She occasionally went to Turkey, too, where the central Government was waging a counterinsurgency campaign against Kurdish nationalists.

They see every claim for regional or cultural autonomy, including those put forward by Kurdish nationalists, as means to this end.

Kurdish nationalists put the figure at 20,000,000 to 25,000,000.

Turkey has recently suffered a series of setbacks in its diplomatic campaign to isolate Kurdish nationalists.

Hawar was criticized by some Kurdish nationalists for wrapping himself with the Iraqi national flag during a tournament.

Its members, for example, backed the expulsion of Kurdish nationalists from Parliament in 1994 on the ground that their opinions were subversive.

"Would the Syrian Kurds be acting alone or with other Kurdish nationalists?"

The Iraqi drive is only one of many setbacks for Kurdish nationalists in Iraq and elsewhere.

Hanging over the human rights debate is the war being waged by Kurdish nationalists in the southeast.

Kurdish nationalists are tempted to exaggerate it, and governments of the region to understate it.