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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iraq
Index
The Kurdish minority offered the most persistent and
militarily effective security threat of Iraq's modern history
(see The People
, ch. 2). Although the Kurds had traditionally opposed
any central governments in both Iran and Iraq, most Kurdish
leaders initially saw the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran as a
possible vehicle for promoting Kurdish aspirations toward selfgovernment . The Iranian government's antiminority attitude,
however, along with Iraq's attempts to support the Iranian
Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), dashed all hopes for a unified
Kurdish independent state. The Iraqi and Iranian regimes each
chose to support a Kurdish faction opposing the other's
government, and this intervention divided the Kurds along
"national" lines. As a result, during the 1980s Kurds in Iraq
tended to hope for an Iranian victory in the Iran-Iraq War, while
a number of Kurds in Iran thought that an Iraqi victory would
best promote their own aspirations. Because most Kurds were Sunni
Muslims, however, their enthusiasm for a Shia government in
either country was somewhat limited.
Following the outbreak of hostilities and the ensuing
stalemate in the Iran-Iraq War, Kurdish opponents of the Iraqi
regime revived their armed struggle against Baghdad. In response
to deportations, executions, and other atrocities allegedly
perpetrated by the Baath, the Kurds seemed in the 1980s to have
renewed their political consciousness, albeit in a very limited
way. Differences between the brothers Masud and Idris Barzani,
who led the KDP, and Jalal Talabani, leader of the Iraqisupported Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), as well as the
Kurdish leadership's periodic shifts into progovernment and
antigovernment alliances, benefited Baghdad, which could
manipulate opposing factions. What the Iraqi government could not
afford, however, was to risk the opening of a second hostile
front in Kurdistan as long as it was bogged down in its war with
Iran. Throughout the 1980s, therefore, Baghdad tolerated the
growing strength of the Kurdish resistance, which, despite
shortcomings in its leadership, continued its long struggle for
independence.
Data as of May 1988
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