1918: Sheikh Mahmoud Barzinji becomes
governor of Suleimaniah under British rule. He and
other Kurdish leaders who want Kurdistan to be ruled
independently of Baghdad rebel against the British.
He is defeated a year later.
1923: The Treaty of Lausanne between Turkey
and the allied powers invalidates the Treaty of
Sevres, which had provided for the creation of a
Kurdish state.
1925: After sending a fact-finding committee
to Mosul province, the League of Nations decides
that it will be part of Iraq, on condition that the
UK hold the mandate for Iraq for another 25 years to
assure the autonomy of the Kurdish population. The
following year Turkey and Britain signed a treaty in
line with the League of Nation’s decision.
1970: The Kurdistan Democratic Party, lead by
Mustafa Barzani, reaches an agreement with Baghdad
on autonomy for Kurdistan and political
representation in the Baghdad government. By 1974,
key parts of the agreement are not fulfilled,
leading to disputes.
1971-1980: The Iraqi government expels more
than 200,000 Faili (Shia) Kurds from Iraq.
1975: The Iraqi government signs the Algiers
Agreement with Iran, in which they settle land
disputes in exchange for Iran ending its support of
the Kurdistan Democratic Party and other
concessions.
1983: The Iraqi government disappears 8,000
boys and men from the Barzani clan. In 2005, 500 of
them are found in mass graves near Iraq’s border
with Saudi Arabia, hundreds of kilometres from the
Kurdistan Region.
1987-1989: The Iraqi government carries out
the genocidal Anfal campaign against Kurdistan’s
civilians, of mass summary executions and
disappearances, widespread use of chemical weapons,
destruction of some 2,000 villages and of the rural
economy and infrastructure. An estimated 180,000 are
killed in the campaign.
On 16 and 17 March 1988, Iraqi government airplanes
drop chemical weapons on the town of Halabja.
Between 4,000 and 5,000 people, almost all
civilians, are killed.
1991: The people in Kurdistan rise up against
the Iraqi government days after the Gulf War
ceasefire. Within weeks the Iraqi military and
helicopters suppress the uprising. Tens of thousands
of people flee to the mountains, causing a
humanitarian crisis. The US, Britain and France
declare a no-fly zone at the 36th parallel and
refugees return. Months later, Saddam Hussein
withdraws the Iraqi Army and his administration, and
imposes an internal blockade on Kurdistan.
1992: The Iraqi Kurdistan Front, an alliance
of political parties, holds parliamentary and
presidential elections and establishes the Kurdistan
Regional Government.
1994: Power-sharing arrangements between the
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK) fall apart, leading to
civil war and two separate administrations, in Erbil
and Suleimaniah respectively.
1998: The PUK and KDP sign the Washington
Agreement, ending the civil war.
2003: The Peshmerga, Kurdistan’s official
armed forces, fight alongside the coalition to
liberate Iraq from Saddam Hussein’s rule.
2006: At the start of the year, the PUK and
KDP agree to unify the two administrations. On 7th
May, Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani announces a
new unified cabinet.
[13] Gareth Stansfield,
‘The Kurdish Question in Iraq, 1914-1974’, The
Middle East Online Series 2: Iraq 1914-1974, Thomson
Learning EMEA Ltd, Reading, 2006.
[11] Northedge, F. S. . The
League of Nations: Its Life and Times, 1920-1946
Holmes & Meier. 1986
[12] No Friends but the
Mountains: The Tragic History of the Kurds. John
Bulloch and Harvey Morris.
[13] Human Rights Watch
report, Whatever happened to the Kurds? 11 March
1991.
[14] David McDowall, A
Modern History of the Kurds.
[15] Saddam’s Road to Hell:
Documentary film by Gwynne Roberts.
[16] Kurdistan Regional
Government estimate. Genocide in Iraq: The Anfal
Campaign against the Kurds. Middle East Watch
Report, Human Rights Watch, 1993.
[17] Human Rights Watch
report, Whatever happened to the Kurds? 11 March
1991.
Kurdistan's history until the 19th century
Timeline of the Kurdistan Region’s history
Some of the key events in the Kurdistan Region’s
history up to the 19th century.
60-80,000 years ago: Evidence of Neanderthal
man living in caves. From 1957-1961 nine Neanderthal
skeletons were found in Shanidar cave, close to the
Big Zab River in Erbil province just above the
Kahlon-Rezan road.
30-300,000 years ago: Evidence of Old Stone
Age (Middle Paleolithic) people living in six caves
near the village of Hazar Merd, south-west of
Suleimaniah. In one cave near Zarzi village, many
flint implements of the Upper Paleolithic era were
found.
9,000 BC: At Karim Shahir near Chemchemal,
the earliest evidence of wild wheat and barley
cultivation and domesticated dogs and sheep. Start
of the global change from food gathering to food
producing culture.
6,750 BC: At Jarmo near Chemchemal, evidence
of the oldest known permanent farmed settlement of
mud houses, with wheat grown from seed, herds of
goats, sheep and pigs.
4,000 BC: Evidence that Arbela, today’s
Erbil, was occupied, making it one of the oldest
continuously inhabited sites in the world.
Excavation is difficult because the modern city lies
on top of the ancient town.
612 BC: After the Babylonians destroyed the
Assyrian capitals of Ashur and Nineveh, the Assyrian
empire city of Arbela, today’s Erbil, becomes part
of the Babylonian empire.
539 BC: After Persian leader Cyrus the Great
takes over Babylon, Arbela, today’s Erbil, joins the
vast Achaemenid or ancient Persian empire.
331 BC: Alexander the Great and Darius III of
Persia fight the Battle of Gaugamela, also known as
the Battle of Arbela, about 75 kilometres north-west
of Erbil. In the aftermath, Darius is murdered by
his kinsmen and Alexander goes on to conquer the
Persian Empire including Babylon, and extends his
empire to the Punjab.
6-700 AD: Arabs conquer Kurdistan and convert
many to Islam.
1100s – 1800s: Today’s Kurdistan Region is
ruled by several semi-independent principalities,
the Ardalan, Botan, Badinan, Baban and Soran.
Early 1500s: Kurdistan becomes the main stake
of the rivalries between the Ottoman and Persian
empires.
1514: After Turkish sultan Selim I defeats
the Shah of Persia, Kurdish scholar Idriss Bitlissi
persuades the sultan to give back to the Kurdish
princes their former rights and privileges, in
exchange for their commitment to guard the border
between the two empires. The principalities in
Kurdistan enjoy wide autonomy until the early 19th
century.
1784: The city of Suleimaniah is founded by
Prince Ibrahim Pasha Baban when he decides to
transfer the Baban emirate’s capital from Qala
Chwalan.
1847: Collapse of Botan, the last independent
Kurdish principality, which included the towns of
Amadiya and Akra.
[1] "The Palaeolithic of
Southern Kurdistan: Excavations in the Caves of
Zarzi and Hazar Merd" (1930) Bulletin of American
School of Prehistoric Research 6, 9-43
[2] Old Testament Life and
Literature, Gerald A. Larue. Also Prehistoric
Archaeology Along the Zagros Flanks, L. S.
Braidwood, R. J. Braidwood, B. Howe, C. A. Reed, and
P. J. Watson, eds.
[3] Old Testament Life and
Literature, Gerald A. Larue. Also Prehistoric
Archaeology Along the Zagros Flanks, L. S.
Braidwood, R. J. Braidwood, B. Howe, C. A. Reed, and
P. J. Watson, eds.
[4] Jona Lendering, Vrije
University of Amsterdam, www.livius.org
[5] Jona Lendering, Vrije
University of Amsterdam, www.livius.org
[6] Jona Lendering, Vrije
University of Amsterdam, www.livius.org
[12] Martin van Bruinessen,
(1983) ‘Kurdish tribes and the State in Iran: The
case of Simko's revolt’, in Tapper, Richard (ed.),
The Conflict of Tribe and State in Iran and
Afghanistan, London, Croom Helm, pp. 364-400.
