Why are the Kurds always in the firing line?

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)