The Iraqi Kurds: The struggle for autonomy in the shadow of the Iran‐Iraqi conflict

Abstract

This article examines the intricate relationship between the Kurds of Iraq and the Iraqi‐Iranian conflict. In the final analysis, the Kurds were both a major beneficiary but at the same time also the major losers from it. This situation became manifest during the Iraqi‐Iranian war which started in September 1980 and ended in August 1988. Hoping to manipulate the war in order to achieve a meaningful autonomy, the Kurds both received support from Iran and lent it their own in the fighting against Iraq. But at the end of the war, Iran dropped its erstwhile allies, who once again found themselves between hammer and anvil. The punishment which the government meted to the Kurdish movement and the Kurdish population in general was unprecedented in its harshness and totality. The Kurdish hopes for a meaningful autonomy were dashed.