Since the end of World War I, Kurdistan has been administered by five sovereign states, with the largest portions of the land being respectively in Turkey (43%), iran (31%), Iraq (18%), Syria (6%) and the former soviet Union (2%). The iranian Kurds have lived under that state's jurisdiction since 1514 and the Battle of Chaldrian. The other three quarters of the Kurds lived in the Ottoman Empire from that date until its break-up following WWI. The French mandate Syria recieved a piece, and the British incorporated central Kurdistan or the Mosul Vilayet" and its oil fields at Kirkuk into their recently created mandate of Iraq. Northern and Western Kurdistan were to be given choice of independence by the Treaty of Sevres (August 10, 1920) which dismantled the defunct Ottoman Empire, but instead they were awarded to the newly established Republic of Turkey under the term of the Treaty of lausanne (June 24, 1923). The Russian/Soviet Kurds had passed into their sphere in the course of the 19th century when territories were ceded by Persia/ Iran.
The Kurds remained the only ethnic group in the world with indigenous representatives in three world geopolitical blocs: the Arab World (in Iraq and Syria), NATO (in Turkey), the South Asian-Central Asian Bloc (in Iran and Turkmenistan), and until recently the Soviet bloc (in the Caucasus, now Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia). As a matter fact, until the end of the Cold War, Kurds along with the Germans were the only people in the world with their home territories used as a front line of fire by both NATO and the Warsaw pact forces. |
