary of State Colin Powell accuses Iraqi Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam of playing a pivotal role in linking Osama Bin Ladin’s al-Qaeda network with the Iraqi regime.

2003 February - Kurdish leaders reject proposals to bring Turkish troops into northern Iraq as part of a US-led military campaign to oust Saddam Hussein. Anti-Turkish demonstrators take to the streets of Kurdish towns.

2003 February - Failure of a parliamentary bill allowing US troops to deploy on Turkish soil hits American plans to open a northern front against Iraq.

2003 3 March - KDP and PUK create a “joint higher leadership” in the Kurdish-held north, under the chairmanship of the two party leaders, Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani.

US-led campaign against Iraq

2003 20 March - US-led coalition forces invade Iraq and begin bombardment of Baghdad and other cities. Mosul and Kirkuk near the Kurdish enclaves come under heavy fire.

2003 22 March - Coalition forces launch Cruise missile attack on bases held by Ansar al-Islam in the north. Dozens killed in the headquarters of the Islamic Group, an unrelated radical Islamist faction when a missile hits the Khormal area.

Kurdish Alliance came second in 2005’s landmark poll
KDP and PUK formed backbone of grouping
Alliance won 25% of the vote

2005: Hungry to vote in Iraqi Kurdistan

2003 27 March - Hundreds of US paratroopers land near Irbil, signalling the opening of a northern front in the war on Iraq.

2003 9 April - US forces advance into central Baghdad. Saddam Hussein’s grip on the city is broken. In the following days Kurdish fighters and US forces take control of the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul.

2003 July - Interim governing council (IGC) meets for first time. Saddam’s sons Uday and Qusay killed in gun battle in Mosul.

2004 1 February - At least 56 people die and more than 200 people are injured after a double suicide bombing at the offices of the two main political Kurdish parties in the northern city of Irbil. Several senior political figures are among the dead.

2005 January - An alliance of Kurdish parties comes second in Iraq’s landmark national election, sending 77 deputies to an interim parliament.

2005 April - PUK leader Jalal Talabani is elected as interim Iraqi president by MPs.

2005 May - At least 50 people are killed in a suicide bomb attack on police recruits in Irbil.

2005 June - First session of Kurdish parliament held in Irbil; KDP’s Massoud Barzani is president of autonomous region.

2005 December - News that a foreign firm has begun drilling for oil in the Kurdish north sparks new fears of secession among Iraqi Sunni leaders. Kurdish authorities later report a “major discovery” of oil.

2006 September - Massoud Barzani orders the Iraqi national flag be replaced with the Kurdish one in government buildings. But Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki says: “The Iraqi flag is the only flag that should be raised over any square inch of Iraq.”

2006 September - Five blasts caused by one suicide truck bomb and four car bombs kill 23 people in Kirkuk.

The BBC’s Newsnight programme reports that former Israeli commandos secretly trained Kurdish soldiers in Northern Iraq to protect a new international airport and in counter-terrorism operations.

2007 April - The head of Turkey’s military says his country should launch an operation against Kurdish guerillas based in northern Iraq.

2007 May - The Kurdish regional government takes over responsibility for security in the three Kurdish provinces from the US forces.

2007 July - Human Rights Watch gives details of torture and abuse in prisons run by the Kurds in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq.

2007 August - At least 300 people are killed in a series of bomb attacks on members of the Kurdish Yazidi sect in northern Iraq.

2007 September - Iran shells rearbases of Kurdish rebels in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Iran closes its border with Iraqi Kurdistan to protest at the detention of an Iranian by US troops.

2007 October - Turkish parliament gives go-ahead for military operations in Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish rebels. Turkey comes under international pressure to avoid an invasion.

2007 December - Turkey launches air strikes on fighters from the Kurdish PKK movement inside Iraq.

2008 February - Turkish forces mount a ground offensive against PKK Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq.

2008 September - Iraqi parliament passes provincial elections law. City of Kirkuk, claimed by Kurdistan Region, is excluded from provisions of law until its status is settled.