At the end of the Ottoman Empire, as explained in Chapter 1, the Kurds found themselves divided among four countries: the nation states of Iran and Turkey, the French mandate of Syria and the British mandate of Iraq. Syria and Iraq gained their independence when the mandates expired in 1946 and 1932 respectively. While the Kurds in Iraq and Syria enjoyed relative political and cultural freedom during the mandate years, the rest suffered from repressive measures implemented by both the Turkish and Iranian governments in their attempts to consolidate nation-building.

Reeling from the failure of various armed rebellions in the preceding years, the Kurdish movement took advantage of the relative freedom in Syria and Iraq to flourish. The strategy the Kurdish nationalist leaders sought was to focus on political and cultural development, keeping the passion for Kurdish ethnic consciousness alive. However, this position changed after the Second World War with the emergence of the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad (Iranian Kurdistan) in 1946, led by the newly founded Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), a joint collaboration between Kurdish nationalists in Iran and Iraq and supported by the Soviet occupiers of Azerbaijan. The years that followed the fall of this short-lived and ill-fated republic were marked by series of armed conflict between the KDPI and the Iranian government as well as in-fighting within the party, which caused substantial damage to the Kurdish nationalist movement overall, given the catalytic role the KDPI had assumed since the republic's formation. The political terrain in both Iran and Iraq changed dramatically from 1979 onwards, with the establishment of an Islamic republic in Iran following the demise of the Shah, and Saddam Hussein being appointed to the position of president in Iraq. Both autocratic states pursued a brutal campaign against their political opponents, including the Kurds. The events that followed the Iraqi defeat in the Gulf War (1991), however, ushered in opportunities for the setting up of an autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, which eventually came to fruition after the demise of Saddam regime, following the US-led invasion of Iraq (2003).

While Kurdish nationalism became stronger, growing from the concern of a relatively small intellectual elite to a mass social movement by the 1990s, its appeal was also boosted, transcending state and continental boundaries.