The Kurds in a New Middle East: The Changing Geopolitics of a Regional Conflict

Cengiz Gunes is Associate Lecturer at the Open University, UK. He is the author of The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey: From Protest to Resistance (2012) and co-editor of The Kurdish Question in Turkey: New Perspectives on Violence, Representation, and Reconciliation (2014). In addition, he has published a number of peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters in edited books on different aspects of Kurdish politics in the Middle East.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations 4

Preface 6

Chapter 1: The Kurdish Resurgence in a Changing Middle East 8

1.1 - A Brief history of the Kurdish Question 12

1.2 - The Re-emergence of Kurdish Nationalism during the 1960s 17

1.3 - The Geopolitics of the Middle East and the Kurdish Question 23

Chapter 2: The Kurdish Conflict in Iraq: Towards a Sustainable Solution 37

2.1 - Historical Overview of the Kurdish Conflict in Iraq 38

2.2 - The Consolidation of Kurdish Autonomy and the KRI 46

2.3 - The KRI's Challenges 52

Chapter 3: Turkey's Kurdish Conflict: The Sudden Reversal of Gradual Progress 64

3.1 - Historical Overview of Turkey's Kurdish Conflict 66

3.2 - Transformation in the conflict and Turkey's democratic openings 72

3.3 - A New Violent Phase in the Conflict 79

Chapter 4: The Syrian Conflict and Kurdish Ascendency 93

4.1 - The Kurdish conflict in Syria: background and the main developments 95

4.2 - The Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (DFNS) 102

4.3 - The Challenges facing the DFNS 108

Chapter 5: The Transformation of Iran's Kurdish Conflict 119

5.1 - Historical Overview of Iran's Kurdish Conflict 120

5.2 The re-emergence of Kurdish political activism in Iran during 2000s and 2010s 125

5.3 The factors behind the revival of Iran's Kurdish movement and its future prospects 130

Chapter 6: Kurdish Prospects in a Volatile Middle East 145

6.1 Opposition to Kurdish Aspirations 148

6.2 Kurdish Prospects in the Middle East 155

Index 171