The Fate of the Kurds

A statue of Jesus Christ in the Iraqi Kurdistan suburb of Ankawa in 2018.

Traditional attire worn by Kurds, Armenians, and Persians in the Ottoman Empire c.1888.

A market in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2011. (Photo by author.)

A 1929 cigarette trading card issued by Major Drapkin & Co.

Young students in 2011 headed to school in Ainkawa, Iraqi Kurdistan. (Photo by author.)

A Kurdish woman with her granddaughter at a 2017 Nowruz (Persian New Year) celebration in Bisaran, Kurdistan Province, Iran.

Kurds in Sheffield, England, protest Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish YPG forces in Syria in 2018. The white poster in the background reads, “Resistance is Life, Silence is Death, AFRIN IS NOT ALONE.”

A 2002 Central Intelligence Agency map of Kurdish populated areas in the Middle East.

A 1873 studio portrait of three married women from Diyarbakir Province in the Ottoman Empire: Kurdish (left), Muslim (center), and Christian (right).

A medieval castle in northeast Syria once known as Hisn al-Akrād (Fortress of the Kurds) was enlarged by the French during the 11th century Crusades and renamed Krak des Chevaliers (Castle of the Knights).

The 17th century Ottoman imperial Yeni Cami (New Mosque) in Eminönü, Istanbul, Turkey, surrounded by a 19th century market with store signs in Greek, French, Armenian, and Ottoman Turkish. (Digital images courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program.)

A 19th century watercolor painting of Bedir Khan Beg, Chief of Jezirah.

An 1881 interpretive painting of the Congress of Berlin by Anton von Werner.

Images from The New York Times Picture Section dated January 24, 1915. The original captions read: “Troop of Kurd cavalry which the Turks are hurling against the Russians in the passes of the Caucasus mountains” (left). “Battalion of Russian soldiers massed at a Russian mission in the Caucasus foothills to await a Kurd attack. Native Christian converts of the mission have assembled to help them” (right).

The governor of Van Province, Bahri Pasha, reviews the Kurdish cavalry in 1894.

An 1895 satirical cartoon commenting on possible international intervention in Turkey because of an Armenian massacre ordered by Ottoman rulers and carried out by Kurds.

“Long live the fatherland, long live the nation, long live liberty,” is declared in Ottoman Turkish and Bulgarian (left), Greek (center), and French (right) on three separate postcards from 1908 that commemorate the Young Turk Revolution.

French postage stamp commemorating the unratified boundary configuration of the First Republic of Armenia as outlined by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in the 1920 Sèvres Treaty.

A 1917 British poster announcing a rally and seeking donations for displaced Armenians.

The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1922, giving the United Kingdom control over foreign and military affairs, replaced the unratified Mandate for Mesopotamia.

Days before exile in 1922, Sultan Vahideddin (Mehmed VI) the last Ottoman emperor, departs from the backdoor of the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul.

The Turkish delegation led by İsmet Pasha (İnönü) (center) and Rıza Nur (wearing a top hat on the left) after signing the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.

Featuring Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on the 1923 cover, Time magazine’s cover reads, “Where is a Turk his own master?” (left). Turkish workers carrying the bronze head of an Atatürk statue in 1933 (right).

Iraqi Kurdistan celebrated the Kurdish horse in 2011 with four statues. (Photo by author.)

“Palestina, Kurdistan! Intifada, Serhildan!” This slogan represents solidarity between Palestinians and Kurds in resistance and uprisings (intifada and serhildan) since the 1990s.

In 1970 the parliament of the Kurdistan Autonomous Region was established in Erbil, Iraq.

Created in 2013, Women’s Protection Units or Women’s Defense Units (YPJ) are an all-female Kurdish militia actively fighting in Northern Syria (left). Formally established in 2011, the People’s Protection Units or People’s Defense Units (YPG) are a mixed-sex militia consisting primarily of ethnic Kurds (right).

Led by Iraqi Defense Minister Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi Army attacked and massacred 3,200 to 5,000 Kurds with poisonous gas on March 16, 1988.

Supporters of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) at a 2003 London rally opposing the Iraq War.

A 2017 pro-Kurdistan independence rally in Erbil.

Built in c.750, the Pira Delal bridge crosses over the Khabur river in Zakho, Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Hoşap castle in Van Province, eastern Turkey, in 2009.