ug:كۇردلار
Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
ethnic group
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
native to the mountainous region of
Kurdistan
Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...
in
Western Asia
Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...
, which spans southeastern
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
, northwestern
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, northern
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
, and northern
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
.
There are
exclaves
An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...
of Kurds in
Central Anatolia
The Central Anatolia Region ( tr, İç Anadolu Bölgesi) is a geographical region of Turkey. The largest city in the region is Ankara. Other big cities are Konya, Kayseri, Eskişehir, Sivas, and Aksaray.
Located in Central Turkey, it is borde ...
,
Khorasan
Khorasan may refer to:
* Greater Khorasan, a historical region which lies mostly in modern-day northern/northwestern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan
* Khorasan Province, a pre-2004 province of Ira ...
, and the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...
, as well as significant
Kurdish diaspora
The Kurdish population is estimated to be between 30 and 45 million.[T ...](_blank)
communities in the cities of western Turkey (in particular
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
) and
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
(primarily
in Germany). The
Kurdish population
The Kurdish population is estimated to be between 30 and 45 million.[T ...](_blank)
is estimated to be between 30 and 45 million.
Kurds speak the
Kurdish languages
Kurdish (, ) is a language or a group of languages spoken by Kurds in the geo-cultural region of Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora. Kurdish constitutes a dialect continuum, belonging to Western Iranian languages in the Indo-European language ...
and the
Zaza–Gorani languages
Zaza–Gorani is a linguistic subgroup of Northwestern Iranian languages. They are usually classified as a non-Kurdish branch of the Northwestern Iranian languages but most of their speakers consider themselves ethnic Kurds.
The Zaza–Gorani la ...
, which belong to the
Western Iranian
The Western Iranic languages are a branch of the Iranic languages, attested from the time of Old Persian (6th century BC) and Median.
Languages
The traditional Northwestern branch is a convention for non-Southwestern languages, rather than a g ...
branch of the
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau.
The Iranian languages are grouped ...
.
After
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and the defeat of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
, the victorious
Western allies
The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy ...
made provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920
Treaty of Sèvres
The Treaty of Sèvres (french: Traité de Sèvres) was a 1920 treaty signed between the Allies of World War I and the Ottoman Empire. The treaty ceded large parts of Ottoman territory to France, the United Kingdom, Greece and Italy, as well ...
. However, that promise was broken three years later, when the
Treaty of Lausanne set the boundaries of modern Turkey and made no such provision, leaving Kurds with minority status in all of the new countries. Recent
history of the Kurds
The Kurds , also the Kurdish people , are an Iranian ethnic group in the Middle East. They have historically inhabited the mountainous areas to the south of Lake Van and Lake Urmia, a geographical area collectively referred to as Kurdistan. ...
includes numerous
genocides
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Lati ...
and
rebellions
Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority.
A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
, along with ongoing armed conflicts in
Turkish,
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
,
Syrian, and
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan ( ku, باشووری کوردستان, Başûrê Kurdistanê) refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia, which also incl ...
. Kurds in Iraq and Syria have autonomous regions, while Kurdish movements continue to pursue greater
cultural rights
The cultural rights movement has provoked attention to protect the rights of groups of people, or their culture, in similar fashion to the manner in which the human rights movement has brought attention to the needs of individuals throughout t ...
,
autonomy
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...
, and
independence
Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...
throughout Kurdistan.
Etymology
The exact origins of the name ''Kurd'' are unclear.
The underlying
toponym
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
is recorded in
Assyrian
Assyrian may refer to:
* Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia.
* Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire.
** Early Assyrian Period
** Old Assyrian Period
** Middle Assyrian Empire
** Neo-Assyrian Empire
* Assyrian ...
as ''Qardu'' and in
Middle Bronze Age Sumerian as ''Kar-da''.
Assyrian ''Qardu'' refers to an area in the upper
Tigris
The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...
basin, and it is presumably reflected in corrupted form in
Classical Arabic ''
Ǧūdī'', re-adopted in Kurdish as ''Cûdî''. The name would be continued as the first element in the toponym ''
Corduene'', mentioned by
Xenophon
Xenophon of Athens (; grc, wikt:Ξενοφῶν, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Anci ...
as the tribe who opposed the retreat of the
Ten Thousand
The Ten Thousand ( grc, οἱ Μύριοι, ''oi Myrioi'') were a force of mercenary units, mainly Greeks, employed by Cyrus the Younger to attempt to wrest the throne of the Persian Empire from his brother, Artaxerxes II. Their march to the Bat ...
through the mountains north of
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
in the 4th century BC.
There are, however, dissenting views, which do not derive the name of the Kurds from ''Qardu'' and ''Corduene'' but opt for derivation from ''
Cyrtii'' (''Cyrtaei'') instead.
Regardless of its possible roots in ancient toponymy, the
ethnonym
An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...
''Kurd'' might be derived from a term ''kwrt-'' used in
Middle Persian
Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...
as a common noun to refer to "
nomad
A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...
s" or "tent-dwellers," which could be applied as an attribute to any
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
group with such a lifestyle.
The term gained the characteristic of an ethnonym following the
Muslim conquest of Persia
The Muslim conquest of Persia, also known as the Arab conquest of Iran, was carried out by the Rashidun Caliphate from 633 to 654 AD and led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire as well as the eventual decline of the Zoroastrian religion.
Th ...
, as it was adopted into Arabic and gradually became associated with an amalgamation of Iranian and Iranianized tribes and groups in the region.
[McDowall, David. 2000. ''A Modern History of the Kurds''. Second Edition. London: I.B. Tauris. p. 9.]
Sherefxan Bidlisi
Sharaf al-Din Khan b. Shams al-Din b. Sharaf Beg Bedlisi (Kurdish: شەرەفخانی بەدلیسی, ''Şerefxanê Bedlîsî''; fa, شرفالدین خان بن شمسالدین بن شرف بیگ بدلیسی; 25 February 1543 – ) was ...
in the 16th century states that there are four division of "Kurds": ''
Kurmanj ug:كۇردلار
Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ir ...
'', ''
Lur
A lur, also lure or lurr, is a long natural blowing horn without finger holes that is played with a brass-type embouchure. Lurs can be straight or curved in various shapes. The purpose of the curves was to make long instruments easier to car ...
'', ''
Kalhor'' and ''
Guran
Guran is a character from ''The Phantom'' comic strip. Guran is the best friend of the main character, Phantom.
Character synopsis
According to Lee Falk's novel '' The Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks'', Guran is ten years older tha ...
'', each of which speak a different dialect or language variation. Paul (2008) notes that the 16th-century usage of the term ''Kurd'' as recorded by Bidlisi, regardless of linguistic grouping, might still reflect an incipient Northwestern Iranian "Kurdish" ethnic identity uniting the
Kurmanj ug:كۇردلار
Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ir ...
,
Kalhur, and
Guran
Guran is a character from ''The Phantom'' comic strip. Guran is the best friend of the main character, Phantom.
Character synopsis
According to Lee Falk's novel '' The Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks'', Guran is ten years older tha ...
.
[ Writes about the problem of attaining a coherent definition of "Kurdish language" within the Northwestern Iranian dialect continuum.
There is no unambiguous evolution of Kurdish from Middle Iranian, as "from Old and Middle Iranian times, no predecessors of the Kurdish language are yet known; the extant Kurdish texts may be traced back to no earlier than the 16th century CE." Ludwig Paul further states: "Linguistics itself, or dialectology, does not provide any general or straightforward definition of at which point a language becomes a dialect (or vice versa). To attain a fuller understanding of the difficulties and questions that are raised by the issue of the 'Kurdish language,' it is therefore necessary to consider also non-linguistic factors."]
Language
![Kurdish-inhabited area by CIA (1992)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Kurdish-inhabited_area_by_CIA_%281992%29.jpg)
Kurdish (Kurdish: ''Kurdî'' or کوردی) is a collection of related dialects spoken by the Kurds.
It is mainly spoken in those parts of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
,
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
and
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
which comprise
Kurdistan
Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...
. Kurdish holds official status in Iraq as a national language alongside
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
, is recognized in Iran as a regional language, and in
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
as a minority language. The Kurds are recognized as a people with a distinct language by Arab geographers such as
Al-Masudi
Al-Mas'udi ( ar, أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن عَلِيّ ٱبْن ٱلْحُسَيْن ٱبْن عَلِيّ ٱلْمَسْعُودِيّ, '; –956) was an Arab historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus ...
since the 10th century.
Many Kurds are either
bilingual or
multilingual
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...
, speaking the language of their respective nation of origin, such as Arabic,
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
, and
Turkish as a
second language
A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a fo ...
alongside their native Kurdish, while those in diaspora communities often speak three or more languages.
Turkified and
Arabised
Arabization or Arabisation ( ar, تعريب, ') describes both the process of growing Arab influence on non-Arab populations, causing a language shift by the latter's gradual adoption of the Arabic language and incorporation of Arab culture, aft ...
Kurds often speak little or no Kurdish.
According to Mackenzie, there are few linguistic features that all Kurdish dialects have in common and that are not at the same time found in other
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau.
The Iranian languages are grouped ...
.
The Kurdish dialects according to Mackenzie are classified as:
[G. Asatrian, Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds, Iran and the Caucasus, Vol.13, pp. 1–58, 2009: "The classification of the Kurdish dialects is not an easy task, despite the fact that there have been numerous attempts mostly by Kurdish authors to put them into a system. However, for the time being the commonly accepted classification of the Kurdish dialects is that of the late Prof. D. N. Mackenzie, the author of fundamental works in Kurdish dialectology (see Mackenzie 1961; idem 1961–1962; idem 1963a; idem 1981), who distinguished three groups of dialects: Northern, Central, and Southern."]
*Northern group (the
Kurmanji
Kurmanji ( ku, کورمانجی, lit=Kurdish, translit=Kurmancî, also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northern dialect of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Sy ...
dialect group)
*Central group (part of the
Sorani
Central Kurdish (), also called Sorani (), is a Kurdish dialect or a language that is spoken in Iraq, mainly in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as the provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and West Azerbaijan in western Iran. Sorani is one of the two o ...
dialect group)
*Southern group (part of the
Xwarin dialect group) including
Laki
Laki () or Lakagígar (, ''Craters of Laki'') is a volcanic fissure in the western part of Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland, not far from the volcanic fissure of Eldgjá and the small village of Kirkjubæjarklaustur. The fissure is properly ...
The Zaza and Gorani are ethnic Kurds, but the
Zaza–Gorani languages
Zaza–Gorani is a linguistic subgroup of Northwestern Iranian languages. They are usually classified as a non-Kurdish branch of the Northwestern Iranian languages but most of their speakers consider themselves ethnic Kurds.
The Zaza–Gorani la ...
are not classified as Kurdish.
Population
The number of Kurds living in
Southwest Asia
Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Anat ...
is estimated at between 30 and 45 million, with another one or two million living in the
Kurdish diaspora
The Kurdish population is estimated to be between 30 and 45 million.[T ...](_blank)
. Kurds comprise anywhere from 18 to 25% of the population in
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
,
[ This would raise the population estimate by about 5 million.] 15 to 20% in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
;
10% in
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
;
and 9% in
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
.
[ The CIA ''World Factbook'' reports all non-Arabs make up 9.7% of the Syrian population, but does not break out the Kurdish figure separately. However, this State Dept. source provides a figure of 9%. , the current document at this state.gov URL no longer provides such ethnic group data.] Kurds form regional majorities in all four of these countries, ''viz.'' in
Turkish Kurdistan
Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan () refers to the southeastern part of Turkey, where Kurds form the predominant ethnic group. The Kurdish Institute of Paris estimates that there are 20 million Kurds living in Turkey, the majority of the ...
,
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan ( ku, باشووری کوردستان, Başûrê Kurdistanê) refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia, which also incl ...
,
Iranian Kurdistan
Iranian Kurdistan or Eastern Kurdistan ( ku, ڕۆژھەڵاتی کوردستان, translit=Rojhilatê Kurdistanê) is an unofficial name for the parts of northwestern Iran with either a majority or sizable population of Kurds. Geographically, it ...
and
Syrian Kurdistan. The Kurds are the fourth-largest
ethnic group in West Asia after
Arabs
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...
,
Persians
The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian.
...
, and
Turks
Turk or Turks may refer to:
Communities and ethnic groups
* Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages
* Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
* Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic ...
.
The total number of Kurds in 1991 was placed at 22.5 million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 24% in Iran, 18% in Iraq, and 4% in Syria.
Recent emigration accounts for a population of close to 1.5 million in Western countries, about half of them
in Germany.
A special case are the Kurdish populations in the
Transcaucasus
The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...
and
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
, displaced there mostly in the time of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
, who underwent independent developments for more than a century and have developed an ethnic identity in their own right. This groups' population was estimated at close to 0.4 million in 1990.
Religion
Islam
Most Kurds are
Sunni Muslims who adhere to the
Shafiʽi school, while a significant minority adhere to the
Hanafi
The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named a ...
school and also
Alevism
Alevism or Anatolian Alevism (; tr, Alevilik, ''Anadolu Aleviliği'' or ''Kızılbaşlık''; ; az, Ələvilik) is a local Islamic tradition, whose adherents follow the mystical Alevi Islamic ( ''bāṭenī'') teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, w ...
. Moreover, many Shafi'i Kurds adhere to either one of the two
Sufi
Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
orders
Naqshbandi and
Qadiriyya
The Qadiriyya (), also transliterated Qādirīyah, ''Qadri'', ''Qadriya'', ''Kadri'', ''Elkadri'', ''Elkadry'', ''Aladray'', ''Alkadrie'', ''Adray'', ''Kadray'', ''Kadiri'', ''Qadiri'', ''Quadri'' or ''Qadri'' are members of the Sunni Qadiri ta ...
.
Beside Sunni Islam,
Alevism
Alevism or Anatolian Alevism (; tr, Alevilik, ''Anadolu Aleviliği'' or ''Kızılbaşlık''; ; az, Ələvilik) is a local Islamic tradition, whose adherents follow the mystical Alevi Islamic ( ''bāṭenī'') teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, w ...
and
Shia Islam
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, m ...
also have millions of Kurdish followers. Other religions with significant Kurdish adherents are
Yarsanism
Yarsanism, Ahl-e Haqq or Kaka'i ( ku, یارسان, translit=Yarsan or ; fa, اهل حق, ar, كاكائي), is a syncretic religion founded by Sultan Sahak in the late 14th century in western Iran. The total number of followers of Yarsanism ...
and
Yazidism
Yazidism , alternatively Sharfadin is a Monotheism, monotheistic ethnic religion that has roots in a western Ancient Iranian religion, Iranic pre-Zoroastrian religion directly derived from the Indo-Iranians, Indo-Iranian tradition. It is follow ...
.
In recent years, a growing number of Kurds have converted to
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion and one of the world's History of religion, oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian peoples, Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a Dualism in cosmology, du ...
.
Yazidism
![Pilgrims and festival at Lalish on the day of the Ezidi New Year in 2017 22](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Pilgrims_and_festival_at_Lalish_on_the_day_of_the_Ezidi_New_Year_in_2017_22.jpg)
Yazidism is a
monotheistic ethnic religion
In religious studies, an ethnic religion is a religion or belief associated with a particular ethnic group. Ethnic religions are often distinguished from universal religions, such as Christianity or Islam, in which gaining converts is a pri ...
with roots in a western branch of an
Iranic pre-Zoroastrian religion. It is based on the belief of one God who created the world and entrusted it into the care of seven Holy Beings.
The leader of this heptad is
Tawûsê Melek, who is symbolized with a
peacock
Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera ''Pavo (genus), Pavo'' and ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female pea ...
.
Its adherents number from 700,000 to 1 million worldwide and are indigenous to the
Kurdish regions of
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
,
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
and
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
, with some significant, more recent communities in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
and
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
established by refugees fleeing persecution by Muslims in
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
.
Yazidism
Yazidism , alternatively Sharfadin is a Monotheism, monotheistic ethnic religion that has roots in a western Ancient Iranian religion, Iranic pre-Zoroastrian religion directly derived from the Indo-Iranians, Indo-Iranian tradition. It is follow ...
shares with
Kurdish Alevism
Kurdish Alevism () refers to the unique rituals, sacred place practices, mythological discourses and socio-religious organizations among Kurds who adhere to Alevism. Moreover, Kurdish Alevis consider their hereditary sacred lineages as semi-deifi ...
and
Yarsanism
Yarsanism, Ahl-e Haqq or Kaka'i ( ku, یارسان, translit=Yarsan or ; fa, اهل حق, ar, كاكائي), is a syncretic religion founded by Sultan Sahak in the late 14th century in western Iran. The total number of followers of Yarsanism ...
many similar qualities that date back to the pre-Islamic era.
Yarsanism
Yarsanism (also known as Ahl-I-Haqq, Ahl-e-Hagh or Kakai) is also one of the religions that are associated with Kurdistan.
Although most of the sacred Yarsan texts are in the
Gorani and all of the Yarsan
holy places
Sacred space, sacred ground, sacred place, sacred temple, holy ground, or holy place refers to a location which is deemed to be sacred or hallowed. The sacredness of a natural feature may accrue through tradition or be granted through a bless ...
are located in
Kurdistan
Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...
, followers of this religion are also found in other regions. For example, while there are more than 300,000 Yarsani in Iraqi Kurdistan, there are more than 2 million Yarsani in Iran. However, the Yarsani lack political rights in both countries.
Zoroastrianism
![Faravahar-Gold](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Faravahar-Gold.svg)
The Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism has had a major influence on the Iranian culture, which Kurds are a part of, and has maintained some effect since the demise of the religion in the Middle Ages. The Iranian philosopher Sohrevardi drew heavily from Zoroastrian teachings. Ascribed to the teachings of the prophet
Zoroaster
Zoroaster,; fa, زرتشت, Zartosht, label= Modern Persian; ku, زەردەشت, Zerdeşt also known as Zarathustra,, . Also known as Zarathushtra Spitama, or Ashu Zarathushtra is regarded as the spiritual founder of Zoroastrianism. He is ...
, the faith's
Supreme Being
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
is
Ahura Mazda. Leading characteristics, such as
messianism
Messianism is the belief in the advent of a messiah who acts as the savior of a group of people. Messianism originated as a Zoroastrianism religious belief and followed to Abrahamic religions, but other religions have messianism-related concepts ...
, the
Golden Rule,
heaven
Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...
and
hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...
, and
free will
Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded.
Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to actio ...
influenced other religious systems, including
Second Temple Judaism
Second Temple Judaism refers to the Jewish religion as it developed during the Second Temple period, which began with the construction of the Second Temple around 516 BCE and ended with the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE.
The Second Temple ...
,
Gnosticism
Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people ...
,
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, and
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
.
In 2016, the first official Zoroastrian
fire temple of
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan ( ku, باشووری کوردستان, Başûrê Kurdistanê) refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia, which also incl ...
opened in
Sulaymaniyah
Sulaymaniyah, also spelled as Slemani ( ku, سلێمانی, Silêmanî, ar, السليمانية, as-Sulaymāniyyah), is a city in the east of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, not far from the Iran–Iraq border. It is surrounded by the Azmar, Go ...
. Attendees celebrated the occasion by lighting a ritual fire and beating the
frame drum
A frame drum is a drum that has a drumhead width greater than its depth. It is one of the most ancient musical instruments, and perhaps the first drum to be invented. It has a single drumhead that is usually made of rawhide, but man-made mate ...
or 'daf'.
Awat Tayib, the chief of followers of Zoroastrianism in the Kurdistan region, claimed that many were returning to Zoroastrianism but some kept it secret out of fear of reprisals from Islamists.
Christianity
Although historically there have been various accounts of
Kurdish Christians, most often these were in the form of individuals, and not as communities. However, in the 19th and 20th century various travel logs tell of Kurdish Christian tribes, as well as Kurdish Muslim tribes who had substantial Christian populations living amongst them. A significant number of these were allegedly originally
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
or
Assyrian
Assyrian may refer to:
* Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia.
* Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire.
** Early Assyrian Period
** Old Assyrian Period
** Middle Assyrian Empire
** Neo-Assyrian Empire
* Assyrian ...
, and it has been recorded that a small number of Christian traditions have been preserved. Several Christian prayers in Kurdish have been found from earlier centuries. In recent years some Kurds from Muslim backgrounds have converted to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
.
Segments of the Bible were first made available in the Kurdish language in 1856 in the Kurmanji dialect. The Gospels were translated by Stepan, an Armenian employee of the
American Bible Society
American Bible Society is a U.S.-based Christian nonprofit headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As the American member organization of United Bible Societies, it supports global Bible translation, production, distribution, literacy, engage ...
and were published in 1857. Prominent historical Kurdish Christians include the brothers
Zakare and
Ivane Mkhargrdzeli
Ivane is a Georgian masculine given name. It is a cognate of the name John. Notable people with the name include:
*Ivane Abazasdze (Georgian: იოანე აბაზასძე), 11th-century Georgian feudal lord, a duke of Kartli under Kin ...
.
History
Antiquity
"The land of Karda" is mentioned on a Sumerian clay tablet dated to the 3rd millennium BC. This land was inhabited by "the people of Su" who dwelt in the southern regions of
Lake Van
Lake Van ( tr, Van Gölü; hy, Վանա լիճ, translit=Vana lič̣; ku, Gola Wanê) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the far east of Turkey, in the provinces of Van and Bitlis in the Armenian highlands. It is a saline soda lake ...
; the philological connection between "Kurd" and "Karda" is uncertain, but the relationship is considered possible. Other Sumerian clay tablets referred to the people, who lived in the land of Karda, as the
Qarduchi (Karduchi, Karduchoi) and the Qurti. Karda/Qardu is
etymologically
Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words an ...
related to the
Assyrian
Assyrian may refer to:
* Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia.
* Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire.
** Early Assyrian Period
** Old Assyrian Period
** Middle Assyrian Empire
** Neo-Assyrian Empire
* Assyrian ...
term
Urartu
Urartu (; Assyrian: ',Eberhard Schrader, ''The Cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament'' (1885), p. 65. Babylonian: ''Urashtu'', he, אֲרָרָט ''Ararat'') is a geographical region and Iron Age kingdom also known as the Kingdom of Va ...
and the
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
term Ararat. However, some modern scholars do not believe that the Qarduchi are connected to Kurds.
Qarti or Qartas, who were originally settled on the mountains north of
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
, are considered as a probable ancestor of the Kurds. The
Akkadians
The Akkadian Empire () was the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia after the long-lived civilization of Sumer. It was centered in the city of Akkad () and its surrounding region. The empire united Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one rul ...
were attacked by nomads coming through Qartas territory at the end of 3rd millennium BC and distinguished them as the
Guti
José María Gutiérrez Hernández (born 31 October 1976), known as Guti, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder, currently a manager.
During his career, he played almost exclusively for Real Madrid ...
, speakers of a
pre-Iranic language isolate
Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...
. They conquered
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
in 2150 BC and ruled with 21 kings until defeated by the
Sumer
Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of c ...
ian king
Utu-hengal
Utu-hengal ( sux, , ), also written Utu-heg̃al, Utu-heĝal, and sometimes transcribed as Utu-hegal, Utu-hejal, Utu-Khengal, was one of the first native kings of Sumer after two hundred years of Akkadian and Gutian rule, and was at the origin ...
.
Many Kurds consider themselves descended from the
Medes
The Medes ( Old Persian: ; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were an ancient Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media between western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, ...
, an ancient Iranian people, and even use a calendar dating from 612 BC, when the
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...
n capital of
Nineveh was conquered by the Medes. The claimed Median descent is reflected in the words of the
Kurdish national anthem: "We are the children of the Medes and
Kai Khosrow
Kay Khosrow ( fa, کیخسرو) is a legendary king of Iran of Kayanian dynasty and a character in the Persian epic book, ''Shahnameh''. He was the son of the Iranian prince Siavash who married princess Farangis of Turan while in exile. Be ...
." However, MacKenzie and Asatrian challenge the relation of the
Median language
The Median language (also Medean or Medic) was the language of the Medes. It is an Old Iranian language and classified as belonging to the Northwestern Iranian subfamily, which includes many other languages such as Old Azeri, Gilaki, Mazandar ...
to Kurdish. The
Kurdish languages
Kurdish (, ) is a language or a group of languages spoken by Kurds in the geo-cultural region of Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora. Kurdish constitutes a dialect continuum, belonging to Western Iranian languages in the Indo-European language ...
, on the other hand, form a subgroup of the
Northwestern Iranian languages
The Western Iranic languages are a branch of the Iranic languages, attested from the time of Old Persian (6th century BC) and Median.
Languages
The traditional Northwestern branch is a convention for non-Southwestern languages, rather than a g ...
like
Median
In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic fe ...
.
Some researchers consider the independent
Kardouchoi as the ancestors of the Kurds, while others prefer
Cyrtian
The Cyrtians or Kyrtians ancient Greek (Κύρτιοι ''Kýrtioi'' , Latin Cyrtii) were an ancient tribe in historic Persia near Mount Zagros.G. Asatrian, Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds, Iran and the Caucasus, Vol.13, pp. 1–58, 2009: "E ...
s. The term ''Kurd'', however, is first encountered in Arabic sources of the seventh century.
[Martin van Bruinessen, "The ethnic identity of the Kurds," in: ''Ethnic groups in the Republic of Turkey'', compiled and edited by Peter Alford Andrews with Rüdiger Benninghaus Beihefte zum Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients, Reihe B, Nr.60 Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwich Reichert, 1989, pp. 613–21. excerpt: "The ethnic label "Kurd" is first encountered in Arabic sources from the first centuries of the Islamic era; it seemed to refer to a specific variety of pastoral nomadism, and possibly to a set of political units, rather than to a linguistic group: once or twice, "Arabic Kurds" are mentioned. By the 10th century, the term appears to denote nomadic and/or transhumant groups speaking an Iranian language and mainly inhabiting the mountainous areas to the South of Lake Van and Lake Urmia, with some offshoots in the Caucasus. ... If there was a Kurdish-speaking subjected peasantry at that time, the term was not yet used to include them."] Books from the early Islamic era, including those containing legends such as the
Shahnameh
The ''Shahnameh'' or ''Shahnama'' ( fa, شاهنامه, Šāhnāme, lit=The Book of Kings, ) is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50 ...
and the
Middle Persian
Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...
Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan
The Kār-Nāmag ī Ardašīr ī Pāpakān ("''Book of the Deeds of Ardeshir, Son of Papak''") (New fa, کارنامهٔ اردشیر بابکان), is a short Middle Persian prose tale written in the Sassanid period (226-651). The story narrates ...
, and other early Islamic sources provide early attestation of the name ''Kurd''. The Kurds have ethnically diverse origins.
During the
Sassanid era
The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...
, in ''
Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan
The Kār-Nāmag ī Ardašīr ī Pāpakān ("''Book of the Deeds of Ardeshir, Son of Papak''") (New fa, کارنامهٔ اردشیر بابکان), is a short Middle Persian prose tale written in the Sassanid period (226-651). The story narrates ...
'', a short prose work written in Middle Persian,
Ardashir I
Ardashir I (Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭥𐭲𐭧𐭱𐭲𐭥, Modern Persian: , '), also known as Ardashir the Unifier (180–242 AD), was the founder of the Sasanian Empire. He was also Ardashir V of the Kings of Persis, until he founded the new emp ...
is depicted as having battled the Kurds and their leader,
Madig Madig was an Iranian king who ruled in present-day northern Iraq. He is mentioned in a historical text called the '' Book of the Deeds of Ardashir son of Babak''.
Origins
Although he is called a “Kurd” in the book, the word was used as a soci ...
. After initially sustaining a heavy defeat, Ardashir I was successful in subjugating the Kurds. In a letter Ardashir I received from his foe,
Ardavan V, which is also featured in the same work, he is referred to as being a Kurd himself. The usage of the term ''Kurd'' during this time period most likely was a social term, designating Northwestern Iranian nomads, rather than a concrete ethnic group.
Similarly, in AD 360, the Sassanid king
Shapur II
Shapur II ( pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩 ; New Persian: , ''Šāpur'', 309 – 379), also known as Shapur the Great, was the tenth Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran. The longest-reigning monarch in Iranian history, he reigne ...
marched into the
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
province
Zabdicene Zabdicene ( hy, Ծաւդէք or Զաւդէք, translit=Tsawdēk' or Zawdēk'; el, Ζαβδικηνή, translit=Zavdikene; la, Zabdiccena; syc, Zawdai, translit=Zawdai) was a CarduchianC. Toumanoff, ''Introduction to Christian Caucasian History I ...
, to conquer its chief city, Bezabde, present-day
Cizre
Cizre (; ar, جَزِيْرَة ٱبْن عُمَر, Jazīrat Ibn ʿUmar, or ''Madinat al-Jazira'', he, גזירא, Gzira, ku, Cizîr, ''Cizîra Botan'', or ''Cizîre'', syr, ܓܙܪܬܐ ܕܒܪ ܥܘܡܪ, Gāzartā,) is a city in the Cizre Di ...
.
He found it heavily fortified, and guarded by three legions and a large body of Kurdish archers.
After a long and hard-fought siege, Shapur II breached the walls, conquered the city and massacred all its defenders. Thereafter he had the strategically located city repaired, provisioned and garrisoned with his best troops.
Qadishaye, settled by
Kavad in
Singara
Singara (, ''tà Síngara'') was a strongly fortified post at the northern extremity of Mesopotamia, which for a while, as it appears from coins minted there, was occupied by the Romans as an advanced colony against the Persians. It was the camp o ...
, were probably Kurds and worshiped the martyr
Abd al-Masih. They revolted against the Sassanids and were raiding the whole Persian territory. Later they, along with Arabs and Armenians, joined the Sassanids in their war against the Byzantines.
There is also a 7th-century text by an unidentified author, written about the legendary
Christian martyr
In Christianity, a martyr is a person considered to have died because of their testimony for Jesus or faith in Jesus. In years of the early church, stories depict this often occurring through death by sawing, stoning, crucifixion, burning at th ...
Mar Qardagh
Mār Qardāgh ( syc, ܣܗܕܐ ܡܪܝ ܩܪܕܓ ܐܬ݂ܘܪܝܐ), was a legendary Assyrian prince who was Christian martyrs, martyred for converting to Christianity.
Life
Qardāgh was born to a noble family in the Sassanid Empire during the 4th c ...
. He lived in the 4th century, during the reign of Shapur II, and during his travels is said to have encountered
Mar Abdisho, a deacon and martyr, who, after having been questioned of his origins by Mar Qardagh and his
Marzoban
Marzbān, or Marzpān (Middle Persian transliteration: mrzwpn, derived from ''marz'' "border, boundary" and the suffix ''-pān'' "guardian"; Modern Persian: ''Marzbān'') were a class of margraves, warden of the marches, and by extension milita ...
s, stated that his parents were originally from an Assyrian village called Hazza, but were driven out and subsequently settled in Tamanon, a village in ''the land of the Kurds'', identified as being in the region of
Mount Judi
tr, Cudi Dağı ku, Çiyayê Cûdî syr, ܩܪܕܘ, Qardū
, photo = Cudi-dagh-tr-1829.jpg
, photo_caption = The mountain range, as seen from Şırnak in the north, southeast Anatolia
, elevation_m = 2,089
, elevation_re ...
.
Medieval period
![Saladin the Victorious](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Saladin_the_Victorious.jpg)
Early Syriac sources use the terms ''Hurdanaye, Kurdanaye, Kurdaye'' to refer to the Kurds. According to
Michael the Syrian, Hurdanaye separated from Tayaye Arabs and sought refuge with the Byzantine Emperor
Theophilus
Theophilus is a male given name with a range of alternative spellings. Its origin is the Greek word Θεόφιλος from θεός (God) and φιλία (love or affection) can be translated as "Love of God" or "Friend of God", i.e., it is a theoph ...
. He also mentions the
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
troops who fought against Musa chief of Hurdanaye in the region of Qardu in 841. According to
Barhebreaus, a king appeared to the Kurdanaye and they rebelled against the Arabs in 829. Michael the Syrian considered them as
pagan
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...
, followers of
mahdi
The Mahdi ( ar, ٱلْمَهْدِيّ, al-Mahdī, lit=the Guided) is a Messianism, messianic figure in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the Eschatology, end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice. He is said to be a de ...
and adepts of
Magi
Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin '' magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius t ...
anism. Their mahdi called himself
Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...
and the
Holy Ghost
For the majority of Christian denominations, the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, is believed to be the third person of the Trinity, a Triune God manifested as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each entity itself being God.Gru ...
.
In the early
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, the Kurds sporadically appear in Arabic sources, though the term was still not being used for a specific people; instead it referred to an amalgam of nomadic western Iranian tribes, who were distinct from
Persians
The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian.
...
. However, in the
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended ...
, the Kurdish ethnic identity gradually materialized, as one can find clear evidence of the Kurdish ethnic identity and solidarity in texts of the 12th and 13th centuries, though, the term was also still being used in the social sense. Since 10th century, Arabic texts including
al-Masudi
Al-Mas'udi ( ar, أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن عَلِيّ ٱبْن ٱلْحُسَيْن ٱبْن عَلِيّ ٱلْمَسْعُودِيّ, '; –956) was an Arab historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus ...
's works, have referred to Kurds as a distinct linguistic group. From 11th century onward, the term Kurd is explicitly defined as an
ethnonym
An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...
and this does not suggest synonymity with the ethnographic category nomad.
Al-Tabari
( ar, أبو جعفر محمد بن جرير بن يزيد الطبري), more commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Muslim historian and scholar from Amol, Tabaristan. Among the most prominent figures of the Islamic Golden Age, al-Tabari ...
wrote that in 639,
Hormuzan
Hormuzan (Middle Persian: ''Hormazdān'', New Persian: ) was a Persian aristocrat who served as the governor of Khuzestan, and was one of the Sasanian military officers at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah. He was later taken prisoner by the Muslims a ...
, a Sasanian general originating from a noble family, battled against the
Islamic invaders in
Khuzestan, and called upon the Kurds to aid him in battle. However, they were defeated and brought under Islamic rule.
![Kurdsih_Wariors](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Kurdsih_Wariors.jpg)
In 838, a Kurdish leader based in Mosul, named
Mir Jafar, revolted against the Caliph
Al-Mu'tasim
Abū Isḥāq Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd ( ar, أبو إسحاق محمد بن هارون الرشيد; October 796 – 5 January 842), better known by his regnal name al-Muʿtaṣim biʾllāh (, ), was the eighth Abbasid caliph, ruling ...
who sent the commander Itakh to combat him. Itakh won this war and executed many of the Kurds. Eventually, Arabs conquered the Kurdish regions and gradually converted the majority of Kurds to Islam, often incorporating them into the military, such as the
Hamdanids
The Hamdanid dynasty ( ar, الحمدانيون, al-Ḥamdāniyyūn) was a Twelver Shia Arab dynasty of Northern Mesopotamia and Syria (890–1004). They descended from the ancient Banu Taghlib Christian tribe of Mesopotamia and Eastern A ...
whose dynastic family members also frequently intermarried with Kurds.
In 934, the
Daylamite
The Daylamites or Dailamites (Middle Persian: ''Daylamīgān''; fa, دیلمیان ''Deylamiyān'') were an Iranian people inhabiting the Daylam—the mountainous regions of northern Iran on the southwest coast of the Caspian Sea, now comprisin ...
Buyid
The Buyid dynasty ( fa, آل بویه, Āl-e Būya), also spelled Buwayhid ( ar, البويهية, Al-Buwayhiyyah), was a Shia Iranian dynasty of Daylamite origin, which mainly ruled over Iraq and central and southern Iran from 934 to 1062. Coupl ...
dynasty was founded, and subsequently conquered most of present-day Iran and Iraq. During the time of rule of this dynasty, Kurdish chief and ruler, Badr ibn Hasanwaih, established himself as one of the most important emirs of the time.
In the 10th-12th centuries, a number of
Kurdish principalities
The Kurdish chiefdoms or principalities were several semi-independent entities which existed during the 16th to 19th centuries during the state of continuous warfare between the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran. and dynasties were founded, ruling Kurdistan and neighbouring areas:
*The
Shaddadids
The Shaddadids were a Kurdish Sunni Muslim dynasty. who ruled in various parts of Armenia and Arran from 951 to 1199 AD. They were established in Dvin. Through their long tenure in Armenia, they often intermarried with the Bagratuni royal fami ...
(951–1174) ruled parts of present-day
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
and
Arran.
*The
Rawadid
Rawwadid or Ravvadid (also Revend or Revendi) or Banū Rawwād () (955–1071) was a Sunni Muslim Kurdish dynasty, centered in the northwestern region of Adharbayjan (Azerbaijan) between the late 8th and early 13th centuries.
Originally of Az ...
(955–1221) ruled
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
.
*The
Hasanwayhid
Hasanwayhids or Hasanuyid was a powerful Shia Kurdish dynasty reigning the western parts of Iran such as Iranian Azerbaijan and Zagros Mountains between Shahrizor and Khuzestan from c. 959 to 1015. The last Hasanwayhid ruler died in 1015 in Sarm ...
s (959–1015) ruled western Iran and upper Mesopotamia.
*The
Marwanid
The Marwanids or Dustakids (983/990-1085, ) were a Kurdish Sunni Muslim dynasty in the Diyar Bakr region of Upper Mesopotamia (present day northern Iraq/southeastern Turkey) and Armenia, centered on the city of Amid (Diyarbakır).
Territory
...
s (990–1096) ruled eastern Anatolia.
*The
Annazid
The Annazids or Banu Annaz (990/991–1117) was a Kurdish Sunni Muslim dynasty which ruled an oscillating territory on the present-day frontier between Iran and Iraq for about 130 years. The Annazids were related by marriage to the Hasanwayhid ...
s (990–1117) ruled western Iran and upper Mesopotamia (succeeded the Hasanwayhids).
*The
Hazaraspids
The Hazaraspids ( fa, هزاراسپیان, 1115–1424), was a Kurdish dynasty that ruled the Zagros Mountains region of southwestern Iran, essentially in Lorestan and which flourished in the later Saljuq, Ilkhanid, Muzaffarid, and Timurid p ...
(1148–1424) ruled southwestern Iran.
*
![AyyubidGreatest](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/AyyubidGreatest.png)
The
Ayyubids
The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish origin, Saladin ...
(1171–1341) ruled
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
,
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, Upper Mesopotamia and parts of southeastern Anatolia and the
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
.
Due to the Turkic invasion of Anatolia, the 11th-century Kurdish dynasties crumbled and became incorporated into the Seljuk Dynasty. Kurds would hereafter be used in great numbers in the armies of the
Zengid
The Zengid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Oghuz Turkic origin, which ruled parts of the Levant and Upper Mesopotamia on behalf of the Seljuk Empire and eventually seized control of Egypt in 1169. In 1174 the Zengid state extended from Tripoli ...
s. Succeeding the Zengids, the Kurdish
Ayyubids established themselves in 1171, first under the leadership of
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
. Saladin led the Muslims to recapture the city of
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
from the
Crusaders
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...
at the
Battle of Hattin; also frequently clashing with the
Assassin
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or VIP, important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not ha ...
s. The Ayyubid dynasty lasted until 1341 when the Ayyubid sultanate fell to
Mongolian invasions.
Safavid period
The
Safavid Dynasty, established in 1501, also established its rule over Kurdish-inhabited territories. The paternal line of this family actually had Kurdish roots, tracing back to
Firuz-Shah Zarrin-Kolah Firuz-Shah Zarrin-Kolah ( fa, فیروزشاه زرین کلاه, lit=King Firuz of the Golden Crown) was a Kurdish dignitary,F. Daftary, "Intellectual Traditions in Islam", I.B.Tauris, 2001. pg 147: "But the origins of the family of Shaykh Safi al ...
, a dignitary who moved from Kurdistan to Ardabil in the 11th century.
[F. Daftary, "Intellectual Traditions in Islam", I.B. Tauris, 2001. pg 147: "But the origins of the family of Shaykh Safi al-Din go back not to Hijaz but to ]Kurdistan
Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...
, from where, seven generations before him, Firuz Shah Zarin-kulah had migrated to Adharbayjan" The
Battle of Chaldiran
The Battle of Chaldiran ( fa, جنگ چالدران; tr, Çaldıran Savaşı) took place on 23 August 1514 and ended with a decisive victory for the Ottoman Empire over the Safavid Empire. As a result, the Ottomans annexed Eastern Anatolia and ...
in 1514 that culminated in what is nowadays Iran's
West Azerbaijan Province, marked the start of the
Ottoman-Persian Wars between the Iranian Safavids (and successive Iranian dynasties) and the
Ottomans. For the next 300 years, many of the Kurds found themselves living in territories that frequently changed hands between Ottoman Turkey and Iran during the protracted series of Ottoman-Persian Wars.
The Safavid king
Ismail I
Ismail I ( fa, اسماعیل, Esmāʿīl, ; July 17, 1487 – May 23, 1524), also known as Shah Ismail (), was the founder of the Safavid dynasty of Safavid Iran, Iran, ruling as its King of Kings (''Shahanshah'') from 1501 to 1524. His re ...
(r. 1501–1524) put down a Yezidi rebellion which went on from 1506 to 1510. A century later, the year-long
Battle of Dimdim took place, wherein the Safavid king
Abbas I (r. 1588–1629) succeeded in putting down the rebellion led by the Kurdish ruler
Amir Khan Lepzerin. Thereafter, many Kurds were deported to
Khorasan
Khorasan may refer to:
* Greater Khorasan, a historical region which lies mostly in modern-day northern/northwestern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan
* Khorasan Province, a pre-2004 province of Ira ...
, not only to weaken the Kurds, but also to protect the eastern border from invading
Afghan
Afghan may refer to:
*Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia
*Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity
** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...
and
Turkmen tribes.
[''A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan'' By Gérard Chaliand, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, and Marco Pallis, p. 205.] Other forced movements and deportations of other groups were also implemented by Abbas I and his successors, most notably of the
Armenians
Armenians ( hy, հայեր, ''hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diaspora ...
, the
Georgians
The Georgians, or Kartvelians (; ka, ქართველები, tr, ), are a nation and indigenous Caucasian ethnic group native to Georgia and the South Caucasus. Georgian diaspora communities are also present throughout Russia, Turkey, G ...
, and the
Circassians
The Circassians (also referred to as Cherkess or Adyghe; Adyghe and Kabardian: Адыгэхэр, romanized: ''Adıgəxər'') are an indigenous Northwest Caucasian ethnic group and nation native to the historical country-region of Circassia ...
, who were moved en masse to and from other districts within the Persian empire.
The Kurds of Khorasan, numbering around 700,000, still use the
Kurmanji
Kurmanji ( ku, کورمانجی, lit=Kurdish, translit=Kurmancî, also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northern dialect of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Sy ...
Kurdish dialect.
"The cultural situation of the Kurds
'' A report by Lord Russell-Johnston, Council of Europe, July 2006. Retrieved 11 January 2015. Several Kurdish noblemen served the Safavids and rose to prominence, such as
Shaykh Ali Khan Zanganeh, who served as the
grand vizier
Grand vizier ( fa, وزيرِ اعظم, vazîr-i aʾzam; ota, صدر اعظم, sadr-ı aʾzam; tr, sadrazam) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. The office of Grand Vizier was first ...
of the Safavid
shah
Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...
Suleiman I (r. 1666–1694) from 1669 to 1689. Due to his efforts in reforming the declining Iranian economy, he has been called the "Safavid
Amir Kabir
Mirza Taghi Khan-e Farahani ( fa, میرزا تقیخان فراهانی), better known as Amir Kabir (Persian: , 9 January 1807 – 10 January 1852), also known by the title of ''Amir-e Nezam'' or ''Amir Nezam'' (), was chief minister t ...
" in modern historiography. His son,
Shahqoli Khan Zanganeh
Shahqoli Khan Zanganeh ( fa, شاه قلی خان زنگنه, died 1716), was a Kurdish nobleman, who served as the ''vizier'' of the Safavid king (''shah'') Sultan Husayn (r. 1694–1722) from 1707 to 1716.
Family
Shahqoli was the third son of ...
, also served as a grand vizier from 1707 to 1716. Another Kurdish statesman,
Ganj Ali Khan
Ganj Ali Khan ( fa, گنج علی خان or گنجعلیخان) was a military officer in Safavid Iran of Kurdish origin, who served as governor in various provinces and was known for his loyal service to king (shah) Abbas I. Ganj Ali Khan cont ...
, was close friends with Abbas I, and served as governor in various provinces and was known for his loyal service.
Zand period
![Antonion Zeno Shindler - Kurd Man - 1985](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Antonion_Zeno_Shindler_-_Kurd_Man_-_1985.66.165%2C714_-_Smithsonian_American_Art_Museum.jpg)
After the fall of the Safavids, Iran fell under the control of the
Afsharid Empire ruled by
Nader Shah at its peak. After Nader's death, Iran fell into civil war, with multiple leaders trying to gain control over the country. Ultimately, it was
Karim Khan
Mohammad Karim Khan Zand ( fa, محمدکریم خان زند, Mohammad Karīm Khân-e Zand; ) was the founder of the Zand Dynasty, ruling from 1751 to 1779. He ruled all of Iran (Persia) except for Khorasan. He also ruled over some of the Cau ...
, a Laki general of the
Zand tribe The Zand tribe is a Laki-speaking Kurdish tribe mainly populating the countryside of Khanaqin in Iraq and in the provinces of Kurdistan and Hamadan of Iran.
History
The Zand tribe is originally from the Khanaqin area and settled in Malayer ne ...
who would come to power.
The country would flourish during Karim Khan's reign; a strong resurgence of the arts would take place, and international ties were strengthened.
[J. R. Perry (2011]
"Karim Khan Zand"
Retrieved 7 July 2013. Karim Khan was portrayed as being a ruler who truly cared about his subjects, thereby gaining the title Vakil e-Ra'aayaa (meaning Representative of the People in
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
).
Though not as powerful in its geo-political and military reach as the preceding Safavids and Afsharids or even the early Qajars, he managed to reassert Iranian hegemony over its integral territories in the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...
, and presided over an era of relative peace, prosperity, and tranquility. In
Ottoman Iraq
Ottoman Iraq ( ar, العراق العثماني}) refers to the period of the history of Iraq when the region was ruled by the Ottoman Empire (1534–1920; with an interlude from 1704 to 1831 of autonomy under the Mamluk dynasty of Iraq).Before ...
, following the
Ottoman–Persian War (1775–76), Karim Khan managed to seize
Basra
Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...
for several years.
After Karim Khan's death, the dynasty would decline in favour of the rival
Qajars
The Qajar dynasty (; fa, دودمان قاجار ', az, Qacarlar ) was an IranianAbbas Amanat, ''The Pivot of the Universe: Nasir Al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831–1896'', I. B. Tauris, pp 2–3 royal dynasty of Turkic origin ...
due to infighting between the Khan's incompetent offspring. It was not until
Lotf Ali Khan, 10 years later, that the dynasty would once again be led by an adept ruler. By this time however, the Qajars had already progressed greatly, having taken a number of Zand territories. Lotf Ali Khan made multiple successes before ultimately succumbing to the rivaling faction. Iran and all its Kurdish territories would hereby be incorporated in the
Qajar dynasty
The Qajar dynasty (; fa, دودمان قاجار ', az, Qacarlar ) was an IranianAbbas Amanat, ''The Pivot of the Universe: Nasir Al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831–1896'', I. B. Tauris, pp 2–3 royal dynasty of Turkic peoples ...
.
The Kurdish tribes present in
Baluchistan and some of those in
Fars are believed to be remnants of those that assisted and accompanied Lotf Ali Khan and Karim Khan, respectively.
Ottoman period
When Sultan
Selim I
Selim I ( ota, سليم الأول; tr, I. Selim; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute ( tr, links=no, Yavuz Sultan Selim), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite las ...
, after defeating Shah
Ismail I
Ismail I ( fa, اسماعیل, Esmāʿīl, ; July 17, 1487 – May 23, 1524), also known as Shah Ismail (), was the founder of the Safavid dynasty of Safavid Iran, Iran, ruling as its King of Kings (''Shahanshah'') from 1501 to 1524. His re ...
in
1514
Year 1514 (Roman numerals, MDXIV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
January–June
* January 10 – A great fire breaks out, in the Rialto of Venice.
* Marc ...
, annexed
Western Armenia
Western Armenia (Western Armenian: Արեւմտեան Հայաստան, ''Arevmdian Hayasdan'') is a term to refer to the eastern parts of Turkey (formerly the Ottoman Empire) that are part of the historical homeland of the Armenians. Weste ...
and Kurdistan, he entrusted the organisation of the conquered territories to
Idris, the historian, who was a Kurd of
Bitlis
Bitlis ( hy, Բաղեշ '; ku, Bidlîs; ota, بتليس) is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Bitlis Province. The city is located at an elevation of 1,545 metres, 15 km from Lake Van, in the steep-sided valley of the Bitlis R ...
. He divided the territory into ''sanjaks'' or districts, and, making no attempt to interfere with the principle of heredity, installed the local chiefs as governors. He also resettled the rich pastoral country between
Erzerum
Erzurum (; ) is a city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010.
The city uses the double-headed eagle as ...
and
Erivan
Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...
, which had lain in waste since the passage of
Timur
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...
, with Kurds from the
Hakkari Hakkari or Hakkâri may refer to:
*Hakkari (historical region), a historical region in modern-day Turkey and Iraq
*Hakkâri (city), a city and the capital of Hakkâri Province, Turkey
*Hakkâri Province
Hakkâri Province (, tr, Hakkâri ili, ...
and Bohtan districts. For the next centuries, from the
Peace of Amasya
The Peace of Amasya ( fa, پیمان آماسیه ("Peymān-e Amasiyeh"); tr, Amasya Antlaşması) was a treaty agreed to on May 29, 1555, between Shah Tahmasp of Safavid Iran and Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire at the ci ...
until the first half of the 19th century, several regions of the wide Kurdish homelands would be contested as well between the Ottomans and the neighbouring rival successive
Iranian dynasties
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
(Safavids,
Afsharids
Afsharid Iran ( fa, ایران افشاری), also referred as the Afsharid Empire was an Iranian empire established by the Turkoman Afshar tribe in Iran's north-eastern province of Khorasan, ruling Iran (Persia). The state was ruled by the Af ...
,
Qajars
The Qajar dynasty (; fa, دودمان قاجار ', az, Qacarlar ) was an IranianAbbas Amanat, ''The Pivot of the Universe: Nasir Al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831–1896'', I. B. Tauris, pp 2–3 royal dynasty of Turkic origin ...
) in the frequent
Ottoman-Persian Wars.
The Ottoman centralist policies in the beginning of the 19th century aimed to remove power from the principalities and localities, which directly affected the Kurdish emirs.
Bedirhan Bey
Bedir Khan Beg (Kurmanji: ''Bedirxan Beg'', tr, Bedirhan Bey; 1803–1869) was the last Kurdish Mîr and mütesellim of the Emirate of Botan.
Hereditary head of the house of Rozhaki whose seat was the ancient Bitlis castle and descended from ...
was the last emir of the
Cizre Bohtan Emirate
An emirate is a territory ruled by an emir, a title used by monarchs or high officeholders in the Muslim world. From a historical point of view, an emirate is a political-religious unit smaller than a caliphate. It can be considered equivalen ...
after initiating an uprising in 1847 against the Ottomans to protect the current structures of the Kurdish principalities. Although his uprising is not classified as a nationalist one, his children played significant roles in the emergence and the development of Kurdish nationalism through the next century.
The first modern Kurdish nationalist movement emerged in 1880 with an uprising led by a Kurdish landowner and head of the powerful Shemdinan family,
Sheik Ubeydullah, who demanded political autonomy or outright independence for Kurds as well as the recognition of a Kurdistan state without interference from Turkish or Persian authorities. The uprising against
Qajar Persia
Qajar Iran (), also referred to as Qajar Persia, the Qajar Empire, '. Sublime State of Persia, officially the Sublime State of Iran ( fa, دولت علیّه ایران ') and also known then as the Guarded Domains of Iran ( fa, ممالک م ...
and the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
was ultimately suppressed by the Ottomans and Ubeydullah, along with other notables, were exiled to Istanbul.
Kurdish nationalism of the 20th century
![Kurdistan1920](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Kurdistan1920.png)
Kurdish nationalism emerged after
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
with the dissolution of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
, which had historically successfully integrated (but not assimilated) the Kurds, through use of forced repression of Kurdish movements to gain independence. Revolts did occur sporadically but only in 1880 with the uprising led by
Sheik Ubeydullah did the Kurds as an ethnic group or nation make demands. Ottoman sultan
Abdul Hamid II () responded with a campaign of integration by co-opting prominent Kurdish opponents to strengthen Ottoman power with offers of prestigious positions in his government. This strategy appears to have been successful, given the loyalty displayed by the Kurdish
Hamidiye regiments during World War I.
The Kurdish ethno-nationalist movement that emerged following
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1922 largely represented a reaction to the changes taking place in mainstream Turkey, primarily to the radical
secularization
In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...
, the centralization of authority, and to the rampant
Turkish nationalism
Turkish nationalism ( tr, Türk milliyetçiliği) is a political ideology that promotes and glorifies the Turkish people, as either a Turkey#Demographics, national, Turkish people, ethnic, or Turkish language, linguistic group. The term "ultrana ...
in the new Turkish Republic.
Jakob Künzler __NOTOC__
Jakob Künzler (March 8, 1871 – January 15, 1949) was a Swiss who resided in an oriental mission in Urfa and who witnessed the Armenian genocide.
Born in Hundwil, Switzerland, he worked in the canton Appenzell and made a livi ...
, head of a missionary hospital in
Urfa
Urfa, officially known as Şanlıurfa () and in ancient times as Edessa, is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. Urfa is situated on a plain about 80 km east of the Euphrates River. Its climate features ex ...
, documented the large-scale
ethnic cleansing of both
Armenians
Armenians ( hy, հայեր, ''hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diaspora ...
and Kurds by the
Young Turks. He has given a detailed account of the deportation of Kurds from
Erzurum
Erzurum (; ) is a city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010.
The city uses the double-headed eagle as ...
and
Bitlis
Bitlis ( hy, Բաղեշ '; ku, Bidlîs; ota, بتليس) is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Bitlis Province. The city is located at an elevation of 1,545 metres, 15 km from Lake Van, in the steep-sided valley of the Bitlis R ...
in the winter of 1916. The Kurds were perceived to be subversive elements who would take the
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
side in the war. In order to eliminate this threat, Young Turks embarked on a large-scale deportation of Kurds from the regions of ''Djabachdjur'', ''Palu'', ''Musch'', ''Erzurum'' and ''Bitlis''. Around 300,000 Kurds were forced to move southwards to Urfa and then westwards to
Aintab and
Marasch. In the summer of 1917 Kurds were moved to
Konya
Konya () is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium (), although the Seljuks also called it ...
in
central Anatolia
The Central Anatolia Region ( tr, İç Anadolu Bölgesi) is a geographical region of Turkey. The largest city in the region is Ankara. Other big cities are Konya, Kayseri, Eskişehir, Sivas, and Aksaray.
Located in Central Turkey, it is borde ...
. Through these measures, the Young Turk
leader
Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...
s aimed at weakening the political influence of the Kurds by deporting them from their ancestral lands and by dispersing them in small pockets of exiled communities. By the end of World War I, up to 700,000 Kurds had been forcibly deported and almost half of the displaced perished.
Some of the Kurdish groups sought self-determination and the confirmation of Kurdish autonomy in the 1920
Treaty of Sèvres
The Treaty of Sèvres (french: Traité de Sèvres) was a 1920 treaty signed between the Allies of World War I and the Ottoman Empire. The treaty ceded large parts of Ottoman territory to France, the United Kingdom, Greece and Italy, as well ...
, but in the
aftermath of World War I,
Kemal Atatürk Kemal may refer to:
;People
* Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a Turkish politician and the first president of Turkey
* Kemal (name), a common Turkish name
;Places
* Kemalpaşa, İzmir Province, Turkey
* Mustafakemalpaşa, Bursa Province, Turkey
;See als ...
prevented such a result. Kurds backed by the United Kingdom declared independence in 1927 and established the
Republic of Ararat
The Republic of Ararat, or Kurdish Republic of Ararat,Abbas Vali, ''Essays on the origins of Kurdish nationalism'', Mazda Publishers, 2003, p. 199./ref> ( ku, کۆماری ئارارات, translit=Komara Agiriyê and ku, Komara Araratê) was ...
.
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
suppressed Kurdist revolts in 1925, 1930, and 1937–1938, while Iran in the 1920s suppressed
Simko Shikak
Simko Shikak. Birth name: Ismail Agha Shikak. born 1887, was a Kurdish chieftain of the Shekak tribe. He was born into a prominent Kurdish feudal family based in Chihriq castle located near the Baranduz river in the Urmia region of northwestern ...
at
Lake Urmia
Lake Urmia;
az, اۇرمۇ گؤلۆ, script=Arab, italic=no, Urmu gölü;
ku, گۆلائوو رمیەیێ, Gola Ûrmiyeyê;
hy, Ուրմիա լիճ, Urmia lich;
arc, ܝܡܬܐ ܕܐܘܪܡܝܐ is an endorheic salt lake in Iran. The lake is l ...
and Jaafar Sultan of the Hewraman region, who controlled the region between
Marivan
Mariwan ( fa, مريوان; ) also known as Qale Marīvān - "Fort Marivan"; formerly, Dezhe Shahpur (Persian: دِژ شاهپور), also Romanized as Dezhe Shāhpūr and Dezhe Shapoor) is a town in – and the capital of – Marivan Co ...
and north of
Halabja
Halabja ( ku, هەڵەبجە, Helebce, ) is a city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the capital of Halabja Governorate, located about northeast of Baghdad and from the Iranian border.
The city lies at the base of what is often referred to ...
. A short-lived
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
-sponsored Kurdish
Republic of Mahabad
The Republic of Mahabad or the Republic of Kurdistan ( ku, کۆماری کوردستان / Komara Kurdistanê; fa, جمهوری مهاباد) was a short-lived Kurdish self-governing unrecognized state in present-day Iran, from 22 January to ...
(January to December 1946) existed in an area of present-day Iran.
![Kurdish-inhabited areas of the Middle East and the Soviet Union in 1986](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Kurdish-inhabited_areas_of_the_Middle_East_and_the_Soviet_Union_in_1986.jpg)
From 1922 to 1924 in Iraq a
Kingdom of Kurdistan
The Kingdom of Kurdistan was a short-lived Kurdish state proclaimed in the city of Sulaymaniyah following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Officially, the territory involved was under the jurisdiction of the British Mandate of Mesopotamia.
S ...
existed. When
Ba'ath
Ba'athism, also stylized as Baathism, (; ar, البعثية ' , from ' , meaning "renaissance" or "resurrection"Hans Wehr''Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'' (4th ed.), page 80) is an Arab nationalist ideology which promotes the creation ...
ist administrators thwarted Kurdish nationalist ambitions in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
, war broke out in the 1960s. In 1970 the Kurds rejected limited territorial self-rule within Iraq, demanding larger areas, including the oil-rich
Kirkuk region.
During the 1920s and 1930s, several large-scale Kurdish revolts took place in Kurdistan. Following these rebellions, the area of Turkish Kurdistan was put under
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
and many of the Kurds were displaced. The Turkish government also encouraged resettlement of
Albanians from Kosovo and
Assyrians in the region to change the make-up of the population. These events and measures led to long-lasting mutual distrust between Ankara and the Kurds.
Kurdish officers from the Iraqi army
..were said to have approached Soviet army authorities soon after their arrival in Iran in 1941 and offered to form a Kurdish volunteer force to fight alongside the Red Army. This offer was declined.
During the relatively open government of the 1950s in Turkey, Kurds gained political office and started working within the framework of the Turkish Republic to further their interests, but this move towards integration was halted with the
1960 Turkish coup d'état.
The 1970s saw an evolution in Kurdish nationalism as
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
political thought influenced some in the new generation of Kurdish nationalists opposed to the local
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...
authorities who had been a traditional source of opposition to authority; in 1978 Kurdish students would form the militant separatist organization
PKK
The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...
, also known as the
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...
in English. The
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...
later abandoned
Marxism-Leninism.
[Abdullah Öcalan, ''Prison Writings: The Roots of Civilisation'', 2007, Pluto Press, pp. 243-277.]
Kurds are often regarded as "the largest
ethnic group without a state", Some researchers, such as
Martin van Bruinessen
Martin van Bruinessen (born 10 July 1946, Schoonhoven, Kingdom of the Netherlands) is a Dutch anthropologist and author, who has published a number of publications on the Kurdish, Indonesia, Turkish, Persian cultures, and also on aspects of Isl ...
, who seem to agree with the official Turkish position, argue that while some level of Kurdish cultural, social, political and ideological heterogeneity may exist, the Kurdish community has long thrived over the centuries as a generally peaceful and well-integrated part of Turkish society, with hostilities erupting only in recent years.
Michael Radu, who worked for the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
'
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
Foreign Policy Research Institute, notes that demands for a Kurdish state comes primarily from
Kurdish nationalists
Kurdish may refer to:
*Kurds or Kurdish people
*Kurdish languages
*Kurdish alphabets
*Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes:
**Southern Kurdistan
**Eastern Kurdistan
**Northern Kurdistan
**Western Kurdistan
See also
* Kurd (dis ...
, Western human-rights activists, and European leftists.
Kurdish communities
Turkey
![Kurdsofconstantinople_color](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Kurdsofconstantinople_color.jpg)
According to
CIA Factbook
''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...
, Kurds formed approximately 18% of the population in Turkey (approximately 14 million) in 2008. One Western source estimates that up to 25% of the Turkish population is Kurdish (approximately 18–19 million people).
Kurdish sources claim there are as many as 20 or 25 million Kurds in Turkey.
In 1980,
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...
estimated the number of
Kurdish
Kurdish may refer to:
*Kurds or Kurdish people
*Kurdish languages
*Kurdish alphabets
*Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes:
**Southern Kurdistan
**Eastern Kurdistan
**Northern Kurdistan
**Western Kurdistan
See also
* Kurd (dis ...
-speakers in Turkey at around five million, when the country's population stood at 44 million. Kurds form the largest minority group in Turkey, and they have posed the most serious and persistent challenge to the official image of a homogeneous society. To
deny an existence of Kurds, the Turkish Government used several terms. "Mountain Turks" was a term was initially used by . In 1961, in a foreword to the book ''Doğu İlleri ve Varto Tarihi'' of
Mehmet Şerif Fırat
Mehmet Şerif Fırat (1894/1899 – 1949) was a Kurdish author and is known for his 1945 book ''History of Varto and the Eastern Provinces'' in which he Denial of Kurds by Turkey, denied the existence of Kurds and claimed they are of Turkish ori ...
, the Turkish president
Cemal Gürsel
Cemal Gürsel (; 13 October 1895 – 14 September 1966) was a Turkish army general who became the List of Presidents of Turkey, fourth President of Turkey after a coup.
Early life
He was born in the city of Erzurum as the son of an Ottoman A ...
declared it of utmost importance to prove the Turkishness of the Kurds.
Eastern Turk was another
euphemism
A euphemism () is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes ...
for Kurds from 1980 onwards. Nowadays the Kurds, in Turkey, are still known under the name ''Easterner'' (Doğulu).
Several large scale Kurdish revolts in 1925, 1930 and 1938 were suppressed by the Turkish government and more than one million Kurds were forcibly relocated between 1925 and 1938. The use of Kurdish language, dress,
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
, and names were banned and the Kurdish-inhabited areas remained under
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
until 1946. The
Ararat revolt, which reached its apex in 1930, was only suppressed after a massive military campaign including destruction of many villages and their populations.
[Reşat Kasaba, ''The Cambridge History of Turkey'', 600 pp., Cambridge University Press, 2008, ,
(see page 340)] By the 1970s, Kurdish leftist organizations such as ''Kurdistan Socialist Party-Turkey'' (KSP-T) emerged in Turkey which were against violence and supported civil activities and participation in elections. In 1977, ''Mehdi Zana'' a supporter of KSP-T won the mayoralty of
Diyarbakir in the local elections. At about the same time, generational fissures gave birth to two new organizations: the ''National Liberation of Kurdistan'' and the ''Kurdistan Workers Party''.
![Kurdish Boys Diyarbakir](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Kurdish_Boys_Diyarbakir.jpg)
The words "Kurds", "
Kurdistan
Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...
", or "Kurdish" were officially banned by the Turkish government.
Following the
1980 Turkish coup d'état, military coup of 1980, the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life.
[Toumani, Meline]
Minority Rules
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', 17 February 2008 Many people who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were arrested and imprisoned. The Kurds are still not allowed to get a primary education in their mother tongue and they do not have a right to self-determination, even though Turkey has signed the
ICCPR
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a multilateral treaty that commits nations to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedo ...
. There is ongoing discrimination against and "otherization" of Kurds in society.
The
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...
or PKK (Kurdish: ''Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê'') is Kurdish militant organization which has waged an armed struggle against the Turkish state for cultural and political rights and self-determination for the Kurds.
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
's military allies the US, the EU, and
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
label the PKK as a terrorist organization while the
UN,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
have refused to add the PKK to their terrorist list. Some of them have even supported the PKK.
Between 1984 and 1999, the PKK and the Turkish military engaged in open war, and much of the countryside in the southeast was depopulated, as Kurdish civilians moved from villages to bigger cities such as
Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province.
Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...
,
Van, and
Şırnak
Şırnak ( ku, شرنەخ, Şirnex) is a town in southeastern Turkey. It is the capital of Şırnak Province, a new province that split from the Mardin and Siirt provinces. The Habur border gate with Iraq which is one of Turkey's main links to Arab ...
, as well as to the cities of western Turkey and even to western Europe. The causes of the depopulation included mainly the Turkish state's military operations, state's political actions, Turkish
deep state actions, the poverty of the southeast and PKK atrocities against Kurdish clans which were against them. Turkish State actions have included forced inscription, forced evacuation, destruction of villages, severe harassment, illegal arrests and executions of Kurdish civilians.
Since the 1970s, the
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
has condemned Turkey for the thousands of human rights abuses.
The judgments are related to executions of Kurdish civilians,
torturing, forced displacements systematic destruction of villages, arbitrary arrests murdered and disappeared Kurdish journalists.
Leyla Zana
Leyla Zana (born 3 May 1961) is a Kurdish politician from Kurdish descent. She was imprisoned for ten years for her political activism, which was deemed by the Turkish courts to be against the unity of the country. She was awarded the 1995 Sakh ...
, the first Kurdish female MP from Diyarbakir, caused an uproar in
Turkish Parliament
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...
after adding the following sentence in
Kurdish
Kurdish may refer to:
*Kurds or Kurdish people
*Kurdish languages
*Kurdish alphabets
*Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes:
**Southern Kurdistan
**Eastern Kurdistan
**Northern Kurdistan
**Western Kurdistan
See also
* Kurd (dis ...
to her parliamentary oath during the swearing-in ceremony in 1994: "I take this oath for the brotherhood of the Turkish and Kurdish peoples."
In March 1994, the
Turkish Parliament
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...
voted to lift the immunity of Zana and five other Kurdish
DEP members: Hatip Dicle, Ahmet Turk, Sirri Sakik, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak. Zana, Dicle, Sadak and Dogan were sentenced to 15 years in jail by the Supreme Court in October 1995. Zana was awarded the
Sakharov Prize for human rights by the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
in 1995. She was released in 2004 amid warnings from European institutions that the continued imprisonment of the four Kurdish MPs would affect Turkey's bid to join the
EU. The 2009 local elections resulted in 5.7% for Kurdish political party
DTP.
Officially protected death squads are accused of the disappearance of 3,200 Kurds and Assyrians in 1993 and 1994 in the so-called "mystery killings".
Kurdish politicians, human-rights activists, journalists, teachers and other members of intelligentsia were among the victims. Virtually none of the perpetrators were investigated nor punished. Turkish government also encouraged Islamic extremist group
Hezbollah
Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...
to assassinate suspected PKK members and often ordinary Kurds. ''Azimet Köylüoğlu'', the state minister of human rights, revealed the extent of security forces' excesses in autumn 1994:
''While acts of terrorism in other regions are done by the PKK; in Tunceli it is
state terrorism
State terrorism refers to acts of terrorism which a state conducts against another state or against its own citizens.Martin, 2006: p. 111.
Definition
There is neither an academic nor an international legal consensus regarding the proper def ...
. In Tunceli, it is the state that is evacuating and burning villages. In the southeast there are two million people left homeless.''
Iran
The
Kurdish region of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
has been a part of the country since ancient times. Nearly all
Kurdistan
Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...
was part of
Persian Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an History of Iran#Classical antiquity, ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Bas ...
until its Western part was lost during
wars
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular ...
against the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
. Following the
dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, at the
Paris Peace Conference of 1919 Tehran had demanded all lost territories including
Turkish Kurdistan
Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan () refers to the southeastern part of Turkey, where Kurds form the predominant ethnic group. The Kurdish Institute of Paris estimates that there are 20 million Kurds living in Turkey, the majority of the ...
,
Mosul
Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...
, and even
Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province.
Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...
, but demands were quickly rejected by Western powers.
This area has been divided by modern
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
,
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
and
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
.
Today, the Kurds inhabit mostly northwestern territories known as
Iranian Kurdistan
Iranian Kurdistan or Eastern Kurdistan ( ku, ڕۆژھەڵاتی کوردستان, translit=Rojhilatê Kurdistanê) is an unofficial name for the parts of northwestern Iran with either a majority or sizable population of Kurds. Geographically, it ...
but also the northeastern region of
Khorasan
Khorasan may refer to:
* Greater Khorasan, a historical region which lies mostly in modern-day northern/northwestern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan
* Khorasan Province, a pre-2004 province of Ira ...
, and constitute approximately 7–10%
of Iran's overall population (6.5–7.9 million), compared to 10.6% (2 million) in 1956 and 8% (800,000) in 1850.
Unlike in other Kurdish-populated countries, there are strong ethnolinguistical and cultural ties between Kurds,
Persians
The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian.
...
and others as
Iranian peoples
The Iranian peoples or Iranic peoples are a diverse grouping of Indo-European peoples who are identified by their usage of the Iranian languages and other cultural similarities.
The Proto-Iranians are believed to have emerged as a separat ...
.
Some modern Iranian dynasties like the
Safavids
Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...
and
Zands
The Zand dynasty ( fa, سلسله زندیه, ') was an Iranian peoples, Iranian dynasty, founded by Karim Khan Zand (1751–1779) that initially ruled southern and central Iranian plateau, Iran in the 18th century. It later quickly came to exp ...
are considered to be partly of Kurdish origin.
Kurdish literature
Kurdish literature (, ) is literature written in the Kurdish languages. Literary Kurdish works have been written in each of the four main languages: Zaza, Gorani, Kurmanji and Sorani. Ali Hariri (1009–1079) is one of the first well-known poets ...
in all of its forms (
Kurmanji
Kurmanji ( ku, کورمانجی, lit=Kurdish, translit=Kurmancî, also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northern dialect of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Sy ...
,
Sorani
Central Kurdish (), also called Sorani (), is a Kurdish dialect or a language that is spoken in Iraq, mainly in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as the provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and West Azerbaijan in western Iran. Sorani is one of the two o ...
, and
Gorani) has been developed within
historical Iranian
boundaries under strong influence of the
Persian language
Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and ...
.
The Kurds sharing much of their history with the rest of Iran is seen as reason for why Kurdish leaders in Iran do not want a separate Kurdish state.
The
government of Iran has never employed the same level of brutality against its own Kurds like
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
or
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
, but it has always been implacably opposed to any suggestion of Kurdish separatism.
During and shortly after the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
the government of Iran was ineffective and had very little control over events in the country and several Kurdish
tribal
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...
chiefs gained local political power, even established large confederations.
At the same time waves of
nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
from the disintegrating Ottoman Empire partly influenced some Kurdish chiefs in border regions to pose as Kurdish nationalist leaders.
Prior to this, identity in both countries largely relied upon religion i.e.
Shia Islam
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, m ...
in the particular case of Iran.
In 19th-century
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
,
Shia–Sunni animosity and the describing of
Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
Kurds as an Ottoman
fifth column was quite frequent.
During the late 1910s and early 1920s,
tribal revolt led by Kurdish chieftain
Simko Shikak
Simko Shikak. Birth name: Ismail Agha Shikak. born 1887, was a Kurdish chieftain of the Shekak tribe. He was born into a prominent Kurdish feudal family based in Chihriq castle located near the Baranduz river in the Urmia region of northwestern ...
struck north western Iran. Although elements of
Kurdish nationalism
Kurdish nationalism (, ) is a nationalist political movement which asserts that Kurds are a nation and espouses the creation of an independent Kurdistan from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
Early Kurdish nationalism had its roots in the Ottoman ...
were present in this movement, historians agree these were hardly articulate enough to justify a claim that recognition of Kurdish identity was a major issue in Simko's movement, and he had to rely heavily on conventional tribal motives.
Government forces and non-Kurds were not the only ones to suffer in the attacks, the
Kurdish population
The Kurdish population is estimated to be between 30 and 45 million.[T ...](_blank)
was also robbed and assaulted.
Rebels do not appear to have felt any sense of unity or solidarity with fellow Kurds.
Kurdish insurgency and seasonal migrations in the late 1920s, along with long-running tensions between Tehran and Ankara, resulted in border clashes and even military penetrations in both Iranian and Turkish territory.
Two regional powers have used Kurdish tribes as tool for own political benefits: Turkey has provided military help and refuge for anti-Iranian Turcophone
Shikak rebels in 1918–1922, while Iran did the same during
Ararat rebellion against Turkey in 1930.
Reza Shah
Reza Shah Pahlavi ( fa, رضا شاه پهلوی; ; originally Reza Khan (); 15 March 1878 – 26 July 1944) was an Iranian Officer (armed forces), military officer, politician (who served as Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics (Iran), ...
's military victory over Kurdish and
Turkic tribal leaders initiated a repressive era toward non-
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
minorities.
Government's forced detribalization and
sedentarization
In cultural anthropology, sedentism (sometimes called sedentariness; compare sedentarism) is the practice of living in one place for a long time. , the large majority of people belong to sedentary cultures. In evolutionary anthropology and ar ...
in 1920s and 1930s resulted with many other tribal revolts in Iranian regions of
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
,
Luristan and
Kurdistan
Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...
. In particular case of the Kurds, this repressive policies partly contributed to developing
nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
among some tribes.
![Kurdish people celebrating Nowruz 2018, Tangi Sar village (13970105000310636575781098296062 60685)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Kurdish_people_celebrating_Nowruz_2018%2C_Tangi_Sar_village_%2813970105000310636575781098296062_60685%29.jpg)
As a response to growing
Pan-Turkism
Pan-Turkism is a political movement that emerged during the 1880s among Turkic intellectuals who lived in the Russian region of Kazan (Tatarstan), Caucasus (modern-day Azerbaijan) and the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey), with its aim bei ...
and
Pan-Arabism in region which were seen as potential threats to the territorial integrity of Iran,
Pan-Iranist ideology has been developed in the early 1920s.
Some of such groups and journals openly advocated Iranian support to the Kurdish rebellion against
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. Secular
Pahlavi dynasty
The Pahlavi dynasty ( fa, دودمان پهلوی) was the last Iranian royal dynasty, ruling for almost 54 years between 1925 and 1979. The dynasty was founded by Reza Shah Pahlavi, a non-aristocratic Mazanderani soldier in modern times, who ...
has endorsed Iranian ethnic
nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
which saw the Kurds as integral part of the Iranian nation.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi has personally praised the Kurds as "pure Iranians" or "one of the most noble
Iranian peoples
The Iranian peoples or Iranic peoples are a diverse grouping of Indo-European peoples who are identified by their usage of the Iranian languages and other cultural similarities.
The Proto-Iranians are believed to have emerged as a separat ...
". Another significant ideology during this period was
Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
which arose among Kurds under influence of
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
. It culminated in the
Iran crisis of 1946
The Iran crisis of 1946, also known as the Azerbaijan Crisis () in the Iranian sources, was one of the first crises of the Cold War, sparked by the refusal of Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union to relinquish occupied Iranian territory, despite repeat ...
which included a separatist attempt of
KDP-I
The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI; ku, حیزبی دێموکراتی کوردستانی ئێران, Hîzbî Dêmukratî Kurdistanî Êran, HDKA; fa, حزب دموکرات کردستان ایران, Ḥezb-e Demokrāt-e Kordest ...
and
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
groups to establish the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
puppet government
A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government, is a state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside power and subject to its orders.Compare: Puppet states have nominal sover ...
called
Republic of Mahabad
The Republic of Mahabad or the Republic of Kurdistan ( ku, کۆماری کوردستان / Komara Kurdistanê; fa, جمهوری مهاباد) was a short-lived Kurdish self-governing unrecognized state in present-day Iran, from 22 January to ...
. It arose along with
Azerbaijan People's Government
The Azerbaijan People's Government ( az, آذربایجان میللی حکومتی - Azərbaycan Milli Hökuməti; fa, حکومت خودمختار آذربایجان) was a short-lived unrecognized secessionist state in northern Iran from Nov ...
, another Soviet puppet state.
The state itself encompassed a very small territory, including
Mahabad
Mahabad ( fa, مهاباد, ku, مەهاباد, translit=Mehabad), also Romanized as Mihābād and Muhābād and formerly known as Savojbolagh, is a city and capital of Mahabad County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its ...
and the adjacent cities, unable to incorporate the southern Iranian Kurdistan which fell inside the Anglo-American zone, and unable to attract the tribes outside Mahabad itself to the nationalist cause.
As a result, when the Soviets withdrew from Iran in December 1946, government forces were able to enter Mahabad unopposed.
![Qazi_Muhammad](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Qazi_Muhammad.jpg)
Several
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
and
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
insurgencies continued for decades (
1967,
1979,
1989–96) led by
KDP-I
The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI; ku, حیزبی دێموکراتی کوردستانی ئێران, Hîzbî Dêmukratî Kurdistanî Êran, HDKA; fa, حزب دموکرات کردستان ایران, Ḥezb-e Demokrāt-e Kordest ...
and
Komalah, but those two organization have never advocated a separate Kurdish state or greater Kurdistan as did the
PKK
The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...
in
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
.
Still, many of dissident leaders, among others
Qazi Muhammad
Qazi Muhammad ( ku, قازی محەممەد / Qazî Mihemed, fa, قاضی محمد; 1 May 1893 – 31 March 1947) was an Kurdish leader who founded the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and headed the short-lived, Soviet-backed Republic of ...
and
Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou
Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou ( ku, عهبدولڕهحمان قاسملوو, translit=Ebdulrehman Qasimlû; fa, عبدالرحمان قاسملو; 22 December 1930 – 13 July 1989) was an Iranian Kurdish politician and leader. Ghassemlou was t ...
, were executed or assassinated.
During
Iran–Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...
, Tehran has provided support for Iraqi-based Kurdish groups like
KDP KDP may refer to:
* Communist Party of Germany (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands)
* Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraqi Kurdistan
* Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran of Iranian Kurdistan
* Korea Democratic Party
* Khmer Democratic Party
*Kappa Del ...
or
PUK, along with asylum for 1.4 million Iraqi refugees, mostly
Kurds ug:كۇردلار
Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ir ...
. Kurdish Marxist groups have been marginalized in Iran since the
dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
. In 2004 new
insurrection
Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority.
A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
started by
PJAK, separatist organization affiliated with the Turkey-based
PKK
The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...
and designated as
terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
by Iran, Turkey and the United States.
Some analysts claim PJAK do not pose any serious threat to the
government of Iran. Cease-fire has been established in September 2011 following the Iranian offensive on PJAK bases, but several clashes between PJAK and IRGC took place after it.
Since the
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...
of 1979, accusations of "discrimination" by Western organizations and of "foreign involvement" by Iranian side have become very frequent.
Kurds have been well integrated in
Iranian political life during reign of various governments.
Kurdish liberal political
Karim Sanjabi
Karim Sanjabi ( fa, کریم سنجابی; 11 September 1905 – 4 July 1995) was an Iranian politician of National Front.
Early life
He was born in Kermanshah in September 1905 to the chief of the Kurdish Sanjâbi tribe. He studied law and ...
has served as minister of education under
Mohammad Mossadegh in 1952. During the reign of
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi some members of parliament and high army officers were Kurds, and there was even a Kurdish Cabinet Minister.
During the
reign of the Pahlavis Kurds received many favours from the authorities, for instance to keep their land after the
land reforms
Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural ...
of 1962.
In the early 2000s, presence of thirty Kurdish deputies in the 290-strong
parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
has also helped to undermine claims of discrimination.
Some of the more influential Kurdish politicians during recent years include former
first vice president Mohammad Reza Rahimi
Mohammad Reza Rahimi ( fa, محمدرضا رحيمی, born on 11 January 1949) is an Iranian politician who served as the fifth first vice president from 13 September 2009 until 3 August 2013. His previous posts included governor of the Kurdi ...
and
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf or Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf ( fa, محمد باقر قالیباف, born 23 August 1961) is an Iranian conservative politician, former military officer, and current Speaker of the Parliament of Iran since 2020. He held off ...
,
Mayor of Tehran
The Mayor of Tehran is an elected politician who, along with the City Council of 21 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Tehran. Since 2 September 2021, Alireza Zakani is the mayor of Tehran. Previously, the position was held b ...
and second-placed
presidential candidate
A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example:
* to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs.
* t ...
in 2013.
Kurdish language
Kurdish (, ) is a language or a group of languages spoken by Kurds in the geo-cultural region of Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora. Kurdish constitutes a dialect continuum, belonging to Western Iranian languages in the Indo-European language ...
is today used more than at any other time since the
Revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
, including in several newspapers and among schoolchildren.
Many Iranian Kurds show no interest in
Kurdish nationalism
Kurdish nationalism (, ) is a nationalist political movement which asserts that Kurds are a nation and espouses the creation of an independent Kurdistan from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
Early Kurdish nationalism had its roots in the Ottoman ...
,
particularly Kurds of the
Shia
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mo ...
faith who sometimes even vigorously reject idea of autonomy, preferring direct rule from
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
.
The issue of Kurdish nationalism and Iranian national identity is generally only questioned in the peripheral Kurdish dominated regions where the
Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
faith is prevalent.
Iraq
![Jalal Talabani Rumsfeld Rice Khalilzad](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Jalal_Talabani_Rumsfeld_Rice_Khalilzad.jpg)
Kurds constitute approximately 17% of Iraq's population. They are the majority in at least three provinces in northern Iraq which are together known as
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan ( ku, باشووری کوردستان, Başûrê Kurdistanê) refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia, which also incl ...
. Kurds also have a presence in
Kirkuk,
Mosul
Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...
,
Khanaqin
Khanaqin ( ar, خانقين; ku, خانەقین, translit=Xaneqîn) is the central city of Khanaqin District in Diyala Governorate, Iraq, near the Iranian border (8 km) on the Alwand tributary of the Diyala River. The town is populated ...
, and
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
. Around 300,000 Kurds live in the Iraqi capital
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
, 50,000 in the city of
Mosul
Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...
and around 100,000 elsewhere in southern Iraq.
Kurds led by
Mustafa Barzani
Mustafa Barzani ( ku, مەلا مستهفا بارزانی, Mistefa Barzanî; 14 March 1903 – 1 March 1979) also known as Mela Mustafa (Preacher Mustafa), was a Kurdish leader, general and one of the most prominent political figures in mod ...
were engaged in heavy fighting against successive Iraqi regimes from 1960 to 1975. In March 1970, Iraq announced a peace plan providing for Kurdish autonomy. The plan was to be implemented in four years. However, at the same time, the Iraqi regime started an Arabization program in the oil-rich regions of
Kirkuk and
Khanaqin
Khanaqin ( ar, خانقين; ku, خانەقین, translit=Xaneqîn) is the central city of Khanaqin District in Diyala Governorate, Iraq, near the Iranian border (8 km) on the Alwand tributary of the Diyala River. The town is populated ...
. The peace agreement did not last long, and in 1974, the Iraqi government began a new offensive against the Kurds. Moreover, in March 1975, Iraq and Iran signed the
Algiers Accord, according to which Iran cut supplies to Iraqi Kurds. Iraq started another wave of Arabization by moving Arabs to the oil fields in Kurdistan, particularly those around Kirkuk. Between 1975 and 1978, 200,000 Kurds were deported to other parts of Iraq.
During the
Iran–Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...
in the 1980s, the regime implemented anti-Kurdish policies and a ''de facto'' civil war broke out. Iraq was widely condemned by the international community, but was never seriously punished for oppressive measures such as the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of civilians, the wholesale destruction of thousands of villages and the deportation of thousands of Kurds to southern and central Iraq.
The genocidal campaign, conducted between 1986 and 1989 and culminating in 1988, carried out by the Iraqi government against the Kurdish population was called ''Anfal'' ("Spoils of War"). The Anfal campaign led to destruction of over two thousand villages and killing of 182,000 Kurdish civilians. The campaign included the use of ground offensives, aerial bombing, systematic destruction of settlements, mass deportation, firing squads, and chemical attacks, including the most infamous attack on the Kurdish town of
Halabja in 1988 that killed 5000 civilians instantly.
After the collapse of the Kurdish uprising in March 1991, Iraqi troops recaptured most of the Kurdish areas and 1.5 million Kurds abandoned their homes and fled to the Turkish and Iranian borders. It is estimated that close to 20,000 Kurds succumbed to death due to exhaustion, lack of food, exposure to cold and disease. On 5 April 1991,
UN Security Council
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the Organs of the United Nations, six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international security, international peace and security, recommending the admi ...
passed resolution
688
__NOTOC__
Year 688 ( DCLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 688 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar ...
which condemned the repression of Iraqi Kurdish civilians and demanded that Iraq end its repressive measures and allow immediate access to international humanitarian organizations. This was the first international document (since the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
arbitration of Mosul in 1926) to mention Kurds by name. In mid-April, the Coalition established ''safe havens'' inside Iraqi borders and prohibited Iraqi planes from flying north of 36th parallel.
In October 1991, Kurdish guerrillas captured
Erbil and
Sulaimaniyah
Sulaymaniyah, also spelled as Slemani ( ku, سلێمانی, Silêmanî, ar, السليمانية, as-Sulaymāniyyah), is a city in the east of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, not far from the Iran–Iraq border. It is surrounded by the Azmar, ...
after a series of clashes with Iraqi troops. In late October, Iraqi government retaliated by imposing a food and fuel embargo on the Kurds and stopping to pay civil servants in the Kurdish region. The embargo, however, backfired and Kurds held parliamentary elections in May 1992 and established
Kurdistan Regional Government
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) ( ku, حکوومەتی هەرێمی کوردستان, ''Hikûmetî Herêmî Kurdistan'') is the official executive body of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq.
The cabinet is selected by the m ...
(KRG).
The Kurdish population welcomed the American troops in 2003 by holding celebrations and dancing in the streets. The area controlled by
Peshmerga
The Peshmerga ( ku, پێشمەرگه, Pêşmerge, lit=those who face death) is the Kurdish military forces of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. According to the Constitution of Iraq, the Peshmerga, along with their security subsidiaries, ...
was expanded, and Kurds now have effective control in
Kirkuk and parts of
Mosul
Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...
. The authority of the
KRG and legality of its laws and regulations were recognized in the articles 113 and 137 of the new
Iraqi Constitution ratified in 2005. By the beginning of 2006, the two Kurdish administrations of Erbil and Sulaimaniya were unified. On 14 August 2007, Yazidis were targeted in a
series of bombings that became the deadliest suicide attack since the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
began, killing 796 civilians, wounding 1,562.
Syria
![Kurdish YPG Fighters (15318975992)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Kurdish_YPG_Fighters_%2815318975992%29.jpg)
Kurds account for 9% of
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
's population, a total of around 1.6 million people. This makes them the largest ethnic minority in the country. They are mostly concentrated in the northeast and the north, but there are also significant Kurdish populations in Aleppo and Damascus. Kurds often speak Kurdish in public, unless all those present do not. According to
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
, Kurdish human rights activists are mistreated and persecuted. No political parties are allowed for any group, Kurdish or otherwise.
Techniques used to suppress the ethnic identity of Kurds in
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
include various bans on the use of the
Kurdish language
Kurdish (, ) is a language or a group of languages spoken by Kurds in the geo-cultural region of Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora. Kurdish constitutes a dialect continuum, belonging to Western Iranian languages in the Indo-European language ...
, refusal to register children with Kurdish names, the replacement of Kurdish place names with new names in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
, the prohibition of businesses that do not have Arabic names, the prohibition of Kurdish private schools, and the prohibition of books and other materials written in Kurdish.
Having been denied the right to Syrian nationality, around 300,000 Kurds have been deprived of any social rights, in violation of international law.
As a consequence, these Kurds are in effect trapped within Syria. In March 2011, in part to avoid further demonstrations and unrest from spreading across Syria, the Syrian government promised to tackle the issue and grant Syrian citizenship to approximately 300,000 Kurds who had been previously denied the right.
On 12 March 2004, beginning at a stadium in
Qamishli
Qamishli ( ar, ٱلْقَامِشْلِي, Al-Qāmišlī, ku, قامشلۆ, Qamişlo, syc, ܒܝܬ ܙܠܝ̈ܢ, Bēṯ Zālīn, lit=House of Reeds or syr, ܩܡܫܠܐ, translit=Qamishlo) (a largely Kurdish city in northeastern Syria), clashes between Kurds and Syrians broke out and continued over a number of days. At least thirty people were killed and more than 160 injured. The unrest spread to other Kurdish towns along the northern border with Turkey, and then to
Damascus
)), is an adjective which means "spacious".
, motto =
, image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg
, image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg
, seal_type = Seal
, map_caption =
, ...
and
Aleppo
)), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black".
, motto =
, image_map =
, mapsize =
, map_caption =
, image_map1 =
...
.
As a result of
Syrian civil war, since July 2012, Kurds were able to take control of large parts of Syrian Kurdistan from Andiwar in extreme northeast to Jindires in extreme northwest Syria. The Syrian Kurds started the
Rojava Revolution
The Rojava conflict, also known as the Rojava Revolution, is a political upheaval and military conflict taking place in northern Syria, known among Kurds as Western Kurdistan or Rojava.
During the Syrian civil war that began in 2011, a Kurdish ...
in 2013.
Kurdish-inhabited
Afrin Canton
Afrin Canton ( ku, Kantona Efrînê, ar, مقاطعة عفرين, syc, ܦܠܩܐ ܕܥܦܪܝܢ, translit=Pelqā dha-ʻAfrin) was one of the cantons of Rojava. Syria's Afrin District fell under the control of the People's Protection Units (YPG) aro ...
has been
occupied
' (Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 October ...
by Turkish Armed Forces and
Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army
The Syrian National Army (SNA) ( ar, الجيش الوطني السوري, al-Jayš al-Waṭanī as-Sūrī), previously the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and also known as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (TFSA), is a coalition of armed Syrian op ...
since the
Turkish military operation in Afrin
Operation Olive Branch ( tr, Zeytin Dalı Harekâtı) was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces and Syrian National Army (SNA) in the majority-Kurdish Afrin District of northwest Syria, against the People's Pro ...
in early 2018. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people were displaced due to the Turkish intervention.
In October 2019, Turkey and the
Syrian Interim Government began an offensive into Kurdish-populated areas in Syria, prompting about 100,000 civilians to flee from the area fearing that Turkey would commit an
ethnic cleansing.
Transcaucasus
![Ilham Aliyev and Mehriban Aliyeva attended opening of Kharibulbul Festival in Shusha 15](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Ilham_Aliyev_and_Mehriban_Aliyeva_attended_opening_of_Kharibulbul_Festival_in_Shusha_15.jpg)
Between the 1930s and 1980s,
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
was a part of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, within which Kurds, like other ethnic groups, had the status of a protected minority. Armenian Kurds were permitted their own state-sponsored newspaper, radio broadcasts and cultural events. During the conflict in
Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh ( ) is a landlocked country, landlocked region in the Transcaucasia, South Caucasus, within the mountainous range of Karabakh, lying between Lower Karabakh and Syunik Province, Syunik, and covering the southeastern range o ...
, many non-Yazidi Kurds were forced to leave their homes since both the Azeri and non-Yazidi Kurds were Muslim.
In 1920, two Kurdish-inhabited areas of Jewanshir (capital
Kalbajar
Kalbajar ( az, Kəlbəcər , ) is a city and the capital of the Kalbajar District of Azerbaijan. Located on the Tartar river valley, it is away from the capital Baku.
The city had a population of 7,246 before its capture by Armenian forces on ...
) and eastern Zangazur (capital
Lachin
Lachin ( az, Laçın, , ; hy, Բերձոր, translit=Berdzor; ku, Laçîn) is a town in Azerbaijan and the administrative center of the Lachin District. It is located within the strategic Lachin corridor, which links the disputed region of Nag ...
) were combined to form the
Kurdistan Okrug
Kurdistan uezd,, ku, Кӧрдӧйәзд, Kurduyezd also known colloquially as Red Kurdistan,, ku, Кӧрдьстана Сор, Kurdistana Sor was a Soviet administrative unit that existed for six years from 1923 to 1929 and included the distr ...
(or "Red Kurdistan"). The period of existence of the Kurdish administrative unit was brief and did not last beyond 1929. Kurds subsequently faced many repressive measures, including deportations, imposed by the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
government. As a result of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians, and seven surrounding districts, inhabited mostly by Azerbaij ...
, many Kurdish areas have been destroyed and more than 150,000 Kurds have been deported since 1988 by separatist
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
n forces.
[Kurds and Kurdistan: A General Background](_blank)
p.22
Diaspora
![Portrait of Hamdi Ulukaya](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Portrait_of_Hamdi_Ulukaya.jpg)
According to a report by the
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...
, approximately 1.3 million Kurds live in
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
. The earliest immigrants were Kurds from Turkey, who settled in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, the
Benelux
The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a politico- economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in western Europe: ...
countries, the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
and
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
during the 1960s. Successive periods of political and social turmoil in the region during the 1980s and 1990s brought new waves of Kurdish refugees, mostly from Iran and Iraq under Saddam Hussein, came to Europe.
In recent years, many Kurdish asylum seekers from both Iran and Iraq have settled in the United Kingdom (especially in the town of
Dewsbury
Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudder ...
and in some northern areas of
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
), which has sometimes caused media controversy over their right to remain.
There have been tensions between Kurds and the established Muslim community in Dewsbury, which is home to very traditional mosques such as the
Markazi. Since the beginning of the turmoil in Syria many of the
refugees of the Syrian Civil War are
Syrian Kurds and as a result many of the current Syrian asylum seekers in Germany are of Kurdish descent.
There was substantial immigration of ethnic Kurds in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, who are mainly political refugees and immigrants seeking economic opportunity. According to a
2011 Statistics Canada household survey, there were 11,685 people of Kurdish ethnic background living in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
and according to the 2011 Census, 10,325 Canadians spoke Kurdish languages.
In the United States, Kurdish immigrants started to settle in large numbers in
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
in 1976, which is now home to the largest Kurdish community in the United States and is nicknamed ''Little Kurdistan''. Kurdish population in Nashville is estimated to be around 11,000. The total number of ethnic Kurds residing in the United States is estimated by the
US Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
to be 20,591.
Other sources claim that there are 20,000 ethnic Kurds in the United States.
Culture
Kurdish culture is a legacy from the various ancient peoples who shaped modern Kurds and their society. As most other Middle Eastern populations, a high degree of mutual influences between the Kurds and their neighbouring peoples are apparent. Therefore, in Kurdish culture elements of various other cultures are to be seen.
However, on the whole, Kurdish culture is closest to that of other
Iranian peoples
The Iranian peoples or Iranic peoples are a diverse grouping of Indo-European peoples who are identified by their usage of the Iranian languages and other cultural similarities.
The Proto-Iranians are believed to have emerged as a separat ...
, in particular those who historically had the closest geographical proximity to the Kurds, such as the
Persians
The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian.
...
and
Lurs. Kurds, for instance, also celebrate
Newroz
Newroz or Nawroz ( ku, نەورۆز, Newroz) is the Kurdish celebration of Nowruz; the arrival of spring and new year in Kurdish culture. The lighting of the fires at the beginning of the evening of March 21 is the main symbol of Newroz among t ...
(21 March) as New Year's Day.
Education
A madrasa system was used before the modern era. Mele are Islamic clerics and instructors.
Women
![YPJ fighters shake hands with one another](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/YPJ_fighters_shake_hands_with_one_another.jpg)
In general, Kurdish women's rights and equality have improved in the 20th and 21st centuries due to progressive movements within Kurdish society. However, despite the progress, Kurdish and international women's rights organizations still report problems related to
gender equality
Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...
,
forced marriages,
honor killings
An honor killing (American English), honour killing (Commonwealth English), or shame killing is the murder of an individual, either an outsider or a member of a family, by someone seeking to protect what they see as the dignity and honor of t ...
and in
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan ( ku, باشووری کوردستان, Başûrê Kurdistanê) refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia, which also incl ...
also
female genital mutilation
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...
(FGM).
Folklore
![Vulpes vulpes at Eshel HaNasi4, israel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Vulpes_vulpes_at_Eshel_HaNasi4%2C_israel.jpg)
The Kurds possess a rich tradition of folklore, which, until recent times, was largely transmitted by speech or song, from one generation to the next. Although some of the Kurdish writers' stories were well known throughout Kurdistan; most of the stories told and sung were only written down in the 20th and 21st centuries. Many of these are, allegedly, centuries old.
Widely varying in purpose and style, among the Kurdish folklore one will find stories about nature,
anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.
Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...
animals, love, heroes and villains,
mythological creatures and everyday life. A number of these mythological figures can be found in other cultures, like the
Simurgh
Simurgh (; fa, سیمرغ, also spelled ''simorgh, simorg'', ''simurg'', ''simoorg, simorq'' or ''simourv'') is a benevolent, mythical bird in Persian mythology and literature. It is sometimes equated with other mythological birds such as the ...
and
Kaveh the Blacksmith
Kaveh the Blacksmith ( fa, کاوه آهنگر – Kāve Āhangar ), is a 5000-year-old figure in Iranian mythology who leads a popular uprising against a ruthless foreign ruler, Zahāk. His story is narrated in the ''Shahnameh'', the national ...
in the broader
Iranian Mythology Iranian mythology or Iranic mythology may refer to any of the following mythologies of various Iranian peoples:
* Persian mythology
* Kurdish mythology
* Scythian mythology
** Ossetian mythology
* Azerbaijani mythology
See also
* Iranian religio ...
, and stories of
Shahmaran
Shahmaran ( Persian: شاهماران Şahmaran, lit. 'Shah (king) of the Snakes'; Kurdish: Şahmaran/Şamaran, Turkish: ''Şahmeran'', Tatar: Şahmara or Zilant, Зилант or Aq Yılan, Chuvash: Вĕреçĕлен, lit. 'Fire snake'), ...
throughout Anatolia. Additionally, stories can be purely entertaining, or have an educational or religious aspect.
[Edgecomb, D. (2007). ''A Fire in My Heart: Kurdish Tales''. Westport: Libraries Unlimited, pp. 200.]
Perhaps the most widely reoccurring element is the fox, which, through cunning and shrewdness triumphs over less intelligent species, yet often also meets his demise.
Another common theme in Kurdish folklore is the origin of a tribe.
Storytellers would perform in front of an audience, sometimes consisting of an entire village. People from outside the region would travel to attend their narratives, and the storytellers themselves would visit other villages to spread their tales. These would thrive especially during winter, where entertainment was hard to find as evenings had to be spent inside.
Coinciding with the heterogeneous Kurdish groupings, although certain stories and elements were commonly found throughout Kurdistan, others were unique to a specific area; depending on the region, religion or dialect. The
Kurdish Jews
, image = File:RABBI MOSHE GABAIL.jpg
, caption = Rabbi Moshe Gabai, head of the Jewish community of Zakho, with Israeli President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi in 1951
, pop = 200,000–300,000
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
of
Zakho
Zakho, also spelled Zaxo ( ku, زاخۆ, Zaxo, syr, ܙܵܟ݂ܘܿ, Zākhō, , ) is a city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, at the centre of the eponymous Zakho District of the Dohuk Governorate, located a few kilometers from the Iraq–Turkey b ...
are perhaps the best example of this; their gifted storytellers are known to have been greatly respected throughout the region, thanks to a unique oral tradition. Other examples are the mythology of the
Yezidis
Yazidis or Yezidis (; ku, ئێزیدی, translit=Êzidî) are a Kurmanji-speaking endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The maj ...
, and the stories of the Dersim Kurds, which had a substantial Armenian influence.
During the criminalization of the Kurdish language after the coup d'état of 1980,
dengbêj
Dengbêj is a Kurdish music genre and/or a singer of the music genre Dengbêj. Dengbêjs are singing storytellers. There have been many terms to describe Dengbêjs throughout history, but today Dengbêj is the best known, and also several singing ...
(singers) and çîrokbêj (tellers) were silenced, and many of the stories had become endangered. In 1991, the language was decriminalized, yet the now highly available radios and TV's had as an effect a diminished interest in traditional storytelling. However, a number of writers have made great strides in the preservation of these tales.
Weaving
![Modern Bidjar rug](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Modern_Bidjar_rug.jpg)
Kurdish weaving is renowned throughout the world, with fine specimens of both rugs and bags. The most famous Kurdish rugs are
those from the Bijar region, in the Kurdistan Province. Because of the unique way in which the Bijar rugs are woven, they are very stout and durable, hence their appellation as the 'Iron Rugs of Persia'. Exhibiting a wide variety, the Bijar rugs have patterns ranging from floral designs, medallions and animals to other ornaments. They generally have two
weft
Warp and weft are the two basic components used in weaving to turn thread or yarn into fabric. The lengthwise or longitudinal warp yarns are held stationary in tension on a frame or loom while the transverse weft (sometimes woof) is draw ...
s, and are very colorful in design.
[J. D. Winitz]
Kurdish Rugs
. Retrieved 7 July 2013. With an increased interest in these rugs in the last century, and a lesser need for them to be as sturdy as they were, new Bijar rugs are more refined and delicate in design.
Another well-known Kurdish rug is the Senneh rug, which is regarded as the most sophisticated of the Kurdish rugs. They are especially known for their great knot density and high-quality mountain wool.
They lend their name from the region of
Sanandaj. Throughout other Kurdish regions like
Kermanshah
Kermanshah ( fa, کرمانشاه, Kermânšâh ), also known as Kermashan (; romanized: Kirmaşan), is the capital of Kermanshah Province, located from Tehran in the western part of Iran. According to the 2016 census, its population is 946,68 ...
,
Siirt
Siirt ( ar, سِعِرْد, Siʿird; hy, Սղերդ, S'gherd; syr, ܣܥܪܬ, Siirt; ku, Sêrt) is a city in southeastern Turkey and the seat of Siirt Province. The population of the city according to the 2009 census was 129,188.
History
P ...
,
Malatya
Malatya ( hy, Մալաթիա, translit=Malat'ya; Syro-Aramaic ܡܠܝܛܝܢܐ Malīṭīná; ku, Meletî; Ancient Greek: Μελιτηνή) is a large city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey and the capital of Malatya Province. The city h ...
and
Bitlis
Bitlis ( hy, Բաղեշ '; ku, Bidlîs; ota, بتليس) is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Bitlis Province. The city is located at an elevation of 1,545 metres, 15 km from Lake Van, in the steep-sided valley of the Bitlis R ...
rugs were also woven to great extent.
Kurdish bags are mainly known from the works of one large tribe: the
Jaff
Jaff ( ku, جاف; also ''Jahf'', ''Jaaf'', ''Jaf'', ''Caf'') is the largest Kurdish tribe also known as clan, living in the borderlands of Iran and Iraq. Their heartland is between Sulaymaniyah to Sanandaj. The tribe predominantly adheres to th ...
s, living in the border area between Iran and Iraq. These Jaff bags share the same characteristics of Kurdish rugs; very colorful, stout in design, often with medallion patterns. They were especially popular in the West during the 1920s and 1930s.
Handicrafts
![KurdishNoble](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/KurdishNoble.jpg)
Outside of weaving and clothing, there are many other Kurdish
handicrafts
A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...
, which were traditionally often crafted by nomadic Kurdish tribes. These are especially well known in Iran, most notably the crafts from the
Kermanshah
Kermanshah ( fa, کرمانشاه, Kermânšâh ), also known as Kermashan (; romanized: Kirmaşan), is the capital of Kermanshah Province, located from Tehran in the western part of Iran. According to the 2016 census, its population is 946,68 ...
and
Sanandaj regions. Among these crafts are chess boards, talismans, jewelry, ornaments, weaponry, instruments etc.
Kurdish blades include a distinct
jambiya
A jambiya, also spelled janbiya, jambya, jambia and janbia ( ar, جنۢبية ''janbīyah''), is a specific type of dagger with a short curved blade with a medial ridge that originated from the Hadhramaut region of Yemen. They have spread all ov ...
, with its characteristic I-shaped hilt, and oblong blade. Generally, these possess double-edged blades, reinforced with a central ridge, a wooden, leather or silver decorated scabbard, and a horn hilt, furthermore they are often still worn decoratively by older men. Swords were made as well. Most of these blades in circulation stem from the 19th century.
Another distinct form of art from Sanandaj is 'Oroosi', a type of window where stylized wooden pieces are locked into each other, rather than being glued together. These are further decorated with coloured glass, this stems from an old belief that if light passes through a combination of seven colours it helps keep the atmosphere clean.
Among Kurdish Jews a common practice was the making of talismans, which were believed to combat illnesses and protect the wearer from malevolent spirits.
Tattoos
![Kurdish-Deq](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Kurdish-Deq.jpg)
Adorning the body with
tattoo
A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several Process of tatt ...
s (''deq'' in Kurdish) is widespread among the Kurds; even though permanent tattoos are not permissible in Sunni Islam. Therefore, these traditional tattoos are thought to derive from pre-Islamic times.
Tattoo ink is made by mixing
soot
Soot ( ) is a mass of impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons. It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolysed ...
with (breast) milk and the poisonous liquid from the gall bladder of an animal. The design is drawn on the skin using a thin twig and is injected under the skin using a needle. These have a wide variety of meanings and purposes, among which are protection against evil or illnesses; beauty enhancement; and the showing of tribal affiliations.
Religious symbolism
A religious symbol is an iconic representation intended to represent a specific religion, or a specific concept within a given religion.
Religious symbols have been used in the military in many countries, such as the United States military chapl ...
is also common among both traditional and modern Kurdish tattoos. Tattoos are more prevalent among women than among men, and were generally worn on feet, the chin, foreheads and other places of the body.
The popularity of permanent, traditional tattoos has greatly diminished among newer generation of Kurds. However, modern tattoos are becoming more prevalent; and temporary tattoos are still being worn on special occasions (such as
henna, the night before a wedding) and as tribute to the cultural heritage.
Music and dance
![Kurdish_musicians_1890](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Kurdish_musicians_1890.jpg)
Traditionally, there are three types of Kurdish classical performers:
storytellers
Storyteller, story teller, or story-teller may refer to:
* A person who does storytelling
Arts and entertainment Film
*''Oidhche Sheanchais'', also called ''The Storyteller''; 1935 Irish short film
* '' Narradores de Javé'' (''Storytellers'') ...
(''çîrokbêj''),
minstrel
A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who ...
s (''stranbêj''), and
bard
In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...
s (''dengbêj''). No specific music was associated with the Kurdish princely courts. Instead, music performed in night gatherings (''şevbihêrk'') is considered classical. Several musical forms are found in this genre. Many songs are
epic in nature, such as the popular ''Lawiks'', heroic
ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
s recounting the tales of Kurdish heroes such as
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
. ''Heyrans'' are love ballads usually expressing the melancholy of separation and unfulfilled love. One of the first Kurdish female singers to sing heyrans is
Chopy Fatah
Chopy Shakir Fatah (; born June 10, 1983) is a contemporary Kurdish singer. She was born in Kirkuk, Iraq.
Career
Her family emigrated to the Netherlands in 1988. She released her first album titled ''Çît Naw Binêm'' in 2003. After emigratin ...
, while ''Lawje'' is a form of religious music and ''Payizoks'' are songs performed during the autumn. Love songs, dance music, wedding and other celebratory songs (''dîlok/narînk''), erotic poetry, and
work song
A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a form of work, either sung while conducting a task (usually to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song.
Definitions and ...
s are also popular.
Throughout the Middle East, there are many prominent Kurdish artists. Most famous are
Ibrahim Tatlises
Ibrahim ( ar, إبراهيم, links=no ') is the Arabic name for Abraham, a Biblical patriarch and prophet in Islam.
For the Islamic view of Ibrahim, see Abraham in Islam.
Ibrahim may also refer to:
* Ibrahim (name), a name (and list of people ...
,
Nizamettin Arıç Nizamettin is the Turkish version of the Muslim name Nizam al-Din. It may refer to:
* Nizamettin Arıç (born 1956), Kurdish singer
* Nizamettin Çalışkan (born 1987), Turkish footballer
* Nizamettin Erkmen (1919 - 1990), Turkish politician
*Niz ...
,
Ahmet Kaya
Ahmet Kaya (28 October 1957 – 16 November 2000) was a Turkish– Kurdish folk singer. Kaya was persecuted by Turkish nationalist celebrities and authorities. Kaya left Turkey in an act of self- exile, and moved to France, where he would sho ...
and the
Kamkars
, fa, کامکارها
, image =
, caption =
, image_size =
, background = classical_ensemble
, alias = Kamkar Ensemble
, origin = Sanandaj, Kurdistan, Iran
, genre ...
. In Europe, well-known artists are
Darin Zanyar
Darin Zanyar (born 2 June 1987), known simply as Darin, is a Kurdish-Swedish pop singer and songwriter born in Stockholm. He is one of Sweden's best-selling artists with seven number one albums.
Life and career
Early life
Darin was born in ...
,
Sivan Perwer, and
Azad.
Cinema
![BahmanGhobadi2009](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/BahmanGhobadi2009.JPG)
The main themes of
Kurdish cinema
Kurdish cinema focuses on the Kurdish people and culture. The fate of the Kurds as a people without a state shaped their cinema. Kurdish films often show social grievances, oppression, torture, human rights violations, and life as a stranger. Kurd ...
are the poverty and hardship which ordinary Kurds have to endure. The first films featuring Kurdish culture were actually shot in Armenia. Zare, released in 1927, produced by
Hamo Beknazarian
Hamo Beknazarian ( hy, Համո Բեկնազարյան; russian: Амбарцум Бек-Назаров; 19 May 1891 – 27 April 1965), also known as Hamo Bek-Nazarov or Amo Bek-Nazarian, was a Soviet Armenian film director, actor and screenwrit ...
, details the story of Zare and her love for the shepherd Seydo, and the difficulties the two experience by the hand of the village elder. In 1948 and 1959, two documentaries were made concerning the Yezidi Kurds in Armenia. These were joint Armenian-Kurdish productions; with H. Koçaryan and Heciye Cindi teaming up for ''The Kurds of Soviet Armenia'',
[R. Alakom]
The first film about Kurds
. Retrieved 7 July 2013. and Ereb Samilov and C. Jamharyan for ''Kurds of Armenia''.
The first critically acclaimed and famous Kurdish films were produced by
Yılmaz Güney
Yılmaz Güney (' Pütün; 1 April 1937 – 9 September 1984) was a Kurdish film director, screenwriter, novelist, and actor. He quickly rose to prominence in the Turkish film industry. Many of his works were devoted to the plight of ordinary wo ...
. Initially a popular, award-winning actor in Turkey with the nickname ''Çirkin Kral'' (''the Ugly King'', after his rough looks), he spent the later part of his career producing socio-critical and politically loaded films. ''
Sürü'' (1979), ''
Yol
''Yol'' (; translated as ''The Way'', ''The Road'' or ''The Path'') is a 1982 Turkish film directed by Şerif Gören and Yılmaz Güney. The screenplay was written by Yılmaz Güney, and it was directed by his assistant Şerif Gören, as Güne ...
'' (1982) and ''
Duvar'' (1983) are his best-known works, of which the second won Palme d'Or at the
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
of 1982, the most prestigious award in the world of cinema.
Another prominent Kurdish film director is
Bahman Qubadi
Bahman Ghobadi ( fa, بهمن قبادی; ; born 1 February 1969 in Baneh, Kurdistan province, Iran) is an Iranian Kurdish film director, producer and writer. He belongs to the " new wave" of Iranian cinema.
Biography
He was born in Baneh, a K ...
. His first feature film was ''
A Time for Drunken Horses
''A Time for Drunken Horses'' ( ku, Dema hespên serxweş; fa, زمانی برای مستی اسبها, italic=yes, ''Zamani barayé masti-e asbha'') is a 2000 Kurdish language film directed by Bahman Ghobadi and produced in Iran. It was a co- ...
'', released in 2000. It was critically acclaimed, and went on to win multiple awards. Other movies of his would follow this example, making him one of the best known film producers of Iran of today. Recently, he released ''
Rhinos Season'', starring
Behrouz Vossoughi
Khalil Vossoughi ( fa, خلیل وثوقی; born 11 March 1938) known professionally as Behrouz Vossoighi (بهروز وثوقی), is an Iranian actor. He has also worked in television, radio and theater. His work has earned him recognition at ...
,
Monica Bellucci
Monica Anna Maria Bellucci (; born 30 September 1964) is an Italian actress and model. She began her career as a fashion model, modelling for Dolce & Gabbana and Dior, before making a transition to Italian films and later American and French ...
and
Yilmaz Erdogan, detailing the tumultuous life of a Kurdish poet.
Other prominent Kurdish film directors that are critically acclaimed include
Mahsun Kırmızıgül
Mahsun Kırmızıgül (born Abdullah Bazencir, March 26, 1969) is a singer songwriter, actor and director, scriptwriter, music composer, producer of Kurdish- Zaza descent. Mahsun Kırmızıgül is also known as a businessman for his partnership in ...
,
Hiner Saleem
Huner Saleem ( Kurdish: هونهر سەلیم), also transliterated as Huner Salim, (born 9 March 1964), is an Iraqi– Kurdish film director. He was born in the town of Aqrah (Akre) in Iraqi Kurdistan. He left Iraq at the age of 17, and soon m ...
and the aforementioned Yilmaz Erdogan. There's also been a number of films set and/or filmed in Kurdistan made by non-Kurdish film directors, such as ''
The Wind Will Carry Us
''The Wind Will Carry Us'' ( fa, باد ما را خواهد برد, ''Bād mā rā khāhad bord'') is a 1999 Iranian film written and directed by Abbas Kiarostami. The title is a reference to a poem written by the modern Iranian poet Forough Fa ...
'', ''
Triage
In medicine, triage () is a practice invoked when acute care cannot be provided for lack of resources. The process rations care towards those who are most in need of immediate care, and who benefit most from it. More generally it refers to prio ...
'', ''
The Exorcist
''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty ...
'', and ''
The Market: A Tale of Trade''.
Sports
![080603 Derdiyok](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/080603_Derdiyok.jpg)
The most popular sport among the Kurds is football. Because the Kurds have no independent state, they have no representative team in
FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
or the
AFC; however a team representing
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan ( ku, باشووری کوردستان, Başûrê Kurdistanê) refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia, which also incl ...
has been active in the
Viva World Cup
The VIVA World Cup was an international association football tournament organized by the New Federation Board, an umbrella association for teams unaffiliated with FIFA, held five times between 2006 and 2012. It is succeeded by the newly organiz ...
since 2008. They became runners-up in 2009 and 2010, before ultimately becoming champion in 2012.
On a national level, the Kurdish clubs of Iraq have achieved success in recent years as well, winning the
Iraqi Premier League
The Iraqi Premier League ( ar, الدوري العراقي الممتاز) is the top level of the Iraqi football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it is operated by the Iraq Football Association (IFA) and operates on a system of promotion ...
four times in the last five years. Prominent clubs are
Erbil SC
Erbil Sports Club ( ar, نادي أربيل الرياضي, ) is a sports club based in the city of Erbil, Kurdistan Region that plays in the Iraqi Premier League, the first-tier of Iraqi football. The club is also known as "Yaney Hewlêr", th ...
,
Duhok SC
Duhok Sports Club ( ar, نادي دهوك الرياضي, ku, یانهیا وهرزشی یا دهوکێ), founded in 1970, is a Kurdish professional sports club, based in Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan, that competes in the Iraqi Premier League, ...
,
Sulaymaniyah FC and
Zakho FC
Zakho Sport Club, also spelled as Zaxo Sport Club ( ku-2, یانا زاخو یا وهرزشی / ''Yana Zaxo ya Werzişî'') is a sports club based in Zakho, Iraqi Kurdistan. Zakho SC's biggest rivals are also their neighbours Duhok SC, with wh ...
.
In Turkey, a Kurd named
Celal Ibrahim Celal is both a masculine Turkish given name and a surname. It is the Turkish form of the Arabic word Jalal (جلال), which means "majesty". Notable people with the name include:
Given name
* Celal Al (born 1984), Turkish actor
* Celal Esat Ar ...
was one of the founders of
Galatasaray S.K. in 1905, as well as one of the original players. The most prominent Kurdish-Turkish club is
Diyarbakirspor. In the diaspora, the most successful Kurdish club is
Dalkurd FF
Dalkurd Fotbollsförening, commonly known as Dalkurd FF or simply Dalkurd () is a Swedish football club based in Uppsala. The club plays in the Ettan Norra, which is the third tier of football in the country. On 26 September 2004, the club was ...
and the most famous player is
Eren Derdiyok
Eren Derdiyok (born 12 June 1988) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a striker. He is a former Swiss international.
Early life
Derdiyok was born in Basel, Switzerland, into a Kurdish family from Turkey. He also holds Turkish cit ...
.
Another prominent sport is wrestling. In
Iranian Wrestling Iranian wrestling or Koshti ( fa, کشتی, koshti) is a form of submission grappling that has been practiced since ancient times in Iran. A form today is koshti pahlavani practiced in the zurkhaneh. while regional variations differ from one provi ...
, there are three styles originating from Kurdish regions:
*Zhir-o-Bal (a style similar to
Greco-Roman wrestling
Greco-Roman (American English), Graeco-Roman (British English), classic wrestling (Euro English) or French wrestling (in Russia until 1948) is a style of wrestling that is practiced worldwide. Greco-Roman wrestling was included in the first mod ...
), practised in
Kurdistan
Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...
,
Kermanshah
Kermanshah ( fa, کرمانشاه, Kermânšâh ), also known as Kermashan (; romanized: Kirmaşan), is the capital of Kermanshah Province, located from Tehran in the western part of Iran. According to the 2016 census, its population is 946,68 ...
and
Ilam;
[Pahlevani Research Institute]
The Way of Traditional Persian Wrestling Styles
' Retrieved 7 July 2013.
*Zouran-Patouleh, practised in
Kurdistan
Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...
;
*Zouran-Machkeh, practised in
Kurdistan
Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...
as well.
Furthermore, the most accredited of the traditional Iranian wrestling styles, the Bachoukheh, derives its name from a local Khorasani Kurdish costume in which it is practised.
Kurdish medalists in the
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
were
Nur Tatar
Nur Tatar Askari (born August 16, 1992 in Van, Turkey) is a world and European champion Turkish female taekwondo practitioner competing in the feather, light and welterweight divisions. She is of Kurdish descent.
She was a member of the TSE Spo ...
,
Kianoush Rostami
Kianoush Rostami ( fa, کیانوش رستمی, born 23 July 1991) is an Iranian Kurdish Olympic weightlifter, Olympian weightlifter. He competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics, in the 85 kg event, winning the gold medal and setting a new world rec ...
and Yezidi
Misha Aloyan
Mikhail Surenovich Aloyan (russian: Михаил Суренович Алоян; born 23 August 1988) is a Russian professional boxer who challenged for the WBO bantamweight title in 2018. As an amateur flyweight Aloyan won gold medals at the ...
; who won medals in
taekwondo
''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. T ...
,
weightlifting
Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People lift various kinds of weights for a variety of different reasons. These may include various types of competition; promo ...
and
boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
, respectively.
Architecture
![Arbil Citadel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Arbil_Citadel.jpg)
The traditional Kurdish village has simple houses, made of mud. In most cases with flat, wooden roofs, and, if the village is built on the slope of a mountain, the roof on one house makes for the garden of the house one level higher. However, houses with a beehive-like roof, not unlike those in
Harran
Harran (), historically known as Carrhae ( el, Kάρραι, Kárrhai), is a rural town and district of the Şanlıurfa Province in southeastern Turkey, approximately 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Urfa and 20 kilometers from the border cr ...
, are also present.
Over the centuries many Kurdish architectural marvels have been erected, with varying styles. Kurdistan boasts many examples from ancient Iranian, Roman, Greek and Semitic origin, most famous of these include
Bisotun
Bisotun ( fa, بيستون; also Romanized as Bīsotūn; also known as Bīsītan and Bīsītūn) is a city and capital of Bisotun District, in Harsin County, Kermanshah Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 2,075, in 527 famil ...
and
Taq-e Bostan
Taq-e Bostan ( fa, طاق بستان, ) is a site with a series of large rock reliefs from the era of the Sassanid Empire of Persia (Iran), carved around the 4th century CE.
This example of Persian Sassanid art is located 5 km from the ...
in Kermanshah, Takht-e Soleyman near Takab, Mount Nemrud near Adiyaman and the citadels of Erbil and Diyarbakir.
The first genuinely Kurdish examples extant were built in the 11th century. Those earliest examples consist of the Marwanid Dicle Bridge in Diyarbakir, the Shadaddid Ani, Minuchir Mosque in Ani, and the Krak des Chevaliers, Hisn al Akrad near Homs.
In the 12th and 13th centuries the Ayyubid dynasty constructed many buildings throughout the Middle East, being influenced by their predecessors, the Fatimids, and their rivals, the Crusaders, whilst also developing their own techniques. Furthermore, women of the Ayyubid family took a prominent role in the patronage of new constructions. The Ayyubids' most famous works are the Halil-ur-Rahman Mosque that surrounds the Şanlıurfa, Pool of Sacred Fish in Urfa, the Citadel of Cairo and most parts of the Citadel of Aleppo. Another important piece of Kurdish architectural heritage from the late 12th/early 13th centuries is the Yezidi pilgrimage site Lalish, with its trademark conical roofs.
In later periods too, Kurdish rulers and their corresponding dynasties and emirates would leave their mark upon the land in the form mosques, castles and bridges, some of which have decayed, or have been (partly) destroyed in an attempt to erase the Kurdish cultural heritage, such as the White Castle of the Bohtan Emirate. Well-known examples are Hosap Castle of the 17th century, Sherwana Castle of the early 18th century, and the Ellwen Bridge of Khanaqin of the 19th century.
Most famous is the Ishak Pasha Palace of Dogubeyazit, a structure with heavy influences from both Anatolian and Iranian architectural traditions. Construction of the Palace began in 1685, led by Colak Abdi Pasha, a Kurdish bey of the Ottoman Empire, but the building would not be completed until 1784, by his grandson, Ishak Pasha. Containing almost 100 rooms, including a mosque, dining rooms, dungeons and being heavily decorated by hewn-out ornaments, this Palace has the reputation as being one of the finest pieces of architecture of the Ottoman Period, and of Anatolia.
In recent years, the KRG has been responsible for the renovation of several historical structures, such as Erbil Citadel and the Mudhafaria Minaret.
Genetics
A 2005 study genetically examined three different groups of Zazas, Zaza and Kurds in Turkey, Kurmanji speakers in Turkey and Kurds in Georgia, Kurmanji speakers in Georgia. In the study, mtDNA HV1 sequences, eleven Y chromosome bi-allelic markers and 9 Y-STR loci were analyzed to investigate lineage relationship among Kurdish groups. When both mtDNA and Y chromosome data are compared with those of the Demographics of Europe, European, Peoples of the Caucasus, Caucasian, Demographics of the Middle East, West Asian and Demographics of Central Asia, Central Asian groups, it has been determined that the Kurdish groups are most closely related to West Asians and the furthest to Central Asians. Among the European and Caucasian groups, Kurds were found to be closer to Europeans than Caucasians when considering mtDNA, and the opposite was true for Y chromosome. This indicates a difference in maternal and paternal origins of Kurdish groups. According to the study, Kurdish groups in Georgia went through a genetic bottleneck while migrating to the Caucasus. It has also been revealed that these groups were not influenced by other Caucasian groups in terms of ancestry. Another phenomenon found in the research was that Zazas are closer to Kurdish groups rather than peoples of Northern Iran, where ancestral Zaza language hypothesized to be spoken before its spread to Anatolia.
11 different Y-DNA haplogroups have been identified in Kurmanji-speaking Kurds in Turkey. Haplogroup I-M170 was the most prevalent with 16.1% of the samples belonging to it, followed by Haplogroup J-M172, haplogroups J-M172 (13.8%), R1a1 (12.7%), Haplogroup K-M9, K (12.7%), Haplogroup E-M96, E (11.5%) and Haplogroup F-M89, F (11.5%). Haplogroup P1 (Y-DNA), P1 (8%), Haplogroup P (Y-DNA), P (5.7%), Haplogroup R1, R1 (4.6%), Haplogroup G-M201, G (2.3%) and Haplogroup C-M130, C (1.1%) haplogroups were also present in lower proportions. Y-DNA haplogroup diversity were determined to be much lower among Georgian Kurds, as 5 haplogroups were discovered in total, where the dominant haplogroups were P1 (44%) and J-M172 (32%). The lowest Y-DNA haplogroup diversity was observed in Kurds in Turkmenistan, Turkmenistan Kurds with only 4 haplogroups in total; Haplogroup F-M89, F (41%) and R1 (29%) were dominant in this population.
Modern Kurdish-majority entities and governments
*Kurdistan Region (1992 to date) – Autonomous region in Iraq
*Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (2013 to date) – Autonomy of Syria
Gallery
File:Mercier. Kurde (Asie). Auguste Wahlen. Moeurs, usages et costumes de tous les peuples du monde. 1843.jpg, Mercier. Kurde (Asie) by Auguste Wahlen, 1843
File:AmadeoPreziosi1816 1882.jpg, Kurdish warriors by Amadeo Preziosi
File:3. Turquie d'Asia - 3. Vilayet de Koniah - 10. Planche.png, Armenian, Turkish and Kurdish females in their traditional clothes, 1873
File:Zakho Kurds by Albert Kahn.jpg, Zakho
Zakho, also spelled Zaxo ( ku, زاخۆ, Zaxo, syr, ܙܵܟ݂ܘܿ, Zākhō, , ) is a city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, at the centre of the eponymous Zakho District of the Dohuk Governorate, located a few kilometers from the Iraq–Turkey b ...
Kurds by Albert Kahn (banker), Albert Kahn, 1910s
File:Kurdish Cavalry in the Caucasus Mountains. The New York Times, January 24, 1915.jpg, Kurdish Cavalry in the passes of the Caucasus mountains (''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', January 24, 1915)
File:Jina-kurd-kurdish-woman-kurt-kadini.jpg, A Kurdish woman from Kirkuk, 1922
File:A Jaf chief, S. Kurdistan.jpg, A Kurdish chief
File:Antoin Sevruguin 1 kurdish woman.jpg, A Kurdish woman from Piranshahr, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, Antoin Sevruguin
File:Nowruz 2017 in Bisaran, Kurdistan province.jpg, A Kurdish woman and a child from Bisaran, Eastern Kurdistan, 2017
File:A group of Kurdish men with traditional clothing at Hawraman, Kurdistan.jpg, A group of Kurdish men with traditional clothing, Hawraman
File:Guard at Citadel - Erbil - Iraq.jpg, A Kurdish man wearing traditional clothes, Erbil
File:YPJ - Rojava.jpg, A Kurdish woman fighter from Rojava
See also
References
Explanatory notes
Citations
General and cited references
*
*
*
*
* Barth, F. 1953. ''Principles of Social Organization in Southern Kurdistan.'' Bulletin of the University Ethnographic Museum 7. Oslo.
* Hansen, H.H. 1961. ''The Kurdish Woman's Life.'' Copenhagen. Ethnographic Museum Record 7:1–213.
*
* Leach, E.R. 1938. ''Social and Economic Organization of the Rowanduz Kurds.'' London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology 3:1–74.
* Longrigg, S.H. 1953. ''Iraq, 1900–1950.'' London.
* Masters, W.M. 1953. ''Rowanduz.'' Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan.
* McKiernan, Kevin. 2006. ''The Kurds, a People in Search of Their Homeland''. New York: St. Martin's Press.
*
*
Further reading
* Samir Amin (October 2016).
The Kurdish Question Then and Now'' in Monthly Review, Volume 68, Issue 05
* Dundas, Chad. "Kurdish Americans." ''Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America'', edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 3, Gale, 2014), 3:41-52
online* Eppel, Michael. ''A People Without a State: The Kurds from the Rise of Islam to the Dawn of Nationalism'', 2016, University of Texas Press
* Maisel, Sebastian, ed. ''The Kurds: An Encyclopedia of Life, Culture, and Society''. ABC-Clio, 2018.
* Shareef, Mohammed. ''The United States, Iraq and the Kurds: shock, awe and aftermath'' (Routledge, 2014).
Historiography
*
* Meho, Lokman I., ed. ''The Kurdish Question in U.S. Foreign Policy: A Documentary Sourcebook'' (Praeger, 2004).
* Sharif, Nemat.
A Brief History of Kurds and Kurdistan: Part I: From the Advent of Islam to AD 1750. The International Journal of Kurdish Studies 10.1/2 (1996): 105.
External links
The Kurdish Institute of ParisKurdish language, history, books and latest news articles.
The Encyclopaedia of KurdistanIstanbul Kurdish InstituteKurdish Library supported by the Sweden, Swedish Government.
Ethnic Cleansing and the Kurdsby Zurab Aloian
"The Other Iraq" Kurdish Information Website
The Kurdish issue in Turkey
A report on the Kurdish IDP's – 2005*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kurdish People
Kurdish people,
Ethnic groups in the Arab world
Ethnic groups divided by international borders
Ancient peoples of the Near East