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Kurd

 
Dictionary: Kurd   (kûrd, kʊrd) pronunciation
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n.
A member of a pastoral and agricultural people inhabiting the transnational region of Kurdistan in southwest Asia.


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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Kurd
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Member of an ethnic and linguistic group native to parts of what are now Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, and Syria (see Kurdistan). Kurds speak one of two dialects of Kurdish, a West Iranian language related to Modern Persian. Traditionally nomadic, most were forced into farming by the redrawing of state borders after World War I (1914 – 18). Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims; Sufism is widely practiced. Plans for a Kurdish state, promised by the Treaty of Sèvres (1920), which dissolved the Ottoman Empire, were never realized. Kurds in Turkey, Iran, and Iraq have been variously persecuted and pressured to assimilate; Iraqi attacks were particularly severe during the Iran-Iraq War (1980 – 88) and following the Persian Gulf War (1990 – 91). See also Kurdistan Workers' Party.

For more information on Kurd, visit Britannica.com.

Russian History Encyclopedia: Kurds
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The Kurds (or kurmandzh, as they call themselves) are a people of Indo-European origin who claim as their homeland (Kurdistan) the region encompassing the intersection of the borders of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. The name "Kurd" has been officially used only in the Soviet Union; the Turks call them Turkish Highlanders, while Iranians call them Persian Highlanders. Although the Kurdish diaspora throughout the world numbers 30 to 40 million, most Kurds live in the mountains and uplands of the above mentioned countries and number between 10 and 12 million.

The Kurds have never had their own sovereign country, but for a short period in the early 1920s a Kurdish autonomous region existed in Azerbaijan. Although most Kurds live in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, two types of Kurdish peoples lived in the Soviet Union before its collapse: the Balkano-Caucasian Caspian type of the European race akin to the Azerbaijanis, Tats, and Talysh (living in Transcaucasia), and the Central-Asian Kurds such as the Baluchis (living in Tajikistan). Most Muslims of the former Soviet Union resided in Central Asia, but some also lived on the USSR's western borders, as well as in Siberia and near the Chinese border. Ethnically Soviet Muslims included Turkic, Caucasian, and Iranian people. The Kurds, along with the Tats, Talysh, and Baluchis, are Iranian people. In Transcaucasia the Kurds live in enclaves among the main population: in Azerbaijan (in Lyaki, Kelbadjar, Kubatly, and Zangelan); in Armenia (in Aparan, Talin, and Echmiadzin); and in Georgia (scattered in the eastern parts). In Central Asia they lived in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan (along the Iranian border, as well as in Ashkhabad).

The Kurds of Caucasia and Central Asia were isolated for so long from their brethren in the Middle East that their development in the Soviet Union has diverged enough that some consider the Soviet Kurds to be a separate ethnic group. Kurdish is an Indo-European language belonging to the Northwestern Iranian branch and is divided into several dialects. The Kurds of Caucasia and Central Asia speak the kurmandzh dialect. Younger generations of Soviet Kurds in larger cities grew up bilingual, speaking Russian as well. In the main, the Kurds are followers of Islam. The Armenian Kurds are Sunnites, while the Central Asian and Azerbaijani Kurds are Shiite.

In the Russian Federation in the twenty-first century, Kurds are frequently the targets of ethnic violence. Skinheads, incited by Eduard Limonov (a right-wing author and journalist) and Alexander Barkashov (former head of the Russian National Unity Party who openly espouses Nazi beliefs) have assaulted Kurds, Yezids, Meskheti Turks, and other non-Russians, particularly those from the Caucasus. Racism has prevailed even among Russian officials, who have stated that non-Russian ethnic groups such as the Kurds can only be guests in the Krasnodar territory (in the Russian southwest), but not for long.

Bibliography

Bulloch, John, and Harvey Morris. (1992). No Friends but the Mountains: The Tragic History of the Kurds. New York: Oxford University Press.

Chaliand, Gerard. (1993). A People without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan. New York: Olive Branch Press.

Izady, Mehrdad R. (1992). The Kurds: A Concise Handbook. Washington DC: Crane Russak.

Kreyenbroek, Philip G. (1992). The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview. London: Routledge.

Randal, Jonathan C. (1997). After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? My Encounters with Kurdistan. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

—JOHANNA GRANVILLE

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Kurds
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Kurds (kûrds, kʊrds), a non-Arab Middle Eastern minority population that inhabits the region known as Kurdistan, an extensive plateau and mountain area, c.74,000 sq mi (191,660 sq km), in SW Asia, including parts of E Turkey, NE Iraq, and NW Iran and smaller sections of NE Syria and Armenia. The region lies astride the Zagros Mts. (Iran) and the eastern extension of the Taurus Mts. (Turkey) and extends in the south across the Mesopotamian plain and includes the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

As of the late 1990s, there were estimated to be more than 20 million Kurds, about half of them in Turkey, where, making up more than 20% of the population, they dwell mainly near the Iranian frontier around Lake Van and in the vicinity of Diyarbakir and Erzurum. The Kurds in Iran, who constitute some 10% of its people, live principally in Azerbaijan and Khorasan, with some in Fars. The Iraqi Kurds, about 23% of its population, live mostly in the vicinity of Dahuk (Dohuk), Mosul, Erbil, Kirkuk, and Sulaimaniyah.

Ethnically close to the Iranians, the Kurds were traditionally nomadic herders but are now mostly seminomadic or sedentary. The majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslims. Kurdish dialects belong to the northwestern branch of the Iranian languages. The Kurds have traditionally resisted subjugation by other nations. Despite their lack of political unity throughout history, the Kurds, as individuals and in small groups, have had a lasting impact on developments in SW Asia. Saladin, who gained fame during the Crusades, is perhaps the most famous of all Kurds.

History

Commonly identified with the ancient Corduene, which was inhabited by the Carduchi (mentioned in Xenophon), the Kurds were conquered by the Arabs in the 7th cent. The region was held by the Seljuk Turks in the 11th cent., by the Mongols from the 13th to 15th cent., and then by the Safavid and Ottoman Empires. Having been decimated by the Turks in the years between 1915 and 1918 and having struggled bitterly to free themselves from Ottoman rule, the Kurds were encouraged by the Turkish defeat in World War I and by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's plea for self-determination for non-Turkish nationalities in the empire. The Kurds brought their claims for independence to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.

The Treaty of Sèvres (1920), which liquidated the Ottoman Empire, provided for the creation of an autonomous Kurdish state. Because of Turkey's military revival under Kemal Atatürk, however, the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), which superseded Sèvres, failed to mention the creation of a Kurdish nation. Revolts by the Kurds of Turkey in 1925 and 1930 were forcibly quelled. Later (1937-38) aerial bombardment, poison gas, and artillery shelling of Kurdish strongholds by the government resulted in the slaughter of many thousands of Turkey's Kurds. In the British mandate of Iraq, there were unsuccessful uprisings in 1919, 1923, and 1932. The Kurds in Iran also rebelled during the 1920s, and at the end of World War II a Soviet-backed Kurdish "republic" existed briefly.

With the overthrow of the Iraqi monarchy in 1958, the Kurds hoped for greater administration and development projects, which the new Ba'athist government failed to grant. Agitation among Iraq's Kurds for a unified and autonomous Kurdistan led in the 1960s to prolonged warfare between Iraqi troops and the Kurds under Mustafa al-Barzani. In 1970, Iraq finally promised local self-rule to the Kurds, with the city of Erbil as the capital of the Kurdish area. The Kurds refused to accept the terms of the agreement, however, contending that the president of Iraq would retain real authority and demanding that Kirkuk, an important oil center, be included in the autonomous Kurdish region.

In 1974 the Iraqi government sought to impose its plan for limited autonomy in Kurdistan. It was rejected by the Kurds, and heavy fighting erupted. After the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran (1979), the government there launched a murderous campaign against its Kurdish inhabitants as well as a program to assassinate Kurdish leaders. Iraqi attacks on the Kurds continued throughout the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), culminating (1988) in poison gas attacks on Kurdish villages to quash resistance and in the rounding up and execution of male Kurds, all of which resulted in the killing of some 200,000 in that year alone.

With the end of the Persian Gulf War (1991), yet another Kurdish uprising against Iraqi rule was crushed by Iraqi forces; nearly 500,000 Kurds fled to the Iraq-Turkey border, and more than one million fled to Iran. Thousands of Kurds subsequently returned to their homes under UN protection. In 1992 the Kurds established an "autonomous region" in N Iraq and held a general election. However, the Kurds were split into two opposed groups, the Kurdistan Democratic party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which engaged in sporadic warfare.

In 1999 the two groups agreed to end hostilities; control of the region is divided between them. Kurdish forces aided the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, joining with U.S. and British forces to seize the traditionally Kurdish cities of Kirkuk and Mosul. Turkish fears of any attempt by Iraqi Kurds to proclaim their independence from Iraq-and thus revive the longstanding hopes of Turkish Kurds for independence (see below)-led Turkey to threaten to intervene in N Iraq. Although Kurds were given a limited veto over constitutional changes in the subsequent interim Iraqi constitution (2004), many Iraqi Shiites found this unacceptable. Kurdish leaders were wary, as a result, of political developments as the United States ceded sovereignty to a new Iraqi government. In 2004 the two main Iraqi Kurdish groups agreed to unify the administration of Iraq's Kurdish region, but that had not been achieved by Jan., 2006, when an additional unification agreement was signed. Subsequently, Kurds' desires to have have Kirkuk included in the Kurdish region and to have Kurdish control over oil resources in the region have led to tensions with the central Iraqi government and with other Iraqi ethnic groups.

In Turkey, where the government has long attempted to suppress Kurdish culture, fighting erupted in the mid-1980s, mainly in SE Turkey, between government forces and guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which was established in 1984. The PKK has also engaged in terrorist attacks. In 1992 the Turkish government again mounted a concerted attack on its Kurdish minority, killing more than 20,000 and creating about two million refugees. In 1995 and 1997, Turkey waged military campaigns against PKK base camps in northern Iraq, and in 1999 it captured the guerrillas' leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who was subsequently condemned to death. The PKK announced in Feb., 2000, that they would end their attacks, but the arrest the same month of the Kurdish mayors of Diyarbakir and other towns on charges of aiding the rebels threatened to revive the unrest.

Reforms passed in 2002 and 2003 to facilitate Turkish entrance in the European Union included ending bans on private education in Kurdish and on giving children Kurdish names; also, emergency rule in SE Turkey was ended. However, in 2004, following Turkish actions against it, the PKK announced that it would end the cease-fire and resumed its attacks. In 2006 there was renewed fighting with Kurdish rebels and outbreaks of civil unrest involving Kurds; an offshoot of the PKK also mounted bomb attacks in a number of Turkish cities. In Sept., 2006, and again in June, 2007, the PKK unilaterally declared cease-fires, but Turkey rejected them, and fighting continued, at times spilling over into Iraq and threatening to become a wider war involving Iraqi Kurds. Beginning in Oct., 2007, Turkey launched a series of attacks into N Iraq, including a significant ground incursion in Feb., 2008. Some 40,000 people are thought to have died in Kurdish-Turkish fighting since the mid-1980s. The legal Democratic Society party is now the principal civilian Kurdish voice in Turkey; in the most recent parliamentary elections (2007), it won 20 seats. It has called for expanded rights for Kurds and autonomy for largely Kurdish SE Turkey.

There were also clashes between the Kurds of Turkey and Iraq in the 1990s and Kurdish unrest in Syria in 2004 and Syria and Iran in 2005. In 2007, Iran shelled Kurdish positions in Iraq in retaliation for Kurdish rebel operations in Iran.

Bibliography

See G. Chaliand, ed., People without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan (1980); R. Olson, The Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism and the Sheikh Said Rebellion (1989); D. McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds (1996).

Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia: Kurds
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People of Aryan origin who live in an area that embraces the highlands of eastern Anatolia and the northwest Zagros Mountains.

Kurds have been living for millennia in the region they call Kurdistan, which is divided today among five countries: Turkey (15 million), Iraq (5 million), Iran (8 million), Syria (1.5 million), and the Caucasus of the former Soviet Armenia (500,000).

History

Scholars debate whether the Kurds originally belonged to a group of Iranian (Indo-European - speaking) populations living around Lake Urmia who migrated westward during the seventh century B.C.E.; others emphasize the indigenous character of the Kurds living in the Taurus and Zagros mountain ranges since antiquity. Clearly, they have always been seen by their neighbors as a people apart, as documented by the medieval geographer Abu Ishaq al-Farsi some thousand years ago.

Their history becomes clear after the conquest of Tikrit by Islam, when Caliph Omar's troops prevailed in 637 C.E. Arab chronicles detail Kurdish revolts against their successive masters; they also tell of the rise of Kurdish dynasties - the Shahdids, the Hasanwayhids, and the Merwanids.

Playing upon the rivalry between the Ottoman Turks and the Iranians, the Kurds managed a measure of autonomy in the nineteenth century, and Amir Bedir Khan (1805 - 1870) ruled as the "un-crowned king of Kurdistan" over a large portion of Ottoman Kurdistan in the 1840s. After World War I and the demise of the Ottoman Empire, Kurdistan was apportioned to Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey (the Caucasus region had been within Russia since the beginning of the early 1800s). There were numerous Kurdish revolts led by religious or tribal leaders including Simko in Iran, Shaykh Mahmud Barzinji in Iraq, and Shaykh Said Piran in Turkey.

Kurdish Culture

Despite the influence of the neighboring cultures and the displacements of populations, and despite the campaigns of open or covert assimilation, Kurdish identity asserted itself by use of the Kurdish language, although the majority of the population is illiterate. Kurdish is not a dialect of Persian as some writers have claimed, but an Indo-European language of the western Indo-Iranian branch. Kurdish (or Kurdi) is characterized by a distinct grammar and syntax and by its own rich vocabulary.

Linguists working in France at the Paris-based Institut Kurde have been editing a dictionary of 50,000 words. There are three main Kurdish dialects: the Kurmandji, spoken in Turkey and in the northern part of Iraqi Kurdistan; the Sorani, used in Iran and in southern Iraqi Kurdistan; and the Zaza, also spoken in Turkey. Since the Kurdish people are subjected to national borders, the Kurdish language is written in three different types of characters: the Latin, or Roman, alphabet in Turkey and Syria; the Arabic alphabet in Iraq and Persia; and the Cyrillic alphabet in the former Soviet Union. Although, or because, Kurds are forbidden by many governments of the region to study their own language at school, they demonstrate a passion for their own idiom. There is a Kurdish proverb or saying for every situation, and daily life inspires popular songs (often about love and death, but also about war and hunting). Stirred by the feats of their leaders, poets have written epics that are memorized and transmitted from generation to generation; one of these is Ahmad Khani's Mem o Zin, the Kurdish Romeo and Juliet.

Religion

Most of the Kurds adhere to Sunni Islam, save for some districts of Turkey where they are Alevis and the southern part of Iranian Kurdistan where they are Shiʿa and Ahl-e Haqq (which, both in Turkey and in Iran, negatively affects their relationship to the Kurdish national movement). Sufism is traditionally very strong in Kurdistan. After the demise of the principal Kurdish feudal leaders, the Kurdish revolts of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century were led by religious shaykhs belonging to one or another of the great dervish orders, particularly the Qadiriyya order or the Naqshbandi.

Observing a tolerant Islam that is marked by holdovers from Zoroastrianism such as the celebration of the new year (Nowruz) on 21 March, Sunni Kurds have coexisted for centuries with a number of Kurdish minorities, including Yazidis, who live around Jabal Sinjar; Ahl-e Haqq in the region straddling the border between Iraq and Iran; Shiʿa in the Kermanshah region of Iran; Jews in Badinan, Iraq (until the 1950s) and Kermanshah Iran; and Nestorians - Christian Assyrians, by far the largest group. This coexistence is mostly peaceful, but it has been marred by some conflicts that contributed to a negative opinion of the Kurds in the West. In 1846, Amir Badr Khan invaded the Nestorian districts, provoking a violent reaction in Europe and a punitive Ottoman expedition that led to his capture. At the end of the nineteenth century and during World War I, the Kurds participated in the Turks' mass killing of Armenians. In February 1918 Simko, the leader of the Kurdish revolt in Iran, assassinated the Mar Shamʿun, the Nestorian patriarch - an act that was condemned by other Kurdish leaders such as the Barzani family.

Anthropology, Ethnography, Sociology

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Kurdish society was not very different from the Kurdistan depicted in eighteenth- or nineteenth-century European travelers' narratives: Feudal chiefs were living in castles in relative luxury while peasants lived in natural caves or in mud huts, cultivating wheat and barley, tobacco and rice; most Kurds were nomads or seminomads, spending the summers with their herds of sheep and goats in the mountains and migrating back with them to the lowlands in the winters. The big tribes - the Herki, the Jaf, and the Shikak - were known by their number of tents (1,600 tents for such a tribe, and so many guns for one tent). The Kurds lived outside the towns, which were inhabited mainly by Turkish soldiers, officials, and merchants, as well as by Jews, Armenians, and other Christian minorities.

There were a few historical cities that served as trade centers for many centuries. These included Diyarbakir, Sulaymaniyya, and Bitlis in Ottoman Kurdistan, and Kermanshah and Sanandaj in Iranian Kurdistan. In Kurdish villages land tenure was conservative, with aghas owning the land - sometimes several villages - on which the poor peasants were working and paying a rent of as much as half their annual crop. Traditional Kurdish society has been seriously eroded by the exploitation of petroleum in Kirkuk and by Saddam Hussein's wars in Iraqi Kurdistan; by the policy of systematic destruction of the tribal system by the Pahlavi shahs of Iran; and by Turkey's policy of repression and assimilation, in particular during the fifteen-year-long war against the Kurdistan Workers Party (1984 - 1999). Most Kurds live now in the villages and in the big cities of Kurdistan, although a number of them have looked for refuge in Istanbul, Tehran, Baghdad, or Western Europe, where the Kurdish diaspora (over half a million Kurds in Germany alone) has prompted calls for a political solution to the Kurdish issue.

Bibliography

Ghassemlou, Abdul Rahman. Kurdistan and the Kurds. Prague: Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, 1965.

McDowall, David. A Modern History of the Kurds, 2d revised and updated edition. New York and London: I. B. Tauris, 2000.

Olson, Robert. The Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism and theSheikh Said Rebellion, 1880 - 1925. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989.

Van Bruinessen, Martin. Aghas, Shaikhs, and State. London: Zed Books, 1992.

— CHRIS KUTSCHERA

Politics: Kurds
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(kurdz, koordz)

A linguistically and culturally distinct people who inhabit parts of Syria, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and the former Soviet Union. Once part of the Ottoman Empire, they long have sought an independent nation-state, but without success. After his defeat in the Persian Gulf War, Saddam Hussein brutally repressed rebellious Kurds in northern Iraq.

Wikipedia: Kurdish people
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Kurd redirects here. For the 1848–1910 German author, see Kurd Lasswitz.
Kurds/Kurdi
Ac.saladin.jpg Ehmed Xani.jpg ჩობან აღა.pngJalal Talabani.jpg BahmanGhobadi2.JPGFeleknas Uca.jpg
Saladin • Ahmad Xani • Sherefxan Bitlisi • Jalal Talabani •  •Bahman Ghobadi •Feleknas Uca
Total population
24 to 30 million
Regions with significant populations
   Turkey 11.4 to 14 million [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
   Iran 4.8 to 7 million [8][7]
   Iraq 4 to 6.5 million [9][7]
   Syria 1.6 million [10]
 
   Afghanistan 200,000 [11]
   Azerbaijan 150,000 [11]
   Israel 100,000 [12]
   Russia 100,000 [13]
   Armenia 45,000 [11]
   Germany 500,000 -800,000 [11][13]
   France 50,000 [14]
Languages

Kurdish
In its different forms: Sorani,Zazaki, Kurmanji , and Fayli Southern dialects, also: Arabic, Persian & Turkish
Religion

Predominantly Sunni Muslim
also some Shia, Yazidism, Yarsan, Judaism, Christianity
Related ethnic groups

other Iranian peoples
(Talysh • Baluch • Gilak • Lurs • Persians)

The Kurds (Kurdish: کورد / Kurd) are an Ethnic-Iranian ethnolinguistic group mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. Substantial Kurdish communities also exist in the cities of western Turkey, and they can also be found in Armenia, Georgia, Israel, Azerbaijan, Russia, Lebanon and, in recent decades, some European countries and the United States (see Kurdish diaspora). Most speak Kurdish, an Indo-European language of the Iranian branch.

Contents

Language

Main article: Kurdish languages

"Kurdish" is not a firm and standardized linguistic entity with the status of an official or state language. Kurdish is a continuum of closely related dialects that are spoken in a large geographic area spanning several national states, in some of these states forming one, or several, regional substandards (e.g., Kurmanji in Turkey; Sorani in northern Iraq).[15]

Today the term Kurdish language (Kurdish: Kurdî or کوردی) is a term used for several Iranian languages spoken by Kurds. It is mainly concentrated in parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.[16]

The Kurdish languages belong to the north-western sub-group of the Iranian languages, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. The older Hurrian language of the people inhabiting the Kurdish areas was replaced by Indo-European around 850 BCE, with the arrival of the Medes to Western Iran.[17]

Most Kurds are bilingual or polylingual, speaking the languages of the surrounding peoples such as Arabic, Turkish and Persian as a second language. Kurdish Jews and some Kurdish Christians (not be confused with ethnic Assyrians of Kurdistan) usually speak Aramaic (for example: Lishana Deni) as their first language. Aramaic is a Semitic language related to Hebrew and Arabic rather than Kurdish.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, The Kurdish language has two main groups:[18]

and several sub-dialects:

Although specialized sources consider Zaza-Gorani [19][20] to be separate languages which share a large number of words with Kurdish , the general term Kurd has, nevertheless, historically been used to designate also these groups.

Commenting on the differences between the "dialects" of Kurdish, Kreyenbroek clarifies that in some ways, Kurmanji and Sorani are as different from each other as English and German, giving the example that Kurmanji has grammatical gender and case-endings, but Sorani does not, and observing that referring to Sorani and Kurmanji as "dialects" of one language is supported only by "their common origin...and the fact that this usage reflects the sense of ethnic identity and unity of the Kurds."[21]

Population

The number of Kurds living in Southwest Asia is estimated at around 30 million, with another million living in diaspora. Kurds are the fourth largest ethnicity in the Middle East after Arabs, Persians and Turks.

According to the CIA World Factbook, Kurds comprise 18% of the population in Turkey[22], 15-20% in Iraq, perhaps 8% in Syria,[23] 7% in Iran and 1.3% in Armenia. In all of these countries except Iran, Kurds form the second largest ethnic group. Roughly 55% of the world's Kurds live in Turkey, about 18% each in Iran and Iraq, and a bit over 5% in Syria.[24]

McDowall has estimated that in 1991 the Kurds comprised 19% of the population in Turkey, 23% in Iraq, 10% in Iran, and 8% in Syria. The total number of Kurds in 1991 was in this estimate placed at 22.5 million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 18% in Iraq, 24% in Iran, and 4% in Syria.[25]

Kurdish costumes, 1873.

Origins and History

Main article: History of the Kurdish people
Kurdish Jews in Rawanduz, 1905

"Certainly by the time of the Islamic conquests a thousand years later, and probably for some time before, the term 'Kurd' had a socio-economic rather than ethnic meaning. It was used of nomads on the western edge of the Iranian plateau and probably also of the tribes that acknowledged the Sassanians in Mesopotamia, many of which must have been Semitic in origin."[26]

However the contemporary authors who take this term as an "ethnic group" have suggested the Medes[27], Cyrtians[28] and Carduchi[29] as possible ancestors of the "Kurds". Most Kurds consider themselve among the descendents of Medes.[21] Among some scholars however there are some disagreements: MacKenzie challenges relation of Median language to Kurdish[21] and Dandamaev consider Carduchi (who were from the upper Tigris near the Assyrian and Median borders) less likely than Cyrtians as ancestors of modern Kurds.[30] However according to McDowall, the term Cyrtii was first applied to Seleucid or Parthian mercenary slingers from Zagros, and it is not clear if it denoted a coherent linguistic or ethnic group[31].The Medes were an Iranian people who overthrew the Assyrians in 612 B.C. and were later absorbed in the Achaemenid empire. The Cyrtians (Greek: Kurtioi, Latin: Cyrtii) is an ancient tribe mentioned to be in Media, Armenia and Persia by Greek geographers such as Strabo. The Carduchi are mentioned by Xenophon and opposed the retreat of the Ten Thousand through the mountains north of Mesopotamia in the 4th century BC. Gershevitch and Fisher consider the independent Kardouchoi or Carduchi as the ancestors of the Kurds, or at least the original nucleus of the Iranian-speaking people in what is now Kurdistan.[29]

Medieval period

Kurdish Cavalry in the passes of the Caucasus mountains (The New York Times, January 24, 1915).

In the seventh century, the Arabs possessed the castles and fortifications of the Kurds. The conquest of the cities of Sharazor and Aradbaz took place in 643 CE. In 846 CE, one of the leaders of the Kurds in Mosul revolted against the Caliph Al Mo'tasam who sent the commander Aitakh to combat against him. Aitakh won this war and killed many of the Kurds. The Kurds revolted again in 903 CE, during the period of Almoqtadar. Eventually Arabs conquered the Kurdish regions and gradually converted the majority of Kurds to Islam. In the second half of the tenth century, the Kurdish area was shared among four big Kurdish principalities. In the north were the Shaddadid (951–1174) in parts of present-day Armenia and Arran, and the Rawadid (955–1221) in Tabriz and Maragheh. In the east were the Hasanwayhids (959–1015) and the Annazid (990–1117) in Kermanshah, Dinawar and Khanaqin. In the west were the Marwanid (990–1096) of Diyarbakır. After these, the Ayyubid (1171–1250) of Syria and the Ardalan dynasty (14th century to 1867) were established in present-day Khanaqin, Kirkuk and Sinne.

Kurdish Communities in West Asia

Further information: Kurdistan

In Iraq

Main articles: Iraqi Kurdistan and 1988 Anfal campaign

Kurds make around 17% of Iraq's population. They are the majority in at least three provinces in northern Iraq which are together known as Iraqi Kurdistan. Kurds also have a presence in Kirkuk, Mosul, Khanaqin, and Baghdad. Around 300,000 Kurds live in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, 50,000 in the city of Mosul and around 100,000 elsewhere in southern Iraq.[32]

Kurdish Children in Sulaimaniyah

Kurds led by Mustafa Barzani 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.[33] However, at the same time, the Iraqi regime started an Arabization program in the oil-rich regions of Kirkuk and Khanaqin.[34] 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.[35] Between 1975 and 1978, 200,000 Kurds were deported to other parts of Iraq.[36]

During the Iran-Iraq War 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 campaign of Iraqi government against Kurds in 1988 was called Anfal ("Spoils of War"). The Anfal attacks led to destruction of two thousand villages and death of 50,000 to 100,000 Kurds.[37]

The President of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, meeting with U.S. officials in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 26, 2006.

After the Kurdish uprising in 1991 (Kurdish: Raperîn) led by the PUK and KDP, Iraqi troops recaptured the Kurdish areas and hundreds of thousand of Kurds fled to the Turkish border. A delegation lead by Dlawer Ala'Aldeen persuaded the British Government to intervene and alleviate the situation.[38] A "safe haven" was established by the UN Security Council. The autonomous Kurdish area was mainly controlled by the rival parties KDP and PUK. The Kurdish population welcomed the American troops in 2003 by holding celebrations and dancing in the streets.[39][40][41][42] The area controlled by peshmerga was expanded, and Kurds now have effective control in Kirkuk and parts of Mosul. By the beginning of 2006, the two Kurdish areas were merged into one unified region. A series of referendums are scheduled to be held in 2007, to determine the final borders of the Kurdish region.

In Turkey

Main articles: Kurds in Turkey, Turkish Kurdistan, Human rights in Turkey, and Kurdistan Workers Party

According to CIA Factbook, Kurds formed approximately 18% of the population in Turkey (approximately 14 million) in 2008.[2] In 1980, ethnologue estimated the number of Kurdish-speakers in Turkey at around five million,[43] when the country's population stood at 44 million.[44] 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. During the 1930s and 1940s, the government had disguised the presence of the Kurds statistically by categorizing them as Mountain Turks. This classification was changed to the new euphemism of Eastern Turk in 1980.[45]

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, and names were banned and the Kurdish-inhabited areas remained under martial law until 1946.[46] 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. In quelling the revolt, Turkey was assisted by the close cooperation of its neighboring states such as Soviet Union and Iran.[citation needed] The revolt was organized by a Kurdish party called Khoybun which signed a treaty with the Dashnaksutyun (Armenian Revolutionary Federation) in 1927.[47] By 1970s, Kurdish leftist organizations such as Kurdistan Socialist Part-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.[48]

Kurdish boys, Diyarbakir.

The Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK), also known as KADEK and Kongra-Gel, is considered by the US, the EU, and NATO to be a terrorist organization.[49] It is an ethnic secessionist organization using violence for the purpose of achieving its goal of creating an independent Kurdish state in parts of southeastern Turkey, northeastern Iraq, northeastern Syria and northwestern Iran.

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 to local defensible centers such as Diyarbakır, Van, and Şırnak, as well as to the cities of western Turkey and even to western Europe. The causes of the depopulation included PKK atrocities against Kurdish clans they could not control, the poverty of the southeast, and the Turkish state's military operations.[50]

Officially protected death squads are accused of disappearance of 3,200 Kurds 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 an Islamic extremist group called Hezbollah to assassinate suspected PKK members and often ordinary Kurds.[51] Azimet Köylüoğlu, the state minister of human rights, revealed the extent of security forces' excesses in autumn 1994:[52]

In Iran

a view of Sanandaj, a major city in Iranian Kurdistan.
Main articles: Iranian Kurdistan and History of the Kurds

The Kurdish part of Iran has been a part of this country from historical times. The Kurds constitute today approximately 7% of Iran's overall population. The Persians, Kurds, and speakers of other Indo-European languages in Iran are descendants of the Aryan tribes that began migrating from Central Asia into what is now Iran in the 2nd millennium BCE.[53] According to some sources, "some Kurds in Iran have resisted the Iranian government's efforts, both before and after the revolution of 1979, to assimilate them into the mainstream of national life and, along with their fellow Kurds in adjacent regions of Iraq and Turkey, has sought either regional autonomy or the outright establishment of an independent Kurdish state".[53] While other sources state that "most of the freedoms Turkish Kurds have been eager to spill blood over have been available in Iran for years; Iran constitutionally recognizes the Kurds' language and minority ethnic status, and there is no taboo against speaking Kurdish in public." .[54]

In the 17th century, a large number of Kurds were settled by Shah Abbas I to Khorasan in Eastern Iran and resettled in the cities of Northern Khorasan province (Quchan, Bojnurd, Shirvan, DareGaz, and Esfaraeen) to defend Iran's frontier against Uzbeks. Others migrated to Afghanistan where they took refuge.[55] The Kurds of Khorasan, numbering around 700,000, still use the Kurmanji Kurdish dialect.[13][56] During the 19th and 20th centuries, successive Iranian governments crushed Kurdish revolts led by Kurdish notables such as Shaikh Ubaidullah (against Qajars in 1880) and Simko (against Pahlavis in the 1920s).[57]

In January 1946, during the Soviet occupation of north-western Iran, the Soviet-backed Kurdish Republic of Mahabad declared independence in parts of Iranian Kurdistan. Nevertheless, the Soviet forces left Iran in May 1946, and the self-declared republic fell to the Iranian army after only a few months and the president of the republic Qazi Muhammad was hanged publicly in Mahabad. After the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi became more autocratic and suppressed most opposition including Kurdish political groups seeking greater rights for Iranian Kurds. He also prohibited any teaching of the Kurdish language.[57]

After the Iranian revolution, intense fighting occurred between militant Kurdish groups and the Islamic Republic between 1979 and 1982. In August 1979, Ruhollah Khomeini declared a "holy war" against the Kurdish rebels seeking autonomy or independence, and ordered the Armed Forces to move to the Kurdish areas of Iran in order to push the Kurdish rebels out and restore central rule to the country.[58] An image of a firing squad of Revolutionary Guards executing Kurdish prisoners around Sanandaj gained international fame and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1980,and there is also other images available of Kurdish militants capturing the supporters of the Iranian regime.[59] The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps fought to reestablish government control in the Kurdish regions. Since 1983, the Iranian government has maintained control over the Iranian Kurdistan.[60] Frequent unrest and the occasional military crackdown have occurred since the 1990s.[61]

In Iran, Kurds express their cultural identity freely, but have no self-government or administration. As in all parts of Iran, membership of a non-governmental political party is punishable by imprisonment or even death. Kurdish human rights activists in Iran have been threatened by Iranian authorities.[62][63] Following the killing of Kurdish opposition activist Shivan Qaderi and two other Kurdish men by Iranian security forces in Mahabad on July 9, 2005, six weeks of riots and protests erupted in Kurdish towns and villages throughout eastern Kurdistan. Scores were killed and injured, and an untold number arrested without charge. The Iranian authorities have also shut down several major Kurdish newspapers and arrested editors and reporters. Among those was Roya Toloui, a Women's rights activist and head of the Rasan ("Rising") newspaper in Sanandaj, who was alleged to be tortured for two months for involvement in the organization of peaceful protests throughout Kurdistan province.[64] According to an Iran analyst at International Crisis Group, "Kurds, who live in the some of the least developed parts of Iran, pose the most serious internal problem for Iran to resolve, and given what they see next door--the newfound confidence of Iraqi Kurds--there's concern Iranian Kurds will agitate for greater autonomy."[65]

In Syria

Main article: Kurds in Syria
A statue of Saladin at the Damascus citadel.

Kurds account for 9% of Syria's population, a total of around 1.6 million people.[66] 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. Kurdish human rights activists are mistreated and persecuted.[67] No political parties are allowed for any group, Kurdish or otherwise.

Techniques used to suppress the ethnic identity of Kurds in Syria include various bans on the use of the Kurdish language, refusal to register children with Kurdish names, the replacement of Kurdish place names with new names in Arabic, 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.[68][69] Having been denied the right to Syrian nationality, around three-hundred thousand Kurds have been deprived of any social rights, in violation of international law.[70][71] As a consequence, these Kurds are in effect trapped within Syria.[68] In February 2006, however, sources reported that Syria was now planning to grant these Kurds citizenship.[71]

On March 12, 2004, beginning at a stadium in Qamishli (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 and Aleppo.[72][73]

In Afghanistan

Kurds had been living in regions bordering modern day Afghanistan since the 1500s notably in north eastern Iran where the Safavid ruler Shah Abbas exiled thousands of Kurds.[74] Many of those who were exiled ultimately made their way into Afghanistan, taking residence in Herat and other cities of western Afghanistan. The Kurdish colony in Afghanistan numbered some tens of thousands during the 16th century.[55] Some Kurds held high governmental positions within Afghanistan, such as Ali Mardan Khan who was appointed the governor of Kabul in 1641.[75] The Kurds devotedly sided with the Afghans during their conflicts with the Safavid Empire, and in their subsequent conflicts with other regional powers.[76] The number of Kurds currently in Afghanistan is difficult to calculate, though one figure notes that there are approximately 200,000.[11] The extent to which the Kurds in Afghanistan have retained the Kurdish language remains unclear.

In Armenia

See also: Kurdish-Armenian relations

At the behest of the Turks, the Kurds actively participated in the massacre of tens of thousands of Armenians during the Armenian genocide[77]. Between the 1930s and 1980s, Armenia was a part of the Soviet Union, 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, many non-Yazidi Kurds were forced to leave their homes. Following the end of the Soviet Union, Kurds in Armenia were stripped of their cultural privileges and most fled to Russia or Western Europe.[78]

In Azerbaijan

Main article: Kurds in Azerbaijan

In 1920, two Kurdish-inhabited areas of Jewanshir (capital Kalbajar) and eastern Zangazur (capital Lachin) were combined to form the Kurdistan Okrug (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. As a result of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, many Kurdish areas have been destroyed and more than 150,000 Kurds have been deported since 1988.[78]

Diaspora

Feleknas Uca, MEP from Germany.

According to a report by the Council of Europe, approximately 1.3 million Kurds live in Western Europe. The earliest immigrants were Kurds from Turkey, who settled in Germany, Austria, the Benelux countries, Great Britain, Switzerland and France during the 1960s. Successive periods of political and social turmoil in the Middle East during 1980s and 1990s brought new waves of Kurdish refugees, mostly from Iran and Iraq under Saddam Hussein, came to Europe.[13] In recent years, many Kurdish asylum seekers from both Iran and Iraq have settled in the United Kingdom (especially in the town of Dewsbury and in some northern areas of London), which has sometimes caused media controversy over their right to remain.[79] There have been tensions between Kurds and the established Muslim community in Dewsbury,[80][81] which is home to very traditional mosques such as the Markazi.

There was substantial immigration of Kurds into North America, who are mainly political refugees and immigrants seeking economic opportunity. An estimated 100,000 Kurds are known to live in the United States, with 50,000 in Canada and less than 15,000 in Australia.[citation needed]

Religion

Main articles: Islam, Yazdanism, Yazidism, Yarsan, Alevi, Kurdish Jews, and Kurdish Christians
A mosque in Arbil.

Islam

Today, the majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslim, belonging to the Shafi school. Mystical practices and participation in Sufi orders are also widespread among Kurds.[82] There is also a minority of Kurds who are Shia Muslims, primarily living in the Ilam and Kermanshah provinces of Iran, Central and south eastern Iraq (Fayli Kurds).

Alevi

The Alevis are another religious minority among the Kurds. They are mainly living in Tunceli, Erzincan, eastern Sivas, northern and southern Malatya, eastern and northwestern Kahramanmaraş, northern Adana, western Kayseri, central and western Adıyaman, northeastern Gaziantep, northern Elazığ, southwestern Erzurum, northern Bingöl, northwestern Muş and various other areas in Anatolia.

Yazdanism

Yazdanism is a controversial[citation needed] and yet unproven theory that refers to a group of native monotheistic religions practiced among the Kurds: Yarsan and Yazidism. There are no historical evidence that proves the existence of this theory.[citation needed] But the only scholar mentioning this faith, Mehrdad Izady, claims that the main element in Yazdani faiths is the belief in seven angelic entities that protect the world, therefore these traditions are named as Cult of Angels.[83] Some groups classify the various Kurdish faiths under the Yazdani umbrella.

The original religion of the Kurds was Yazidism, a religion greatly influenced by Jewish, Zoroastrian, Christian and Islamic beliefs.[82][84] However, there are significant differences between Yazidism and Zoroastrianism, such as the belief in re-incarnation. Most Yazidis live in Iraqi Kurdistan, in the vicinity of Mosul and Sinjar.[85] The Yarsan (or Ahl-e Haqq) religion is practised in western Iran, primarily around Kermanshah.

Judaism and Christianity

Main articles: Kurdish Christians and Kurdish Jews
sample of an Ayyubid coin with a Star of David

Christianity and Judaism both are still practised in very small numbers.[86] Rabbi Asenath Barzani, who lived in Mosul from 1590 to 1670, was among the very first Jewish women to become a rabbi. The overwhelming majority of the Kurdish Jews had immigrated to the Jewish State, Israel, during the early 1950s. For centuries, the Jews had lived as protected subjects of the tribal chieftains (aghas) and survived in the urban centers and villages in which they lived. In return for the protection granted by their aghas, the Jews would occasionally give them gifts, services and commissions of their commercial and agricultural transactions.[87]

Culture

Main articles: Kurdish culture, Kurdish literature, and Kurdish women

Kurdish culture is a legacy from the various ancient peoples who shaped modern Kurds and their society, but primarily of three layers of indigenous (Hurrian), ancient Iranian, and Islamic roots.

Kurdish culture is close to that of other Iranian peoples. Kurds, for instance, also celebrate Newroz (March 21) as New Year's Day.[88]

Kurdish films mainly evoke poverty and the lack of rights of Kurdish people in the region. Yılmaz Güney (Yol [89]) and Bahman Qubadi (A Time for Drunken Horses, Turtles Can Fly) are among the better-known Kurdish directors.

Music

Main article: Kurdish music

Traditionally, there are three types of Kurdish Classical performers: storytellers (çîrokbêj), minstrels (stranbêj), and bards (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 ballads recounting the tales of Kurdish heroes such as Saladin. Heyrans are love ballads usually expressing the melancholy of separation and unfulfilled love, 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 songs are also popular.

This article is part of the
Kurdish history and Culture series
Early ancestors
Ancient history
Medieval history
Modern history
Culture

See also

Modern Kurdish governments

Notes and references

  1. ^ Konda Poll gives a figure of about 11.4 million
  2. ^ a b CIA World Factbook gives about 14 million (18% Kurds out of 76.8 million total population) (2008 est.)
  3. ^ Turkish National Security Concil gives about 12.6 million (2008)
  4. ^ Juvenile Nonfiction, “ The Handbook of Middle East ”, Publisher: 21st Century, 2002. pg 144:”About 20 percent of Turkey ’s population is Kurdish.”
  5. ^ Kemal Kirisci, Gareth M. Winrow, “The Kurdish Question and Turkey ”, Routledge, 1997. pg 119: “According to Turgut Ozal there were 12 million Kurds in Turkey . .. Van Bruissen has argued that a ‘reasonable and even conservative’ estimate for the size of Kurdish population in 1975 was 7.5 millions, which amounts to 19 percent of the population”
  6. ^ Sandra Mackey , “The reckoning: Iraq and the legacy of Saddam”, W.W. Norton and Company, 2002. Excerpt from pg 350: “As much as 25% of Turkey is Kurdish.”
  7. ^ a b c “Beverley Milton-Edwards, “Contemporary politics in the Middle East” Polity, 2006. pg 231: “They form a population in all four states, making 23 percent in Turkey, 23 percent in Iraq, 10 percent in Iran and 8 percent in Syria (Mcdowell, 2003, p 3-4).”
  8. ^ Estimate based on 7% of 68,688,433: World Factbook, s.v. Iran;
  9. ^ Estimate based on 15% to 20% of 26,783,383: World Factbook, s.v. Iraq; Encyclopedia of the Orient, s.v. Iraq: Religions and Peoples.
  10. ^ http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3580.htm
  11. ^ a b c d e The Kurdish Diaspora, Institut Kurde de Paris (Paris: Institut Kurde de Paris, 2006), http://www.institutkurde.org/en/kurdorama/.
  12. ^ Lokman I. Meho, The Kurds and Kurdistan: A General Background, in Kurdish Culture and Society: An Annotated Bibliography. Comp. Lokman I. Meho & Kelly Maglaughlin (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001), p. 4, viewable on Google Books
  13. ^ a b c d The cultural situation of the Kurds, A report by Lord Russell-Johnston, Council of Europe, July 2006.
  14. ^ Kurds in the UK, BBC News 9 December 2008
  15. ^ Encyclopaedia Iranica: Kurdish languages. accessed: 19 May 2009.
  16. ^ Geographic distribution of Kurdish and other Iranic languages
  17. ^ The correlation Between Languages and Genes: The Usko-Mediterranean Peoples, Human Immunology, vol. 62, p.1057, 2001
  18. ^ Kurdish language. Encyclopædia Britannica.
  19. ^ Philip G. Kreyenbroek, Stefan Sperl, "The Kurds", Published by Routledge, 1992.
  20. ^ McKenzie, D. N. (1961) ‘The origins of Kurdish’, in Transactions of the Philological Society: 68 - 86.
  21. ^ a b c Kreyenbroek, Philip (1992). "On the Kurdish Language", in The Kurds: a contemporary overview, eds. Philip Kreyenbroek and Stefan Sperl (p. 69).
  22. ^ The CIA Factbook updated sources give Kurds comprise 18% of the population in Turkey.
  23. ^ The CIA Factbook reports all non-Arabs make up 9.7% of the Syrian population, and does not break out the Kurdish figure separately. Since Syria contains a large Armenian population, 8% may be a reasonable percentage.
  24. ^ CIA: The World Factbook
  25. ^ Amir Hassanpour, "A Stateless Nation's Quest for Sovereignty in the Sky", Paper presented at the Freie Universitat Berlin, 7 November 1995.
  26. ^ McDowall, David. 2000. A modern history of the Kurds. London: I.B. Tauris. p9
  27. ^ John Limbert, The Origins and Appearance of the Kurds in Pre-Islamic Iran, Iranian Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, Spring 1968
  28. ^ Encyclopedia Iranica, "Carduchi" by M. Dandamayev
  29. ^ a b Ilya Gershevitch, William Bayne Fisher, The Cambridge History of Iran: The Median and Achamenian Periods, 964 pp., Cambridge University Press, 1985, ISBN 0521200911, 9780521200912, (see footnote of p.257)
  30. ^ Encyclopedia Iranica, "Carduchi" by M. Dandamayev Excerpt: "It has repeatedly been argued that the Carduchi were the ancestors of the Kurds, but the Cyrtii (Kurtioi) mentioned by Polybius, Livy, and Strabo (see MacKenzie, pp. 68-69) are more likely candidates."
  31. ^ David McDowall, A modern history of the Kurds, 515 pp., I.B.Tauris, 2004, ISBN 1850434166, 9781850434160 (see p.9)
  32. ^ Adherents.com: By Location
  33. ^ G.S. Harris, Ethnic Conflict and the Kurds in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, pp.118-120, 1977
  34. ^ Introduction. Genocide in Iraq: The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds (Human Rights Watch Report, 1993).
  35. ^ ibid., p.121
  36. ^ M. Farouk-Sluglett, P. Sluglett, J. Stork, Not Quite Armageddon: Impact of the War on Iraq, MERIP Reports, July-September 1984, p.24
  37. ^ Genocide in Iraq: The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds
  38. ^ Thatcher urges 'mercy mission' to fleeing Kurds; The Guardain 4/4/1991
  39. ^ http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/articles/031222on_onlineonly04
  40. ^ FOXNews.com - Kurds Rejoice, But Fighting Continues in North - U.S. & World
  41. ^ CNN.com - Coalition makes key advances in northern Iraq - April 10, 2003
  42. ^ The Scotsman
  43. ^ Ethnologue census of languages in Asian portion of Turkey
  44. ^ http://countrystudies.us/turkey/24.htm
  45. ^ Linguistic and Ethnic Groups in Turkey
  46. ^ H. Hannum, Autonomy, Sovereignty, and Self-determination, 534 pp., University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996, ISBN 0812215729, 9780812215724 (see page 186).
  47. ^ Reşat Kasaba, The Cambridge History of Turkey, 600 pp., Cambridge University Press, 2008, ISBN 0521620961, 9780521620963 (see page 340)
  48. ^ Reşat Kasaba, The Cambridge History of Turkey, 600 pp., Cambridge University Press, 2008, ISBN 0521620961, 9780521620963 (see page 348)
  49. ^ COUNCIL COMMON POSITION 2008/586/CFSP of 15 July 2008: updating Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism and repealing Common Position 2007/871/CFSP
  50. ^ Radu, Michael. (2001). "The Rise and Fall of the PKK", Orbis. 45(1):47-64.
  51. ^ J. C. Randal, After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness?, 356 pp., Westview Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8133-3580--9, p.258
  52. ^ J. C. Randal, After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness?, 356 pp., Westview Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8133-3580-9, p.259
  53. ^ a b Iran: Ethnic Groups, Encyclopaedia Britannica.
  54. ^ Meet the Kurdish guerrillas who want to topple the Tehran regime. - By Graeme Wood - Slate Magazine
  55. ^ a b A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan By Gérard Chaliand, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, Marco Pallis, pg. 205
  56. ^ Fifteenth periodic report of States parties due in 1998: Islamic Republic of Iran
  57. ^ a b Are Kurds a pariah minority?
  58. ^ The Security of Southwest Asia by Zalmay Khalilza, page 191, University of Michigan Publishing
  59. ^ A photo by Abbas Attar,Magnum Photos
  60. ^ alefbe.com
  61. ^ Iran: Amnesty International calls for an urgent investigation into the killing of demonstrators.
  62. ^ Iran: Threats against Kurdish human rights defenders must stop
  63. ^ Status of minorities
  64. ^ Amnesty International
  65. ^ Iran's Waning Human Rights (The New York Times)
  66. ^ World Gazetteer
  67. ^ Syria: End persecution of human rights defenders and human rights activists.
  68. ^ a b Syria: The Silenced Kurds
  69. ^ Essential Background: Overview of human rights issues in Syria. Human Rights Watch, 31-12-2004.
  70. ^ Syria's Kurds Struggle for Rights
  71. ^ a b The Media Line
  72. ^ Syria: Address Grievances Underlying Kurdish Unrest
  73. ^ Serhildana 12ê Adarê ya Kurdistana Suriyê.
  74. ^ Knowledge, Culture, and Power: International Perspectives on Literacy as Policy and Practice By Peter Freebody, Anthony R. Welch, pg.40
  75. ^ The Encyclopaedia of Islam: Supplement : Fascicules 1-2, By Clifford Edmund Bosworth, E. Van Donzel, B. Lewis, pg. 63
  76. ^ The Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant, By Michael Axworthy, pg. 88
  77. ^ Fisk, R. The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East, p.322. Vintage. ISBN 978-1400075171
  78. ^ a b Kurds and Kurdistan: A General Background, p.22
  79. ^ MP: Failed asylum seekers must go back - Dewsbury Reporter
  80. ^ 'I will not be muzzled' – Malik
  81. ^ UK Polling Report Election Guide: Dewsbury
  82. ^ a b "The Kurds and Islam". International Turkey Network. Archived from the original on July 3, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070703230947/http://www.itnet.org/kurds_islam.html. 
  83. ^ Yazdanism, Encyclopaedia of the Orient.
  84. ^ Iran's Other Religion
  85. ^ Religion: Cult of Angels - Yezidism
  86. ^ Religion: Judaism
  87. ^ Jewish Subjects and their Tribal Chieftains in Kurdistan: A Study in Survival, By Mordechai Zaken. Published by Brill: • August 2007 • ISBN 978 9004161 90 0 • Hardback (xxii, 364 pp.) • Jewish Identities in a Changing World, vol. 9
  88. ^ "Iraqi Kurds". culturalorientation.net. Archived from the original on September 2, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060902043336/http://www.culturalorientation.net/kurds/krelig.html. 
  89. ^ Yol (1982)

Bibliography

  • 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.

External links

The Kurdish Issue in Turkey



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Translations: Kurd
Top
Home > Library > Literature & Language > Translations

Dansk (Danish)
n. - kurder

Nederlands (Dutch)
Koerd, Koerdisch

Français (French)
n. - Kurde

Deutsch (German)
n. - Kurde

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (εθνολ.) Κούρδος

Italiano (Italian)
curdo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - curdo (m)

Русский (Russian)
курд

Español (Spanish)
n. - kurdo, curdo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kurd, kurdiska

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
库德人

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 庫德人

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 쿠르드족

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - クルド人

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) من الأكراد‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮כורדי‬

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