ABSTRACT
The first aim of this chapter is to provide a brief historical background to Kurdish nationalist movements that mainly emerged during the First World War and after the demise of the Ottoman Empire. The second is to provide a broad-based analysis of the causes behind the failure of post-Ottoman Kurdish nationalists to establish a nation state. The third aim is exploring the dynamic changes that occurred in the Iraqi Kurdistan region since the 1991 popular uprising and the potential for the establishment of an independent state in the region.
