Kurdish History Journal
Articles filed under Treaties.
The 1916 agreement allocated control and influence in Ottoman territory. Kurdish division also involved an older Ottoman–Iranian frontier, the unfulfilled Sèvres provisions and later decisions over Syria and Mosul.
Read article →The 2016 US–KRG memorandum organised assistance to Peshmerga fighting ISIS. Its 2022 renewal connected support to institutional reform within Iraq’s security framework. Dated records help distinguish funding, reform promises and later official assessments.
Read article →Announced on 2 December 2014, the Erbil–Baghdad agreement linked northern oil exports through SOMO with federal budget transfers and Peshmerga funding. Its implementation in 2015 depended on delivery schedules, pipeline capacity, public finances and continuing political agreement.
Read article →A guide to Kurdish language rights, regional institutions, oil provisions and disputed territories, with dated UN records and legal sources.
Read article →The Washington Agreement (1998) ended the Kurdish civil war between the KDP and PUK. Brokered by the US, it created a power-sharing deal that stabilised Kurdistan but entrenched division.
Read article →The Oil-for-Food Programme used supervised Iraqi oil sales to finance civilian supplies under sanctions. Its separate northern account supported Dahuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah through UN implementation. Understanding the programme requires separating the 1995 resolution, the 1996 agreement, later revenue rules and the November 2003 handover.
Read article →After the 1991 uprising and refugee crisis, Kurdish parties negotiated with Baghdad over autonomy and wider democratic reform. The talks, international relief operations and the creation of regional institutions followed related but distinct paths.
Read article →The 1975 Algiers Agreement between Iraq and Iran ended the Kurdish rebellion overnight. Iran and the US abandoned the Kurds, 1,400 villages were razed, and Barzani died in exile.
Read article →The agreement announced on 11 March 1970 promised Kurdish rights and regional autonomy within Iraq. Dated documents show the difference between those commitments, their incomplete implementation, the imposed law of 1974 and the collapse of Kurdish resistance in 1975.
Read article →The Baghdad Pact began with an Iraq–Turkey agreement in February 1955. Its treaty, accession records and declassified U.S. assessments show how regional defence and internal security overlapped, while requiring care about claims concerning particular Kurdish movements.
Read article →The notes exchanged by Ahmad Qavam and Soviet ambassador Ivan Sadchikov on 4 April 1946 linked negotiations over Soviet withdrawal with a proposed joint oil company. The proposal still required parliamentary ratification. Its importance for Kurdish history lies in the changing balance of power around the Republic of Mahabad.
Read article →Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Turkey signed a non-aggression pact in Tehran in 1937. Its provisions on sovereignty and cross-border organisations mattered for Kurdish politics, but the treaty, its stated purposes and its implementation need separate examination.
Read article →The 1926 settlement confirmed the Iraq–Turkey frontier, provided a Turkish share of specified oil royalties and regulated frontier cooperation. League records also document Kurdish administrative and language safeguards, and complaints about their implementation.
Read article →The Treaty of Lausanne (1923) erased Kurdistan from international law, replacing Sèvres’ promise of Kurdish autonomy with total silence. It sealed the four-part partition that persists today.
Read article →The Joint British-Iraqi Declaration (1922) was the first recognition of Kurdish autonomy in Iraq. Known as the Christmas Declaration, it was never honoured — yet its principle endures.
Read article →Sèvres proposed Kurdish local autonomy and a conditional route to independence, but never entered into force. The three articles set out different commissions, deadlines, minority safeguards and a separate possibility for Kurds in the Mosul vilayet.
Read article →The Paris declaration of 20 November 1919 proposed independent Kurdistan and a united independent Armenia, with outside assistance and minority protections. Its terms, contested representation and later treaty context require separate examination.
Read article →The Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916) secretly divided Ottoman Kurdish lands between Britain and France, completing the four-part partition of Kurdistan that persists today.
Read article →The Second Treaty of Erzurum (1847) drew a precise border through Kurdistan under British and Russian mediation — transforming Kurdish partition into international law.
Read article →The 1823 Ottoman–Qajar agreement addressed seasonal movement, the Haydaran and Sepki tribes, pilgrims and commerce. Its wording and negotiation records explain both its restrictions and the frontier questions it left unresolved.
Read article →The Ottoman–Safavid settlement of 1639 followed the Ottoman recovery of Baghdad. It became an important reference for later frontiers, but Kurdish borderland politics and the eventual surveyed boundary cannot be reduced to one permanent line drawn that year.
Read article →The Peace of Amasya (1555) was the first formal partition of Kurdistan, splitting the Kurdish homeland between the Ottoman and Safavid empires without Kurdish consent.
Read article →The 1514 battle was followed by campaigns and negotiated appointments. Kurdish rulers made different choices, and hereditary privileges developed within a changing imperial system.
Read article →Al-Kamil, Saladin’s nephew, negotiated a temporary settlement with Frederick II over Jerusalem and other places. Contemporary letters, later histories and modern research reveal disputed defences, protected Muslim holy sites and a settlement shaped by competing rulers.
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