The upper Kurdish hierarchy (which has faced the most challenges of authority and the state) has often linked its fate throughout history to the fate of stronger authorities and states, based on relative autonomy. It has not been strongly driven by a separate authority system or state specific to Kurdish society. Such an initiative was not in line with its interests in this regard, due to prevailing historical and social circumstances. From this perspective, the shared history with the Turks, which spans approximately the last thousand years, has been addressed. By willingly participating in the Battle of Manzikert, which they crowned with a resounding victory alongside the Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan, they achieved a shared new authority and state under an Islamic foundation that dominated Anatolia and Mesopotamia. The geopolitical and geostrategic realities emanating from both regions made the sharing of authority and the Islamic state between the two upper classes of both nations a forced necessity. Despite the lack of a clear interest for the two peoples in sharing authority and state, and despite their repeated resistance to living under the common roof of authority and state, they did not fail to live together, due to the requirements of shared life on the one hand, and because of the religious and sectarian wars erupting at the time, on the other hand. This partnership between the Turkish nationalist upper hierarchy and the Kurdish upper class has always been based on voluntary consent. While we rarely encounter the phenomenon of “the conquest of Kurdistan” within the traditions of Turkish conquest, the occasional war of conquest only occurred with the participation of Kurdish notables. Therefore, this type of war cannot be described as an invasion.
