Of All The Ethnic Groups In The World, The Kurds Are One Of The Essays

Of all the ethnic groups in the world, the Kurds are one of the largest that has no state to call their own. According to historian William Westermann, "The Kurds can present a better claim to race purity...than any people which now inhabits Europe." (Bonner, p. 63, 1992) Over the past hundred years, the desire for an independent Kurdish state has created conflicts mainly with the Turkish and Iraqi populations in the areas where most of the Kurds live. This conflict has important geographical implications as well. The history of the Kurdish nation, the causes for these conflicts, and an analysis of the situation will be discussed in this paper. History of the Kurds The Kurds are a Sunni Muslim people living primarily in Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. The 25 million Kurds have a distinct culture that is not at all like their Turkish, Persian, and Arabic neighbors (Hitchens, p. 36, 1992). It is this cultural difference between the groups that automatically creates the potential for conflict. Of the 25 million Kurds, approximately 10 million live in Turkey, four million in Iraq, five million in Iran, and a million in Syria, with the rest scattered throughout the rest of the world (Bonner, p. 46, 1992). The Kurds also have had a long history of conflict with these other ethnic groups in the Middle East, which we will now look at. The history of Kurds in the area actually began during ancient times. However, the desire for a Kurdish homeland did not begin until the early 1900s, around the time of World War I. In his Fourteen Points, President Woodrow Wilson promised the Kurds a sovereign state (Hitchens, p. 54, 1992). The formation of a Kurdish state was supposed to have been accomplished through the Treaty of Sevres in 1920 which said that the Kurds could have an independent state if they wanted one (Bonner, p. 46, 1992). With the formation of Turkey in 1923, Kemal Ataturk, the new Turkish President, threw out the treaty and denied the Kurds their own state. This was the beginning of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. At about this same time, the Kurds attempted to establish a semi-independent state, and actually succeeded in forming the Kingdom of Kurdistan, which lasted from 1922-1924; later, in 1946, some of the Kurds established the Mahabad Republic, which lasted for only one year (Prince, p. 17, 1993). In 1924, Turkey even passed a law banning the use of the Kurdish language in public places. Another group of people to consider is the Kurds living in Iraq. Major conflict between the Kurds and Iraqis did not really begin until 1961, when a war broke out that lasted until 1970. Around this time, Saddam Hussein came to power in Iraq. In 1975, Hussein adopted a policy of eradicating the Kurds from his country. Over the next fifteen years, the Iraqi army bombed Kurdish villages, and poisoned the Kurds with cyanide and mustard gas (Hitchens, p. 46, 1992). It is estimated that during the 1980s, Iraqis destroyed some 5000 Kurdish villages (Prince, p. 22, 1993). From this point, we move into the recent history and current state of these conflicts between the Kurds and the Turks, and the Kurds against the Iraqis. Causes for Conflict The reasons for these conflicts have great relevance to geography. The areas of geography relating to these specific conflicts are a historical claim to territory on the part of the Kurds, cultural geography, economic geography, and political geography. These four areas of geography can best explain the reasons for these Kurdish conflicts. First, the Kurds have a valid historical claim to territory. They have lived in the area for over 2000 years. For this reason, they desire the establishment of a Kurdish homeland. Iraqis and Turks, while living in the area for a long period of time, cannot make a historical claim to that same area. The conflict arises, however, because the area happens to lie within the borders of Iraq and Turkey. Even though the Kurds claim is valid, the Turks and Iraqis have chosen to ignore it and have tried to wipe out the Kurds. Second, and probably most important, is that this conflict involves cultural geography. The Kurds are ethnically and culturally different from both the Turks and the Iraqis. They speak a different language, and while all three groups are Muslim, they all practice different forms. The Kurds have used this cultural difference as a reason to establish a homeland. However, the Turks and Iraqis look at the contrast in ethnicity in a much different sense. The government of Turkey viewed any religious or ethnic

History Africa and 15 th Century Essay

History Africa and 15 th Century Essay History: Africa and 15 th Century Essay AFRICAN HISTORY SINCE 1600 FINAL EXAMINATION 1. The first European country that arrived on the African Continent in the 15th century was the Portuguese. The Portuguese explored and claimed more of the West African coast and islands, with trade being established with Ghana, Gabon, Mali, and Benin in the 1470’s. They started to establish treaties trading weapons for slaves and this lead to warfare, starvation and in some regions depopulation. Bases were established on small islands off the West Coast of Africa, most importantly Sao Thome and Cape Verde being used to collect slaves traded from the mainland. Slavery had a huge impact on Africa causing King Alfonso I, who was the King at the time, to lose half of his kingdom. By the late 15th century Portugal had extended its reach along the east coast of Africa trying to establish a dominance in trade, they began slave trading in Ethiopia, Madagascar, and Mozambique in result of some East African kingdoms asking the Portuguese for help. 7. The Berlin Conference was a meeting set up by the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck with the major western powers to negotiate and come to the conclusion of who will control Africa. Africa was divided into fifty irregular countries in which fourteen of them were represented by a number of ambassadors when the conference opened in Berlin on November 15, 1884. The countries represented at the time were Austria-Hungary, Belgium, France, Denmark, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Sweden-Norway, Turkey and the United States of America. But France, Great Britain, Germany and Portugal were the major players in the conference and were controlling most of colonial Africa. The initial task of the conference was to agree that the Congo River mouths and basins would be open for trade. At the time of the conference, only coastal areas of Africa were colonized by the European powers. At the Berlin Conference the European colonial powers tried really ha rd to gain control over the heart of the continent. The Berlin Conference managed to come up with a set of