Kurd

They were among up to 180,000 people who may have been killed during Saddam's "Anfal" campaign that targeted Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980s when chemical gas was used, villages were razed and thousands of Kurds were forced into camps."He killed them because they did not accept the continuation of this regime, because they wanted to live a free and dignified life," Salih, a Kurd, told a news conference at the grave site.

Kurds arrived in Syria between 1516 and 1922 during the Ottoman period, when the Kurmanji-speaking Kurdish tribe was deported to areas of northern Syria from Anatolia.

From Syrian Kurds' point of view, Damascus this week rendered talks between the two sides as meaningless.

"If there are no foreign troops on the ground of Syria's Northeastern part, I think that the best solution would be to start up a dialog between the Kurds and Damascus," Vershinin said, adding, "We support this dialog between Damascus and the Kurds", Middle East News reported.

Two years after the collapse of Turkey's peace talks with Kurds, instead of "meetings," what we have is a sprawling Turkish-Kurdish war across Turkey, Syria and Iraq, pitting a Nato ally against Washington's main partners in the fight against Daesh [the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant].

Kurds refer bitterly to the first American betrayal: American Abrams tanks entering the city of Kirkuk bearing the "Oh Hussein" banner, a flag carried by some Shiite militants.

Baghdad never fully accepted equality but was relatively weak and the Kurds had a state in all but name.

The Kurds, naturally, wanted to form a nation of their own, but their plans for a would-be "Kurdistan" failed.

Turkey regained the land given to Greece and the Kurds became part of Turkey, Iraq and Syria.

Many would argue that through this story, the Kurds have developed their attitude toward love and relationships.

Two decades ago, most US officials would have been hard-pressed to place Kurdistan on a map, let alone consider Kurds as allies.

HUDDERSFIELD Anarchist League supporters met local Kurds to discuss the escalating crisis in Iraq and Syria.