Baghdad/Iraqi Governing Council Shiite Arabs Sunni Arabs Turkomans

Iraqi Kurds

Est. Population: approx. 3.6 to 4.8 million; about 15-20% of Iraqi pop.
Religion: Primarily Sunni Islam, some Shia and Yazidi
Language: Kurdish
Geographic Area: Northeastern Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Syria, and the Caucasus region.
Major Political Groups: Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)
Key Leaders: Jalal Talabani (PUK), Massoud Barzani (KDP)

The Kurds, in the northeastern region of Iraq they call Kurdistan, are often referred to as the largest national group in the world without an independent country of their own. The total Kurdish population is estimated to be about 25 million, with communities in Iran, Turkey, Syria, and the Caucasus region. There are approximately 4 million Kurds in Iraq, comprising as much as a fifth of the country's population.

Despite the fact that they are mostly Sunni Muslims, the Kurds have never had equal representation in Iraq's Sunni-dominated government, and their suffering under Saddam Hussein's regime was extreme -- from the forced "Arabization" of their native cities, when southern Shia Arabs were paid by the Baathist government to displace Kurds in oil-rich areas such as Kirkuk, to brutal ethnic cleansing tactics, including the genocidal 1988 gas massacre in Halabja, in which approximately 5,000 Kurdish civilians will killed.

However, following the end of the 1991 Gulf War, the Kurds of Iraq enjoyed a certain amount of independence and prosperity under the protection of the U.N.-authorized no-fly zone enforced by the United States and Britain. Even so, the Kurds have been riven by internal conflicts. Their first democratic election, in 1992, resulted in a stalemate between the leading Kurdish political factions -- the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by Jalal Talabani, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), headed by Massoud Barzani -- and followers of both parties clashed violently beginning in 1994 in a fierce power struggle.

In 1998, a truce coordinated by the U.S. finally ended the fighting, which had killed thousands of Kurds. The two parties agreed to share responsibility for governing the northern territory, and this cooperation has continued during the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. [Editor's Note: The political information that follows was the situation as of February 2004.] Both Barzani and Talabani sit on the Iraqi Governing Council, and the KDP and PUK are holding negotiations to create a unified Kurdish government ahead of the June 30, 2004, deadline set by the U.S.-led coalition and the Governing Council for transfering sovereignty to Iraqis.

The Kurdish parties believe that a unified front will allow them to assert a more effective voice in the new Iraqi government. They reiterated this stance following deadly suicide bombings in Erbil at the KDP and PUK headquarters on Feb. 1, 2004, which killed a number of prominent Kurdish political figures. Ansar al-Islam, a radical Kurdish Islamic group believed to have ties to Al Qaeda, is one suspect in the bombing, although Sunni Arab insurgents may also have been responsible.

The Nov. 15 agreement between the coalition and Governing Council on transfering sovereignty allows the Kurds to maintain their autonomy during Iraq's transition to a democratically elected government. The fall of Saddam's regime has allowed them to tighten their hold on the region, and tensions have flared in ethnically diverse areas such as Kirkuk and Erbil. Whether Kurds will ultimately remain part of Iraq or declare an independent state is a controversial, and potentially explosive, question. Barham Saleh, PUK prime minister in Suleimaniya, explains the Kurds' current position as Iraq moves forward: "The challenge that we have with the Arabs of Iraq is to transcend our national identities, retain our culture, retain our heritage, be proud of them, but at the same time forge this common identity of Iraq."

Jalal Talabani
Talabani is secretary general of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and sits on the Iraqi Governing Council. A former lawyer and journalist, he was originally a member of the Kurdish Democratic Party, founded by KDP President Massoud Barzani's father, Mustafa Barzani. Through the 1950s and 1960s, Talabani's views became increasingly divergent from the KDP party line, and after a failed attempt at overthrowing the elder Barzani, Talabani and his followers were expelled from the party. In 1976, he founded the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which initially rivaled the KDP but joined forces with it in 1985 to form the Iraqi Kurdistan Front. The two parties would diverge again following the 1991 Gulf War, until a 1998 peace accord signed in Washington, D.C. outlined a joint-rule policy. Talabani has gone on the record in favor of an ethnically diverse Iraq.
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Massoud Barzani
Barzani, a member of one of the most powerful Kurdish tribes, sits on the Iraqi Governing Council and is president of the Kurdish Democratic Party, which was founded in 1945 by his father, Mustafa Barzani. Barzani's KDP was commonly viewed as a more rural, tribal counterpart to Jalal Talibani's urban-based Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) when the two parties clashed in the mid-1990s. During the fighting in 1996, Barzani engaged in a temporary alliance with Saddam Hussein, receiving assistance from Baghdad to take on the PUK. Barzani was accused of being a traitor, not only by his constituents but by the United States, which had assisted him in the past. However, the strategic move allowed the KDP to achieve some stability in the region without further interference from Saddam.
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