After 40 years, the Kurdish PKK has promised to disarm and disband
Ever since the victorious allies declined to carve a homeland for the Kurds out of the carcass of the Ottoman empire in the aftermath of the First World War they have struggled to establish themselves as a sovereign people. Numbering between 30 and 45 million (no one seems to know how many exactly), the Kurds are victims of historical and geographical misfortune. Their mountainous, landlocked territory straddles the borders of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, each of which have at times treated them to a diet of brutal repression. Out of this struggle sprang the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK, which since 1984 has fought for independence, or at least autonomy, from Turkey, home to half of all Kurds. Now, at last, the game appears
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Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
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Reuters
5 hours ago
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