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For the Iranian province of Kurdistan, please see Kurdistan Province, Iran.
For the former Ottoman province of Kurdistan, see Kurdistan Province, Ottoman Empire.
Kurdish-inhabited areas (Kurdistan).
Areas with significant Kurdish population.

Kurdistan is both the name of a geographic region and a cultural region in the Middle East named after the Kurds, a large ethnic group living in parts of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, and Syria. Most Kurds speak Kurdish. Its borders are hard to define, as none of the states in question acknowledge Kurdistan as a demographic or geographic region, but it is generally held to include the regions with large Kurdish populations. The boundaries of the modern ethnographic region of Kurdistan (i.e. the region populated by Kurds) overlaps with the historical ethnic homelands of the Assyrian people, the Armenian people and the Iraqi Turkomen people. According to one account, Kurdistan includes 25 million people in a 190,000 km (74,000 sq. mi) area. Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in Kurdistan, which covers an area as big as France. The Kurdistan Province in Iran and the Kurdish Autonomous Region in Iraq are both included in the usual definition of Kurdistan. Kurdish people are found in regions far from their ancestral homeland. The largest Kurdish enclave outside Kurdistan is the Kurdish region in north Khorasan, in north-eastern Iran. Other scattered smaller communities are found in the Alburz mountain range in northern Iran, Guilan province in northern Iran and Sistan and Baluchistan province in southeastern Iran. (See and )

Kurds were first promised an independent nation-state in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres. The Treaty of Sèvres divided the former Ottoman Empire between the United Kingdom, Turkey, and others. Independence was granted to Armenia as well. Since that time Kurdish nationalists have continued to seek independence in an area approximating that identified at Sèvres. However, the idea of an independent nation-state came to a halt when the surrounding countries joined to reject the independence of Kurdistan.

History

The Kurdish flag flown by Kurds in parts of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, and Syria. .
Main article: History of the Kurds

Kurds claim descent from various ancient groups; among them the Guti, Mannai, Hurrian and Medes. The Medes came under Persian rule during the reign of Cyrus the Great and Darius. Centuries later, Kurdish-inhabited areas in the Middle East witnessed the clash of the two competing super powers of those times, namely the Sassanid Empire and the Roman Empire. At their peak, the Romans ruled large Kurdish-inhabited areas, particularly the western and northern Kurdish areas in the Middle East.

In the 7th century A.D., Arabs conquered most of the Middle East, and Kurds became subjects of Arab Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates. Kurds in the medieval period were living in several semi-independent states called "emirates". A comprehensive history of these states and their relationship with their neighbors is given in the famous textbook of "Sharafnama" written by Prince Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi in 1597 . For a list of these entities see . The famous Kurdish Emirates included Baban, Soran, and Garmiyan in present-day Iraq; Bakran and Bokhtan (Botan) in Turkey, and Mukriyan and Ardalan in Iran.

During the following century, Ahmad Khani (Ehmedê Xanî) wrote "Mem û Zîn", the Kurdish national epic, and he was seen by some as an early advocate of Kurdish nationalism .

In the 16th century A.D., the Kurdish inhabited areas were split between Safavid Persia and the Ottoman Empire after long wars. Before World War I, most Kurds lived within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire in the province of Kurdistan. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Allies created several countries within its former boundaries. Originally, Kurdistan along with Armenia was to be one of them, according to the never-ratified Treaty of Sèvres. However, the reconquest of these areas by Kemal Atatürk and other pressing issues caused the Allies to accept the renegotiated Treaty of Lausanne, giving this territory to Turkey and leaving the Kurds without a self-ruled region. Other Kurdish areas were assigned to the new British and French mandated states of Iraq and Syria under both treaties. These boundaries were drawn with more concern for the division of oil resources and influence between different colonial powers and for rewarding pro-Allied Arab leaders than with ethnic distribution.

Since WWI, Kurds have been divided between several states, in all of which they are minorities. Many Kurds have campaigned for independence or autonomy, often through force of arms. However, there has been no support by any of the regional governments or by outside powers for changes in regional boundaries. A sizable Kurdish diaspora exists in Western Europe that participates in agitation for Kurdish issues, but most of the governments in the Middle East have historically banned open Kurdish activism.

In Turkey, Iran, and Iraq, Kurdish guerrilla groups, known in the Kurdish culture as 'Peshmerga', have fought for a Kurdish state. In Northern Iraq, Peshmerga fought against the Iraqi government before and during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and now police the Kurdish Autonomous Region there. Another militant group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), has fought an armed campaign in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran for over thirty years. In Turkey, more than 30,000 Turkish and Kurdish people have died as a result of the war between the state and the PKK, with alleged atrocities being committed by both sides. There are also some casualties in Iran, Syria, and Iraq.

Northern Kurdistan

Northern Kurdistan is a geocultural region located in present-day southeastern Turkey. After the Treaty of Sèvres, Kemal Atatürk often referred to "Turko-Kurdish cooperation" during the years of Millî Mücadele ("National Struggle"). This was in accord with acts of the Ankara government such as sending a team of instructors to train the Kurdish rebels, who were then fighting against British troops in modern day Iraq under the banner of the Kingdom of Kurdistan. It has been argued that Atatürk promised Kurdish people in North Kurdistan that he would respect the conditions of the Treaty of Sèvres, implying self-determination for the Kurdish people in exchange for their crucial help in defeating the Allies (The Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara, which was formed in 1920, had rejected the Treaty of Sèvres within the first weeks of its meetings, hence the doubt).

As soon as victory over the allies was secured, Kurdish people started uprisings in eastern Turkey, suppression of which resulted in the Turkish government reacting by outlawing the publishing of Kurdish newspapers and speaking of Kurdish on government property, and the starting a "geographical nation policy". Since then, the constitution of the Republic of Turkey calls everybody who lives within the borders of Turkey a "Turk," declares the official language of Turkey (and of Turkish Government) "Turkish," and that education will be made in "Turkish." Kurds were officially referred to as "Mountain Turks".

Until the 1960s and 1970s speaking Kurdish was forbidden in all areas of public and private life in Turkey. Since the 1980s militant (initially Maoist then Marxist) Kurdish organizations, such as the PKK, have campaigned for an independent Marxist state through force of arms, while other Kurdish activists that were campaigning constitutionally for the same ends were suppressed, as the government sought to put down all forms of separatism.


Southern Kurdistan

Southern Kurdistan is a geocultural region located in present-day Northern Iraq. The southern boundary of the present-day Kurdistan Regional Government – known as the 'Green Line' – passes roughly through the middle of the area in which most Iraqi Kurds live, leaving a number of Kurds outside the autonomous zone. On the other hand, this transitional region (which includes the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk) is ethnically quite diverse, as it includes the bulk of Iraqi Turkmen and Assyrians as well as large numbers of Sunni and Shia Arabs.

The Kurdish Autonomous Region was designated for three northern provinces in 1970.


Iranian (Eastern) Kurdistan

Main article: Iranian Kurdistan

This area in northwestern Iran along the borders of Iraq and Turkey spans (Greater parts of) the provinces West Azarbaijan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and Ilam.

A very early record of confrontation between the Kurds and the Sassanid Empire appears in a historical text called the Book of the Deeds of Ardashir son of Babak. The book explains the life of "Ardashir Papagan" or Ardashir I of Persia, the founder of the Sassanid Dynasty, and is written in the Pahlavi language. In this book, the author explains the battle between Kurdish King Madig and Ardashir. (Chapter 5)

During Safavid rule, the government tried to extend its control over Kurdish inhabited areas in western Iran. At that time, there were a number of semi-independent Kurdish emirates such as the Mukriyan (Mahabad), Ardalan (Sinne), and Shikak tribes around Lake Urmiye and northwest Iran. Kurds resisted this policy and tried to keep some form of self-rule. This led to a series of bloody confrontations between the Safavids and the Kurds. The Kurds were finally defeated, and as a result the Safavids decided to punish rebellious Kurds by forced relocation and deportation of Kurds in 15-16th century. This policy began under the reign of the Safavid King Tahmasp I (r. 1514-1576).

Between 1534 and 1535, Tahmasp I began the systematic destruction of the old Kurdish cities and the countryside. Large numbers of Kurds from these areas found themselves deported to the Alborz mountains and Khorasan (Khurasan), as well as the heights in the central Iranian Plateau; the Laks suffered most. At this time the last remnant of the ancient royal Hadhabâni (Adiabene) tribe of central Kurdistan was removed from the heartland of Kurdistan and deported to Khorasan, where they are still found today. See and under the title "Khurasani Kurdish Dances".

There is a well documented historical account of a long battle in 1609-1610 between Kurds and the Safavid Empire. The battle took place around a fortress called "Dimdim"(DimDim) located in Beradost region around Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran. In 1609, the ruined structure was rebuilt by "Emîr Xan Lepzêrîn" (Golden Hand Khan), ruler of Beradost, who sought to maintain the independence of his expanding principality in the face of both Ottoman and Safavid penetration into the region. Rebuilding Dimdim was considered a move toward independence that could threaten Safavid power in the northwest. Many Kurds, including the rulers of Mukriyan (Mahabad), rallied around Amir Khan. After a long and bloody siege led by the Safavid grand vizier Hatem Beg, which lasted from November 1609 to the summer of 1610, Dimdim was captured. All the defenders were massacred. Shah Abbas ordered a general massacre in Beradost and Mukriyan (reported by Eskandar Beg Turkoman, Safavid Historian in the Book "Alam Aray-e Abbasi") and resettled the Turkish Afshar tribe in the region while deporting many Kurdish tribes to Khorasan. Although Persian historians (like Eskandar Beg ) depicted the first battle of Dimdim as a result of Kurdish mutiny or treason, in Kurdish oral traditions (Beytî dimdim), literary works (Dzhalilov, pp. 67-72), and histories, it was treated as a struggle of the Kurdish people against foreign domination. In fact, Beytî dimdim is considered a national epic second only to Mem û Zîn by Ehmedê Xanî (Ahmad Khani). The first literary account of this battle is written by Faqi Tayran. (see and ). Also see " O. Dzh. Dzhalilov, Kurdski geroicheski epos "Zlatoruki Khan" (The Kurdish heroic epic "Gold-hand Khan"), Moscow, 1967, pp. 5-26, 37-39, 206.

The Khurasani Kurds are a community of nearly 1.7 million people deported from western Kurdistan to Khurasan (northeastern Iran) by Persia during the 16th to 18th centuries. Also see "Izady, Mehrdad, H. ,The Kurds: A Concise Handbook, Crane Russak, 1992". For a map of these areas see .

Although Iran had declared its neutrality in the Second World War, it was occupied by Allied forces. A Kurdish state was created in the city of Mahabad in 1946 by the Kurdish Movement Komeley Jiyanewey Kurd under the leadership of Qazi Muhammad. The Republic of Mahabad, as it is often called, lasted less than a year, as the end of the war and the withdrawal of the occupying Soviet forces allowed the central government to crush the separatists and return Kurdistan to Iran. Another wave of nationalism engulfed eastern Kurdistan after the fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty in the winter of 1979, and as a result Ayatollah Khomeini, the new religious leader of Iran, declared a jihad (holy war) against Kurds. The crisis deepened after Kurds were denied seats in the assemblies of experts gathering in 1979, which were responsible for writing the new constitution. Kurds were therefore deprived of their political rights under the new Iranian constitution, since the majority of them belonged to the Sunni branch of Islam. In the spring of 1980, government forces under the command of President Abolhassan Banisadr conquered most of the Kurdish cities through a huge military campaign, sending in mechanized military divisions to Kurdish cities including Mahabad, Sinne, Pawe, and Marivan .

In the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, all language minorities including Kurdish speakers have the right to teach the language in schools and have publications, although these rights are often not respected by the government. Several newspapers have been closed by the Iranian authorities because of alleged "promotion of Kurdish separatism."

Half of the Kurdish population lives under the administration of the West Azarbaijan province, in which minorities of ethnic Turks and Persians (mainly Shiites) have held a monopoly on important posts for the last 60 years. These areas were cut off the Kurdistan province after the Fall of the Mahabad Republic led by Peshewa Qazi Muhammad. Kurds also suffer discrimination in the Iranian legal system, in which Sunnis (which includes most of the Kurds) are barred from standing as candidates for important posts such as the Presidency.

Links

Western Kurdistan

Western Kurdistan or Syrian Kurdistan ("Kurdistana Binxetê" in Kurdish) is a geocultural region located in present-day north-eastern Syria. It covers the province of "Hesaka" or Al Hasakah. The main cities in this region are Al-Qamishli (or "Qamişlû" in Kurdish) and Al Hasakah (or "Hesaka" in Kurdish). Kurds make up around 9% to 10% of the population in Syria. (see Demographics_of_Syria and ). According to Human Rights Watch, there are 142,465 Kurds (by the government's count), and well over 200,000 Kurds (according to Kurdish sources), who have been arbitrarily denied the right to Syrian nationality in violation of international law. They are not permitted to own land, housing or businesses. They cannot be employed at government agencies and state-owned enterprises, and cannot practice as doctors or engineers. They may not legally marry Syrian citizens. Kurds with "foreigner" status, as they are called, do not have the right to vote in elections or referenda, or run for public office. They are not issued passports or other travel documents, and thus may not legally leave or return to Syria.

Suppression of ethnic identity of Kurds in Syria include: various bans on the use of the Kurdish language; refusal to register children with Kurdish names; replacement of Kurdish place names with new names in Arabic; prohibition of businesses that do not have Arabic names; not permitting Kurdish private schools; and the prohibition of books and other materials written in Kurdish. (see , and )

See also

External links

Julia Duin, WorldandI.com, October 2004

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