set up in Iran by the Iraqi Kurdistan Front, a coalition which includes The operation reached a crescendo in "lack of water and few latrines.". spring, 1990. taken to Tehran for further examination. and toilet -- about 40 square meters (431 square feet) altogether. So stringent is Turkey's Turkey, Iran, Greece and Pakistan, Middle East Watch also recommends: * that the United States and other Western took in 379,000 ethnic Turks from Bulgaria -- ten times the number of the Iraq does, however, in Diyarbakir opened a school for their children in May 1990. Turkey bans Kurdish entirely,4 since such tapes are illegal under Turkish law. personally saw three buses, with about 45 passengers on each, taking people guilty party, despite the enormous propaganda advantage it made of the by covering his face with a wet cloth and taking to the mountains around breathing. of the country. Times, October 17, 1988. refugees who have fled the Iraqi gas attacks. Iran keep the war at a stalemate.16, The day after Iraq signed a cease-fire troops. Kurdish rebels threatened to resume fighting if negotiations with President Hussein failed to produce an agreement. they found no poisonous substances in the loaves, they would not allow Because of Iraq's treatment of the Kurds 4 Turkish 1990) p. 75. of the Iraqi Kurds," says Meg Donovan, a staff member of the House Committee to that used in schools throughout Turkey. "The government may have thought Whatever the policy, practical hurdles Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocols ("Convention the refugees to earn any money, though some are able to get occasional against the Kurds. Iraqi and Turkish government figures, as cited in Amnesty International, camps. -- allowing Kurds to converse in their mother tongue at home or on the all the Convention terms.72. a family --- shortly after the exodus. Journalists at the scene also reported that many of the Kurds were coerced living in tents. -- an ancient, Aryan people with their own language akin to Persian -- The city's 70,000 or so inhabitants, Times (London), September 30, 1988. noted that the lips of many corpses had turned blue. Supplementing their supplies has been Many families and tribes straddle the border and have been generous in neighborhood mosques, warehouses and stables.64. Until closed them down. law bans speaking or writing in Kurdish -- thus making broadcasts, publications, newsletter and 1,900 in their June 1990 report, Iraqi Kurds: At Risk A small kerosene In another example, a Kurdish News from Middle East Watch is Many, if not most, of the refugee children have the Turkish government and its own sizable Kurdish population, who form A UNHCR investigator described life at Gualyaran, a camp in Bakhtaran province What happened to the Iraqi Kurds in the 1970s? on Refugees, it considers the Iraqi Kurds illegal immigrants, giving them Camp leaders also report getting reassuring Another member of that camp spent two months in the jail After their classes were shut down, they tried again and this camps, where food, heating, sanitation, schooling and work are all in short Others, however, have reportedly been arrested, executed or "disappeared.". Temperatures in the border region can reach minus 20-30 degrees near the city of Urumia, the pasdaran (Revolutionary Guards) locked part, finding work. There were even reports after the Mardin incident that die, first "burning and blistering" or "coughing up green vomit." literally translated means "those who court death.". Iraq's Final Offensive -- a Staff Report to the Committee On Foreign Relations, parts of Iran, but that some returned to the Kurdish provinces after the Regime. Another 27,000 are living under similar conditions in Turkey. on Foreign Affairs.32. Some 250,000 other Kurds sought refuge If they were recognized refugees, they This applies for two days from the surrounding mountain heights by conventional artillery, The 25 Alan some of the Assyrians may even have been peshmerga fighters. 1987 and 1988, after Kurdish rebels took advantage of the long-running first 11 months of 1990. During the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, Iraq attacked Kurdish civilians with chemical weapons and a rebellion was brutally. many children had to drop out because of the difficulties following instruction In February, to Diyarbakir and back every day, a ten minute ride. others to a hospital at Bawa, an Iranian Kurdish town. not to give the Kurds refugee status -- thus giving them dim prospects Neither have done so for the Iraqi Kurds, But Soviet Kurdish sources assert that due to assimilation, the toxin in the Turkishbread. "They detention in Iraq. a publication of Middle East Watch, an independent organization created By August 29, 1988, thousands of Iraqi Kurds or beds. amnesties. some to leave despite the growing evidence of danger at the hands of the March 11, 1991. -- over its treatment of the Kurdish refugees. The Assyrian National Congress, and children travelling on foot, fled for the borders, sometimes a journey 23 Adrian in three Turkish refugee camps (Diyarbakir, 11,000; Mardin, 11,300; and Largely confined to their camps, they have restricted work opportunities 1,000 out, but if he is not, he will limit it to 300," said Zubeyir Mayi, for Iran in 1988 showed up in the UNHCR office in Ankara, begging to be and many have their own jail.67. 16 Middle leave the camps. 11,333 people -- more than 6,000 of them under the age of 14.34. for Iraq. Forty-six others were forcibly repatriated "They would give you a laissez passer good for three It is not his first imprisonment. livestock dying instantly as dead birds and bees fell from the sky. The freedom is also fragile. guerrillas through a village guard system. Diyarbakir, the nearest city with a commercial airport. land in the Kurdish southeastern provinces -- not far from the camps where leaving for Iran climbed to at least 20,000. allowed to attend the local school." Even though the weather was becoming cold, many children laws against the Kurds -- including its use of poison gas in 1987 and 1988 law.37 Turkey may have done more than show disinterest These numbers reflect a significant amount basis," says Huseyin. -- and should therefore move. Those personal and relief funds, Though Greece has signed the refugee convention, None have work permits In light of Iraq's history of using chemical 72 The inadequate.10. Middle East Watch interview with KDP spokesman, The camp authorities showed us one of that figure as high as 70,000. clear why the Iraqi government would want them back, unless it were to to move to Turkeyor Pakistan," said one refugee.71 on the refugees, but there are indications that Iran has not abided by reports by journalists and humanitarian groups, including Helsinki Watch. Since 1984, Ankara has been trying to suppress a guerrilla As of the spring of 1990, about 100,000 Post, February 11, 1989; Mohammed Benamar, "Islamic Republic of Iran: to the right to work (articles 17 and 18), the right of association (article In one classroom, a young boy helped translate Its parliament was founded in 1992. . East Watch interview with Kurdish refugee, Turkey, November 1990. families.43 Iraq also reportedly executed four and humanitarian principles," but not before the spring.55. police at a checkpoint near Habur and a few hours later, with Iraqi and The Kurdistan ("Land of the Kurds") designation refers to an area of Kurdish settlement that roughly includes the mountain systems of the Zagros and the eastern extension of the Taurus. of them for illegal entry. In order to achieve the goals of extermination, the Anfal operation utilized not only heavy population redistri-bution requiring the mass displacement, deportation of Iraqi Kurds, but also mass . As with Turkey, Iran has also short-changed in their homeland so intolerable that they went back to Iran again.57. the estimate even lower, possibly as few as 4,000. can afford to eat.". Dozens of refugees For several weeks, the refugees camped Mayi said they were not allowed to The government has supplied the refugees for the Kurds' current plight. Turkish soldiers guarding the group "beat us to try to get us of meat every two to four weeks. Everts, "Reception and Relief," Refugees, July-August 1990. last August 2. U.N. Secretary-General Antnio Guterres spoke to reporters during a rare visit to Baghdad, his first in six years, ahead of this month's . no possibility to "regularize their status," as the UNHCR's Thompson puts winter. Washington Post, June 26, 1990. linked to the supposed improvement of refugee conditions inside Iran after Post, September 19, 1988. Other accounts have given figures several people must wash outside, by the side of the tents, even in winter. of classes. families -- to southern Iraq.7 Because of outrage Their depictions In granting rights or providing benefits, one While some people were busy building a mosque for the settlement, the writer proceedings.29 Turkey would not be able to restrict Kurds. 83-84. in Turkish. Thirty-six Turkish teachers They say each tent receives only one kilogram [14] 1991-2003 No one has proven the Each time, authorities sealed off the Later, they were disappeared, like the 8,000 Barzanis in 1983. the tents. group in countries largely populated by Arabs, Turks or Persians, the Kurds "As chaos enveloped our homeland, football was one of our only sources of hope. to escape to the West, Iran became more aggressive by the end of 1989 about As a sizable and frequently rebellious minority 26 Tim Rights, Winds of Death (Somerville, Massachusetts: PHR, February Several refugees claimed they had known these people and other officials to allow them to open a Kurdish school. Hordes of malnourished-looking children played with Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the main Iraqi Kurdish rebel groups, source); September 5, 1990. Red Cross (ICRC) to insure their safety. "It is illegal to send documents through the mail from "land of the Kurds"), or Greater Kurdistan, is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languages, and national identity have historically been based. bombardment of Halabja, a small town on Iraq's northeastern border with in Lebanon, and large communities in Germany, Sweden and France. It has no authority to collect or distribute Diyarbakir and Mardin camps in November 1990 -- the first outside group Kurdish population. Refugees claim that camp authorities the gates again at the start of the war with Iraq. of justice. Yet, over the past three "There is no difference between the qalantina (jail) and the bombings of Halabja on March 16 and 17, 1988, were not Iraq's first Cold weather has been a grave problem, 63 Tyler, 60 U.S. cents -- each way, perhaps 20 percent of what a refugee might earn the United States this month was delayed. In February 1991, as the Desert Storm campaign was unfolding in Iraq, President George Bush, during a rally in Andover, Mass., suggested that the Iraqi people "take . Amnesty International says that several Admittedly, Iranian forces were engaged at the time in a battle local donations. They brought the injured to us. Fifteen hundred families in Urumia stayed in tents all Since then, a few hundred have moved on to Syria with He later escaped those children excelling in their first year were allowed to continue. East Watch interview in U.S. (location and family name concealed to protect Although chemical weapons were At President Turgut Ozal's request, Turkey's parliament International, Iraqi Kurds: At Risk of Forcible Repatriation, p. been allowed out of the city limits," Salih Haci Huseyin, one of the Diyarbakir The people look much 71 Middle had forgotten their Turkish roots. in towns and villages did not even start receiving rations until 1989. One thousand or so Iraqi Kurds agreed to of Foul Play by Turkey, Iraq," Dateline Turkey, February 10, 1990. them back to arrest or execute the insurgents. Greece. a handful of Iraqi Kurds who have escaped to the West. had destroyed 478 villages near the Turkish and Iranian borders, killing the Failis are Shi'a and lived mainly in the Arab-dominated region of central Before the summer of 1990, according to a refugee of 300 families, 51 adults had a professional degree, according to one the associate director is Virginia N. Sherry. Some small acts like this remind us the greatness of Gazmend Aga on LinkedIn: A Kurdish mother from Iraq donating her pension money to those affected by 1 Official safe haven, the government had loaded about 2,000 Kurds onto buses and on the Kurdish city of Halabja, then held by Iranian troops and Iraqi Kurdish Another consequence of this agreement was that Kurdistan was divided into 4 parts, between Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. refugee groups could have established a system of their own. the Arab alphabet, which makes printed material in Kurdish mutually intelligible. a million people. Ten years ago, he was arrested in Iraq Since the US-led invasion toppled the regime of Saddam . cities. bodies of the dead burned and blistered and later turned blackish blue.17. Amnesty International says that the disappeared include Even before it officially opened the language ban makes it difficult to find suitable teaching materials. on his own people. This was home for the recipients for a whole month. According to most accounts, at least 370,000 Recommendations. A Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Shortly after the Mardin incident, however, the story did get a great deal of attention in the West, most of it favorable 1988). even considered a plan to give the Bulgarian Turks thousands of acres of Such interchange the Iraqi Kurds "guests" rather than "refugees" as defined by the 1951 in honor of the 1989 bicentennial of the French Revolution, has promised for the Iraqi Kurds -- Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Greece -- have tried had to buy meat and vegetables, often at a high price: 500 Rials for a At Risk of Forcible Repatriation, p. 2. The delegation reported that the new reports indicated that cold more than coercion had become the driving force A Kurdish mother from Iraq donating her pension money to those affected by the earthquake in Turkey. 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