Kurdish National Congress

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The Kurdish National Congress (KNC or KNK) is a multi-national platform of kurdish groups and parties of all tendencies, which aims to Independence of Kurdistan. It was founded on 14 April 1985 on the initiative of the Kurdistan Workers' Party. It was inaugurated on 24 May 1999 in Brussels. [1] [2] The group has more recently be referred to as the Kurdish National Congress in the Diaspora. [3]

Kurdistan Workers Party Kurdish nationalist and separatist armed organization

The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish far-left militant and political organization based in Turkey and Iraq. Since 1984 the PKK has been involved in an armed conflict with the Turkish state, with the initial aim of achieving an independent Kurdish state, later changing it to a demand for equal rights and Kurdish autonomy in Turkey.

Brussels Capital region of Belgium

Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central portion of the country and is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region. Brussels is the most densely populated and the richest region in Belgium in terms of GDP per capita. It covers 161 km2 (62 sq mi), a relatively small area compared to the two other regions, and has a population of 1.2 million. The metropolitan area of Brussels counts over 2.1 million people, which makes it the largest in Belgium. It is also part of a large conurbation extending towards Ghent, Antwerp, Leuven and Walloon Brabant, home to over 5 million people.

The convention of the KNC was endorsed on 26 May 1999, at the organization's founding assembly, and the scholar Ismet Cheriff Vanly was declared the first president. [4] The convention was amended most recently at the ninth assembly which took place in December 2008. [5]

Ismet Cheriff Vanly was a Kurdish scholar and political activist.

Recently conferences held by the group have reaffirmed their wish that Kurds may have their national identity recognized and the territory of Kurdistan to be respected. [6]

Kurds ethnic group in the Middle East

Kurds or the Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group of Western Asia, mostly inhabiting a contiguous area known as Kurdistan. Geographically, those four adjacent and often-mountainous areas include southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northern Syria. There are also exclaves of Kurds in central Anatolia and Khorasan. Additionally, there are significant Kurdish diaspora communities in the cities of western Turkey, in particular Istanbul, while a Kurdish diaspora has developed in Western Europe, primarily in Germany. Numerically, the Kurds are estimated to number anywhere from a low of 30 million, to possibly as high as 45 million.

President of the KNC until at least 1999 was Najmaldin Karim. [7] Two co-chairs of the KNK, Rebwar Rashed and Nilüfer Koç were elected to post on 27th September 2015 at the 15th General Meeting. [8]

Criticism

Kurdish affairs expert Michael Gunter reckoned that the KNC has had difficulty attracting wide participation from Kurdish people, and has appeared to be too close to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). [9]

Michael M. Gunter is an authority on Kurds in Turkey and Iraq and has written seven books on the Kurdish struggle. He is a board member of the Center for Eurasian Studies (AVIM).

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Kurdish National Council political organization

The Kurdish National Council is a Syrian Kurdish political organization funded by the President of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani and Turkey in the Syrian Civil War. While KNC had initially more international support than the ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) during the early years of the Syrian civil war and a strong supporter basis among some Syrian Kurdish refugees, the overwhelming popular support the PYD enjoys have shadowed it in Syrian Kurdistan.

Kurdish Supreme Committee Kurdish temporary government.

The Kurdish Supreme Committee was a self-proclaimed governing body in Northern Syria, which was founded by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the Kurdish National Council (KNC), following the signing on 12 July 2012 of a cooperation agreement between the two parties in Hewlêr, Iraqi Kurdistan under the auspice of the Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani. The member board consists of an equal number of PYD and KNC members.

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Rojava conflict

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Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party

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References

  1. ↑ Meho, Lokman I. (2004). The Kurdish Question in U.S. Foreign Policy: A Documentary Sourcebook. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 392. ISBN   9780313314353.
  2. ↑ Pojmann, W. (2008). Migration and Activism in Europe since 1945. Springer. p. 72. ISBN   9780230615540.
  3. ↑ "What kind of peace? The case of the Turkish and Kurdish peace process". openDemocracy. 9 July 2015.
  4. ↑ Gunter, Michael M. (2010). Historical Dictionary of the Kurds. Scarecrow Press. p. 180. ISBN   9780810875074.
  5. ↑ "Convention, Kurdistan National Congress". Kurdistan National Congress. 24 June 2016. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016.
  6. ↑ Carment, David; Sadjed, Ariane (2017). Diaspora as Cultures of Cooperation: Global and Local Perspectives. Springer. p. 189. ISBN   9783319328928.
  7. ↑ Farkas, E. (2003). Fractured States and U.S. Foreign Policy: Iraq, Ethiopia, and Bosnia in the 1990s. Springer. p. 153. ISBN   9781403982438.
  8. ↑ "Co-President". Kurdistan National Congress. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016.
  9. ↑ Gunter, Michael M. (2018). Historical Dictionary of the Kurds. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 198. ISBN   9781538110508.
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