1920: Treaty of Sèvres: high hopes.
1923: Treaty of Lausanne: hopes dashed.
1946: Kurdish "Mahabad" Republic (lasts less than a year).
1963: Iraqi Ba'athist regime begins "Arabization" (ethnic cleansing) campaign in Kurdish areas.
1984: PKK separatists wage a campaign to take over parts of southeast Turkey.
1988: Anfal Campaign (including Halabja incident).
1999, June 29: Kurdish separatist Abdullah Ocalan sentenced to death in Turkey.
2000: Renewed Iraqi ethnic cleansing in Kurdish areas.
2006: Former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein goes on trial for genocide against Kurds.
See also:
Christopher de Bellaigue, "The Uncontainable Kurds," New York Review of Books, vol. 54, no. 3, March 1, 2007.
Quil Lawrence, Invisible Nation: How the Kurds' Quest for Statehood is Shaping Iraq and the Middle East (Walker and Company, 2008) (click here for a review of this book)