Abstract EN:

Right from the XVIth-century, Kurdistan became the center of the Turco-Persian conflict of border. Located between the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire, Kurdistan was one of the great military reserves, an economic source and a buffer zone which ensured the frontier safety of the two belligerents. With the emergence of the Shiite Safavide block opposed to the traditional Sunnite Ottoman block, beliefs were used as a pretext for a permanent war which did not cease since the battle of Tchaldêran in 1514 until the signature of the Erzeroum second treaty in 1847. This last treaty marked, at least officially, the end of the "game" of the Kurdish tribes between the two borders, and this enabled Constantinople to put an end to all the small Kurdish local statutes. After First World War, the Kurdish matter left the speculative field of the press and entered the ground of the diplomatic "game". The treaty of Sèvres decided to create a small Kurdish State, but Mustafa Kemal succeeded in tearing this treaty. Then, once the Turco-Iraqi in 1926 and the Turco-Persian in 1932 border lines were drawn, Kurdistan became a colony divided between four neighbouring countries.