MER Article The Iraqi Question from the Inside To affirm the existence of an “Iraqi question” has certain implications. People usually speak, referring to the Shi‘a and the Kurds, of minorities and of the necessity of protecting them as such. But this misses the point concerning what is unique about Iraq. Pierre-Jean Luizard • 15 min read
MER Article Clinton, Ankara and Kurdish Human Rights China makes the headlines, but US policies toward the top three recipients of US aid -- Israel, Egypt and Turkey -- are perhaps the most egregious examples of the failure of the Clinton administration to make good on its commitment to human rights. While the human rights situation in the Maryam Elahi • 3 min read
MER Article Kurdish Broadcasting in Iraq In the transition from exile to autonomy, Iraqi Kurdish parties have set up the first Kurdish-controlled television channels in the Middle East. Their broadcasts now reach more than half of the estimated 3 to 4 million people in “Free Kurdistan.” [1] Ann Zimmerman • 4 min read
MER Article City in the War Zone Saki Işikçi sits in a coffeeshop below a picture of the founder of the Turkish republic -- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk -- and ticks off the problems he faces as the deputy mayor of Cizre: bad roads, poor schools, not enough water, no jobs. The city’s monthly budget barely covers municipal salaries, and em Aliza Marcus • 10 min read
MER Article Mad Dreams of Independence Politics has always been a difficult and risky business for Kurdish nationalists in Turkey. The hegemony today of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), with its history of dogmatic Marxism-Leninism and its attachment to armed struggle, is very much a reflection of the refusal of successive Turkish nat Chris Kutschera • 10 min read
MER Article The Remains of Anfal The physical remains of the General Security Directorate’s victims are strewn throughout Iraq, buried anonymously in common graves. It is hard for anyone outside the Baath’s inner circle to estimate how many young men went before firing squads after summary trials, or sometimes no trial at all, between Andrew Whitley • 2 min read
MER Article The Kurdish Experience Numbering over 22 million, the Kurds are one of the largest non-state nations in the world. Their homeland, Kurdistan, has been forcibly divided and lies mostly within the present-day borders of Turkey, Iraq and Iran, with smaller parts in Syria, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The greatest number of Kurds Amir Hassanpour • 20 min read
MER Article From the Editors (July/August 1994) For many decades now, those states whose borders include and divide Kurdistan have alternatively tried to ignore, deny, manipulate and suppress widespread Kurdish demands for political rights. In this, the rulers have enjoyed the unstinting support of their great power patrons, the broad support of The Editors • 2 min read
How Safe Is the Safe Haven? More than 10 million landmines have been scattered in Iraqi Kurdistan since 1975. Fifty percent of these were made in Italy. During the Iran-Iraq war, vast areas like Haj Omran and Penjwin were mined by both sides. After the Anfal campaign in 1988, Iraqi troops heavily mined the remnants of destroye Ronald Ofteringer, Ralf Backer • 2 min read
A Republic of Statelessness For nearly three years, Iraqi Kurdistan has been in a state of de facto self-rule. At first glance, it appears that the international engagement in Iraq on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 688 (Operation Provide Comfort) provided this opportunity. Ronald Ofteringer, Ralf Backer • 12 min read
MER Article Recent Books on the Kurds Nader Entessar, Kurdish Ethnonationalism (Lynne Rienner, 1992). Philip Kreyenbroek and Stefan Sperl, eds., The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview (Routledge, 1992). Sheri Laizer, Into Kurdistan: Frontiers Under Fire (Zed, 1991). Martin van Bruinessen, Agha, Shaikh and State: The Social and Political Eric Hooglund • 3 min read
MER Article The Displacement of Urfiya Hama Ahmad In the summer of 1992, Joost Hiltermann, an editor of Middle East Report, spent three months interviewing Kurdish villagers about Iraq’s military campaigns against the Kurds in the 1980s, for the human rights organization Middle East Watch. These interviews yielded evidence of widespread human rights abuses, and are currently Joost Hiltermann • 9 min read
