Kurdish nationalism: Difference between revisions

|40 to 45 million([[Estimation|Est.]])<ref>{{cite news|title=Who are the Kurds?|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29702440|accessdate=9 November 2016|work=BBC News|date=14 March 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Kurds: The world’s largest stateless nation |url=https://www.france24.com/en/20150730-who-are-kurds-turkey-syria-iraq-pkk-divided |website=France 24 |language=en |date=30 July 2015}}</ref><ref>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kurd] Kurd PEOPLE</ref><ref name=FSU>{{cite web|accessdate=2007-03-17 |url=http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/kurdish/htdocs/announce/KSF.html |title=Kurdish Studies Program |publisher=[[Florida State University]]}}</ref>

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[[Early Kurdish nationalism]] had its roots in the days of the [[Ottoman Empire]], within which Kurds were a significant ethnic group. With the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the Kurdish-majority territories were divided between the newly formed [[State (polity)|states]] of Iraq, Syria and Turkey, making Kurds a significant ethnic minority in each state. Kurdish nationalist movements have long been suppressed by Turkey and the [[Arabs|Arab]]-majority states of Iraq and Syria, all of whom fear loss of territory to a potential independent Kurdistan. Kurds from Iran are also loyal to the nationalistic movement and this was demonstrated in Iraqi Kurdistans independence referendum in 2017 where thousands of Iranian Kurds risked arrest to march and celebrate waving the banned Kurdish flag.<ref>{{cite web |title=Iranian Kurds march in support of independence vote in northern Iraq |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/mideast-crisis-kurds-referendum-iran/iranian-kurds-march-in-support-of-independence-vote-in-northern-iraq-idUSL8N1M717N |website=Reuters |language=en |date=26 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=VIDEO: Iranian Kurds celebrate independence referendum |url=http://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/8ff3ad1e-ebe9-48ed-a6b5-c6841f21258d |website=Kurdistan24 |language=en}}</ref> Since the 1970s, Iraqi Kurds have pursued the goal of greater autonomy and even outright independence against the [[Ba'ath Party]] regimes, which responded with brutal repression including the massacre of 182,000 Kurds in the [[Anfal genocide]]. Since the 1980s, the [[Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present)|Kurdish–Turkish conflict]] led by Kurdish armed groups challenged the Turkish state, which responded with martial law. After the [[1991 uprisings in Iraq]], Iraqi Kurds were protected against the armies of Iraqi dictator [[Saddam Hussein]] by [[NATO]]-enforced [[Iraqi no-fly zones|no-fly zones]], allowing them considerable autonomy and self-government outside the control of the Iraqi central government. After the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]] that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraqi Kurdistan became an autonomous region, enjoying a great measure of self-governance but stopping short of full independence.