WELCOME

[kurds at gn.apc.org]

		WELCOME TO THE KURDISH CONFERENCE



The purpose of this conference is to help establish communication
between the Kurdish people and the rest of the world.

You are probably aware of the dangers faced by the Kurds in Iraq.

In case you do not know about the attacks upon Kurdish villages
with chemical weapons, the massacre of 5,000 men, women and
children in March 1988 at the small town of Halabja, and other
horrors, you will find all these reported and documented in this
conference.

But you will also find answers to the questions that many people
never bother to ask.

Why did this trouble start?  And when?

Who are the Kurds?  Are there really 25 million of them?  (This
would make the Kurds the 4th largest nationality in the Middle
East.)

Why is the ancestral homeland of the Kurds split up and placed
under the rule of several non-Kurdish governments?

How long have the Kurds occupied their mountains?  (Did you know
that one of the earliest chronicled encounters between Kurds and
a foreign army was recorded by the Greek general Xenophon before
the birth of Christ?)

But the history of the Kurds is not all warfare.  Kurdish poetry,
music, cuisine - we'd like you to know about these too.

Please think of this conference as a reference library of
material about the Kurds.  In addition to historical articles and
features on aspects of Kurdish life, it will also contain reports
of the latest news from Kurdistan.

We will continue to post news items on MIDEAST.GULF and MIDEAST.
GENERAL and discussion topics on MIDEAST.FORUM. 

But since all Kurdish items will also be copy-posted here, in
time, this conference will be a complete record.