The Kurdish Question - Essay Example

OF SCHOOL The Kurdish Question: The Reality of a less People Group HERE One of the more interesting dynamics of geography and the way in which people groups are defined is with regards to the natural boundaries that exist throughout the world. Whereas many of the nations that had been born within the past 100 years have had their borders arbitrarily drawn by third-party powers, many of the older nations have had their borders defined by natural topography. Within the current context of a world that is defined by ethnicity, race, religion, and the fact that large minority groups within many nations seek their own homeland, it comes as something of a surprise that one of history’s seemingly cruel jokes is the fact that a very large people group within the Middle East continue to exist without a state of their own. Rather, the Kurdish population of Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Iran must face the realities and repressions that these governments have historically placed upon the Kurdish populations living within their national boundaries (Rubin, 2003). As a function of understanding the unique dynamics that currently exist within the Middle East with relation to the Kurdish population which is thus far been described, this brief analysis will seek to further define the complexities and the realities of life that exist within these Kurdish communities. Accordingly, elements of history, ethnic struggle, and religion will be considered as a means of helping the reader/researcher to more appropriately understand the dynamics of the Kurds and the continuing issue and question of whether or not a Kurdish homeland will ever be established. By some estimates, there are as many as 45 million Kurds that live within the region defined by Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria. Due to the fact that this region is ultimately inhospitable, rocky, and mostly mountainous, it has ultimately served as a buffer zone and a hinterland for all of these nations and has not readily lent itself to being defined as a nation (Jimenez & Kabachnik, 2012). However, in order to understand the plight of the Kurds, it is necessary to review the situation from a historical perspective. As with so many disenfranchised and otherwise marginalized people groups, the Kurdish people have historically found themselves trapped between great powers and incorporated in a litany of different empires. The reader can and should understand the unique geographical realities that the Kurdish people have had to deal with in terms of understanding the fact that these people occupied the highlands that separated the Mediterranean and the Caucuses from the riches of Mesopotamia. Though the history of the Kurdish people predates even the earliest records, as a means of impressing the reader/researcher with the realities of the current situation, this analysis will begin considering the history of the Kurdish people during the time of the Persian Empire. The way in which Kurds and Kurdish land were absorbed into the Persian Empire would ultimately become the model by which future regional and world powers would integrate with an understanding of the Kurds (Ackerman, 2006). Yet another interesting geographic dynamic that helps to define this group is with regards to the fact that all of the nations that have been listed, Kurds comprise high percentages of minority groups within each nation (A.P. & Chu, 1996). With the exception of Iran, Kurds comprise the second largest minority in each of the prior countries that it been listed. Similarly, one of the main reasons that a Kurdish homeland is not currently being considered is due to the fact that one of the most oil-rich areas within the entire Middle East has been determined to be directly under the regions of northern Iraq, South Eastern Syria, and southwestern Iran; an area in which the Kurds would like to make their homeland. Such a reality of course precludes any hope that these nations will relinquish control and allow the Kurdish people to have a higher degree of autonomy, freedom, and/or self-determination (Ahmadzadeh & Stansfield, 2010). As might be expected, the larger majorities have thus far been successful in retaining the traditional national boundaries and not seeking to give the Kurds the land of their own. Such a practice was exhibited in the modern era as the Ottoman Empire took over the regions in which Kurds lived, administered it, and sought to exploit the geographic nexus of control that this land offered. In what would become something of an all too often repeated chain of events, the Ottomans, like the Persians before them, set the standard for the way in which the Kurdish populations of the Middle East would be mistreated and disrespected. Whereas it is true that the Ottoman Empire exhibited some of the highest forms of education and learning of that era, the level to which Kurds were ultimately looked down upon as uneducated, uncultured tribes of the bills was both unfair and set the negative precedent that would unfortunately be carried on arguably up until the current time (Hilternman, 2012). In addition to be acidified markers of language and ethnicity separating the Kurds from the other groups within the nations they inhabit, there is the additional factor of religion. Throughout the centuries, a litany of religions have ebbed and flowed over the specific region that the Kurds now call home (Eccarius-Kelly, 2002). Although most of the Kurds practice elements of Islam, there remains minority representation of Christianity, animism, Zoroastrianism, and even Judaism among Kurdish communities within these regions (Ostergaard-Nielsen, 2001). This level of diversity in religious affiliation is one of the determinants that not only helps to further differentiate this group from the mainly Islamic representation of faith within the nations they reside, it also is one of the determinants that have thus far kept this group from integrating with their fellow Kurds to a more effective degree. As a function of the preceding analysis, it is clear to the reader/researcher that the Kurdish situation within the nations that had been discussed is tenuous and oftentimes tense. Due to the unfortunate geographical nature of the land that these people and have it, combined with the curse of continually being assimilated into the more powerful nations and regions surrounding them, the Kurdish question of statehood is an issue that continues to be repressed and has few prospects for being realized anytime in the immediate future. References Ackerman, S. (2006). Good Actors. New Republic, 235(4), 14-18. Ahmadzadeh, H., & Stansfield, G. (2010). The Political, Cultural, and Military Re-Awakening of the Kurdish Nationalist Movement in Iran. Middle East Journal, 64(1), 12-27. A.P., & Chu, S. (1996). An elusive Kurdish homeland. (cover story). Maclean's, 109(38), 28. Eccarius-Kelly, V. (2002). Political Movements and Leverage Points: Kurdish Activism in the European Diaspora. Journal Of Muslim Minority Affairs, 22(1), 91. Hiltermann, J. R. (2012). Revenge of the Kurds. Foreign Affairs, 91(6), 16-22. Jimenez, J., & Kabachnik, P. (2012). The Other Iraq: Exploring Iraqi Kurdistan. American Geographical Society's Focus On Geography, 55(2), 31-40. doi:10.1111/j.1949-8535.2012.0042.x Ostergaard-Nielsen, E. (2001). Transnational political practices and the receiving state: Turks and Kurds in Germany and the Netherlands. Global Networks, 1(3), 261. Rubin, M. (2003). Are Kurds a Pariah Minority?. Social Research, 70(1), 295-330. Read More