ABSTRACT
The century-long plight of the Kurdish people, denied not only the ability to establish an independent State, but to gain even a measure of autonomy over their language and culture, is a clear manifestation of the denial of self-determination justly conceived. Kurdish history since the mid–1920s, with the creation of the modern Middle East, has been one not of advances in claims to self-determination, but quite the contrary. The International League of Human Rights reported that in the ensuing two years more than 81,000 Kurds had been detained in an attempt to suppress Kurdish separatism. For the Kurdish people in Turkey, the post-Cold War era has brought no improvement to their lot. In fact, it may be said that as a result of the 1991 Gulf War and the establishment of the Kurdish Autonomous Area in the north of Iraq, Turkish Kurds witnessed an increase in their suppression.
