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Iraq
The Kurdish Problem
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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