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by Eugenio Grosso
For a long time the Kurds have been forgotten by history. Recently, though, they
have come into the spotlight for their struggle in the fight against ISIS in Syria and
Iraq.
The Kurdish people are a big minority that has never had its own homeland.
Spread across four countries: Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria there have been only a
few attempts to establish a Kurdish state. The Republic of Mahabad (part of modern
day Iran) was one of those, unfortunately it only lasted from January to December
1946.
In 2003, during the second Gulf war, the Northern part of Iraq (the area inhabited by
the Kurds) was declared a no fly zone. Since then the Kurds have established an
autonomous region with its own parliament, army and flag. However, Iraqi Kurdistan
still remains dependent on the central Iraqi government.
Since the conflict against the so called Islamic State, the call for independence has grown stronger and stronger and, in
September 2017, the Kurds voted on a referendum where the majority of people showed their wish to start a process to
become an independent state. Despite this, Kurdish society is not homogeneous and many conflicts still arise within it.
I extensively travelled and worked across the country, living there for about 6 months. This book is a collection of
different aspects that compose Kurdish identity in the region from politics to economics and then military struggle,
religion, westernization and traditional heritage.