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The Kurdish Problem in International Politics

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Abstract

Although they are a large majority within the mountainous Middle East where Turkey Iran, Iraq and Syria meet, the Kurds have been gerrymandered into being mere minorities within the existing states they inhabit. Thus, the approximately 25–28 million Kurds constitute the largest nation in the world without its own state. The desire of many Kurds for statehood or at least cultural autonomy within the states they now inhabit and the refusal of these states to grant such demands for fear they would lead to their own breakup have resulted in an almost continuous series of Kurdish revolts since the creation of the modern Middle East following World War I and constitute the Kurdish problem.1

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Notes

  1. Possibly the two best recent studies of the Kurds in English are Martin van Bruinessen, Agha, Shaikh and State: The Social and Political Structures of Kurdistan (London: Zed, 1992)

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Authors
  1. Michael M. Gunter
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cyprus, Cyprus

    Joseph S. Joseph (Associate Professor of International Relations and European Affairs Jean Monnet Chair in European Foreign and Security Policy) (Associate Professor of International Relations and European Affairs Jean Monnet Chair in European Foreign and Security Policy)

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© 2006 Michael M. Gunter

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Gunter, M.M. (2006). The Kurdish Problem in International Politics. In: Joseph, J.S. (eds) Turkey and the European Union. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230598584_6

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