Falling: A Novel

The Kurds, or Kurdish people, are an ethnic group from Kurdistan, a mountainous area that spans southeastern Turkey and northwestern Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Kurds speak a variety of languages that are related to western Iranian languages. After World War I, the victorious Allies made provisions to create a Kurdish state but failed to do so when crafting the Treaty of Lausanne that formed the boundaries of Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq. This failure resulted in Kurdistan having minority status in the region, leading to ongoing genocide, rebellions, and armed conflicts between the Kurds and the countries of Turkey, Iran, and Iraq.

Kurdish insurgent groups have sought separation from Turkey in a bid for independence or autonomy and greater political and cultural rights for Kurds within the border of Turkey. This effort has led to the Kurdish-Turkish Conflict (1978-present). In 1978, a rebel group called the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) formed under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan. Their primary issue was the oppression of Kurds in Turkey, which included the banning of the Kurdish language, dress, folklore, and names in the Kurdish-occupied areas. The Kurdish-Turkish Conflict has led to conflicts that have resulted in more than 40,000 deaths, mostly Kurd civilians. A ceasefire was negotiated in 2013 after Ocalan, who had been imprisoned in Turkey since 1999, announced he had reached an agreement with Turkish officials. However, this ceasefire ended in 2015 after the PKK killed two Turkish policemen.

During the War on Terror, the Kurdish people were key in helping the United States defeat the Islamic State group (ISIS). Due to this contribution, the Kurdish people had certain expectations as to protection from the United States military. However, in 2019, President Trump withdrew troops from northern Syria despite knowing that Turkey planned an offensive against the Kurds in the area in order to set up a safe zone for Syrian refugees. The Kurds held nearly 12,000 suspected ISIS members in the area, 4,000 of whom were foreign nationals. President Trump expressed the thought that it was time for the United States to “get out of these ridiculous Endless Wars” (Marcus, Jonathan. “Turkey-Syria Border: Kurds Bitter as US Troops Withdraw.” BBC, 2019). He also expressed that Turkey would take responsibility for these ISIS prisoners, but others worried the troop withdrawal would lead to a resurgence of ISIS activity in the area. As a result of the troop withdrawal and the offensive by Turkey, more than 300,000 Kurds evacuated their homes, 60 Kurd civilians were killed, and more than 200 fighters died.

Newman uses the events of 2019 to give motive to her antagonist in Falling. The antagonist, Saman ‘Sam’ Khani, is a Kurdish person who left family behind when he moved to the United States. Not long after Sam came to the United States, his mother and brother were killed in the aforementioned offensive by Turkey against the Kurds. In response to this event, Sam plots to force Bill Hoffman to crash a commercial airliner with 149 souls aboard.