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The Soviet Union and the Kurds


Auteur :
Éditeur : University of Michigan Date & Lieu : 1975, Michigan
Préface : Pages : 682
Traduction : ISBN :
Langue : AnglaisFormat : 150x205 mm
Code FIKP : Liv. Ang. Gen. 413Thème : Histoire

Présentation
Table des Matières Introduction Identité PDF
The Soviet Union and the Kurds

Wilson Nathaniel Howell

The Soviet Union and the Kurds, a study of national minority

University of Michigan


INTRODUCTION

The Kurdish problem gives every indication of remaining a major factor in the chronic instability of the Middle East. A final solution to the difficulties presented by this significant minority and its unrealized aspirations is no closer today than it was at the conclusion of World War I. The most recent manifestation of Kurdish discontent - the four-year-old uprising led by Mullah Mustafa Barzani in Iraqi Kurdistan - has, in fact, exhibited a degree of unity and resiliency absent in previous Kurdish revolts. Despite differences of opinion within the Kurdish leadership and the strenuous efforts of three successive Iraqi regimes to dislodge and defeat the insurgents, Mullah Mustafa's forces are in effective control of a substantial area in northern Iraq. Recent reports on the situation in this region, moreover, indicate the real possibility that armed ...



INTRODUCTION

The Kurdish problem gives every indication of remaining a major factor in the chronic instability of the Middle East. A final solution to the difficulties presented by this significant minority and its unrealized aspirations is no closer today than it was at the conclusion of World War I. The most recent manifestation of Kurdish discontent - the four-year-old uprising led by Mullah Mustafa Barzani in Iraqi Kurdistan - has, in fact, exhibited a degree of unity and resiliency absent in previous Kurdish revolts. Despite differences of opinion within the Kurdish leadership and the strenuous efforts of three successive Iraqi regimes to dislodge and defeat the insurgents, Mullah Mustafa's forces are in effective control of a substantial area in northern Iraq. Recent reports on the situation in this region, moreover, indicate the real possibility that armed hostilities between the Kurds and the Baghdad government, interrupted since February, 1964 by an uneasy cease-fire, will be resumed in the near future. It is difficult to see how either side in this struggle can achieve a definitive military victory. The real significance, therefore, of this as of former Kurdish uprisings is not its military aspect, interesting as it may be; it is rather the political implications of -the Kurdish problem for the states of the Middle East where the Kurds form large minorities of a million or more persons.

The current uprising in Iraqi Kurdistan raises once again the spectre of Soviet intrigue in the strategic territory south of the Soviet Republics of Transcaucasia. Though the official position which the Soviet government will assume in the event Kurdo-Iraqi hostilities are resumed is not yet clear, the evidence of Soviet activity among the Kurds, as well as the expressions of sympathy for Kurdish aspirations which have emanated from Moscow, have done much to rekindle both scholarly and popular interest in Soviet Kurdish Policy in the West. While this Policy is a fitting subject for academic investigation, it is of most immediate concern to Policy-makers responsible for the development of Cold War strategy in the region that has come to be called the "Northern tier."

The attitudes and behavior of the Kurds is quite naturally of vical interest to the states of the Middle East - Turkey, Iran, and Iraq - for which they have been a perennial problem. Soviet efforts to exploit the frustrations and aspirations of the Kurdish minorities in these countries cannot but occasion alarm in governmental circles since the repercussions of Kurdish activity in any one are generally felt in all three...




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