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by Peshraw Mohammed
Introduction: A Kurdish Odyssey from Betrayal to Triumph
My story is rooted in the heart of Kurdistan, a land of resilience and yearning, torn apart by the whims of empires and the betrayals of history. In 1921, Britain and France, wielding the arbitrary pen of colonialism, divided Kurdistan into four fragments, annexing my part to the newly formed state of Iraq. This was a bitter deception, as the Kurds had been promised a homeland of their own in the Treaty of Sèvres, signed on August 10, 1920, between the Allied powers and the Ottoman Empire. That treaty, born in the aftermath of World War I, dangled the hope of an independent Kurdistan before us. But Turkish objections crushed that dream, leading to the Treaty of Lausanne, signed on July 24, 1923, in Switzerland. This agreement redrew the map of the Middle East, solidifying the borders of modern Turkey and apportioning Kurdish lands to Iraq, Syria, and Iran. For the Kurds in all these states, this was not just a geopolitical maneuver—it was a sentence to alienation, exclusion, and suffering.
In Iraq, we Kurds never accepted our forced incorporation, nor were we welcomed as equals by the Arab majority. Instead, we faced relentless oppression, marked by two genocides under Saddam Hussein’s regime. His campaigns of violence, including the infamous Anfal genocide and the chemical attacks on Halabja, sought to erase our identity, our culture, and our very existence. Yet our spirit endured. The Kurdish liberation movement, through decades of struggle, secured a fragile autonomy for our region in 1991. But this hard-won freedom was precarious. In 1992, the threat of another Iraqi assault, including the specter of chemical gassing, drove us to Korew—our word for the mass exodus that saw entire communities flee in fear. That same year, the United States and its allies imposed a no-fly zone, a lifeline that offered a semblance of protection and a fleeting taste of freedom. Still, Kurdistan remained strangled by political isolation, economic sanctions, and cultural suppression from all neighboring states—Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq itself.
The 1990s were a time of profound hardship. Poverty gripped every household, and survival was a daily battle. I attended school in the late 1990s, under the weight of this collective struggle, where the lack of resources was as palpable as the resilience of our teachers and families. We studied in crumbling classrooms, with empty stomachs and unwavering dreams. Then came 2003, a turning point that reshaped our destiny. The American intervention in Iraq, often debated and criticized, was for us Kurds a beacon of liberation. It dismantled Saddam’s tyranny and flung open doors that had long been bolted shut. Almost overnight, Kurdistan transformed from a marginalized, sanctioned region into a vibrant hub of opportunity in the Middle East. The cultural renaissance that followed revived our language, music, and traditions. Politically, we gained a voice, with political movements stepping onto the global stage. Intellectually and academically, our universities flourished, and our youth began to dream beyond survival. This article tells my story—a journey from the darkness of oppression to the light of possibility, through the lens of a Kurd who witnessed the transformative power of the 2003 intervention.
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