Kurds in France may refer to people born in or residing in

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 ...

of full or partial

Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Ir ...

origin. There is a large Kurdish community in France, numbering around 240,000 people. This makes the Kurdish community in France the second largest Kurdish community in the Kurdish diaspora, after

Kurds in Germany Kurds in Germany are residents or citizens of Germany of full or partial Kurdish origin. There is a large Kurdish community in Germany. The number of Kurds living in Germany is unknown. Many estimates assume that the number is in the million ran ...

Immigration history

, Kurdish immigrant workers from

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

first arrived in the second half of the 1960s. Thousands of political

Kurdish refugees The problem of Kurdish refugees and displaced people arose in the 20th century in the Middle East, and continues today. The Kurds ( ku, کورد, Kurd), are an ethnic group in Western Asia, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which inclu ...

fled from Turkey during the 1970s and onward, from

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

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 ...

during the 1980s and 1990s, and from

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 ...

during the Syrian Civil War.

Political activism

In October 2014, Kurds in France and other European countries marched in protest at what they perceived as Turkish collaboration with the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic ter ...

during the Siege of Kobani. On 25 July 2015, Kurds marched in Paris to protest Turkish airstrikes in Iraqi Kurdistan on

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 south ...

(PKK) positions. On 12 October 2019, thousands of Kurds in France marched to protest the

2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria The 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria, code-named Operation Peace Spring ( tr, Barış Pınarı Harekâtı) by Turkey, was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and the Syrian National Arm ...

. On 23 December 2022, Kurdish protests responding to the mass shooting of Kurds in Paris turned into violent demonstrations. The indifferent attitude of the French police in providing security to the Kurdish minority paved the way for clashes between members of Kurdish community and French police.

References

{{Portal bar, France, Kurdistan Ethnic groups in France French people of Kurdish descent Middle Eastern diaspora in France Muslim communities in Europe Kurdish people Kurdish culture in France