the 1936 coup is a window into the political and social makeup of Iraq of the 1930's. And that makeup can be personified by the name General Bakr Sidqi. Bakr Sidqi, who was born Kurdish, learned his military training in the Ottoman Army and fought against the British. After Iraq's independence in 1932, King Faisal appointed him a general in the new Iraqi Army

the Sidqi coup was the first military coup in the post-Ottoman arab world. It also marked an opening for military involvement in Iraqi politics that would never totally be closed. The coup also displaced the elite that had ruled the country since it was originally set up by the British in 1921.

The arab nationalists resented Sadqi because of his kurdish background.  And the late Jafar Pasha al-Askari had a brother-in-law living in exile named Nuri al-Said who wanted revenge. Nuri al-Said was the only politician during the 1936 coup that sought refuge in the British embassy.

On August 12, 1937,  in Mosul, Sadiqi was murdered when the military officers turned against him.

 Even before Iraq was officially a country, the Kurdish fight for independence has been an open wound for the region. By the middle of the 1930's the Kurds had launched three different revolts against British and Iraqi forces, most of them led by Mustafa Barzani. In 1945 and 1947 there was a fourth and fifth revolt against the Iraqi government, but these were somewhat different in that they were more nationalistic and militaristic, rather than tribal-based like the previous ones.

Barzani and 1,000 of his followers managed to elude the newly reorganized Iraqi army and the RAF, break through the enemy lines, and fight their way into Soviet-controlled Iran. Once there they set up with Qazi Muhamad the Republic of Mahabad. Barzani was Minister of Defense. To make a long story short, the Soviets pulled out of Iran the following year and the Iranian army crushed the new republic, and hanged the Prime Minister Qazi Muhamad.

He retreated to Iraq on May 27, 1947, but Iraq had no intention of allowing him to stay. Therefore, in his fifth revolt against Iraq, Barzani and 496 of his followers fought a running battle from Iraqi-controlled Kurdistan, through Turkey, back into Iran, and all the way to the Soviet-controlled Azerbaijan. They were pursued by the Iranian army all the way up to the border. In the Soviet Union they were interned in a prison camp for several years.

after the Revolution  July 14th, 1958 and Abdul Karim Qassim became the President of Iraq. Qassim had promised the Kurds real autonomy, but hadn't followed through with the promise. Mustafa Barzani, who Qassim had allowed to return to Iraq in 1958, wanted full independence, something Qassim could never allow. In September 1961 full-scale fighting broke out in Kurdistan. The army did not fair well, as the Kurdish rebels were often seasoned veterans who had deserted the Iraqi army. This revolt would continue almost uninterrupted until 1970, when Iraq finally granted the Kurds autonomy.

This was proclaimed in the Manifesto of March 11, 1970, to come into effect in 1974, following a census to determine the frontiers of the area in which the Kurds formed the majority of the population.

this peace was doomed to be very temporary. through 1973 and 1974 negotiations between the Kurds and Iraqi government went nowhere.

Meanwhile, in the background, the CIA was maneuvering through their agent, Iran's Shah.

"Our movement and people are being destroyed in an unbelievable way, with silence from everyone. We feel, your Excellency, that the United States has a moral and political responsibility towards our people, who have committed themselves to your country's policy."

- Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani's message to Kissinger, 1975

The Betrayal: The shah and Saddam Hussein met in Algiers in March 1975, and they came to an agreement quickly. Saddam Hussein agreed that the thalweg would be the boundary in the Shatt al-'Arab, and the shah promised to stop his assistance to the Kurds.  This agreement virtually ended the Kurdish war.

In this Kurdish political vacuum a new leader stepped up. His name is Jalal Talabani. He also happens to be the current president of Iraq

The Kurds have fought nine different rebellions for independence since the creation of the idea of Iraq. They were literally fighting for independence from Iraq before Britain had finished creating Iraq as a nation.

They have suffered genocidal military campaigns by the Iraqi army Kurdistan-Iraq is now free but in other parts of Kurdistan, the Kurds are still fighting for independence. Even the name of the Kurdish warrior - peshmerga - means "those who face death."

As it stands now, the Kurds have a de facto independent state of Kurdistan. The flag of Iraq is banned in Iraqi Kurdistan. The peshmerga have taken over security in Kurdistan. They have their own parliament and cabinet

There are two problems with their goal for independence, one internal, one external.
The internal one goes by the name - Kirkuk.

The Kurds will not give up Kirkuk. Period. One of the major reasons for the failure of the 1970 Accord, that led to the disasterous Second Kurdish-Iraq War, was because the Kurds refused to accept the Ba'thist determination of the borders of the Kurdish area, which excluded the oil-rich Kirkuk province. After war ended in 1975, Hussein implimented the Order of 111. The Order of 111 is believed to have facilitated Saddam's efforts to Arabization the region-often by forcefully evicting local, non-Arab residents from their homes.

The external problem with Kurdistan independence mostly involves Turkey. While Iran has also endured its share of Kurdish revolts, Turkey has been the only nation who's Kurdish problem can compare with Iraq's. Turkey is also the only nation which has launched full-scale invasions of Iraq because of Kurdish rebellions.

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