{"id":397,"date":"2018-12-31T12:37:35","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T12:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/?p=397"},"modified":"2018-12-31T16:19:19","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T16:19:19","slug":"who-are-the-kurds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/who-are-the-kurds\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Are the Kurds?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In the 16th century, after prolonged wars, Kurdish-inhabited areas were split between the\u00a0Safavid\u00a0and\u00a0Ottoman\u00a0empires. From then until the aftermath of World War I, Kurdish areas (including most of\u00a0Mesopotamia, eastern\u00a0Anatolia, and traditionally Kurdish northeastern\u00a0Syria) were generally under Ottoman rule. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the\u00a0Allies\u00a0contrived to split Kurdistan among several countries. However, they were forced to accept Turkey\u2019s conditions in the peace treaty. Turkey was willing to give up much of its empire\u2019s territory in favor of setting new borders for the modern Republic of Turkey, which included parts of Kurdistan, leaving the Kurds without a self-ruled region. Other Kurdish areas were assigned to the new British and French\u00a0mandated\u00a0states of\u00a0Iraq\u00a0and\u00a0Syria.<\/p>\n

In the 1970s, a group of radical Kurdish nationalist students led by Abdullah \u00d6calan in Turkey formed the militant group called Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK). PKK adopted the Marxist political ideology, with the goal of founding a separate independent, Marxist\u2013Leninist state known as Kurdistan. The PKK fought an armed struggle against the Turkish state for cultural and political rights and self-determination for the\u00a0Kurds in Turkey. PKK tactics were based on ambush, sabotage, riots, protests, and demonstrations against the Turkish government, and it has continued its guerrilla-type militant offensive for over\u00a0thirty years. Turkey and the International community has listed PKK as a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n

The YPG was formed in 2004 as the armed wing of the Kurdish leftist\u00a0Democratic Union Party. It expanded rapidly in the\u00a0Syrian Civil War. A sister group, the\u00a0Women’s Protection Units\u00a0(YPJ), fights alongside the YPG. The YPG is active in northern and eastern Syria.<\/p>\n

In early 2015, the group won a major victory over\u00a0ISIL (ISIS)\u00a0at the\u00a0Siege of Koban\u00ee, where the YPG began to receive air and ground support from the United States and other\u00a0coalition\u00a0nations. Since then, the YPG has primarily fought against ISIL (ISIS), as well as on occasion fighting other\u00a0Syrian rebel groups.<\/p>\n

Several western sources have described the YPG as the “most effective” force in fighting ISIL(ISIS) in Syria.\u00a0A\u00a0light infantry\u00a0force, the YPG has limited military equipment and few\u00a0armored vehicles.<\/p>\n

The YPG has been criticized by\u00a0Turkey\u00a0for its alleged support for the\u00a0Kurdistan Workers’ Party\u00a0(PKK), especially since a\u00a0rebellion in southern Turkey\u00a0began in 2015. Turkey has designated the YPG as a terrorist organization, and in 2018\u00a0Turkey captured\u00a0most of the\u00a0Afrin Canton area in Syria\u00a0from the YPG.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the 16th century, after prolonged wars, Kurdish-inhabited areas were split between the\u00a0Safavid\u00a0and\u00a0Ottoman\u00a0empires. From then until the aftermath of World War I, Kurdish areas (including most of\u00a0Mesopotamia, eastern\u00a0Anatolia, and traditionally Kurdish northeastern\u00a0Syria) were generally under Ottoman rule. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the\u00a0Allies\u00a0contrived to split Kurdistan among several countries. However, they were forced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3],"tags":[64,63,62],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-from-the-newsletter","category-israel-in-history","tag-isis","tag-kurds","tag-syria","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":404,"href":"http:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions\/404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}