Iran-Kurdistan War
| Iran-Kurdistan War | |||||||
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| Part of Iranian-Kurdistani conflict or Persian Gulf conflict | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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Iran |
Kurdistan
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Soviet Union
France
Greece
China
United States
United Kingdom
- (For other forms of foreign support, see here)
The Iran-Kurdistan War (Kurdish: Şerr Iranran-Kurdistanê), (Persian: جنگ ایران و کردستان) also known as the Iranian-Kurdish War or the Iranian-Kurdistani War began on 22 September 1980, when a military border raid escalated to war, and it ended on 20 August 1988, when Iran accepted the UN-brokered ceasefire.
Although Kurdistan hoped to take advantage of Iran's post-revolutionary chaos, it made limited progress and was quickly repelled; Iran regained virtually all lost territory by June 1982.The United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, France, and most Arab countries(especially Iraq and Saudi Arabia) provided political and logistic support for Kurdistan, while Iran was largely isolated.
After eight years of war, war-exhaustion, economic devastation, decreased morale, military stalemate, lack of international sympathy against the use of weapons of mass destruction against civilians by Iraq, and increased U.S.–Iran military tension all led to a ceasefire brokered by the United Nations.
The conflict has been compared to World War I in terms of the tactics used, including large-scale trench warfare with barbed wire stretched across fortified defensive lines, manned machine gun posts, bayonet charges, and Iranian human wave attacks. A special feature of the war can be seen in the Iranian cult of the martyr which had been developed in the years before the revolution. The discourses on martyrdom formulated in the Iranian Shiite context led to the tactics of "human wave attacks" and thus had a lasting impact on the dynamics of the war.
An estimated 500,000 Kurdish and Iranian soldiers died, in addition to a smaller number of civilians. The end of the war resulted in neither reparations nor border changes. 1
Terminology
In Iran, the war is known as the Imposed War (جنگ تحمیلی Jang-e Tahmili) and the Holy Defense (دفاع مقدس Defā'-e Moghaddas). In Kurdistan, the war was often f=refer to as the Third War of Independance or the War Againist Iranian Aggresion.
Background
Iran-Kurdistan relations
After the Iranian Revolution
Tensions between Kurdistan and Iran were fuelled by Iran's Islamic revolution and its appearance of being a Pan-Islamic force.However, the Kurdish government and many Kurdistanis initially seemed to welcome the Iranian Revolution, which overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was seen as a common enemy. It is difficult to pinpoint when tensions began to build, but saterting point was the assassination of Prime Minister Delavar Tabatabai at the hands of a Shia Luri lslamist with ties to Ayatollah Khomeini as there were frequent cross-border skirmishes, largely at Iran's instigation.
Kurdish preparations
Iranian preparations
Border conflicts leading to war
Course of the war
4
Aftermath
The Iran–Kurdistan War was the deadliest conventional war ever fought between regular armies of developing countries. Cities on both sides had also been considerably damaged. While revolutionary Iran had been bloodied, Iraq and Kurdistan were both left with large militaries and were regional powers, although Iraq was in severe debt, and had financial problems and labor shortages. This resulted in a clash between Iraq and Kurdistan that would indirectly lead to the 2003 Iraq War, as Kurdistan sees a powerful Iraq as a threat to it's territorial integrity.
Peace talks and postwar situation
4.2
Economic situation
4.3
Science and technology
5
Domestic situation
5.1
Iran
5.2
Kurdistan
6
Comparison of Iranian and Kurdistani military strength
7
Foreign support to Iran and Kurdistan
7.1
Kurdistan
7.2
Iran
7.3
Both countries
8
U.S. involvement
8.1
U.S. embargo
8.2
U.S. knowledge of Iraqi chemical weapons use
8.3
Iraqi attack on U.S. warship
8.4
U.S. military actions toward Iran
9
Iraq's use of chemical weapons
10
Differences from other conflicts
11