Journals / International Journal of Kurdish Studies / 2025 / Cilt: 11 Sayı: 2

Operation Provide Comfort for the Kurds in Iraq

Karwan Salih Waisy(The University of Zakho)0000-0001-9116-1843
Pages
467–499
Publication Date
2025-09-21
🏛️Bibliographic metadata and full text access for this article are provided via DergiPark.
DergiPark Record ↗
✨

AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

The conclusion of the present researcher(s) based on what is a one-sided documentation is a surprise and quite admirable!

📌 3 Key Takeaways

🎯
Objective & Hypothesis:The ethnic and religious uprisings against Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq were led by Shiite Arabs in the South and Kurds in the North, incentivized by the U.S.A. and its allies.
📊
Key Findings & Data:The uprisings lasted from March to April 1991 directly after a ceasefire creating a halt to the Gulf War.
💡
Conclusion & Impact:The conclusion of the present researcher(s) based on what is a one-sided documentation is a surprise and quite admirable!
🔬Design:Araştırma Makalesi
📍Scope:Comprehensive Sample
⚙️Variables:The 1990-1991 Gulf War in Iraq and the ceasefire · uprisings in Northern and Southern Iraq and subsequent massacres · United States Operation Provide Comfort activation

Abstract

The ethnic and religious uprisings against Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq were led by Shiite Arabs in the South and Kurds in the North, incentivized by the U.S.A. and its allies. The uprisings lasted from March to April 1991 directly after a ceasefire creating a halt to the Gulf War. In both the North and the South, Saddam Hussein responded with massacres which created an internal refugee population. At that time, the United States activated their own intended political and humanitarian concept, Operation Provide Comfort. This was a three-phase operation with the purpose of aiding Iraqi Kurds to return to their homeland in Northern Iraq, and later to create a no-fly zone. The present study makes use of unclassified information from the United States Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), such as documents, reports and memoirs. There is almost no attempt at assessment of the viewpoint of Kurdish reactions. Even the Peshmerga (Kurdish for “facing death”), guerilla organizations from the eighteenth century who at the time played a strong role in the North, seem to have been glossed over in the documentation. The conclusion of the present researcher(s) based on what is a one-sided documentation is a surprise and quite admirable!

Özet

The ethnic and religious uprisings against Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq were led by Shiite Arabs in the South and Kurds in the North, incentivized by the U.S.A. and its allies. The uprisings lasted from March to April 1991 directly after a ceasefire creating a halt to the Gulf War. In both the North and the South, Saddam Hussein responded with massacres which created an internal refugee population. At that time, the United States activated their own intended political and humanitarian concept, Operation Provide Comfort. This was a three-phase operation with the purpose of aiding Iraqi Kurds to return to their homeland in Northern Iraq, and later to create a no-fly zone. The present study makes use of unclassified information from the United States Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), such as documents, reports and memoirs. There is almost no attempt at assessment of the viewpoint of Kurdish reactions. Even the Peshmerga (Kurdish for “facing death”), guerilla organizations from the eighteenth century who at the time played a strong role in the North, seem to have been glossed over in the documentation. The conclusion of the present researcher(s) based on what is a one-sided documentation is a surprise and quite admirable!

🔖

Cite This Article

Waisy, K. S. (2025). Operation Provide Comfort for the Kurds in Iraq. International Journal of Kurdish Studies, Cilt: 11 Sayı: 2, 467–499. https://doi.org/10.21600/ijoks.1585476

📄 Full Text PDF Viewer

📄

PDF görüntüleyici hazırlanıyor...

References (15)

  1. Brown, R. J. (1995). Humanitarian Operations in Northern Iraq, 1991 with Marines in Operation Provide Comfort. Government Printing Office.
  2. Canfield, R. L., Hashim, A. S., Helms, C. M., Hooglund, E., Malik, H., Olcott, M. B., Roy, O. & Schahgaldian, N. B. (1992). Balance of Power in Central and Southwest Asia. DTIC Document.
  3. Clary, D. E. (1994). Operation Provide Comfort--a Strategic Analysis. DTIC Document.
  4. Cockayne, J. & Malone, D. (2006). Creeping Unilateralism: How Operation Provide Comfort and the No-Fly Zones in 1991 and 1992 Paved the Way for the Iraq Crisis of 2003. Security Dialogue 37(1): 123-141.
  5. Cowan, J. W. (1995). Operation Provide Comfort. Operational Analysis for Operations Other Than War. DTIC Document. Goff, D. G. (1992). Building Coalitions for Humanitarian Operations--Operation Provide Comfort. DTIC Document.
  6. Goff, D. G. (1992b). Goff Experience During the Operation Provide Comfort. DTIC Document.
  7. Goff, Donald G. Colonel United States Army; Project Advisor: LTC Douglas V. Johnson II. May (1992). OPERATION PROVIDE COMFORT (Personal Experience). DTIC DOCUMENT Approved 1995. Distribution availability: U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania 17013. Online: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA295955.pdf
  8. Gözen, R. (1995). Operation Provide Comfort: Origins and Objectives. Ankara Üniversitesi SBF Dergisi 50(03):
  9. Hiltermann, J. R. (1997). The Demise of Operation Provide Comfort. Middle East Report 27(44-45.
  10. Holt, B. (1999). Military intervention in the Kurdish crisis April-July 1991 (Doctoral dissertation, University of London).
  11. Malanczuk, P. The Kurdish Crisis and Allied Intervention in the Aftermath of the Second Gulf War’,(1991). European journal of International law 2(114).
  12. Pelletiere, S. C. (1991). The Kurds and Their Agas: An Assessment of the Situation in Northern Iraq. DTIC Document.
  13. Rudd, G. W. (2004). Humanitarian Intervention: Assisting the Iraqi Kurds in Operation Provide Comfort, 1991. United States Govt Printing Office.
  14. Schiesl, M. A. (2003). The Objectives of United States Military Intervention in Northern Iraq between Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. DTIC Document.
  15. Schiesl, M. A. (2003). The Objectives of United States Military Intervention in Northern Iraq between Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. DTIC Document.