History repeated as Kurds become focus of intervention
Picture essay: Reuters photographers chronicle Kurdish refugee crises over the years
A Kurdish Syrian refugee waits for transport during a sand storm on the Turkish-Syrian border near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province in September. Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters
Robin Pomeroy
Sat Nov 15 2014 - 01:00
Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical weapons against Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s was cited by western powers as one of the justifications for the 2003 invasion that toppled him.
Once again the perilous situation of the Kurds – this time attacked by Islamic State fighters – has spurred the United States and its allies in Europe and the Gulf to use military force in Iraq and Syria. And once again the Kurds – who number up to 30 million people spread through Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran, but with no state of their own – are on the move.
Usually far from the headlines, whole families have trekked away from danger.
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An Iraqi Kurdish refugee lies in a medical tent in Cukurca refugee camp in Turkey in April 1991. Photograph: Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters
An Iraqi Kurdish refugee buries her child with her bare hands in Cukurca refugee camp in Turkey in April 1991. Photograph: Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters
Iraqi Kurdish men carry an injured man in Cukurca refugee camp in Turkey in April 1991. Photograph: Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters
A young Iraqi Kurdish in Cukurca refugee camp in Turkey in April 1991.
Kurdish Syrian refugees stand in a truck at the Turkish-Syrian border near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province in September. Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters
A Kurdish refugee from the Syrian town of Kobani exhbits the victory sign as a rainbow forms over the camp in the southeastern town of Suruc, Sanliurfa province, in October. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
Iraqi Kurdish refugees sit in front of a tent in Cukurca refugee camp in Turkey in April 1991. Photograph: Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters
Iraqi Kurdish refugees carry their belongings in Cukurca refugee camp in Turkey in April 1991. Photograph: Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters
A Turkish soldier carries a Syrian Kurdish refugee baby from the Syrian border town Kobani, near the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province, in October. Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters
Syrian Kurdish refugees sit in a truck after crossing the Turkish-Syrian border near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province in October. Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters
Men throw bread from a truck to Iraqi Kurdish refugees in Cukurca refugee camp in Turkey in April 1991. Photograph: Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters
Iraqi Kurdish refugees wait in Cukurca refugee camp in Turkey in April 1991. Photograph: Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters
Iraqi Kurdish women carry their children in the Cukurca refugee camp in Turkey in April 1991. Photograph: Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters
Turkish soldiers stand guard as Syrians wait behind the border fences near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province kast September. Photograph: Kadir Celikcan/Reuters
Iraqi Kurdish refugees carry their belongings in the Cukurca refugee camp in Turkey in April 1991. Photograph: Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters
Kurdish Syrian refugees at a temporary medical facility for children on the Turkish-Syrian border near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province, in September. Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters
Iraqi Kurdish men bury the dead in Cukurca refugee camp in Turkey in April 1991. Photograph: Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters
Iraqi Kurdish refugees wait with children in Cukurca refugee camp in Turkey in April 1991. Photograph: Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters
A Kurdish refugee man reacts as smoke rises from the Syrian town of Kobani as seen from the Mursitpinar crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border last month. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
Women mourn near graves of Kurdish fighters who died in Kobani, near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province, on the Turkish-Syrian border last month. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
Reuters photographers have chronicled Kurdish refugee crises over the years. Pictures from 1991 show men, women and children carrying their possessions, gathering firewood and burying their dead in a refugee camp in Cukurca, Turkey, just across the border from Iraq.
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They had escaped a military operation by Saddam’s government aimed at “Arabising” Kurdish areas in the north.
Hundreds of thousands fled into Turkey and Iran. Since the fall of Saddam, the Kurds’ semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq became, until the Islamic State offensive that started in Iraq in June and turned against the Kurds in August, a haven of relative peace in a war-ravaged country.
The attacks by the militants – who are notorious for killing anyone who refuses to convert to their austere version of Sunni Islam – created a new wave of refugees from Iraq and Syria. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, but tend to feel more loyalty to their Kurdishness, rather than their religion.
Reuters pictures taken in a refugee camp in Suruc, Turkey in October of this year show familiar scenes – a line of people stretches into the distance as they walk from their homes in Kobani, across the border in Syria, where Islamic State has besieged the town.
The battle for Kobani has become a focal point, not just for the plight of the Kurds, but of the West’s confrontation with global Islamist militancy.
