PLIGHT OF KURDS: ARE THEY LEFT OUT TO DRY?

These tragic Kurds who are they? How did they get in this bind? They are not Arabs, but rather of Indo-European descent. They have their own history, language and culture. Look at the map and see where Turkey, the Soviet Union (Armenia), Syria, Iran and Iraq converge and you will find this scattered, tribal group. They are mostly Sunni Moslem, speak a derivative of Persian and are held in disdain by every country in which they are found.

By the time the World War I allies got around to carving up the defeated Ottoman Empire, President Woodrow Wilson and the ideals of "self-determination" and "autonomous development" were long gone from the diplomatic scene. The idea of an independent Kurdistan was briefly discussed, but never became a political reality.

In May 1919, young general Mustapha Kemal (later known as Ataturk) began a military and political campaign to create a modern Turkey free of foreign intervention and control. Ataturk was more than a competent general; he was an adroit diplomat who played off the French against the British, while at the same time clobbering the Greeks. The Kurds became an insignificant sideshow in the creation of both the new Turkey and the new Iraq. By 1923, the Kurdistan vaguely contemplated a few years earlier was completely forgotten. The Kurds were deposited behind various sovereign borders to become a hated minority wherever found.

In 1927, oil was discovered in the Kurdish area in northern Iraq by a consortium of British, American and French oil interests. This gusher of wealth insured that there would be no Western sympathy for Kurdish independence. Self-determination is too explosive when oil is at stake.

Each successive Iraqi regime persecuted the Kurds. Then in the early 1970s, the Shah of Iran and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger devised a plan for America to support a Kurdish revolt. They didn't really care about Kurdish autonomy; they simply wanted Baghdad to divert military resources and attention from the Iran-Iraq border. By 1975, Saddam Hussein decided to make a deal with Kissinger and the Shah. Part of the bargain was for the United States to discontinue support of the uprising and so the Kurds were left out to dry. In 1988, Saddam decided to quiet them down with a heavy dose of poison gas, an event the world just barely protested. And now, in 1991, the Kurds are left out to dry once again.

In 1922, Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, referring to Turkey's treatment of minorities, such as the Kurds, said, "Nothing can excuse in the slightest degree or palliate the barbaric cruelty of the Turks." However, he continued, "it was not America's responsibility to intervene." Last week, Secretary of State James Baker, referring to Iraqi ill treatment of its Kurdish minority, said, "It's inhuman; it's brutal; it's outrageous." Once again it was not in America's interest to intervene. A world policeman can walk only a limited beat.

The Kurds are a people removed from international concern and conscience. Throughout history, they have been left out to dry.