Origins has published a very good background piece on the Kurds. The Kurdish nation is cohesive and well-identified, but it lives under the control of four different states; Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran. Kurds have aspired to their own state for over a century and, with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, a Kurdish state became possible. Those aspirations were stymied by the interests of the emerging state, Turkey, as well as by the imperial interests of Britain and France. The US has continued the practice of betraying the Kurds with the abrupt decision by US President Trump to abandon the region in Syria once patrolled by US troops. Kurds in Iraq also believe that the US has left them in the lurch.

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