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Kurds

File:Ac.saladin.jpgFile:Leyla Qasim.jpg
Regions with significant populations
Kurdistan    Turkey 15 million (est)    Iran 4.8 - 6.6 million    Iraq 4 - 6 million    Syria 1.6 - 2 million Germany    0.5 - 0.6 million Israel    100,000 Armenia    42,139 Georgia    34,000 Azerbaijan    13,100 (1999) Others    1.1 million
Languages
Kurdish and Aramaic (Native) Persian, Turkish, Arabic (Spoken widely as second language(s) Swedish, German, French and English (Spoken widely as second language(s) among expatriate communities)
Religion
Islam (Sunni Islam (predominantly of Shafi`i school, also with some of Hanafi school), Shia Islam, Alevism), Yazidism, Judaism, Yarsan, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Other Iranian peoples (such as Gilakis and Baluchis)

The Kurds are a people indigenous to the contiguous geocultural region which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey that is often referred to as Kurdistan. Smaller communities can also be found in Lebanon, Armenia, Azerbaijan (Kalbajar and Lachin, to the west of Nagorno Karabakh) and, in recent decades, some European countries and the United States (See Kurdish diaspora).

The first mention of the Kurds in historical records was in cuneiform writings from the Sumerians (3,000 BCE), who talked of the "land of the Karda." They are commonly identified with the ancient kingdom of Corduene and are mostly of Aryan origin with caucasian mix. Ethnically related to Iranian people groups they speak Kurdish, an Indo-European language of the Iranian branch.

Estimated at about 30 million people, the Kurds comprise one of the largest ethnic groups in the world without a separate country. Historically, Kurds have continously sought self-determination, and have fought the Sumerians, Assyrians, Persians, Mongols, European crusaders, and Turks. In 20th century, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq have put down many Kurdish uprisings .

Historic roots

The earliest known evidence of a unified and distinct culture in the Kurdish mountains dates back to the Halaf culture of 8,000-7,400 years ago. This was followed by the Hurrian period which lasted from 6,300 to about 2,600 years ago. The Hurrians spoke a language that was possibly part of the Northeast Caucasian (or the proposed Alarodian) family of languages, akin to modern Chechen and Lezgian. The Hurrians spread out and eventually dominated significant territories outside their Zagros-Taurus mountainous base. However, like their Kurdish descendants, they did not expand very far from the mountains. As they settled, the Hurrians divided into many clans and subgroups, founding city-states, kingdoms and empires with eponymous clan names. These included the Gutis, Kurti, Khaldi, Nairi, Mushku, Mannaeans (Mannai), Mitanni, Urartu, Lullubi and the Kassites among others. All these tribes were part of the larger group of Hurrians (Khurrites), and together helped to shape the Hurrian phase of Kurdish history .

By the end of the Hurrian period, the Kurdish areas seem to have been culturally and ethnically homogenized to form a single civilization which was identified as such by the neighboring cultures and peoples. There are numerous historical records that refer to the antecedents of the modern Kurds. In early Sumerian writings about the northern parts of Mesopotamia, The area was referred to as the land of the "Karda" or "Qarduchi" and the land of the "Guti" or "Gutium". These are described as being the same people only differing in tribal name. The Babylonians called these people "Gardu" and "Qarda". In neighbouring area of Assyria, they were "Qurti" or "Guti". When the Greeks entered the territory, they referred to these people as either "Kardukh", "Carduchi" or "Gordukh". The Armenians called the Kurds "Gortukh" or "Gortai-kh" and the Persians knew them as "Gord" or "Kord". In the Syriac, Hebrew and Chaldean languages they were, respectively, "Qardu", "Kurdaye" and "Qurdaye". In Aramaic and Nestorian they were "Qadu".

The present-day home of the Kurds, the high mountain region south and south-east of Lake Van between Persia and Mesopotamia, was in the possession of Kurds before the time of the ancient Greek historian Xenophon, and was known as the country of the "Carduchi", "Cardyene" or "Cordyene". Xenophon referred to the Kurds in Anabasis as "Kardukhi...a fierce and protective mountain-dwelling people" who attacked Greek armies in 400 BCE.

As a result of this vast parade of peoples, the Kurds are a combination of indigenous peoples living in the Zagros Mountains whom influenced by numerous subsequent invaders and migrants including Sumerians, Assyrians, Akkadians, Armenians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Mongols, and Turks.. Recent genetic tests of random Kurdish populations show links to the Caucasus, various Iranian peoples, Europeans, northern Semites, and Anatolia.

Kurdish Dynasties

In the ancient world the Kurdish people formed kingdoms such as Gutium, Lullu, Urartu and Corduene; as well as two empires of the Kassite Empire and the Hurrian-Mitanni Empire. The Kurdish kingdom of Corduene, situated to the east of Tigranocerta (east and south of present-day Diyarbakir, Turkey) became a province of the Roman Empire in 66 BCE and was under Roman control for four centuries until 384 CE.

In the second half of the 10th century, the Kurdish area was shared amongst 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 Diyarbakir. After these, the Ayyubid (1171-1250) of Syria and the Ardalan dynasty (14th century-1867) were established in present-day Khanaqin, Kirkuk and Sinne.

Population

The exact number of Kurdish people living in the Middle East is unknown, due to both an absence of recent census analysis and the reluctance of the various governments in Kurdish-inhabited regions to give accurate figures.

According to the CIA Factbook, Kurds comprise 20% of the population in Turkey, 15-20% in Iraq, 9% in Syria, 7% in Iran and 1.3% in Armenia. In all of these countries except Iran, Kurds form the second largest ethnic group. In other words about 55% of the world's Kurds live in Turkey, 22% in Iran, 16.5% in Iraq and 6.5% in Syria.

There are other sources which report a higher population for Kurds than mentioned above. Furthermore it is estimated that Kurds especially in Turkey have a birth rate still higher than their main neighboring ethnic groups whose birth rate is slowly decreasing.(pp. 19,24) Kurds, numbering about 30 million people, are regarded as the fourth largest ethnicity in the Middle East after Arabs, Persians and Turks by 2000.

Language

The Kurdish language belongs to the north-western sub-group of the Iranian languages, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. Kurdish may have borrowed heavily from Caucasian and Aramaic languages given certain peculiarities that make it distinct from other Iranian languages. The original language of the Kurds was Hurrian, a non Indo-European language belonging to the Caucasian family. This older language was replaced by the Indo-European around 850 BCE, with the arrival of the Medes to Kurdistan . Nevertheless, Hurrian influence on Kurdish is still evident in its ergative grammatical structure and toponyms.

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 usually speak Aramaic as a first language. Aramaic is a Semitic language related to Hebrew and Arabic rather than Kurdish.

The Kurdish language is comprised of two major dialects and several sub-dialects :

• The Kurmanji dialect group
• The Sorani dialect group
• Other subdialects include Gorani, Zazaki, Kermanshahi and Laki.

Genetic relations to other ethnic groups

Kurds and Jews

In 2001, a team of Israeli, German, and Indian scientists discovered that among the various Jewish communities, the Ashkenazi Jews showed close relation to the Muslim Kurds than to the Semitic-speaking population further south in the Arabian peninsula, while the Jewish Kurds and Sephardic Jews seemed to be closely related to each other. Most of the 95 Kurdish Muslim test subjects came from northern Iraq. Moreover, according to another study, the CMH (Cohen modal haplotype) is a genetic marker from the northern Middle East which is not unique to Jews. In another study, Kurdish Jews were found to be close to Muslim Kurds, but so were Ashkenazim and Sephardim, suggesting that much if not most of the genetic similarity between Jewish and Muslim Kurds is from ancient times .

Kurds and Iranians

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, "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 BC."

However genetic distance comparisons have revealed that the Turkic and Turkmen speaking peoples in the Caspian area cluster with the Kurds, Greeks and Iranis (Ossetians). The Persian speakers are genetically remote from these populations, they are, however, close to the Parsis who migrated from Iran to India at the end of the 7th Century A.D.

Speaking a language of Iranic branch Kurds are ethnically closer to other Iranian groups such as the Persians, Lurs and Baluchi, and are often classified as an Iranic ethnic group However according to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, "This is based mainly on linguistic and historical data and does not prejudice the fact there is a complexity of ethnical elements incorporated in them."

Modern history

Kurds in Iraq

Under the former Iraqi Ba'athist regime, which ruled Iraq from 1968 until 2003, Kurds were initially granted limited autonomy (1970), and after the Barzani revolt in 1961, were given some high-level political representation in Baghdad. However, for various reasons, including the pro-Iranian sympathies of some Kurds 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, including the use of chemical weapons against the Kurds, which resulted in thousands of deaths. (See Halabja poison gas attack.) The campaign of Iraqi government against Kurds in 1988 was called Anfal (Spoils of War). The Anfal attacks led to destruction of 2,000 villages and death of 300,000 Kurds .

After the Kurdish uprising in 1991 (Kurdish:Raperîn, led by the PUK and KDP), Iraqi troops recaptured the Kurdish areas, hundreds of thousand of Kurds fled to the borders. Many were accepted as refugees in Iran, but soldiers beat the refugees back at the Turkish border. To alleviate the situation a "safe haven" was established by the Security Council. The autonomous Kurdish area was controlled by the rival parties KDP and PUK, small enclaves also by islamist groups like Ansar al-Islam. A Kurdish parliament was elected, but mutual animosity between the two major parties led to serious infighting. KDP called on the government in Baghdad for help, and the PUK called on Iran. In the end the US had to supervise a peace treaty, and the Kurdish area was effectively split into two rival administrations. The Kurdish population welcomed the American-led invasion in 2003. The area controlled by peshmerga was expanded, and Kurds now have effective control in Kirkuk and parts of Mosul.

Kurds in Turkey

About half of all Kurds live in Turkey, and they account between 20% to 30% of total population of Turkey (numbering between 14 to 21 million). They are predominantly distributed in the southeastern corner of the country. Modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal (better known as Atatürk in Turkish—), enacted a constitution 70 years ago which denied the existence of distinct cultural sub-groups in Turkey. As a result, any expression by the Kurds (as well as other minorities in Turkey) of unique ethnic identity has been harshly repressed. For example, until 1991, the use of the Kurdish language—although widespread—was illegal. As a result of reforms inspired by the EU, music, radio and TV broadcasts are now allowed (although still restricted by severe time limitations; for example, broadcasts can be no longer than sixty minutes per day, five hours per week on radio, and forty-five minutes per day, four hours per week on television) and education in Kurdish are now allowed.

More than 3,000 Kurdish villages in Turkey were virtually wiped from the map by the Turkey's security forces during 1980s and 1990s. As a result, more than 378,000 Kurdish villagers were forcibly displaced and left homeless see , and . Also see Report D612, October, 1994, "Forced Displacement of Ethnic Kurds"(A Human Rights Watch Publication)).

In 1994 Leyla Zana (the first female Kurdish representative in the Turkey's Parliament), was charged for separatist speech and sentenced to 15 years in prison. At her inauguration as an MP, she reportedly identified herself as a Kurd. Amnesty International reported "She took the oath of loyalty in Turkish, as required by law, then added in Kurdish, 'I shall struggle so that the Kurdish and Turkish peoples may live together in a democratic framework.' Parliament erupted with shouts of 'Separatist', 'Terrorist', and 'Arrest her'".

The Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK), also known as KADEK and Kongra-Gel, is a militant organization, dedicated to creating an independent Kurdish state in a territory (sometimes referenced as Kurdistan) that consists of parts of southeastern Turkey, northeastern Iraq, northeastern Syria and northwestern Iran. It is an ethnic secessionist organization using force and threat of force against both civilian and military targets for the purpose of achieving its political goal.

Kurds in Iran

The Kurds, who constitute approximately 7% of Iran's overall population, 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, have sought either regional autonomy or the outright establishment of an independent Kurdish state in the region .

During 19th and 20th centuries, successive Iranian governments have crushed Kurdish revolts leaded by Kurdish notables such as Shaikh Ubaidullah against Qajars in 1880 and Simko against Pahlavis in 1920s . In Iran, Kurds twice had their own controlled free area without government control: The Republic of Mahabad in Iran in 1946 (the second independent Kurdish state of the 20th century, after the Republic of Ararat in modern Turkey); and second time after the Iranian Revolution in 1979. After the military coup in 1953, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi became more autocratic and suppressed most opposition including ethnic minorities such as Kurds. He also prohibited any Kurdish language instruction .

In recent years, intense fighting occurred between Kurds and the Iranian state between 1979 and 1982. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps fought to reestablish government control in the Kurdish regions. As a result around 10,000 Kurds were killed . Since 1983 the Iranian government has had control over the area which the Kurds inhabit . Frequent unrest and occasional military crackdown have also happened throughout the 1990s and even to the present .

In Iran Kurds, like other minorities, express their cultural identity freely but they are denied the right of self-government or administration. Similar to other parts of Iran, membership of any non-governmental political party in Kurdistan could be punishable by persecution, imprisonment and even death. Kurdish human rights activists in Iran have been threatened by Iranian authorities in connection with their work.

On July 9 2005, after the killing of a Kurdish opposition activist, Shivan Qaderi (Template:Lang-fa) and two other Kurdish men by Iranian security forces in Mahabad, for six weeks, riots and protests erupted in Kurdish towns and villages throughout Eastern Kurdistan, with scores killed and injured, and an untold number arrested without charge. The Iranian authorities also shut down several major Kurdish newspapers arresting reporters and editors.

Kurds in Syria

Kurds account for 10% of the population in Syria or about 1.9 million people making them the largest ethnic minority in the country. Kurds often speak Kurdish in public, unless all those present do not. 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 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. About 300,000 Kurds have been deprived of any social rights due to having been arbitrarily denied the right to Syrian nationality in violation of international law. These Kurds, who have no claim to a nationality other than Syrian, are literally trapped in Syria.

But according to some sources Syria is recently (February 2006) planning to grant citizenship to those 300,000 Kurds deprived citizenship living in the country.

On March 12, 2004, in days of clashes began at a stadium in Qamishli, a largely Kurdish city in northeastern Syria, at least 30 people were killed and more than 160 were injured. The unrest spread to other Kurdish towns along the northern border with Turkey, and then to Damascus and Aleppo.

In recent years there has been a Kurdish front of Syrian Kurds struggling for Kurdish rights in Syria outside Syria which has good relations with EU and USA and has had a relative good reputation among Kurdish community of Syria.

Kurds in Armenia

As part of the Soviet Union from the 1930's to the 1980's, Kurds in Armenia had the status of a protected minority under Soviet Law. They had their own state-sponsored newspaper, a radio broadcast and were allowed to hold cultural events. During the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, many non-Yazidi Kurds were forced to leave their homes. Upon the disintegration of Soviet Union, Kurds in Armenia were stripped of their cultural privileges, and most of them fled to Russia or Western Europe (p.22).

Kurds in Azerbaijan

Main article: Kurdistan Autonomous Oblast

In 1920, two Kurdish inhabited areas of Jewanshir (capital:Kalbajar) and eastern Zangazur (capital:Lachin) were combined to form the Kurdistan Autonomous Province or Red Kurdistan. The period of local autonomy for Kurds was brief and did not last after 1929. During the Stalin period up to late 1950s, Kurds faced many repressive measures including deportations. Since 1988, many Kurdish areas have been destroyed and more than 150,000 Kurds have been deported as a result of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh (, p.22).

Religion

Main articles: Islam, Yazidism, Yarsan, Yazdanism, Kurdish Jews, Kurdish Christians

Before the spread of Islam in the 7th century CE, the majority of Kurds practised their indigenous religions, Yazidism and Yarsan, which stemmed from and eventually replaced the ancient religion of the Medes. Both religions are still practised among the Kurds. Most Yazidis live in Iraqi Kurdistan, in the vicinity of Mosul and Sinjar. Yazidis are also found in Syria, Armenia, Turkey, and Germany. Their holy book is "Mishefa Reş" (The Black Book). The Yarsan, or Ahl-e Haqq, religion is practised in western Iran, primarily around Kermanshah.

Also before arrival of Islam in the 7th century AD there were large Kurdish populations practising Christianity, still found in small numbers especially in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurdish kingdom of Adiabene, including a large number of its Kurdish citizens, converted to Judaism during the 1st century BC. Rabbi Asenath Barzani, who lived in Mosul from 1590 to 1670 was among the very first Jewish women to become a Rabbi.

In the 7th century, Arabs conquered the Kurdish regions and converted the majority of Kurds to Islam. The majority of Kurds are Muslim, belonging to the Shafi school of Islam, distinguishing them in the region, (and to a much lesser degree, the Hanafi) Schools of Sunni Islam. There is also a significant minority of Kurds that are Shia Muslims, primarily living in the Ilam and Kermanshah provinces of Iran and Central Iraq ("Al-Fayliah" Kurds). The Alevis are another religious minority among the Kurds, mainly found in Turkey. There are also Kurds who are Agnostics.

Culture

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Kurdish cultural heritage is rooted in one of the world's oldest cultures, the Mesopotamian. Through the ages, this heritage has been subject to injustices, neglect and repression, or has been eclipsed by other cultures. Important components of the original cultural heritage have disappeared or have been destroyed. There are numerous examples of how valuable or irreplaceable Kurdish physical heritage are endangered or destroyed, like the threat posed by the Illusi Dam in Kurdistan (Turkey), where the oldest Kurdish city, Hasankeyf, soon is to be covered by water.

Three things that Kurds throughout Kurdistan widely swear by rather than God when they mean very serious are Sun, wheat and yellow snake. Kurds have always been among the more liberal Muslims. Kurdish women, for example, have never covered their faces and have never worn the abbaye or chador, the all-covering garments worn by some Arab and Iranian women. They have worked outside the home: Traditionally, they worked the fields; in modern times, they have attended school and university and held jobs outside the home. Untill World War I the Kurdish society had mainly saved its ancient tribal structure. The Kurdish culture is closest to Iranian culture among their neighbours. For example they celebrate Newroz as the new year day, which is celebrated on March 21. It is the first day of the month of Xakelêwe in Kurdish calendar and the first day of spring.

Kurdish films mainly evoke poverty and the lack of rights of Kurdish people in the region. Perhaps Yilmaz Guney and Bahman Qubadi are among the best known Kurdish directors.

Music

Traditionally, there are three types of Kurdish Classical performers - storytellers (çîrokbêj), minstrels (stranbêj) and bards (dengbêj). There was no specific music related to the Kurdish princely courts, and instead, music performed in night gatherings (şevbihêrk) is considered classical. Several musical forms are found in this genre. Many songs and are epic in nature, such as the popular Lawik's which are heroic ballads recounting the tales of Kurdish heroes of the past like Saladin. Heyrans are love ballads usually expressing the melancholy of separation and unfulfilled love. Lawje is a form of religious music and Payizoks are songs performed specifically in autumn. Love songs, dance music, wedding and other celebratory songs (dîlok/narînk), erotic poetry and work songs are also popular.

Renowned Kurdish individuals

• Saladin, (1138–1193), Founder of the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt and Syria.
• Ibn Khallikan, (1211-1282), Muslim judge and author of a classic Arabic biographical dictionary. Born in Irbil, Iraqi Kurdistan.
• Sherefxan Bidlisi (Şerefxanê Bedlîsî) (1543 - 1599) Kurdish historian and poet.
• Malaye Jaziri (Melayê Cizîrî), (1570-1640), Renowned Kurdish poet and sufi.
• Ahmad Khani (Ehmedê Xanî),(1651-1707), Renowned Kurdish poet, Author of Mem û Zîn.
• Jaladat Ali Badirkhan (Celadet Alî Bedirxan), (1893-1951), Linguist, Journalist and Politician, Founder of the Kurdish Latin Alphabet.
• Ebdolrehman Qasimlo, (1930-1989), Kurdish nationalist leader (PDKI), Iran.

See also

• History of the Kurds
• Kurdistan
• Demographics of Iran
• Demographics of Iraq
• Demographics of Syria
• Demographics of Turkey
• Genetic insights into the background of the Kurds
• Kurdish Jews
• Accession of Turkey to the European Union
• Kurdish Christians

Kurdish Kingdoms

• Corduene
• Shaddadid
• Annazid
• Marwanid
• Ayyubid dynasty
• Ardalan

Modern Kurdish governments

• Kurdistan Regional Government - Iraqi Kurdistan
• Republic of Mahabad (1946)
• Republic of Ararat (1927-1931)
• Kingdom of Kurdistan

Militant organizations

• Komalah, (in Northwestern Iran)
• Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), (in Northwestern Iran)
• PJAK, (Iranian Kurdish resistance group based in Iraq)
• Kurdish-Hizbullah, (in South-Eastern Turkey)
• Ansar al-Islam, (in northern Iraq)

See also: Kurdish organisations

Notes

9. (p.2)
28. The correlation Between Languages and Genes: The Usko-Mediterranean Peoples, Human Immunology, 62, p.1057, 2001
29. A. Arnaiz-Villena, E,Gomez-Casado, J.Martinez-Laso, Population genetic relationships between Mediterranean populations determined by HLA distribution and a historic perspective, Tissue Antigens, vol.60, p. 117

External links

• Kurds and Kurdistan, Encyclopaedia of Islam.
• Kurds, Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• Kurd, Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• The Kurdish Institute of Paris Kurdish language, history, books and latest news articles.
• The Encyclopaedia of Kurdistan
• Istanbul Kurdish Institute
• The Kurdish Center of International Pen
• Kurdish Library, supported by the Swedish Government.
• Yazidism: Historical Roots, International Journal of Kurdish Studies, Jan. 2005.
• Ethnic Cleansing and the Kurds
• The Kurds in the Ottoman Hungary by Zurab Aloian

The Kurdish Issue in Turkey

• A report on the Kurdish IDP's - 2005
• A German newspaper's take on the Kurdish issue - 2005
• The Guardian - What's in a name? Too much in Turkey - 2001
• The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists' take - 1999

Template:Link FA

• Ethnic groups in Iran
• Ethnic groups in Iraq
• Ethnic groups in the Middle East
• Ethnic groups in Turkey
• Iranian peoples
• Kurds