ABSTRACT
The Kurds lost the freedom of running their own affairs, and never enjoyed formal statehood. They hung on to the remnants of autonomy tolerated by the Ottoman and Persian empires as long as they could, sometimes uniting great swaths of territory under a prince before expensive punitive expeditions dispatched from the capitals brought them to heel. World War I delivered Kurds from Ottoman Empire and promised independence, to oppress them in the straitjacket of ever more efficient centralized governments of intolerant nation-states. For the Kurds are both stubborn survivors and steady losers, likable for their warmth, humor, courage, and charm and distinguished by a streak of unpredictable violence. Kurdish leaders were known to question their powers of persuasion with their own people in light of their cataclysmic past misjudgments, which had helped turn Kurdistan into a wasteland. Throughout the Kurdish spring other sometimes similar, sometimes contrasting thoughts kept flashing on and off in consciousness of leaders and ordinary people alike.
