Editing Kurds (section)

===Iraq===
{{Further|Kurds in Iraq|Iraqi Kurdistan|Al-Anfal genocide|Halabja poison gas attack|Iraqi Kurdistan independence referendum, 2017}}
[[File:Jalal Talabani Rumsfeld Rice Khalilzad.jpg|thumb|left|The president of Iraq, [[Jalal Talabani]], meeting with U.S. officials in [[Baghdad]], Iraq, on 26 April 2006]]

Kurds constitute approximately 17% of Iraq's population.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} They are the majority in at least three provinces in northern Iraq. Kurds also have a presence in [[Kirkuk]], [[Mosul]], [[Khanaqin]], and [[Baghdad]]. Around 300,000 Kurds live in the Iraqi capital [[Baghdad]], 50,000 in the city of [[Mosul]] and around 100,000 elsewhere in southern Iraq.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

Kurds led by [[Mustafa Barzani]] were engaged in heavy fighting against successive Iraqi regimes from 1960 to 1975. In March 1970, Iraq announced a peace plan providing for Kurdish autonomy. The plan was to be implemented in four years.<ref>G.S. Harris, ''Ethnic Conflict and the Kurds'' in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, pp. 118–120, 1977</ref> However, at the same time, the Iraqi regime started an Arabization program in the oil-rich regions of [[Kirkuk]] and [[Khanaqin]].<ref>[http://hrw.org/reports/1993/iraqanfal/ANFALINT.htm Introduction]. Genocide in Iraq: The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds (Human Rights Watch Report, 1993).</ref> The peace agreement did not last long, and in 1974, the Iraqi government began a new offensive against the Kurds. Moreover, in March 1975, Iraq and Iran signed the [[Algiers Agreement (1975)|Algiers Accord]], according to which Iran cut supplies to Iraqi Kurds. Iraq started another wave of Arabization by moving Arabs to the oil fields in Kurdistan, particularly those around Kirkuk.<ref>G.S. Harris, ''Ethnic Conflict and the Kurds'' in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, p.121, 1977</ref> Between 1975 and 1978, 200,000 Kurds were deported to other parts of Iraq.<ref>M. Farouk-Sluglett, P. Sluglett, J. Stork, ''Not Quite Armageddon: Impact of the War on Iraq'', MERIP Reports, July–September 1984, p.24</ref>

[[File:263827 A pair of girls giggle with one another during a Kurdish New Year celebration in the Qarah Anir region of Kirkuk, Iraq, March 21 in 2010.jpg|thumb|Kurdish girls in traditional Kurdish costume, [[Newroz]] picnic in [[Kirkuk]]]]
During the [[Iran–Iraq War]] in the 1980s, the regime implemented anti-Kurdish policies and a ''de facto'' civil war broke out. Iraq was widely condemned by the international community, but was never seriously punished for oppressive measures such as the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of civilians, the wholesale destruction of thousands of villages and the deportation of thousands of Kurds to southern and central Iraq.

The genocidal campaign, conducted between 1986 and 1989 and culminating in 1988, carried out by the Iraqi government against the Kurdish population was called ''Anfal'' ("Spoils of War"). The Anfal campaign led to destruction of over two thousand villages and killing of 182,000 Kurdish civilians.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=International Center for Transitional Justice|title=The Prosecution Witness and Documentary Evidence Phases of the Anfal Trial|url=http://www.ictj.org/images/content/7/2/725.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725060202/http://www.ictj.org/images/content/7/2/725.pdf|archive-date=25 July 2008}} According to the Chief Prosecutor, Iraqi forces repeatedly used chemical weapons, killed up to 182,000 civilians, forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands more, and almost completely destroyed local infrastructure.</ref> The campaign included the use of ground offensives, aerial bombing, systematic destruction of settlements, mass deportation, firing squads, and chemical attacks, including the most infamous attack on the Kurdish town of [[Halabja poison gas attack|Halabja in 1988]] that killed 5000 civilians instantly.

[[File:Kurdish flags at the pro-Kurdistan referendum and pro-Kurdistan independence rally at Franso Hariri Stadium, Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq 11.jpg|thumb|left|Pro-independence rally in [[Erbil]] in September 2017]]
After the collapse of the Kurdish uprising in March 1991, Iraqi troops recaptured most of the Kurdish areas and 1.5&nbsp;million Kurds abandoned their homes and fled to the Turkish and Iranian borders. It is estimated that close to 20,000 Kurds succumbed to death due to exhaustion, lack of food, exposure to cold and disease. On 5 April 1991, [[UN Security Council]] passed resolution [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 688|688]] which condemned the repression of Iraqi Kurdish civilians and demanded that Iraq end its repressive measures and allow immediate access to international humanitarian organizations.<ref>[http://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?Open&DS=S/RES/688%20(1991)&Lang=E&Area=RESOLUTION Security Council Resolution 688], 5 April 1991.</ref> This was the first international document (since the [[League of Nations]] arbitration of Mosul in 1926) to mention Kurds by name. In mid-April, the Coalition established "safe havens" inside Iraqi borders and prohibited Iraqi planes from flying north of 36th parallel.<ref name="McDowall 2004"/>{{rp|373, 375}} In October 1991, Kurdish guerrillas captured [[Erbil]] and [[Sulaimaniyah]] after a series of clashes with Iraqi troops. In late October, Iraqi government retaliated by imposing a food and fuel embargo on the Kurds and stopping to pay civil servants in the Kurdish region. The embargo, however, backfired and Kurds held parliamentary elections in May 1992 and established [[Kurdistan Regional Government]] (KRG).<ref>Johnathan C. Randal, ''After such knowledge, what forgiveness?: my encounters with Kurdistan'', Westview Press, 368 pp., 1998. (see pp. 107–108)</ref>

The Kurdish population welcomed the American troops in 2003 by holding celebrations and dancing in the streets.<ref>[http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/articles/031222on_onlineonly04] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407075937/http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/articles/031222on_onlineonly04|date=7 April 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/kurds-rejoice-but-fighting-continues-in-north|title=Kurds Rejoice, But Fighting Continues in North|publisher=Fox News|date=9 April 2003|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130528040910/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C83642%2C00.html|archive-date=28 May 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/10/sprj.irq.war.main/index.html|title=Coalition makes key advances in northern Iraq – April 10, 2003|publisher=CNN|date=10 April 2003|access-date=2 December 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Daniel McElroy|url=http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=421832003|title=Grateful Iraqis Surrender to Kurds|work=The Scotsman|access-date=2 December 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213033423/http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=421832003|archive-date=13 December 2007}}</ref> The authority of the [[Kurdistan Regional Government|KRG]] and legality of its laws and regulations were recognized in the articles 113 and 137 of the new [[Iraqi Constitution]] ratified in 2005.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/12/AR2005101201450.html Full Text of Iraqi Constitution], [[The Washington Post]], October 2005.</ref> By the beginning of 2006, the two Kurdish administrations of Erbil and Sulaimaniya were unified.{{explain|date=November 2024}}{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} On 14 August 2007, Yazidis were targeted in a [[2007 Yazidi communities bombings|series of bombings]] that became the deadliest suicide attack since the [[Iraq War]] began, killing 796 civilians, wounding 1,562.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|title=USCIRF Annual Report 2009 – Countries of Particular Concern: Iraq|url=http://www.refworld.org/docid/4a4f2735c.html|website=Refworld|language=en}}</ref>