By that time the partisan forces operated throughout the Kurdish provinces of Iraq.

The last census was in 1997, but it did not include three Kurdish provinces.

Combat has subsided in the mostly Kurdish southeastern provinces.

The state of emergency had been in force since 1987 and covered the 10 predominantly Kurdish provinces.

Thousands of suspected political killings were committed in Kurdish provinces during the war.

It lies on the border to the another Kurdish provinces in Turkey and Iraq.

American officials have highlighted Turkey's progress, including a decision by the new government to lift the state of emergency in two Kurdish provinces.

Other parties won only 4 seats in Kurdish provinces.

In the Kurdish province there are 500,000 militiamen and soldiers under arms in a war, which the other side ended long ago.

But a four-day tour through Kurdish provinces of the southeast indicated that the opposite may be true.