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Stateless Nation: The Kurds

Unreliable, untrustworthy traitors, or nationalist,

freedom-loving patriots, or what?

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Point of View• Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria may see

the Kurds as unreliable, untrustworthy traitors who want to break apart those countries.

• The Kurds are a nation – a people with a sense of common ethnicity, history, and purpose. They see their cause as nationalist patriotism.

• Neither the UN or any country has taken up their cause and supported the creation of an independent Kurdistan.

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Where the Kurds Live

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One View of a Kurdish State

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Some Productive Areas

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Hard work pays off

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Some Marginal Land

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Some Barren Land

Once a part of the Roman EmpireOnce a part of the Roman Empire

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Some Scenic Land

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Some Urban Landscapes – The Old and the New

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Iraq & Genocid

e

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Halabja Gas Attack, 1988

After the attack and before reconstruction

After the attack and before reconstruction

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Saddam Hussein ordered the use of weapons of mass

destruction

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Desolation After the Attack

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Those who didn’t die were left scarred physically and

emotionally

The wounded

The wounded

The mourners

The mourners

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Halabja has been rebuilt, but the horror has not been

forgotten.

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1991 Gulf War

• Kurds backed the attacking allied forces against the government of Iraq.

• The northern No-Fly Zone was established to stop Saddam Hussein from retaliating against the Kurds.

• What will happen to the Kurds in Iraq if there is another war in 2003?

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The Future?• As long as there

are Kurdish people, there will be a Kurdish nation.

• Will there ever be a Kurdish state for the Kurdish nation?