The Kurdish Genocide, a Time of Terror
Cameron Tajalle
The Kurds, a nomadic group containing about 20 to 25 million people are the largest group of people without a land of their own. If the Kurdish people would have been given there own country, which they were promised in the in the Treaty of Sevres, There would have not been a mass genocide in Iraq. But since they have no land of their own they were forced to spread apart the Middle East over such places as Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria. Just over four million of these Kurds live in Iraq, taking up about 23 percent of the population (Gendercide). After WWI, land needed to be reallocated because Germany had lost the war. Germany had to give up a lot of land in the treaty of Versailles. Turkey, who fought on the side of the Germans, also had to give up a lot of land. In the treaty of Sevres many new countries came about after Turkey had given up their empire, countries such as Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon were mandated by France and Britain. Mandated meant that they were only allowed to look after these countries for 30 years. This was a reorganization of boundaries in the present day Middle East. In the 1920’s Turkey, Iran and Iraq each agreed not to recognize an independent Kurdish state. The Kurds were left out of the deal and not given a country of their own. They were spread out and became a minority in every country they resided in. Most problematic was the fact that they were a persecuted minority. It got so bad in Turkey that the Kurdish language was outlawed, they were not allowed to wear traditional outfits, and they were no longer even considered a minority group as far as the Turkish government saw it the Kurdish people did not even exist (Washington Post). However in the 1970’s the Kurdish people were offered land and the ability to govern themselves by the Iraqi government. Oil fields were deliberately excluded from the deal because there was a lot of money to be made from the oil and the Iraqi government wanted it for themselves. The Kurds rejected the offer because they felt that the land offered was not even close to what they considered rightfully theirs. It was too bad that they did not accept the offer because a couple of years later thousands of Kurdish farmers were evicted from their land because the government was trying to find producing areas.Fast forward time to the 1980’s. On the dawn of the Iraq/Iran war the Kurdish people were again moved so that the troops could be moved to the front. However the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq) a group of people, who often lead revolts against Saddam, stayed and in fact helped the Iranian troops capture the border town of Haj Omran (Human Rights Watch). Iraq was at war with Iran because of major boarder disputes and the Kurds in Iraq lead a rebellion because they felt marginalized, meaning that they felt that they did not have enough power. Going back to the days of Iraq’s newly found independence, the Kurds always fought for a say in the government, but never got the chance because they were always shut down. So when the Iran/Iraq war came about the Kurds saw this as an opportunity and jumped on it. They backed the Iranians in the war and Saddam Hussein was infuriated. The Kurds were already not liked by the Iraqi’s because the Iraqi’s felt like the Kurds were taking up “their” resources. So this was basically the final straw for the Kurds. Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq at the time launched a retaliation attack against his own people.
Hussein led an 8 month rampage in which his goal was to kill all Kurds in his country of military age. The genocide started in February of 1988 and ended in September of 1988. During these months an estimated one hundred thousand people were killed (Gendercide). Saddam’s Cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid or better known as “Chemical Ali” was the supposed mastermind behind the mass genocide. Under his command, the military of Iraq was deployed, in al-Majid's words, "to solve the Kurdish problem and slaughter the saboteurs (Human Rights Watch)." According to al - Majid he banned all Kurds from existence. He told his troops to shoot to kill. Chemical Ali is probably most famous for the chemical attack on Halabja which killed over 5,000 thousand people. He used sarin and mustard gas (both banned in the Chemical Weapon Convention) which he dropped from air planes onto the town. Many human rights were broken during the campaign. Some of them include the mass murder of the Kurdish people, the use of chemical weapons, the destruction of towns and entire villages, the looting of property by troops, and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people (Human Rights Watch). Both Chemical Ali and Saddam Hussein are considered war criminals. After hiding out for a really long time Saddam Hussein was captured in Tikrit. Saddam Hussein was recently executed on December 13, 2006 after standing trial for the murder of 148 people. He was convicted of these war crimes and was hung in an Iraqi army base (Washington Times). Recent controversy has been brought up because the execution of Saddam Hussein was captured on video then leaked onto the Internet. Chemical Ali will most likely have a similar fate because as of January 8th, 2007 he is standing trial for the use of chemical weapons and the murders of thousands of people. In conclusion if the Kurdish people would have been given there own country, which they were promised in the in the Treaty of Sevres, There would have not been a mass genocide in Iraq. The Kurdish people were already disliked because they settled in whatever country they stayed in. Despite all the fighting the Kurds never really got the power that they fought so desperately for. Saddam Hussein stayed in power until he was removed by the United States. Currently, Iraq has adopted a democracy in which the founder and secretary general of one of the main Iraqi Kurdish political parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has gained power (Wikipedia).The current president, Jalal Talabani has fought for over 50 years to ensure that the Kurds have equal freedoms. Through perseverance and lots of bloodshed the Kurds are no longer marginalized and in fact have the most power.
Work Cited"Case Study:The Anfal Campaign." Gendercide Watch. 15 March 2007
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