TY  - JOUR
T1  - Operation Provide Comfort for the Kurds in Iraq
TT  - Operation Provide Comfort for the Kurds in Iraq
AU  - Waisy, Karwan Salih
PY  - 2025
DA  - September
Y2  - 2025
DO  - 10.21600/ijoks.1585476
JF  - International Journal of Kurdish Studies
JO  - Kurdish Studies
PB  - Hasan KARACAN
WT  - DergiPark
SN  - 2149-2751
SP  - 467
EP  - 499
VL  - 11
IS  - 2
LA  - en
AB  - 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!
KW  - The 1990-1991 Gulf War in Iraq and the ceasefire
KW  - uprisings in Northern and Southern Iraq and subsequent massacres
KW  - United States Operation Provide Comfort activation
KW  - DTIC unclassified United States documents and memoirs
KW  - United States military and humanitarian objectives in Iraq.
N2  - 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!
CR  - Brown, R. J.   (1995).    Humanitarian Operations in Northern Iraq, 1991 with Marines in Operation Provide Comfort. Government Printing Office.
CR  - 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.
CR  - Clary, D. E.   (1994).   Operation Provide Comfort--a Strategic Analysis.    DTIC Document.
CR  - 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.
CR  - 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.
CR  - Goff, D. G.   (1992b).   Goff Experience During the Operation Provide Comfort.    DTIC Document.
CR  - 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
CR  - Gözen, R.   (1995).   Operation Provide Comfort: Origins and Objectives.  Ankara Üniversitesi SBF Dergisi  50(03):
CR  - Hiltermann, J. R.   (1997).   The Demise of Operation Provide Comfort.  Middle East Report  27(44-45.
CR  - Holt, B. (1999). Military intervention in the Kurdish crisis April-July 1991 (Doctoral dissertation, University of London).
CR  - Malanczuk, P.     The Kurdish Crisis and Allied Intervention in the Aftermath of the Second Gulf War’,(1991).  European journal of International law  2(114).
CR  - Pelletiere, S. C.   (1991).   The Kurds and Their Agas: An Assessment of the Situation in Northern Iraq.    DTIC Document.
CR  - Rudd, G. W.   (2004).    Humanitarian Intervention: Assisting the Iraqi Kurds in Operation Provide Comfort, 1991. United States Govt Printing Office.
CR  - Schiesl, M. A.   (2003).   The Objectives of United States Military Intervention in Northern Iraq between Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom.    DTIC Document. 
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UR  - https://doi.org/10.21600/ijoks.1585476
L1  - https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/4367217
ER  -