Safe Haven

   The safe haven was a temporary small area in northern Iraq around the city of Zakho just over the border from Turkey. In this area the United States and several of its Gulf War allies established a place where Kurdish refugees could return and be protected from being attacked by Saddam Hussein's forces after the failure of the Kurdish uprising that followed the Gulf War in 1991.

   The concept was first proposed by Turkish president Turgut Ozal and then advocated by British Prime Minister John Major. UN Security Council Resolution 688, of 5 April 1991, which condemned "the repression of the Iraqi civilian population . . . in Kurdish populated areas" and demanded "that Iraq . . . immediately end this repression," was used to legally justify the safe haven and no-fly zone, which helped to protect it. The safe haven was implemented by Operation Provide Comfort, and out of these concepts grew the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which continues to hold sway over much of northern Iraq in post-Saddam Hussein, federal Iraq.