Kurds

Kurds, people of Kurdistan in western Asia. Traditionally nomadic, most Kurds today are settled farmers and are Muslims. Kurds have struggled vigorously against various rulers for an independent Kurdistan; in the 1970s Kurds fought Iraqi troops unsuccessfully for self-government. With the defeat of Iraq in the Persian Gulf War (1991), the Kurds once again took up arms against Iraqi authority. The Kurds, lacking adequate military equipment, were supressed, but then were subject to massacres staged by the Iraqi military. Fearing annihilation, the Kurds fled their homes for the borders of Turkey and Iran. This mass migration caused incredible suffering and thousands of deaths and forced the U.S. government to establish refugee camps in the north of Iraq.