The Kurdish and the Palestinian Cases of Struggle

The Kurds and the Palestinians are two nations that are knowingly similar in their struggle for independence, yet every one of them has a unique, different history toward this struggle. These two cases initially began in the earls of the 20th century, after WWI, with the history of these nations dating way further than that. Britain was indirectly responsible, with France, for starting these dilemmas in the Middle Eastern region which remain unsolved until our days.

In 1916, The Sykes-Picot Agreement was signed between Britain and France aiming to control and influence the Middle East after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, who was the sole controller of the region. Followed by The Treaty of Sevres in 1920, new borders were drawn by the 2 European countries for Iraq, Jordan, Turkey and Syria among other Levantine countries. However, the Kurdish population who resided among these geographical borders were not given any land for them, but divided within the new borders giving them harder time than before. As for the Palestinian case, both Zionist and Palestinian nationalism movements arose during the late 19th – early 20th century. What raised the Zionist nationalism movements further was the Balfour Declaration in 1917 which supported the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine while protecting the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities. Ever since then the two populations are, with unfortunate luck, trying to be independent nation states.

The Kurdish Case:

According to the Washington Post, the Kurds are a largely Sunni Muslim people who have their own language and culture. They inhabit large parts of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and a small part of Armenia. The Kurdish lifestyle was nomadic, revolving aro...

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