Why are the Kurds always in the firing line?

The Inquiry

• Episode: Why are the Kurds always in the firing line?
• Website: The Inquiry
• Feed URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p029399x/episodes/downloads.rss
• Duration: 00:24:26
• Published: 2019-10-31 04:30

Turkey’s push to clear the Kurds from its border with Syria has brought howls of betrayal. Many Kurds believed the Americans would protect them, after they’d defeated the so-called Islamic State terror group together. But this is just the latest of the dozens of conflicts in which the Kurds have been involved over the past few decades. Why can’t they find peace? Is it their fault? Should the regimes they live under take responsibility? Or does the blame lie further back in history?

We hear from:

Dr Afshin Shahi - Lecturer in Middle East politics and International Relations at Bradford University Dr Gönül Tol - Director of Center at The Middle East Institute's Center for Turkish Studies Fazel Hawramy – Freelance journalist Lindsey Hilsum – International editor of Channel 4 News

Presenter: Neal Razzell Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton Researcher: Lizzy McNeill

(Photo: Kurdish fighters withdraw from the border area near the northern Syrian town of Amuda on 27 October 2019. Credit: Delil Souleiman/Getty Images)