Stateless Nations

The Kurds

The Kurds are a group of stateless people located in the Caucasus Region.

The Kurds are found in six different countries: 15 Million in East Turkey, 5 Million in West Iran, 4 Million in North Iraq, and small numbers in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Syria.

The Kurds were granted their own nation after WWI called Kurdistan.

Before the country was officially established, the Turks took control of the land and established the country of Turkey.

The Kurds found themselves segmented between Turkey, Iran and Iraq after WWI.

In each of the new post-war countries, the Kurds found they were treated with suspicion, and pressured to conform to the ways of the majority. They were expected to learn the main language of the new state in which they found themselves, Turkish, Persian or Arabic, to abandon their Kurdish identity and to accept Turkish, Iranian or Arab nationalism.

As a tribal and traditionally minded society the Kurds wanted to be left in peace, but few then were nationalists.

Some tribes tried to resist the encroachment of government while their rivals benefited from operating with the government. But an increasing number of Kurds felt the deliberate undermining of their cultural identity.

Pan-Arab Nation State

Arabic culture spreads from North Africa to Pakistan. The language of Arabic and the religion on Islam are

the two factors that help unite this broad population.

A Pan-Arab nation would help unite all Arabic countries and also share the wealth of petroleum products.

Pan-Arab OrganizationsIn 1958, Egypt and Syria

formed the United Arab Republic. Only after three years of forming the union, Syria became independent due to a revolution in the nation.

In the 1970s, the oil controlling group known as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was formed to set oil prices to countries that wanted oil supplies.

Shatter belt in the Middle East

The Middle East unity was shattered when Iraq invaded Iran over control of the Shatt-al-Arab waterway. This allocation dispute erupted into a massive war between Iraq and Iran that killed 100,000 Iranians and 50,000 Iraqis.

In 1991, Iraq decided to invade Kuwait for their oil reserves. Iraq also launched missiles at Israeli in order to forcefully unite the Arab nations.