DROGHEDA PEACE PROPOSALS

   At this rather incongruous site (a town near Dublin, Ireland), the United States persuaded the warring Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) factions to meet and try to reach a settlement of their internal conflict that raged off and on from 1994 to 1998.The Drogheda peace talks were held from 9-11 August 1995 and a second session from 12-15 September 1995.

   At first they seemed to have a chance for success but eventually foundered, in part because of Turkish security interests. When it appeared that as part of the deal the KDP would prevent the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) from attacking Turkey from PKK bases across the border in Iraqi Kurdistan, the PKK attacked the KDP. For their own ulterior motives Iran, Syria, and the PUK supported the PKK, while Turkey aided the KDP. In addition, the KDP and PUK could not agree on the demilitarization of Irbil and the collection of customs revenues. However, the Drogheda talks probably helped lay the groundwork for the United States finally being able to broker a cease-fire deal that was made three years later in Washington, D.C., and after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 led to the establishment of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in a supposedly democratic and federal Iraq.