No Friends but the Mountains: The Tragic History of the Kurds (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Harvey Morris (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Numbering more than 20 million, the Kurds--the world's largest minority without a state--live in an area the size of France, united by a common culture and a distinct language but divided by the frontiers of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon and Russia. When the Kurds of Iraq rebelled against Saddam Hussein during the Gulf war, they were led to expect aid from the West; but Saddam launched a campaign of vengeance that included unrestrained use of chemical weapons while the international community looked on in virtual silence. In this well-researched, accessible study, Bullock and Morris, coauthors of Saddam's War , show how--but not why--Kurdish history has been dominated since antiquity by political betrayal and that the Kurds have often been victims of their own squabbles. The closest the disputatious tribespeople have come to a unified action, according to the authors, was during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s when the Kurds of Turkey, Iran and Iraq rose up briefly against the governing powers. Nor is a pan-Kurdish political movement likely, they add, in the foreseeable future. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

A comprehensive history of the Kurdish people discusses the origin of the Kurds, reasons for present division among the Kurds, and a report on the Gulf War and its aftermath. By the author of The Gulf War.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 7, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195080750
• ISBN-13: 978-0195080759
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,887,343 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good, although dated book on the Kurds, April 25, 2005

By	Lee L. (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

Bulloch and Morris tell a mostly narrative based story from the point of view of journalists. This book is not necessarily written from a scholarly perspective; no sources are cited. However the book does a great job at providing short passages of important topics. There is some historical perspective, case studies on the Kurds in places like Iraq and Turkey, and also some brief analysis on what it all means.

This is not a great book, but for those interested in the region, it's a book that should be read. There aren't that many books on the Kurds to begin with, so that fact alone makes this book worth reading. For those interested, a much more in depth look can be found in McDowall's Modern History of the Kurds.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A little known history of struggle and suffering , November 7, 2006

By	Gary Selikow (Great Kush) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

The Allied invasion to free Kuwait from Iraqi occupation was seen as signal by the repressed minorities in Iraq to rise up against their cruel tormentor Saddam Hussein.
The Kurds in the north of Iraq and the Shia in southern Iraq rose up against Saddam expecting American support.
When that support failed to materialize , they where faced with the tyrant's vengeance , sparking one of the greatest mass migrations of modern history.

In this volume , John Bulloch and Harvey Morris put together the history of the Kurdish people , thought to be descended from the ancient Medes.

The Kurds number around 20 million , and are spread over five countries. They have been divided among themselves and exploited by occupying powers. Used as pawns in struggles between to Ottomans and the Safavids and between the Ottomans and the Arabs , they saw their great hopes of self-determination shattered after the First World War.
President Woodrow Wilson guided by the laudable ideals of self-determination ,for all nations, aimed to create an independent Kurdish state , but their plans where destroyed by the self-seeking British and French , aided by a re-emergent Turkey.
Insurrections by Iran , Iraq and Turkey where brutally put down by these powers , determined to cush any breakaway minority nationalisms.
The authors attempt to explore the hopes and dissapointments of the Kurds , their struggles and the diabolical brutality suffered under the likes of ruthless tyrants like Saddam Hussein and Ayatollah Khomeini.
Not only was their right to sovereignty denied , but their culture deliberately destroyed in a campaign of forced Arabization.

At Halabja in 1988 , 5000 Kurdish men , women and children died after being gassed by Saddam's forces. Hundreds of Kurdish children where rounded up and tortured on Saddam's orders , in order to punish their parents for supporting the rebellion.

The Kurds , like the Tibetans and South Sudanese , have not been afforded the same international recognition as the Palestinians , perhaps because , unlike the Palestinians , they have not used terrorism as a tool.