It seems like anytime I hear anything about the conflicts within the middle east, it seems that the Kurdish ethnic group is seemingly always given the short stick. especially when it comes to representation within the Iraqi government. I'm curious as to why the region is so historically hostile to the group, and what the Kurds might have done in the past to warrant such treatment?
Edit: I was unaware but apparently they are suppressed by the Turkish Government as well; what is the reason for the regional hatred for this particular ethnic group?
The OP may want to modify this question to acknowledge that Kurdish people are also strongly suppressed by Turkey's government.
Well, they held a lot of hegemony during the Middle Ages, Kurdish rulers like Saladin held a lot of sway in the region during and after the Crusades, also they have a lot of oil... like a LOT.
So you might be unsurprised to know that countries like Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria are VERY vested in keeping those regions under their controll, sometimes through peacefull coexistence, and sometimes not (like in the Iraqi case you mentioned), do remember that many of these nations were formed in a haphazard way following the mess that was the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the divisions of territory following WW1, so many of them dont have a historical claim to these regions.
In the case of Turkey its worth noting that they were (are?) a very strategically important place for NATO especially during the Cold War, even housing a number of missiles and bases that the Soviets considered dangerous enough to risk escalation during the Cuban Missile Crisis if they werent removed from Turkey.
In that climate you might imagine why the PKK, the Kurdistan Worker's Party, a socialist organization that aglomerated the kurdish independence movements at the time wasnt exactly well received.
A situation which like many things of the Cold War, due to politics and interests continues to affect our modern age.
Kurdish nationalism first appeared in its modern form during the 1890's when the Ottoman empire started to push forth massive reforms and along with these reforms there was a surge in Turkish nationalism, seeing this many Kurds grew uneasy and started to revolt. Soon after seeing this Sultan Abdul Hamid granted high positions to Kurdish people.
After the Paris Peace conference the nation of Kurdistan was to be granted Independence, but as Mustafa Kemal the leader of the Turkish National Assembly (soon to be 1st president of Turkey) led the war for Turkish Independence and defeated the British, French, Greeks and Italians. Mustafa Kemal saw the area of Kurdistan as an integral part of Turkey and refused to grant it Independence or give it land, like he did with Armenia. But as the Kurds started to riot Mustafa Kemal refused to acknowledge their Existence as a separate people lest he give them something to jump on and use as their justification for an Independent Nation. He banned the term "Kurd" instead calling them "Mountain Turks" and gave them no extra autonomy. These policies continued until about the 1960's when the Turkish government started to accept the rights of the Kurds inside Turkey though with heavy reluctance. Even though some concessions were given the Turkish government still refused large scale Kurdish political parties.
In Iraq and Syria, the repressions of the Kurds was due to the fact an Independent Kurdistan would take chunks of valuable land out of the countries. These nations thus saw Kurdish nationalism as a threatening force that needed to be dealt with. But Saddam Hussiens crimes against the Kurds was due to his Pan-Arabism policy in which he oppressed minorities within Iraq. The Kurds(who are the largest minority group in Iraq) then revolted and Saddam Hussein did vast reprisals against the Kurdish people which included the gassing and large scale murders. The International Community then intervened and gave de-facto independence to Kurdistan up until the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.