The 33,000-40,000 Kurds killed by NATO ally Turkey (higher figure from Chomsky's American Intervention book recently published in Turkey) are, of course, a horrendous bloodletting.
That said, looking at, "A Modern History of the Kurds, " 2nd edition, 2000, published by I.B. Taurus pubs. in London, by David McDowell this morning at Borders, I see from the documentation he assembles from sources such as Middle Watch and Kurdish political orgs. a figure of 150,000-200,000 killed by the Iraqi Baathist regime during the Anfal operations of '86-'88 directed by Gen. Al Majid. The Socialist Party of Kurdistan says the death toll was 182,000.
Article in Le monde Diplomatique by L. Nezan in March '88 ( http://www.en.monde-diplomatique.fr/1998/03/04iraqkn ) goes even higher. "Since 1974 over 400,000 killed in Baghdad's war against the Kurds. [10% of the Iraqi Kurdish population approx.] 15 million landmines."
A number of ghastly quotes in the Le Monde Diplo article. Her's one from the Anfal Commander (btw, much more on the Anfal in Kanan Makiya's, "Silence and Cruelty, " and the PBS Frontline documentary which Makiya was part of. See the Frontline website, which also has a good summary of Kurdish-Iraqi history.) "I will kill them all with chemical weapons. Who is going to say anything? The international community? Fuck them!" And replying to the charge from the Socialist Party of Turkistan about the 182K dead Kurds "You always exaggerate!" After which he said, though, it was at least 100,000. Michael Pugliese