Recent reports from multiple actors involved in the Middle East conflict increasingly spotlight the Kurds. While the United States and Israel may launch devastating strikes against Iran, military experts—and history itself—remind us that conquering territory ultimately requires boots on the ground: a large-scale ground operation. The U.S. shows no signs of committing such forces inside Iran. That makes former President Donald Trump’s repeated references to the Kurds far from coincidental.
Who Are the Kurds?
The Kurds are one of the world’s largest stateless ethnic groups—numbering between 30 and 40 million globally. Most live across mountainous and valley regions straddling the borders of Armenia, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Though their origins trace back to the ancient Medes of the Middle East, Kurds became effectively stateless a century ago, following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the redrawing of borders that created the modern Middle East.
Repeatedly caught in the violent crossfire of regional political rivalries, Kurds have often relied on their own armed force—the Peshmerga—for defense. Their harsh, frequently bloody history has led many to say they have ‘no friends but the mountains.’
Culture, Identity, and Unfulfilled Promises
Despite internal diversity, Kurds share a distinct culture: a language related to Persian with numerous dialects, traditional dress, music, cuisine, and a strong collective identity. Kurdish nationalism emerged in the late 19th century—but dreams of a sovereign homeland have been repeatedly dashed. Over the past century, imperial powers—including Britain and later the United States—have made promises of support for Kurdish self-determination, only to abandon them when geopolitical interests shifted.
Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, though significant religious minorities exist. Since World War II, authoritarian regimes and governments across the region have brutally suppressed Kurdish communities—carrying out mass displacements and killings. External powers have repeatedly sought to exploit Kurdish aspirations for leverage, sowing division and rivalry. Such interventions have often inflicted catastrophic consequences on Kurdish populations.
Conflict and Repression Across Borders
In Turkey, a decades-long conflict between security forces and the PKK—a leftist group that initially fought for an independent Kurdish state and later for autonomy—has claimed over 40,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands in the country’s southeast.
In Iraq, Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against Kurds in the north. Yet after the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi Kurds succeeded in establishing a semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq—a rare, hard-won measure of self-governance.