ABSTRACT
The collapse of the Kurdish armed movement in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1975 signalled the beginning of a new phase and a new experience in twentiethcentury Kurdish policy making. This phase has been further conditioned by the appearance of new social and political variables, and its development has been hastened by the transformation of political structures and alliances in the region, notably the collapse of the Shah's regime in Iran in 1979 and the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War in 1980.
