The Perennial Refugee Show: Same Script, Different Season
FIRST INSTANCE: The First Betrayal (1975) Curiously, the 'stranded Kurdish refugee' narrative isn't exactly fresh off the press. Rewind to March 1975: the Algiers Accord between Iran and Iraq. Ostensibly ending a border dispute, its secret protocol effectively abandoned the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga, who had been receiving covert support from the US (via Iran) since 1972. When Iran pulled the plug,
the US – under Henry Kissinger – cut assistance, leading to a brutal Iraqi offensive and an estimated 200,000 Kurdish refugees fleeing to Iran. Kissinger's own response, as declassified documents from the Church Committee (1975) reveal, was chillingly pragmatic: 'Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.' The message was clear: Kurdish allies are expendable when geopolitics shift.
REPETITIONS: A Recurring Nightmare (1988, 2019) The script got rerun with alarming regularity. Fast forward to 1988, the Anfal campaign: Saddam Hussein's genocidal chemical attacks (e.g., Halabja, March 16, 1988) on Kurdish populations. Millions internally displaced or became refugees in Turkey and Iran. The international outcry was muted, the US largely silent, still recovering from its dalliance
with Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war. No swift, decisive intervention then, either. Then, in October 2019, President Trump declared US troops were pulling out of northern Syria, effectively greenlighting a Turkish invasion. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), predominantly Kurdish, who had been crucial US allies in the fight against ISIS, were left to fend for themselves. This unilateral decision