Communist Europe and the Kurdish Question During the Cold War (1940s 1980s)

Abstract

While abundant scholarship has been produced concerning the Kurdish diaspora in Western Europe, little is known about the development of Kurdish communities in Central and Eastern Europe, especially during the Cold War. This paper analyses the specific situation of the Kurds in Communist Europe through the prism of Bulgaria, a frontline country in direct contact with the Middle East from the 1940s until the end of the 1980s. It demonstrates the weight of diplomatic and economic factors in explaining the persistent difficulty faced by Central European regimes in conceiving of the Kurdish issue beyond separate national fighting grounds.