The Kurds are one of the indigenous peoples and inhabit a mountainous region straddling the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia. Between 25 and 35 million Kurds make up the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East, but they have never obtained a permanent nation state. Today, they form a distinctive community, united through race, culture and language and the majority of them are Sunni Muslims. The Kurds are one of the most persecuted minorities of our time but nowhere is their future more threatened than in Turkey where Kurds constitute one quarter of the country's population. Kurds lost their lands when the Ottoman Empire took over most Kurdish-held territory in the 1500s. And the empire's defeat in World War I also dealt a blow to the Kurds. Under the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, which dissolved the Ottoman Empire, Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state but the treaty failed and was never ratified. Turkey ended up renegotiating with the Allies, and in 1923 the revised Treaty of Lausanne abandoned plans for a self-governing Kurdistan. Since then, the Kurds have made multiple attempts to set up their own state, but their efforts have been in vain. Since World War I, Kurds in Turkey have been the victims of persistent assaults on their ethnic, cultural, religious identity and economic and political status by successive Turkish governments. During Turkey's war for independence, Turkish leaders promised Kurds a Turkish-Kurdish federated state in return for their assistance in the war. After independence was achieved, however, they ignored the bargain they had made. During the 1984-1999 Kurdish-Turkish conflict, more than 40,000 people — the majority Kurdish civilians — were killed. Turkey's struggle to neutralize Kurdish fighters has now spilled over into Syria, where Kurds are the largest ethnic minority. While Kurds in Syria have long faced state oppression there, various Kurdish defense groups took over large swaths of northern Syria during its civil war, often while working with US forces against Daesh (the so-called IS). In early October 2019, the United States pulled out troops from the Turkish-Syria border while the Turkish military launched an incursion into Kurdish-held Syrian territory. Though Kurdistan may be a natural Western ally, the persecution of Kurds is yet condoned by the silence of Western powers who continue to furnish Turkey with military and economic aid. Instead of thanking their friend for their efforts, the West has largely both ignored and dismissed Kurdistan. The Western indifference has in fact contributed to empowering and legitimizing oppressive regimes, while Western inaction has simultaneously led to the further victimization of the Kurds. "The Kurds paid the highest price for the defense of the values of civilization against the barbarity of Daesh (the so-called IS) and that the West must acknowledge that rather than seeing the Kurds as ‘currency'", says renowned French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy. The West is doing itself a disservice by failing to recognize this and acting accordingly. Former US President Barack Obama's soft political stances on Iran and Turkey have also contributed to the victimization of the Kurds and the greater instability of the region. The Kurds have an old, famous adage that they "have no friends but the mountains." Now more than ever, it's hard to argue that that's wrong. — SG
