Turkey		1920 After World War I, when the Ottoman Empire is carved up, the Kurds are promised independence by the Treaty of Sevres. 1923 Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk rejects the treaty, and Turkish forces put down Kurdish uprisings in the 1920s and 1930s. The Kurdish struggle lies dormant for decades. 1978 Abdullah Ocalan, one of seven children of a poor farming family, establishes the Kurdish Workers' Party, or PKK, which advocates independence. 1979 Ocalan flees Turkey for Syria. 1984 Ocalan's PKK begins armed struggle, recruiting thousands of young Kurds, who are driven by Turkish repression of their culture and language and by poverty. Turkish forces fight the PKK guerrillas, who also establish bases across the border in Iraq, for years. Conflict costs about 30,000 lives. 1998-99 Ocalan, who has directed his guerrillas from Syria, is expelled by Damascus under pressure from Ankara. He begins his multi-nation odyssey until he is captured in Nairobi on Feb. 15, 1999 and taken to Turkey. He is sentenced to death June 29 by a three-judge Turkish panel after being found guilty of treason and separatism.
Iran		1946 Kurds succeed in establishing the republic of Mahabad, with Soviet backing. But a year later, the Iranian monarch crushes the embryonic state. 1979 Turmoil of Iran's revolution allows Kurds to establish unofficial border area free of Iranian government control; Kurds do not hold it for long.
Iraq		Early 1900s Kurds in northern Iraq – under a British mandate – revolt in 1919, 1923 and 1932, but are crushed. Under Mustafa Barzani, they wage an intermittent struggle against Baghdad. 1970 Baghdad grants Kurds language rights and self rule, but deal breaks down partly over oil revenues. 1974 New clashes erupt; Iraqis force 130,000 Kurds into Iran. But Iran withdraws support for Kurds the following year. 1988 Iraqis launch poison-gas attack, killing 5,000 Kurds in town of Halabja. 1991 After Persian Gulf War, northern Iraq's Kurdish area comes under international protection. 1999 Two rival Iraqi Kurdish factions, one led by Mustafa Barzani's son Massoud, the other by Jalal Talabani, broker a peace deal; goal is for Kurdish area to become part of a democratic Iraq. SOURCES: Reuters, World Almanac, staff reports