History of the Kurds
Encyclopedia
The Kurds are an ethnic group who have historically inhabited the mountainous areas to the south of Caucasus
(Zagros and Taurus
mountain ranges), a geographical area collectively referred to as Kurdistan. Most Kurds speak an Indo-European
language belonging to the Iranian branch.
There are various hypotheses as to predecessor populations of the Kurds, such as the Carduchoi of Classical Antiquity.
The earliest known Kurdish dynasties under Islamic rule (10th to 12th centuries) are the Hasanwayhid
s, the Marwanid
s, the Shaddadid
s, followed by the Ayyubid dynasty
founded by Saladin
. The Battle of Chaldiran
of 1514 is an important turning point in Kurdish history, marking the alliance of Kurds with the Ottomans. The Sharafnameh of 1597 is the first account of Kurdish history. Kurdish history in the 20th century is marked by a rising sense of Kurdish nationhood focussed on the goal of an independent Kurdistan as scheduled by the Treaty of Sèvres
in 1920. Partial autonomy was reached by Kurdistan Uyezd (1923–1926) and by Iraqi Kurdistan
(since 1991), while notably in Turkish Kurdistan
, an armed conflict between the PKK and Turkish Armed Forces
was ongoing 1984 to 1999, and the region continues to be unstable with renewed flaring up of violence in the 2000s.
and the Pahlavi Karnamak Ardashir-e-Papkan and other early Islamic sources provide early attestation of the name Kurd. The term Kurd in the Middle Persian documents simply means nomad and tent-dweller and could be attributed to any Iranian ethnic group having similar characteristics. In the early Islamic Persian and Arabic sources, the term Kurd became synonymous with an amalgamation of Iranian and Iranicized nomadic tribes and groups without reference to any specific Iranian language.
By the 16th century, Sherefxan Bidlisi
states that there are four division of Kurds: Kurmanj, Lur
, Kalhur and Guran
. However, according to Vladimir Minorsky, only Kurmanj and possibly Kalhur come under the heading of Kurds, whereas Lur and Guran stand apart for both linguistic and ethnological reasons. Despite the opinion of Minorsky and other linguists, the Kalhur and Guran speakers do not use linguistic differentiators. Rather they use cultural differentiators and consider themselves as Kurds, along with all Kurmanji
, Sorani
speakers .
The ultimate etymology of the name is unknown. It has been connected to various toponyms and ethnonyms of antiquity.
Thus, one suggestion connects a tribal name known from Assyria
n documents of ca. 1000 BC, which mention a people living in Mt. Azu or Hizan (near Lake Van
) by the name Kurti or Kurkhi. The country of the Kurkhi included regions of Mount Judi
and districts that were later called by the names Sophene
, Anzanene and Gordyene.
According to the British scholar G. R. Driver, the ethnonym originates even earlier, in 3rd millennium BC Sumerian records, as the name of a land called Karda or Qarda. This land south of Lake Van, was inhabited by the people of Su or Subaru who were connected with the Qurtie, a group of mountain dwellers.
is a language of the Northwestern Iranian group which has likely separated from the other dialects of Central Iran
during the early centuries CE. Even though there are no records of the Kurdish language prior to the 13th century, the presence of Armenian
loanwords indicates that there must have been Kurdish-Armenian contacts by at least 1100 CE.
The present state of knowledge about Kurdish allows, at least roughly, drawing the approximate borders of the areas where the main ethnic core of the speakers of the contemporary Kurdish dialects was formed. The most argued hypothesis on the localisation of the ethnic territory of the Kurds remains D.N. Mackenzie's theory, proposed in the early 1960s (Mackenzie 1961). Developing the ideas of P. Tedesco (1921: 255) and regarding the common phonetic isoglosses shared by Kurdish, Persian
, and Baluchi, D.N. Mackenzie concluded that the speakers of these three languages form a unity within Northwestern Iranian. He has tried to reconstruct such a Persian-Kurdish-Baluchi linguistic unity presumably in the central parts of Iran. According to his theory, the Persians (or Proto-Persians) occupied the province of Fars in the southwest (proceeding from the assumption that the Achaemenids
spoke Persian), the Baluchis
(Proto-Baluchis) inhabited the central areas of Western Iran, and the Kurds (Proto-Kurds), in the wording of G. Windfuhr (1975: 459), lived either in northwestern Luristan
or in the province of Isfahan.
. Around this time, Kurds lived a partly sedentary life and raised sheep and cattle in the regions of Beth Begash and Beth Kartewaye above Arbil
in Adiabene. In 696, Kurds joined the Khariji revolt near Hulwan
.
Under the caliph
s of Baghdad
there were numerous uprisings. In 838, and again in 905, formidable insurrections occurred in northern Kurdistan; the amir, Aqpd-addaula, was obliged to lead the forces of the caliphate against the southern Kurds, capturing the famous fortress of Sermaj, whose ruins are to be seen at the present day near Behistun, and reducing the province of Shahrizor with its capital city now marked by the great mound of Yassin Teppeh. One of the very well known Kurdish scholars, Al-Dinawari
(828–889), from Dinawar near Kermanshah
, lived in this period. He has written a book about the ancestry of the Kurds.
A Kurd named Nasr or Narseh converted to Christianity, and changed his name to Theophobos during the reign of Emperor Theophilus and was the emperor's intimate friend and commander for many years. Narseh joined Babak
's rebellion in southern Kurdistan, but Abbasid
armies defeated his forces in 833 and according to the Muslim historian Tabari around 60,000 of his followers were killed. Narseh himself fled to the Byzantine territories and helped form the Kurdish contingent of Theophilus. This Kurdish force invaded the domain of caliphate
in 838 to help Babak's rebellion. After the defeat of Babak, Narseh and his followers settled in Pontus
(north-central Anatolia
).
The eclipse of the Sasanian and Byzantine
power by the Muslim caliphate
, and its own subsequent weakening, let the Kurdish principalities and "mountain administrators" set up new independent states. The Shaddadids of the Caucasus and Armenia, the Rawadids of Azerbaijan, the Marwandis of eastern Anatolia
, the Hasanwayhid
s, Fadhilwayhids, and Ayyarids of the central Zagros are some of the these Kurdish dynasties.
and made it the capital of his principality, theoretically vassal of the caliph
, but in fact virtually independent. The Principality of Ake ruled a Carduchian land which lay between the upper valley of the Centritis and the Zabus. It was situated between Arzanene and Adiabene
. At the beginning of 10th century, it became a vassal of the Artsrunis of Vaspurakan
. Andzewatsi was another principality located in southeast of Lake Van and northwest of Ake and its princes were a branch of Medo-Carduchians of Mahkert. In 780, its chief prince Tachat Andzewatsi was in Caliph's obedience. After him, the dynasty declined and it was reduced to vassalage of the Artsrunis in 860.
In the first half of the 10th century, the Aishanid dynasty (912–961) ruled over a vast area in the central and northern Zagros. In the second half of the 10th century, Kurdistan was shared amongst five big Kurdish principalities. In the North the Shaddadid
(951–1174) (in parts of Armenia
and Arran
) and Rawadid
(955–1221) in Tabriz
and Maragheh
, in the East the Hasanwayhid
s (959–1015), the Annazid
(990–1117) (in Kermanshah
, Dinawar and Khanaqin
) and in the West the Marwanid
(990–1096) of Diyarbakır
. Remnants of the Shaddadid
Kurds are found nowadays in the Kalbajar
and Lachin
regions of Azerbaijan
.
Later in 12th century, Kurdish dynasty of Hazaraspid
established its rule in southern Zagros and Luristan and conquered territories of Kuhgiluya, Khuzestan and Golpayegan in 13th century and annexed Shushtar
, Hoveizeh
and Basra
in 14th century.
One of these dynasties would have been able, during the decades, to impose its supremacy on the others and build a state incorporating the whole Kurdish country if the course of history had not been disrupted by the massive invasions of tribes surging out of the steppes of Central Asia. Having conquered Iran
and imposed their yoke on the caliph of Baghdad
, the Seljuq Turks annexed the Kurdish principalities one by one. Around 1150, Ahmad Sanjar, the last of the great Seljuq monarchs, created a province out of these lands and called it Kurdistan. The province of Kurdistan, formed by Sanjar, had as its capital the village Bahar (which means "spring"), near ancient Ecbatana
(Hamadan
), capital of the Medes
. It included the vilayets of Sinjar and Shahrazur to the west of the Zagros mountain range and those of Hamadan, Dinawar and Kermanshah
to the east of this range. A brilliant autochthonous civilization
developed around the town of Dinawar (today ruined), located 75 km North-East of Kermanshah, whose radiance was later on partially replaced by that of Senna, 90 km further North
Marco Polo
(1254–1324), famous for the first "world trip", met Kurds in Mosul
on his way to China, and he wrote what he had learned about Kurdistan and the Kurds to enlighten his European contemporaries. The Italian Kurdologist Mirella Galetti, sorted these writings which were translated into Kurdish.
The most flourishing period of Kurdish power was probably during the 12th century, when the great Saladin, who belonged to the Rawendi branch of the Hadabani(or Adiabene
) tribe, founded the Ayyubite (1171–1250) dynasty of Syria, and Kurdish chieftainships were established, not only to the west of the Kurdistan mountains in Syria
, but as far away as Egypt
and Yemen
.
, Badinan
, Baban
, Soran
, Hakkari and Badlis
. 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 Biltisi in 1597. The most prominent among these was Ardalan
which was established in early 14th century. The state of Ardalan
controlled the territories of Zardiawa (Karadagh), Khanaqin
, Kirkuk
, Kifri, and Hawraman. The capital city of the state was first in Sharazour in Iraqi Kurdistan
, but was moved to Sinne (in Iran
) later on. The Ardalan
Dynasty continued to rule the region until the Qajar monarch Nasser-al-Din Shah(1848–1896) ended their rule in 1867.
Kurds revolted against Shah Ismail I
Safavi
(who himself had Kurdish ancestry ). Their leader, Shir Sarim, was defeated and captured in a bloody battle wherein several important officers of Shah Ismail lost their lives. The Kurdish prisoners were put to death "with torments worse than which there may not be".
, Assyrians
, Azeris, and Turkmens, were removed from the border regions and resettled in the interior of Persia. As the borders moved progressively eastward, as the Ottomans pushed deeper into the Persian domains, entire Kurdish regions of Anatolia
were at one point or another exposed to horrific acts of despoliation and deportation. These began under the reign of the Safavid Shah Tahmasp I
(ruled 1524–1576). Between 1534 and 1535, Tahmasp began the systematic destruction of the old Kurdish cities and the countryside. When retreating before the Ottoman army, Tahmasp ordered the destruction of crops and settlements of all sizes, driving the inhabitants before him into Azerbaijan
, from where they were later transferred permanently, nearly 1000 miles east, into Khurasan
. Some Kurdish tribes were deported even farther east, into Gharjistan
in the Hindu Kush
mountains of present day Afghanistan
, about 1500 miles away from their homes in western Kurdistan.
Shah Abbas inherited a state threatened by the Ottomans in the west and the Uzbeks
in the northeast. He bought off the former, in order to gain time to defeat the latter, after which he selectively depopulated the Zagros and Caucasus approaches, deporting Kurds, Armenians, and others who might, willingly or not, supply or support an Ottoman campaign.
The magnitude of Safavid Scorched earth
policy can be glimpsed through the works of the Safavid court historians. One of these, Iskandar Bayg Munshi, describing just one episode, writes in the Alam-ara ye Abbasi that Shah Abbas, in furthering the scorched earth policy of his predecessors, set upon the country north of the Araxes and west of Urmia
, and between Kars
and Lake Van, which he commanded to be laid waste and the population of the countryside and the entire towns rounded up and led out of harm's way. Resistance was met "with massacres and mutilation; all immovable property, houses, churches, mosques, crops ... were destroyed, and the whole horde of prisoners was hurried southeast before the Ottomans should counterattack". Many of these Kurds ended up in Khurasan
, but many others were scattered into the Alburz mountains, central Persia, and even Balochistan
. They became the nucleus of several modern Kurdish enclaves outside Kurdistan proper, in Iran
and Turkmenistan
. On one occasion Abbas I
is said to have intended to transplant 40,000 Kurds to northern Khorasan but to have succeeded in deporting only 15,000 before his troops were defeated.
Following the Battle of Chalderan, Sultan Selim I
(the Grim), deported several populous Kurdish tribes into central Anatolia, south of modern Ankara
. In their place, he settled a few, more loyal, Turkmen
tribes. While the deported Kurds became the nucleus of the modern central Anatolian Kurdish enclave, the Turkmen tribes in Kurdistan eventually assimilated.
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 Ahmad Khani. The first literary account of this battle is written by Faqi Tayran
.
, after defeating Shah Ismail I
in 1514, annexed Armenia and Kurdistan, he entrusted the organisation of the conquered territories to Idris, the historian, who was a Kurd of Bitlis
. He divided the territory into sanjaks or districts, and, making no attempt to interfere with the principle of heredity, installed the local chiefs as governors. He also resettled the rich pastoral country between Erzerum and Erivan, which had lain in waste since the passage of Timur
, with Kurds from the Hakkari
and Bohtan districts.
forces under the command of Firari Mustafa Pasha attacked the Yazidi
Kurds of Mount Sinjar (Saçlı Dağı). According to Evliya Çelebi
, the Ottoman force was around 40,000 strong. The battle lasted for seven hours and at the end 3,060 Yazidis were slain. The day after the battle, the Ottoman army raided and set fire to 300 Yazidi villages. Between 1000 to 2000 Yazidis had taken refuge in some caves around Sinjar. They were also massacred after the Ottoman army attacked the caves with cannon
s and hand grenade
s.
, formed a private army and fought a full scale war against the Ottoman
troops. Evliya Çelebi
noted the presence of many Yazidi
s in his army. The main reason for this armed insurrection was the discord between Abdal Khan and Melek Ahmad Pasha the Ottoman governor of Van
and Abdal Khan. The Ottoman troops marched onto Bidlis and committed atrocities against civilians as they passed through Rozhiki territory. Abdal Khan had built great stone redoubts around Bitlis, and also old city walls were defended by a large army of Kurdish infantry
armed with musket
s. Ottomans attacked the outer defensive perimeter and defeated Rozhiki soldiers, then they rushed to loot Bidlis and attacked the civilians. Once the Ottoman force established its camp in Bidlis, in an act of revenge, Abdal Khan made a failed attempt to assassinate Melek Ahmad Pasha. A unit of twenty Kurdish soldiers rode into the tent of Yusuf Kethuda, the second-in-command and fought a ferocious battle with his guards. After the fall of Bidlis, 1400 Kurds continued to resist from the city's old citadel
. While most of these surrendered and were given amnesty, 300 of them were massacred by Melek Ahmad with 70 of them dismembered by sword and cut into pieces.
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The system of administration introduced by Idris remained unchanged until the close of the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29
. But the Kurds, owing to the remoteness of their country from the capital and the decline of Turkey, had greatly increased in influence and power, and had spread westwards over the country as far as Angora
.
After the war the Kurds tried to free themselves from Ottoman control, and in 1834, after the Bedirkhan clan uprising, it became necessary to reduce them to subjection. This was done by Reshid Pasha, also a kurd The principal towns were strongly garrisoned, and many of the Kurd bey
s were replaced by Turkish governors. A rising under Bedr Khan Bey in 1843 was firmly repressed, and after the Crimean War
the Turks strengthened their hold on the country.
Kurdistan as an administrative entity had a brief and shaky existence of 17 years between 13 December 1847 (following Bedirhan Bey's revolt) and 1864, under the initiative of Koca Mustafa Reşit Pasha during the Tanzimat
period (1839–1876) of the Ottoman Empire. The capital of the province was, at first, Ahlat
, and covered Diyarbekir, Muş
, Van, Hakkari
, Cizre
, Botan
and Mardin
. In the following years, the capital was transferred several times, first from Ahlat to Van, then to Muş and finally to Diyarbakır. Its area was reduced in 1856 and the province of Kurdistan within the Ottoman Empire was abolished in 1864. Instead, the former provinces of Diyarbekir and Van
have been re-constituted. Around 1880, Shaikh Ubaidullah led a revolt aiming at bringing the areas between Lakes Van and Urmia under his own rule, however Ottoman and Qajar forces succeeded in defeating the revolt
, and Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz
rebelled in the east and established his authority in Mosul
and Erbil
. At this time, Turkish troops were preoccupied with invading Egyptian troops in Syria and were unable to suppress the revolt. As a result, Bedr Khan extended his authority to Diyarbakır, Siverik (Siverek
), Veransher (Viranşehir
), Sairt (Siirt
), Sulaimania
and Sauj Bulaq (Mahabad
). He established a Kurdish principality in these regions until 1845. He struck his own coins, and his name was included in Friday sermons. Bedr Khan Beg made two campaigns in 1843 and 1846 against the peaceful Assyrian Christians (Nestorians) of Hakkari region and massacred 50,000 Assyrians. Those Assyrians who met their fait were the mother and the two brothers of the spiritual Assyrian leader Mar Shimun. In 1847, the Turkish forces turned their attention toward this area, and defeated Bedr Khan and exiled him to Crete
. He was later allowed to return to Damascus
, where he lived until his death in 1868.
Bedr Khan become a king when his brother died. His brother's son got very upset over this and finally the Turks tricked him in fighting his uncle. They told him that they would make him king if he killed Bedr Khan. So he brought many kurdish warriors with him and attacked his uncle's forces.. Finally he won over him, but instead of becoming a king like the Turks said, he got executed. There are two famous kurdish songs about this battle, called "Ezdin Shêr" and "Ez Xelef im"
(both can be found on http://www.kurdishmusic.eu/siwanperwerm.html)
After him, there were further revolts in 1850 and 1852.
The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 was followed by the attempt of Sheikh Obaidullah in 1880–1881 to found an independent Kurd principality
under the protection of Turkey. The attempt, at first encouraged by the Porte
, as a reply to the projected creation of an Armenian state under the suzerainty of Russia, collapsed after Obaidullah's raid into Persia, when various circumstances led the central government to reassert its supreme authority. Until the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829 there had been little hostile feeling between the Kurds and the Armenians, and as late as 1877–1878 the mountaineers of both races had co-existed fairly well together.
In 1891 the activity of the Armenian Committees induced the Porte to strengthen the position of the Kurds by raising a body of Kurdish irregular
cavalry
, which was well-armed and called Hamidieh soldiers after the Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid II. Minor disturbances constantly occurred, and were soon followed by the massacre of Armenians at Sasun and other places, 1894–1896, in which the Kurds took an active part. Some of the separatist Kurds, aimed to establish a separate Kurdish state.
were demands as an ethnic group or nation made. Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid
responded by a campaign of integration by co-opting prominent Kurdish opponents to strong Ottoman power with prestigious positions in his government. This strategy appears successful given the loyalty displayed by the Kurdish Hamidiye
regiments during World War I.
The Kurdish ethnonationalist movement that emerged following World War I and end of the Ottoman empire was largely reactionary to the changes taking place in mainstream Turkey, primarily radical secularization
which the strongly Muslim Kurds abhorred, centralization of authority which threatened the power of local chieftains and Kurdish autonomy, and rampant Turkish nationalism
in the new Turkish Republic which obviously threatened to marginalize them.
Western powers (particularly the United Kingdom) fighting the Turks also promised the Kurds they would act as guarantors for Kurdish freedom, a promise they subsequently broke. One particular organization, the Kurdish Teali Cemiyet (Society for the Rise of Kurdistan
, or SAK) was central to the forging of a distinct Kurdish identity. It took advantage of period of political liberalization in during the Second Constitutional Era
(1908–1920) of Turkey to transform a renewed interest in Kurdish culture
and language into a political nationalist movement based on ethnicity.
During the relatively open government of the 1950s, Kurds gained political office and started working within the framework of the Turkish Republic to further their interests but this move towards integration was halted with the 1960 Turkish coup d'état. The 1970s saw an evolution in Kurdish nationalism as Marxist political thought influenced a new generation of Kurdish nationalists opposed to the local feudal authorities who had been a traditional source of opposition to authority, eventually they would form the militant separatist PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, European Union, NATO and many states that includes United States), or Kurdistan Workers Party
in English.
, head of a missionary hospital in Urfa, has documented the large scale ethnic cleansing
of both Armenians and Kurds by the Young Turks
during World War I. He has given a detailed account of deportation of Kurds from Erzurum
and Bitlis
in winter of 1916. The Kurds were perceived to be subversive elements that would take the Russian
side in the war. In order to eliminate this threat, Young Turks embarked on a large scale deportation of Kurds from the regions of Djabachdjur, Palu, Musch, Erzurum and Bitlis. Around 300,000 Kurds were forced to move southwards to Urfa and then westwards to Aintab
and Marasch
. In the summer of 1917, Kurds were moved to the Konya
region in central Anatolia
. Through this measures, the Young Turk leaders aimed at eliminating the Kurds by deporting them from their ancestral lands and by dispersing them in small pockets of exiled communities. By the end of World War I, up to 700,000 Kurds were forcibly deported and almost half of the displaced perished.
of Kurdish autonomy in the aftermath of World War I
, Kemal Atatürk prevented such a result. Kurds backed by the United Kingdom declared independence in 1927 and established so-called Republic of Ararat
. Turkey suppressed Kurdist revolts in 1925, 1930, and 1937–1938, while Iran did the same in the 1920s to Simko Shikak
at Lake Urmia
and Jaafar Sultan of Hewraman region who controlled the region between Marivan
and north of Halabja
. A short-lived Soviet
-sponsored Kurdish Republic of Mahabad
in Iran did not long outlast World War II.
From 1922–1924 in Iraq a Kingdom of Kurdistan
existed. When Ba'athist administrators thwarted Kurdish nationalist ambitions in Iraq
, war broke out in the 1960s. In 1970 the Kurds rejected limited territorial self-rule within Iraq, demanding larger areas including the oil-rich Kirkuk
region. For recent developments see Iraqi Kurdistan
.
In 1922, an investigation was initiated for Nihad Pasha, the commander of El-Cezire front, by Adliye Encümeni (Council of Justice) of Grand National Assembly of Turkey
with allegations of fraud. During a confidential convention on the issue on 22 July, a letter of introductions by the Cabinet of Ministers and signed by Mustafa Kemal
was read. The text was referring to the region as "Kurdistan" three times and providing Nihad Pasha with full authorities to support the local Kurdish administrations (idare-i mahallîyeye dair teşkilâtlar) as per the principle of self-determination
(Milletlerin kendi mukadderatlarını bizzat idare etme hakkı), in order to gradually establish a local government in the regions inhabited by Kurds (Kürtlerle meskûn menatık).
In 1931, Iraqi Kurdish statesman Mihemed Emîn Zekî, while serving as the Minister of Economy in the first Nuri as-Said
government, drew the boundaries of Turkish Kurdistan as: "With mountains of Ararat and the Georgian
border (including the region of Kars
, where Kurds and Georgians live side by side) to the north, Iranian border to the east, Iraqi border to the south, and to the west, a line drawn from the west of Sivas to İskenderun
. These boundaries are also in accord with those drawn by the Ottomans." In 1932, Garo Sassouni, formerly a prominent figure of Dashnak
Armenia, defined the borders of "Kurdistan proper" (excluding whole territory of Wilsonian Armenia
) as: "...with a line from the south of Erzincan to Kharput, incorporating Dersim, Çarsancak
, and Malatya, including the mountains of Cebel-i Bereket
and reaching the Syrian border", also adding, "these are the broadest boundaries of Kurdistan that can be claimed by Kurds."
During 1920s and 1930s, several large scale Kurdish revolts took place in this region. The most important ones were 1) Saikh Said Rebellion in 1925, 2) Ararat Revolt in 1930 and 3) Dersim Revolt in 1938 (see Kurds in Turkey
). Following these rebellions, the area of Turkish Kurdistan was put under martial law
and a large number of the Kurds were displaced. Government also encouraged resettlement of Albanians from Kosovo
and Assyrians
in the region to change the population makeup. These events and measures led to a long-lasting mutual distrust between Ankara and the Kurds .
About half of all Kurds live in Turkey. According to the CIA Factbook they account for 18 percent of the Turkish population. They are predominantly distributed in the southeastern corner of the country.
The best available estimate of the number of persons in Turkey speaking the Kurdish language is about five million (1980). About 3,950,000 others speak Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji
) (1980). While population increase suggests that the number of speakers has grown, it is also true that use of the language has been discouraged in Turkish cities, and that many fewer ethnic Kurds live in the countryside where the language has traditionally been used. The number of speakers is clearly less than the 15 million or so persons who identify themselves as ethnic Kurds.
From 1915 to 1918, Kurds struggled to end Ottoman rule over their region. They were encouraged by Woodrow Wilson
's support for non-Turkish nationalities of the empire and submitted their claim for independence to the Paris Peace Conference
in 1919. The Treaty of Sèvres
stipulated creation of an autonomous Kurdish state in 1920, but the subsequent Treaty of Lausanne
in 1923 failed to mention Kurds. In 1925 and 1930, Kurdish revolts were forcibly suppressed.
Following these events, the existence of distinct ethnic groups like Kurds in Turkey was officially denied and any expression by the Kurds of their ethnic identity was harshly repressed. Until 1991, the use of the Kurdish language – although widespread – was illegal. As a result of reforms inspired by the EU, music, radio and television broadcasts in Kurdish are now allowed albeit with severe time restrictions (for example, radio broadcasts can be no longer than sixty minutes per day nor constitute more than five hours per week while television broadcasts are subject to even greater restrictions). Additionally, education in Kurdish is now permitted though only in private institutions.
As late as 1994, however, Leyla Zana
, the first female Kurdish representative in Turkey's Parliament, was charged for making "separatist speeches" and sentenced to 15 years in prison. At her inauguration as an MP, she reportedly identified herself as a Kurd. Amnesty International
reported that "[s]he 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 considered by the US to be a terrorist organization dedicated to creating an independent Kurdish state in a territory (traditionally referred to as Kurdistan) consisting of parts of southeastern Turkey, northeastern Iraq
, northeastern Syria
and northwestern Iran
. It is an ethnic
secession
ist organization using diplomacy towards the Turkish state, but also force against military targets for the purpose of achieving its political goal.
Between 1984 and 1999, the PKK and the Turkish military engaged in open war, and much of the countryside in the southeast was depopulated, with Kurdish civilians moving 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. Human Rights Watch
has documented many instances where the Turkish military forcibly evacuated villages, destroying houses and equipment to prevent the return of the inhabitants. An estimated 3,000 Kurdish villages in Turkey were virtually wiped from the map, representing the displacement of more than 378,000 people.
Nelson Mandela
refused to accept the Atatürk Peace Award in 1992 because of the oppression of the Kurds. After the rejection, Turkish press called him 'An Ugly African' and 'Terrorist Mandela'.
. Kurds also have a presence in Kirkuk
, Mosul
, Khanaqin
, and Baghdad
. There are around 300,000 Kurds living in the Iraqi capital Baghdad
, 50,000 in the city of Mosul
and around 100,000 Kurds living elsewhere in Southern Iraq. 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. However, at the same time, the Iraqi regime started an Arabization program in the oil rich regions of Kirkuk and Khanaqin. The peace agreement did not last long, and in 1974, the Iraqi government began a new offensive against the Kurds. Moreover in March 1975, Iraq and Iran signed the Algiers Accord, according to which Iran cut supplies to Iraqi Kurds. Iraq started another wave of Arabization by moving Arabs to the oil fields in Kurdistan, particularly those around Kirkuk. Between 1975 and 1978, two-hundred thousand Kurds were deported to other parts of Iraq.
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 between fifty and one-hundred thousand Kurds.
After the Kurdish uprising in 1991 led by the PUK
and KDP, Iraqi troops recaptured the Kurdish areas and hundreds of thousand of Kurds fled to the borders. To alleviate the situation, a "safe haven" was established by the 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. 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 were scheduled to be held in 2007, to determine the final borders of the Kurdish region.
In early June 2010, following a visit to Turkey, by one of the PKK leaders, the PKK announced an end to the cease fire, followed by an air attack on several border villages and rebel positions by the Turkish air force.
The Kurds constitute approximately 7% of Iran's overall population. The Persian
s, 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. 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". 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.".
It is also notable that Shia Kermanshahi Kurds
, with the population of 1,550,000, have no interest in autonomy.
In the 17th century, a large number of Kurds were deported by Shah Abbas I to Khorasan
in Eastern Iran and resettled in the cities of Quchan
and Birjand
, while others migrated to Afghanistan
where the took refuge. The Kurds of Khorasan, numbering around 700,000, still use the Kurmanji
Kurdish dialect.
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 Pahlavi
s in the 1920s).
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.
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. 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. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
fought to reestablish government control in the Kurdish regions; as a result, around ten thousand Kurds were killed. Since 1983, the Iranian government has maintained control over the Iranian Kurdistan. Frequent unrest and the occasional military crackdown have occurred since the 1990s.
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 in connection with their work. Following the killing of Kurdish opposition activist Shivan Qaderi
and two other Kurdish men by Iranian security forces in Mahabad
on 9 July 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. According to the one of Iran analyst's of International Crisis Group
(a NGO founded in 1995 by World Bank
Vice-President and former US diplomats ), "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."
's population, a total of around 1.9 million people. This makes them the largest ethnic minority in the country. They are mostly concentrated in the northeast and the north, but there are also significant Kurdish populations in Aleppo and Damascus. Kurds often speak Kurdish in public, unless all those present do not. 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, 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. 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. As a consequence, these Kurds are in effect trapped within Syria. In February 2006, however, sources reported that Syria was now planning to grant these Kurds citizenship.
On 12 March 2004, beginning at a stadium in Qamishli
(a city in northeastern Syria where many Kurds live), 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 inhabited towns along the northern border with Turkey, and then to Damascus
and Aleppo
.
, taking residence in Herat
and other cities of western Afghanistan. The Kurdish colony in Afghanistan numbered some tens of thousands during the 16th century. Some Kurds held high governmental positions within Afghanistan, such as Ali Mardan Khan
who was appointed the governor of Kabul
in 1641. The Kurds devotedly sided with the Afghans during their conflicts with the Safavid Empire, and in their subsequent conflicts with other regional powers. The number of Kurds currently in Afghanistan is difficult to calculate, though one figure notes that there are approximately 200,000. It remains unclear however whether the Kurds of Afghanistan have retained the Kurdish language.
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.
) and eastern Zangazur (capital Lachin
) were combined to form the Kurdistan Okrug (or "Red Kurdistan"). The period of existence of the Kurdish administration 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.
, Romans
, Byzantines
, Arabs, Ottoman Turks
, and Persians, they may have remained relatively unmixed by the influx of invaders, because of their protected and inhospitable mountainous homeland.
Genetic testing
amongst randomly chosen Kurdish
populations has began to shed light into the disparate origins of the Kurds. The results reveal a variety of connections amongst the Kurds, when assessing paternal and maternal lineages. Overall the Kurds share some genetic ties to other speakers of Iranian languages
as well as with various peoples from the Caucasus such as the Armenians which suggests that the Kurds have ancient ethnic ties that connect them to both the early inhabitants of the Kurdistan area, such as the Hurrians.
in the Near East found that Kurds, Azeris, Ossetians and Armenians show a high incidence of MtDNA U5 lineages, which are common among Europeans, although rare elsewhere in the Near East. The sample of Kurds in this study came from northwest Iran and northeast Iraq, where Kurds usually predominate.
A geographically broad study of the Southwest and Central Asian Corridor found that populations located west of the Indus Valley mainly harbor mtDNAs of western Eurasian origin.
When Ivan Nasidze and his colleagues examined both Mitochondrial and Y-Chromosome DNA, they found Kurdish groups most similar genetically to other West Asian groups, and most distant from Central Asian groups, for both mtDNA and the Y-chromosome. However, Kurdish groups show a closer relationship with European groups than with Caucasian groups based on mtDNA, but the opposite based on the Y-chromosome, indicating some differences in their maternal and paternal histories.
, but fewer links to southern Semites in the Arabian peninsula
in spite of the region having been conquered very early by Muslim Arabs. In 2001 Nebel et al. compared three Jewish and three non-Jewish groups from the Middle East: Ashkenazim, Sephardim, and Kurdish Jews from Israel; Muslim Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian Authority Area; Bedouin from the Negev
; and Muslim Kurds. They concluded that Kurdish and Sephardic Jews were indistinguishable from one another, whereas both differed slightly, yet significantly, from Ashkenazi Jews. Nebel et al. had earlier (2000) found a large genetic relationship between Jews and Palestinians, but in this study found an even higher relationship of Jews with Iraqi Kurds. They conclude that the common genetic background shared by Jews and other Middle Eastern groups predates the division of Middle Easterners into different ethnic groups.
Interestingly, Nebel et al. (2001) also found that the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH), considered the most definitive Jewish haplotype, was found among 10.1% of Kurdish Jews, 7.6% of Ashkenazim, 6.4% of Sephardim, 2.1% of Palestianian Arabs, and 1.1% of Kurds. The CMH and the most frequent Kurdish haplotype (MKH) were the same on five markers (out of six) and very close on the other marker. The MKH was shared by 9.5% of Kurds, 2.6% of Sephardim, 2.0% of Kurdish Jews, 1.4% of Palestinian Arabs, and 1.3% of Ashkenazim. The general conclusion is that these similarities result mostly from the sharing of ancient genetic patterns, and not from more recent admixture between the groups.
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
(Zagros and Taurus
Taurus Mountains
Taurus Mountains are a mountain complex in southern Turkey, dividing the Mediterranean coastal region of southern Turkey from the central Anatolian Plateau. The system extends along a curve from Lake Eğirdir in the west to the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the east...
mountain ranges), a geographical area collectively referred to as Kurdistan. Most Kurds speak an Indo-European
Indo-European
Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...
language belonging to the Iranian branch.
There are various hypotheses as to predecessor populations of the Kurds, such as the Carduchoi of Classical Antiquity.
The earliest known Kurdish dynasties under Islamic rule (10th to 12th centuries) are the Hasanwayhid
Hasanwayhid
Hasanawayhid or Hasanuyid was a Kurdish principality from 959 to 1015, centered at Dinawar . The principality ruled western Iran and upper Mesopotamia. The founder of the dynasty was Hasanwayh bin Husayn from the Kurdish tribe of Barzikani...
s, the Marwanid
Marwanid
Marwanid, , was a Kurdish dynasty in Northern Mesopotamia and Armenia, centered around the city of Amed . Other cities under rule were Arzan, Mayyāfāriqīn , Hisn Kayfa , Khilāṭ, Manzikart, Arjish. The founder of the dynasty was a Kurdish shepherd, Abu Shujā Bādh bin Dustak...
s, the Shaddadid
Shaddadid
The Shaddadids were a Kurdish dynasty who ruled in various parts of Armenia and Arran from 951-1174 AD. They were established in Dvin. Through their long tenure in Armenia, they often intermarried with the Bagratuni royal family of Armenia....
s, followed by the Ayyubid dynasty
Ayyubid dynasty
The Ayyubid dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Kurdish origin, founded by Saladin and centered in Egypt. The dynasty ruled much of the Middle East during the 12th and 13th centuries CE. The Ayyubid family, under the brothers Ayyub and Shirkuh, originally served as soldiers for the Zengids until they...
founded by Saladin
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
. The Battle of Chaldiran
Battle of Chaldiran
The Battle of Chaldiran or Chaldoran occurred on 23 August 1514 and ended with a victory for the Ottoman Empire over the Safavid Empire of Persia . As a result, the Ottomans gained immediate control over eastern Anatolia and northern Iraq...
of 1514 is an important turning point in Kurdish history, marking the alliance of Kurds with the Ottomans. The Sharafnameh of 1597 is the first account of Kurdish history. Kurdish history in the 20th century is marked by a rising sense of Kurdish nationhood focussed on the goal of an independent Kurdistan as scheduled by the Treaty of Sèvres
Treaty of Sèvres
The Treaty of Sèvres was the peace treaty between the Ottoman Empire and Allies at the end of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles was signed with Germany before this treaty to annul the German concessions including the economic rights and enterprises. Also, France, Great Britain and Italy...
in 1920. Partial autonomy was reached by Kurdistan Uyezd (1923–1926) and by Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...
(since 1991), while notably in Turkish Kurdistan
Turkish Kurdistan
Turkish Kurdistan is an unofficial name for the southeastern part of Turkey, which is inhabited predominantly by ethnic Kurds. The area covers between 190,000 to 230,000 km² , or nearly a third of Turkey...
, an armed conflict between the PKK and Turkish Armed Forces
Turkish Armed Forces
The Turkish Armed Forces are the military forces of the Republic of Turkey. They consist of the Army, the Navy , and the Air Force...
was ongoing 1984 to 1999, and the region continues to be unstable with renewed flaring up of violence in the 2000s.
Etymology
The term "Kurd" is first encountered in Arabic sources of the 1st century of the Islamic era. The term seems to refer to variety of pastoral nomadism and possibly a set of political units, rather than linguistic group. Books from the early Islamic era, including those containing legends like the ShahnamehShahnameh
The Shahnameh or Shah-nama is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c.977 and 1010 AD and is the national epic of Iran and related societies...
and the Pahlavi Karnamak Ardashir-e-Papkan and other early Islamic sources provide early attestation of the name Kurd. The term Kurd in the Middle Persian documents simply means nomad and tent-dweller and could be attributed to any Iranian ethnic group having similar characteristics. In the early Islamic Persian and Arabic sources, the term Kurd became synonymous with an amalgamation of Iranian and Iranicized nomadic tribes and groups without reference to any specific Iranian language.
By the 16th century, Sherefxan Bidlisi
Sherefxan Bidlisi
Sharaf Khan Bidlisi or Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi, , was a medieval Kurdish Emir and a politician from the Emirate of Bitlis....
states that there are four division of Kurds: Kurmanj, Lur
Lur
A lur is a long natural blowing horn without finger holes that is played by embouchure. Lurs can be straight or curved in various shapes. The purpose of the curves was to make long instruments easier to carry A lur is a long natural blowing horn without finger holes that is played by embouchure....
, Kalhur and Guran
Guran
Guran is a character from The Phantom comic strip, and is the Phantom's best friend since childhood. According to Lee Falk's novel The Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks, he is ten years older than Kit Walker, aka the Phantom. The two grew up together in the deep woods of Bangalla, where...
. However, according to Vladimir Minorsky, only Kurmanj and possibly Kalhur come under the heading of Kurds, whereas Lur and Guran stand apart for both linguistic and ethnological reasons. Despite the opinion of Minorsky and other linguists, the Kalhur and Guran speakers do not use linguistic differentiators. Rather they use cultural differentiators and consider themselves as Kurds, along with all Kurmanji
Kurmanji
Kurmanji or Northern Kurdish is the most commonly spoken dialect of the Kurdish language.- Scripts and books :...
, Sorani
Soranî
Soranî is the name of a Kurdish language that is spoken in Iran and Iraq. Soranî is one of the main Kurdish languages, which are a branch of the Iranian languages.- Name :...
speakers .
The ultimate etymology of the name is unknown. It has been connected to various toponyms and ethnonyms of antiquity.
Thus, one suggestion connects a tribal name known from Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n documents of ca. 1000 BC, which mention a people living in Mt. Azu or Hizan (near Lake Van
Lake Van
Lake Van is the largest lake in Turkey, located in the far east of the country in Van district. It is a saline and soda lake, receiving water from numerous small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. Lake Van is one of the world's largest endorheic lakes . The original outlet from...
) by the name Kurti or Kurkhi. The country of the Kurkhi included regions of Mount Judi
Mount Judi
Mount Judi , according to very Early Christian and Islamic tradition , is the Noah's apobaterion or "Place of Descent", the location where the Ark came to rest after the Great Flood....
and districts that were later called by the names Sophene
Sophene
Sophene , or ) was a province of the Armenian Kingdom and of the Roman Empire, located in the south-west of the kingdom. It currently lies in modern-day southeastern Turkey....
, Anzanene and Gordyene.
According to the British scholar G. R. Driver, the ethnonym originates even earlier, in 3rd millennium BC Sumerian records, as the name of a land called Karda or Qarda. This land south of Lake Van, was inhabited by the people of Su or Subaru who were connected with the Qurtie, a group of mountain dwellers.
Prehistory
KurdishKurdish language
Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....
is a language of the Northwestern Iranian group which has likely separated from the other dialects of Central Iran
Dialects of Central Iran
Central Iranian, or Central Iran, is a group of Western Iranian languages spoken in villages and towns of central Iran, mostly in Markazi and Isfahan provinces...
during the early centuries CE. Even though there are no records of the Kurdish language prior to the 13th century, the presence of Armenian
Armenian language
The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...
loanwords indicates that there must have been Kurdish-Armenian contacts by at least 1100 CE.
The present state of knowledge about Kurdish allows, at least roughly, drawing the approximate borders of the areas where the main ethnic core of the speakers of the contemporary Kurdish dialects was formed. The most argued hypothesis on the localisation of the ethnic territory of the Kurds remains D.N. Mackenzie's theory, proposed in the early 1960s (Mackenzie 1961). Developing the ideas of P. Tedesco (1921: 255) and regarding the common phonetic isoglosses shared by Kurdish, Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, and Baluchi, D.N. Mackenzie concluded that the speakers of these three languages form a unity within Northwestern Iranian. He has tried to reconstruct such a Persian-Kurdish-Baluchi linguistic unity presumably in the central parts of Iran. According to his theory, the Persians (or Proto-Persians) occupied the province of Fars in the southwest (proceeding from the assumption that the Achaemenids
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...
spoke Persian), the Baluchis
Baloch people
The Baloch or Baluch are an ethnic group that belong to the larger Iranian peoples. Baluch people mainly inhabit the Balochistan region and Sistan and Baluchestan Province in the southeast corner of the Iranian plateau in Western Asia....
(Proto-Baluchis) inhabited the central areas of Western Iran, and the Kurds (Proto-Kurds), in the wording of G. Windfuhr (1975: 459), lived either in northwestern Luristan
Lorestan Province
Lorestan Province is a historic territory and province of western Iran, amidst the Zagros Mountains. The population of Lorestan was estimated at 1,716,527 people in 2006.Lorestan covers an area of 28,392 km²...
or in the province of Isfahan.
Muslim conquests
In 641 CE, Arab commander Utba ibn farqad conquered Kurdish forts of AdiabeneAdiabene
Adiabene was an ancient Assyrian independent kingdom in Mesopotamia, with its capital at Arbela...
. Around this time, Kurds lived a partly sedentary life and raised sheep and cattle in the regions of Beth Begash and Beth Kartewaye above Arbil
Arbil
Arbil / Hewlêr is the fourth largest city in Iraq after Baghdad, Basra and Mosul...
in Adiabene. In 696, Kurds joined the Khariji revolt near Hulwan
Hulwan
Helwan , also spelled Hilwan or Hulwan or Holwan, is a city in Egypt on the bank of the Nile river, opposite the ruins of Memphis. Originally a southern suburb of Cairo, it served as the capital of the now defunct Helwan Governorate from April 2008 to April 2011, after which it was re-incorporated...
.
Under the caliph
Caliph
The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
s of Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
there were numerous uprisings. In 838, and again in 905, formidable insurrections occurred in northern Kurdistan; the amir, Aqpd-addaula, was obliged to lead the forces of the caliphate against the southern Kurds, capturing the famous fortress of Sermaj, whose ruins are to be seen at the present day near Behistun, and reducing the province of Shahrizor with its capital city now marked by the great mound of Yassin Teppeh. One of the very well known Kurdish scholars, Al-Dinawari
Al-Dinawari
Ābu Ḥanīfah Āḥmad ibn Dawūd Dīnawarī was a Persian polymath excelling as much in astronomy, agriculture, botany and metallurgy and as he did in geography, mathematics and history. He was born in Dinawar, . He studied astronomy, mathematics and mechanics in Isfahan and philology and poetry in...
(828–889), from Dinawar near Kermanshah
Kermanshah
Kermanshah is a city in and the capital of Kermanshah Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 784,602, in 198,117 families.The overwhelming majority of Kermanshahi people are Shi'a Muslims...
, lived in this period. He has written a book about the ancestry of the Kurds.
A Kurd named Nasr or Narseh converted to Christianity, and changed his name to Theophobos during the reign of Emperor Theophilus and was the emperor's intimate friend and commander for many years. Narseh joined Babak
Babak Khorramdin
Bābak Khorram-Din was one of the main Persian revolutionary leaders of the Iranian Khorram-Dinān , which was a local freedom movement fighting the Abbasid Caliphate. Khorramdin appears to be a compound analogous to dorustdin and Behdin "Good Religion" , and are considered an offshoot of...
's rebellion in southern Kurdistan, but Abbasid
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids , was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate from all but the al-Andalus region....
armies defeated his forces in 833 and according to the Muslim historian Tabari around 60,000 of his followers were killed. Narseh himself fled to the Byzantine territories and helped form the Kurdish contingent of Theophilus. This Kurdish force invaded the domain of caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
in 838 to help Babak's rebellion. After the defeat of Babak, Narseh and his followers settled in Pontus
Pontus
Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος...
(north-central Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
).
The eclipse of the Sasanian and Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
power by the Muslim caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
, and its own subsequent weakening, let the Kurdish principalities and "mountain administrators" set up new independent states. The Shaddadids of the Caucasus and Armenia, the Rawadids of Azerbaijan, the Marwandis of eastern Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
, the Hasanwayhid
Hasanwayhid
Hasanawayhid or Hasanuyid was a Kurdish principality from 959 to 1015, centered at Dinawar . The principality ruled western Iran and upper Mesopotamia. The founder of the dynasty was Hasanwayh bin Husayn from the Kurdish tribe of Barzikani...
s, Fadhilwayhids, and Ayyarids of the central Zagros are some of the these Kurdish dynasties.
Medieval Kurdish dynasties
In 837, the Kurdish lord Rozeguite, founded the town of Akhlat on the banks of Lake VanLake Van
Lake Van is the largest lake in Turkey, located in the far east of the country in Van district. It is a saline and soda lake, receiving water from numerous small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. Lake Van is one of the world's largest endorheic lakes . The original outlet from...
and made it the capital of his principality, theoretically vassal of the caliph
Caliph
The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
, but in fact virtually independent. The Principality of Ake ruled a Carduchian land which lay between the upper valley of the Centritis and the Zabus. It was situated between Arzanene and Adiabene
Adiabene
Adiabene was an ancient Assyrian independent kingdom in Mesopotamia, with its capital at Arbela...
. At the beginning of 10th century, it became a vassal of the Artsrunis of Vaspurakan
Vaspurakan
Vaspurakan was the first and biggest province of Greater Armenia, which later became an independent kingdom during the Middle Ages, centered around Lake Van...
. Andzewatsi was another principality located in southeast of Lake Van and northwest of Ake and its princes were a branch of Medo-Carduchians of Mahkert. In 780, its chief prince Tachat Andzewatsi was in Caliph's obedience. After him, the dynasty declined and it was reduced to vassalage of the Artsrunis in 860.
In the first half of the 10th century, the Aishanid dynasty (912–961) ruled over a vast area in the central and northern Zagros. In the second half of the 10th century, Kurdistan was shared amongst five big Kurdish principalities. In the North the Shaddadid
Shaddadid
The Shaddadids were a Kurdish dynasty who ruled in various parts of Armenia and Arran from 951-1174 AD. They were established in Dvin. Through their long tenure in Armenia, they often intermarried with the Bagratuni royal family of Armenia....
(951–1174) (in parts of Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
and Arran
Arran (Azerbaijan)
Arran , also known as Aran, Ardhan , Al-Ran , Aghvank and Alvank , or Caucasian Albania , was a geographical name used in ancient and medieval times to signify the territory which lies within the triangle of land, lowland in the east and mountainous in the west, formed by the junction of Kura and...
) and Rawadid
Rawadid
Rawadid , , was a Kurdish principality ruling Azerbaijan from the 10th to the early 11th centuries, centered around Tabriz and Maragheh. The Rawadid tribe was one of the Arab tribes who became Kurdish by culture through assimilation...
(955–1221) in Tabriz
Tabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
and Maragheh
Maragheh
Maragheh also Romanized as Marāgheh and Marāghen) is a city in and the capital of Maragheh County, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 146,405, in 38,891 families....
, in the East the Hasanwayhid
Hasanwayhid
Hasanawayhid or Hasanuyid was a Kurdish principality from 959 to 1015, centered at Dinawar . The principality ruled western Iran and upper Mesopotamia. The founder of the dynasty was Hasanwayh bin Husayn from the Kurdish tribe of Barzikani...
s (959–1015), the Annazid
Annazid
The Annazid or Banu Annaz or Al-Anazis , were a Kurdish dynasty that ruled a territory on the present-day Iran-Iraq frontier that included Kermanshah, Ilam, Hulwan, Dinawar , Sharazour, Daquq, Daskara, Bandanijin, and No'maniya ...
(990–1117) (in Kermanshah
Kermanshah
Kermanshah is a city in and the capital of Kermanshah Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 784,602, in 198,117 families.The overwhelming majority of Kermanshahi people are Shi'a Muslims...
, Dinawar and Khanaqin
Khanaqin
Khanaqin is a city in Iraq. It is located at 34.3°N, 45.4°E in the Diyala Governorate, near the Iranian border on a tributary of the Diyala River...
) and in the West the Marwanid
Marwanid
Marwanid, , was a Kurdish dynasty in Northern Mesopotamia and Armenia, centered around the city of Amed . Other cities under rule were Arzan, Mayyāfāriqīn , Hisn Kayfa , Khilāṭ, Manzikart, Arjish. The founder of the dynasty was a Kurdish shepherd, Abu Shujā Bādh bin Dustak...
(990–1096) of Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey...
. Remnants of the Shaddadid
Shaddadid
The Shaddadids were a Kurdish dynasty who ruled in various parts of Armenia and Arran from 951-1174 AD. They were established in Dvin. Through their long tenure in Armenia, they often intermarried with the Bagratuni royal family of Armenia....
Kurds are found nowadays in the Kalbajar
Kalbajar
]Kalbajar is a rayon of Azerbaijan. Kalbajar is a Kurdish name meaning Stone City. The entire region is now under the control of Armenian forces who call the western half Karvajar. The eastern half is part of Nagorno-Karabakh, making up part of the province of Martakert...
and Lachin
Lachin
Lachin is a town in Azerbaijan and the regional center of the Lachin Rayon. Since 1992 the area has been under the control of the de facto independent unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which has renamed the town Berdzor . The town and its surrounding region serve as the strategic Lachin...
regions of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
.
Later in 12th century, Kurdish dynasty of Hazaraspid
Hazaraspid
The Hazaraspids , was a local Kurdish dynasty that ruled Zagros mountains region of southwestern Persia, essentially in Lorestān and the adjacent parts of Fārs which flourished in the later Saljuq, Ilkhanid, Muzaffarids, and Timurid periods...
established its rule in southern Zagros and Luristan and conquered territories of Kuhgiluya, Khuzestan and Golpayegan in 13th century and annexed Shushtar
Shushtar
-External links:** Hamid-Reza Hosseini, Shush at the foot of Louvre , in Persian, Jadid Online, 10 March 2009, .Audio slideshow: .* .* * , PressTV, 13 June 2010....
, Hoveizeh
Hoveizeh
Hoveyzeh is a city in and the capital of Hoveyzeh County, Khuzestan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 14,422, in 2,749 families....
and Basra
Basra
Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...
in 14th century.
One of these dynasties would have been able, during the decades, to impose its supremacy on the others and build a state incorporating the whole Kurdish country if the course of history had not been disrupted by the massive invasions of tribes surging out of the steppes of Central Asia. Having conquered Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and imposed their yoke on the caliph of Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, the Seljuq Turks annexed the Kurdish principalities one by one. Around 1150, Ahmad Sanjar, the last of the great Seljuq monarchs, created a province out of these lands and called it Kurdistan. The province of Kurdistan, formed by Sanjar, had as its capital the village Bahar (which means "spring"), near ancient Ecbatana
Ecbatana
Ecbatana is supposed to be the capital of Astyages , which was taken by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great in the sixth year of Nabonidus...
(Hamadan
Hamadan
-Culture:Hamadan is home to many poets and cultural celebrities. The city is also said to be among the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities.Handicrafts: Hamadan has always been well known for handicrafts like leather, ceramic, and beautiful carpets....
), capital of the Medes
Medes
The MedesThe Medes...
. It included the vilayets of Sinjar and Shahrazur to the west of the Zagros mountain range and those of Hamadan, Dinawar and Kermanshah
Kermanshah
Kermanshah is a city in and the capital of Kermanshah Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 784,602, in 198,117 families.The overwhelming majority of Kermanshahi people are Shi'a Muslims...
to the east of this range. A brilliant autochthonous civilization
Civilization
Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...
developed around the town of Dinawar (today ruined), located 75 km North-East of Kermanshah, whose radiance was later on partially replaced by that of Senna, 90 km further North
Marco Polo
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
(1254–1324), famous for the first "world trip", met Kurds in Mosul
Mosul
Mosul , is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial...
on his way to China, and he wrote what he had learned about Kurdistan and the Kurds to enlighten his European contemporaries. The Italian Kurdologist Mirella Galetti, sorted these writings which were translated into Kurdish.
Ayyubid period
The most flourishing period of Kurdish power was probably during the 12th century, when the great Saladin, who belonged to the Rawendi branch of the Hadabani(or Adiabene
Adiabene
Adiabene was an ancient Assyrian independent kingdom in Mesopotamia, with its capital at Arbela...
) tribe, founded the Ayyubite (1171–1250) dynasty of Syria, and Kurdish chieftainships were established, not only to the west of the Kurdistan mountains in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, but as far away as Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
.
Kurdish principalities after the Mongol period
After the Mongol period, Kurds established several independent states or principalities such as ArdalanArdalan
Ardalan or was the name of a vassaldom in north-western Persia during Qajar period.Ardalan vassaldom was established in an area encompassing present day Iranian province of Kurdistan from medieval period up to mid 19th century. Ardalan is also the name of the ruling family of that vassaldom...
, Badinan
Badinan Emirate
Bahdinan or Badinan was one of the more powerful and enduring Kurdish principalities. It was founded by Baha-al-Din originally from Şemzînan area in Hakkari in sometime between 13th or 14th century CE. The capital of this emirate was Amadiya for a long time.It was centered in the town of Amadiya...
, Baban
Baban
Baban were a Kurdish principality and ruling family originating from Darishmana in the region of Pijder. The founder of the dynasty and its first ruler was Fakih Ahmed a descendent of the ancient house of Soran. He also had a brother named Khidder Ahmed who lived with him...
, Soran
Soran Emirate
Soran was a Kurdish emirate that was established in 1816. It ruled over the northeastern part of Kurdistan until it was removed by Ottoman troops in 1835. Its capital for most of that time was the city of Rawanduz....
, Hakkari and Badlis
Badlis
Principality of Bitlis , was a Kurdish principality originated from the Rojaki tribal confederation. The Rojaki defeated the Georgian King David the Curopalate and conquered Bitlis and Sasun in the 10th century. The principality occasionally came under the rule of outsiders, such as Akkoyunlu and...
. 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 Biltisi in 1597. The most prominent among these was Ardalan
Ardalan
Ardalan or was the name of a vassaldom in north-western Persia during Qajar period.Ardalan vassaldom was established in an area encompassing present day Iranian province of Kurdistan from medieval period up to mid 19th century. Ardalan is also the name of the ruling family of that vassaldom...
which was established in early 14th century. The state of Ardalan
Ardalan
Ardalan or was the name of a vassaldom in north-western Persia during Qajar period.Ardalan vassaldom was established in an area encompassing present day Iranian province of Kurdistan from medieval period up to mid 19th century. Ardalan is also the name of the ruling family of that vassaldom...
controlled the territories of Zardiawa (Karadagh), Khanaqin
Khanaqin
Khanaqin is a city in Iraq. It is located at 34.3°N, 45.4°E in the Diyala Governorate, near the Iranian border on a tributary of the Diyala River...
, Kirkuk
Kirkuk
Kirkuk is a city in Iraq and the capital of Kirkuk Governorate.It is located in the Iraqi governorate of Kirkuk, north of the capital, Baghdad...
, Kifri, and Hawraman. The capital city of the state was first in Sharazour in Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...
, but was moved to Sinne (in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
) later on. The Ardalan
Ardalan
Ardalan or was the name of a vassaldom in north-western Persia during Qajar period.Ardalan vassaldom was established in an area encompassing present day Iranian province of Kurdistan from medieval period up to mid 19th century. Ardalan is also the name of the ruling family of that vassaldom...
Dynasty continued to rule the region until the Qajar monarch Nasser-al-Din Shah(1848–1896) ended their rule in 1867.
Safavid period
During the years 1506–1510, YazidiYazidi
The Yazidi are members of a Kurdish religion with ancient Indo-Iranian roots. They are primarily a Kurdish-speaking people living in the Mosul region of northern Iraq, with additional communities in Transcaucasia, Armenia, Turkey, and Syria in decline since the 1990s – their members emigrating to...
Kurds revolted against Shah Ismail I
Ismail I
Ismail I , known in Persian as Shāh Ismāʿil , was a Shah of Iran and the founder of the Safavid dynasty which survived until 1736. Isma'il started his campaign in Azerbaijan in 1500 as the leader of the Safaviyya, an extremist heterodox Twelver Shi'i militant religious order and unified all of Iran...
Safavi
Safavi
Safavi is a Persian surname, best known as the surname of the royal family of the Safavid Dynasty.-Etymology:Some have argued that Safavi is a cognate of the word "Safaviyeh". And that "Safa" is a cognate of the word Sufi....
(who himself had Kurdish ancestry ). Their leader, Shir Sarim, was defeated and captured in a bloody battle wherein several important officers of Shah Ismail lost their lives. The Kurdish prisoners were put to death "with torments worse than which there may not be".
Displacement of the Kurds
Removal of the population from along their borders with the Ottomans in Kurdistan and the Caucasus was of strategic importance to the Safavids. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, along with large groups of ArmeniansArmenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
, Assyrians
Assyrian people
The Assyrian people are a distinct ethnic group whose origins lie in ancient Mesopotamia...
, Azeris, and Turkmens, were removed from the border regions and resettled in the interior of Persia. As the borders moved progressively eastward, as the Ottomans pushed deeper into the Persian domains, entire Kurdish regions of Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
were at one point or another exposed to horrific acts of despoliation and deportation. These began under the reign of the Safavid Shah Tahmasp I
Tahmasp I
Tahmasp or Tahmasb I was an influential Shah of Iran, who enjoyed the longest reign of any member of the Safavid dynasty...
(ruled 1524–1576). Between 1534 and 1535, Tahmasp began the systematic destruction of the old Kurdish cities and the countryside. When retreating before the Ottoman army, Tahmasp ordered the destruction of crops and settlements of all sizes, driving the inhabitants before him into Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
, from where they were later transferred permanently, nearly 1000 miles east, into Khurasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
. Some Kurdish tribes were deported even farther east, into Gharjistan
Gharjistan
Gharjistan or Gharshistan refers to the region around the Badghis Province in Afghanistan or more specifically to the rising place of Murghab river. It was part of Greater Khorasan. Gharjistan is mentioned by name in the 16th century Baburnama, describing Babur's visit to the area in early 1507...
in the Hindu Kush
Hindu Kush
The Hindu Kush is an mountain range that stretches between central Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. The highest point in the Hindu Kush is Tirich Mir in the Chitral region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.It is the westernmost extension of the Pamir Mountains, the Karakoram Range, and is a...
mountains of present day Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, about 1500 miles away from their homes in western Kurdistan.
Shah Abbas inherited a state threatened by the Ottomans in the west and the Uzbeks
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Pakistan, Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...
in the northeast. He bought off the former, in order to gain time to defeat the latter, after which he selectively depopulated the Zagros and Caucasus approaches, deporting Kurds, Armenians, and others who might, willingly or not, supply or support an Ottoman campaign.
The magnitude of Safavid Scorched earth
Scorched earth
A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...
policy can be glimpsed through the works of the Safavid court historians. One of these, Iskandar Bayg Munshi, describing just one episode, writes in the Alam-ara ye Abbasi that Shah Abbas, in furthering the scorched earth policy of his predecessors, set upon the country north of the Araxes and west of Urmia
Urmia
- Demographics :According to official census of 2006, the population of Urmia is about 871,204.- Language :The population of Urmia is mainly Azerbaijani people, with Kurdish, Assyrian Christian, and Armenian minorities...
, and between Kars
Kars
Kars is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. The population of the city is 73,826 as of 2010.-Etymology:As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography as part of ancient Armenia...
and Lake Van, which he commanded to be laid waste and the population of the countryside and the entire towns rounded up and led out of harm's way. Resistance was met "with massacres and mutilation; all immovable property, houses, churches, mosques, crops ... were destroyed, and the whole horde of prisoners was hurried southeast before the Ottomans should counterattack". Many of these Kurds ended up in Khurasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
, but many others were scattered into the Alburz mountains, central Persia, and even Balochistan
Balochistan (region)
Balochistan or Baluchistan is an arid, mountainous region in the Iranian plateau in Southwest Asia; it includes part of southeastern Iran, western Pakistan, and southwestern Afghanistan. The area is named after the numerous Baloch tribes, Iranian peoples who moved into the area from the west...
. They became the nucleus of several modern Kurdish enclaves outside Kurdistan proper, in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states...
. On one occasion Abbas I
Abbas I of Persia
Shāh ‘Abbās the Great was Shah of Iran, and generally considered the greatest ruler of the Safavid dynasty. He was the third son of Shah Mohammad....
is said to have intended to transplant 40,000 Kurds to northern Khorasan but to have succeeded in deporting only 15,000 before his troops were defeated.
Following the Battle of Chalderan, Sultan Selim I
Selim I
Selim I, Yavuz Sultân Selim Khan, Hâdim-ül Haramain-ish Sharifain , nicknamed Yavuz "the Stern" or "the Steadfast", but often rendered in English as "the Grim" , was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to...
(the Grim), deported several populous Kurdish tribes into central Anatolia, south of modern Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
. In their place, he settled a few, more loyal, Turkmen
Turkmen people
The Turkmen are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and northeastern Iran. They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Western Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages family together with Turkish, Azerbaijani, Qashqai,...
tribes. While the deported Kurds became the nucleus of the modern central Anatolian Kurdish enclave, the Turkmen tribes in Kurdistan eventually assimilated.
Battle of Dimdim
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) in Beradost region around Lake UrmiaUrmia
- Demographics :According to official census of 2006, the population of Urmia is about 871,204.- Language :The population of Urmia is mainly Azerbaijani people, with Kurdish, Assyrian Christian, and Armenian minorities...
in northwestern Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. 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
Mahabad
-Culture:Muhammad Qazi translated more than 70 important literary works into Persian. Other writers and poets have hailed from Mahabad in the 19th and 20th century including Wafaei , Hejar , Hêmin , Abdorrahamn Zabihi and Giw Mukriyani...
), 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
Afshar
Afshar is a district of Kabul, Afghanistan. Most of its population are of the Shia-Hazara ethnic group....
tribe in the region while deporting many Kurdish tribes to Khorasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
. 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 Ahmad Khani. The first literary account of this battle is written by Faqi Tayran
Faqi Tayran
Faqi Tayran is considered as one of the great classic Kurdish poets and writers. His real name was "Mir Mihemed". He was born in a village called "Miks" in the Hakkari region of the Ottoman Empire...
.
Ottoman period
When Sultan Selim ISelim I
Selim I, Yavuz Sultân Selim Khan, Hâdim-ül Haramain-ish Sharifain , nicknamed Yavuz "the Stern" or "the Steadfast", but often rendered in English as "the Grim" , was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to...
, after defeating Shah Ismail I
Ismail I
Ismail I , known in Persian as Shāh Ismāʿil , was a Shah of Iran and the founder of the Safavid dynasty which survived until 1736. Isma'il started his campaign in Azerbaijan in 1500 as the leader of the Safaviyya, an extremist heterodox Twelver Shi'i militant religious order and unified all of Iran...
in 1514, annexed Armenia and Kurdistan, he entrusted the organisation of the conquered territories to Idris, the historian, who was a Kurd of Bitlis
Bitlis
Bitlis is a town in eastern Turkey and the capital of Bitlis Province. The town is located at an elevation of 1,400 metres, 15 km from Lake Van, in the steep-sided valley of the Bitlis River, a tributary of the Tigris. The local economy is mainly based on agricultural products which include...
. He divided the territory into sanjaks or districts, and, making no attempt to interfere with the principle of heredity, installed the local chiefs as governors. He also resettled the rich pastoral country between Erzerum and Erivan, which had lain in waste since the passage of Timur
Timur
Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...
, with Kurds from the Hakkari
Hakkari
Hakkâri , is a city and the capital of the Hakkâri Province of Turkey. The name Hakkâri is derived from the Syriac word, Akkare, meaning farmers...
and Bohtan districts.
Battle against Yazidis
In 1640, OttomanOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
forces under the command of Firari Mustafa Pasha attacked the Yazidi
Yazidi
The Yazidi are members of a Kurdish religion with ancient Indo-Iranian roots. They are primarily a Kurdish-speaking people living in the Mosul region of northern Iraq, with additional communities in Transcaucasia, Armenia, Turkey, and Syria in decline since the 1990s – their members emigrating to...
Kurds of Mount Sinjar (Saçlı Dağı). According to Evliya Çelebi
Evliya Çelebi
Evliya Çelebi was an Ottoman traveler who journeyed through the territory of the Ottoman Empire and neighboring lands over a period of forty years.- Life :...
, the Ottoman force was around 40,000 strong. The battle lasted for seven hours and at the end 3,060 Yazidis were slain. The day after the battle, the Ottoman army raided and set fire to 300 Yazidi villages. Between 1000 to 2000 Yazidis had taken refuge in some caves around Sinjar. They were also massacred after the Ottoman army attacked the caves with cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
s and hand grenade
Grenade
A grenade is a small explosive device that is projected a safe distance away by its user. Soldiers called grenadiers specialize in the use of grenades. The term hand grenade refers any grenade designed to be hand thrown. Grenade Launchers are firearms designed to fire explosive projectile grenades...
s.
Rozhiki Revolt
In 1655, Abdal Khan the Kurdish Rozhiki ruler of BidlisBadlis
Principality of Bitlis , was a Kurdish principality originated from the Rojaki tribal confederation. The Rojaki defeated the Georgian King David the Curopalate and conquered Bitlis and Sasun in the 10th century. The principality occasionally came under the rule of outsiders, such as Akkoyunlu and...
, formed a private army and fought a full scale war against the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
troops. Evliya Çelebi
Evliya Çelebi
Evliya Çelebi was an Ottoman traveler who journeyed through the territory of the Ottoman Empire and neighboring lands over a period of forty years.- Life :...
noted the presence of many Yazidi
Yazidi
The Yazidi are members of a Kurdish religion with ancient Indo-Iranian roots. They are primarily a Kurdish-speaking people living in the Mosul region of northern Iraq, with additional communities in Transcaucasia, Armenia, Turkey, and Syria in decline since the 1990s – their members emigrating to...
s in his army. The main reason for this armed insurrection was the discord between Abdal Khan and Melek Ahmad Pasha the Ottoman governor of Van
Van, Turkey
Van is a city in southeastern Turkey and the seat of the Kurdish-majority Van Province, and is located on the eastern shore of Lake Van. The city's official population in 2010 was 367,419, but many estimates put this as much higher with a 1996 estimate stating 500,000 and former Mayor Burhan...
and Abdal Khan. The Ottoman troops marched onto Bidlis and committed atrocities against civilians as they passed through Rozhiki territory. Abdal Khan had built great stone redoubts around Bitlis, and also old city walls were defended by a large army of Kurdish infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
armed with musket
Musket
A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, fired from the shoulder. Muskets were designed for use by infantry. A soldier armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer....
s. Ottomans attacked the outer defensive perimeter and defeated Rozhiki soldiers, then they rushed to loot Bidlis and attacked the civilians. Once the Ottoman force established its camp in Bidlis, in an act of revenge, Abdal Khan made a failed attempt to assassinate Melek Ahmad Pasha. A unit of twenty Kurdish soldiers rode into the tent of Yusuf Kethuda, the second-in-command and fought a ferocious battle with his guards. After the fall of Bidlis, 1400 Kurds continued to resist from the city's old citadel
Citadel
A citadel is a fortress for protecting a town, sometimes incorporating a castle. The term derives from the same Latin root as the word "city", civis, meaning citizen....
. While most of these surrendered and were given amnesty, 300 of them were massacred by Melek Ahmad with 70 of them dismembered by sword and cut into pieces.
Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829
The Russo–Turkish War of 1828–1829 was sparked by the Greek War of Independence. The war broke out after the Sultan, incensed by the Russian participation in the Battle of Navarino, closed the Dardanelles for Russian ships and revoked the Akkerman Convention....
. But the Kurds, owing to the remoteness of their country from the capital and the decline of Turkey, had greatly increased in influence and power, and had spread westwards over the country as far as Angora
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
.
After the war the Kurds tried to free themselves from Ottoman control, and in 1834, after the Bedirkhan clan uprising, it became necessary to reduce them to subjection. This was done by Reshid Pasha, also a kurd The principal towns were strongly garrisoned, and many of the Kurd bey
Bey
Bey is a title for chieftain, traditionally applied to the leaders of small tribal groups. Accoding to some sources, the word "Bey" is of Turkish language In historical accounts, many Turkish, other Turkic and Persian leaders are titled Bey, Beg, Bek, Bay, Baig or Beigh. They are all the same word...
s were replaced by Turkish governors. A rising under Bedr Khan Bey in 1843 was firmly repressed, and after the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
the Turks strengthened their hold on the country.
Kurdistan as an administrative entity had a brief and shaky existence of 17 years between 13 December 1847 (following Bedirhan Bey's revolt) and 1864, under the initiative of Koca Mustafa Reşit Pasha during the Tanzimat
Tanzimat
The Tanzimât , meaning reorganization of the Ottoman Empire, was a period of reformation that began in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. The Tanzimât reform era was characterized by various attempts to modernize the Ottoman Empire, to secure its territorial integrity against...
period (1839–1876) of the Ottoman Empire. The capital of the province was, at first, Ahlat
Ahlat
Ahlat is a historic town and a district in Turkey's Bitlis Province in Eastern Anatolia Region. The center town of Ahlat is situated on the northwestern coast of the Lake Van. She was the district in Van Province between 1929-1936...
, and covered Diyarbekir, Muş
Mus
-Computing:* Mus, a file extension used by Finale * MUS, the internal music format used in Doom -Three-letter acronyms:* Mitsubishi UFJ Securities * MUS, the NATO country code for Mauritius...
, Van, Hakkari
Hakkari
Hakkâri , is a city and the capital of the Hakkâri Province of Turkey. The name Hakkâri is derived from the Syriac word, Akkare, meaning farmers...
, Cizre
Cizre
Cizre is a town and district of Şırnak Province in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey, located at the border to Syria, just to the north-west of the Turkish-Syrian-Iraqi tripoint....
, Botan
Botan
Botan may refer to:*The Japanese name for the Peony*Botan , a fictional character in the anime and manga series YuYu Hakusho....
and Mardin
Mardin
Mardin is a city in southeastern Turkey. The capital of Mardin Province, it is known for its Arabic-like architecture, and for its strategic location on a rocky mountain overlooking the plains of northern Syria.-History:...
. In the following years, the capital was transferred several times, first from Ahlat to Van, then to Muş and finally to Diyarbakır. Its area was reduced in 1856 and the province of Kurdistan within the Ottoman Empire was abolished in 1864. Instead, the former provinces of Diyarbekir and Van
Van, Turkey
Van is a city in southeastern Turkey and the seat of the Kurdish-majority Van Province, and is located on the eastern shore of Lake Van. The city's official population in 2010 was 367,419, but many estimates put this as much higher with a 1996 estimate stating 500,000 and former Mayor Burhan...
have been re-constituted. Around 1880, Shaikh Ubaidullah led a revolt aiming at bringing the areas between Lakes Van and Urmia under his own rule, however Ottoman and Qajar forces succeeded in defeating the revolt
Bedr Khan of Botan
The modernizing and centralizing efforts of Sultan Mahmud II, antagonized Kurdish feudal chiefs. As a result two powerful Kurdish families rebelled against the Ottomans in 1830. Bedr Khan of Botan rose up in the west of Kurdistan, around DiyarbakırDiyarbakır
Diyarbakır is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey...
, and Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz
Rowanduz
The town Rawandiz is a city of Iraq, which located in the sub-district of Soran, in the Arbil Governorate of Iraqi Kurdistan, close to the Iranian border.The population in 2003 was 95,089...
rebelled in the east and established his authority in Mosul
Mosul
Mosul , is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial...
and Erbil
Arbil
Arbil / Hewlêr is the fourth largest city in Iraq after Baghdad, Basra and Mosul...
. At this time, Turkish troops were preoccupied with invading Egyptian troops in Syria and were unable to suppress the revolt. As a result, Bedr Khan extended his authority to Diyarbakır, Siverik (Siverek
Siverek
Siverek is a town and district in the south-east of Turkey, in Şanlıurfa Province. Population 107,634 ; 247,000 .Siverek is in Şanlıurfa province but closer geographically to the large city of Diyarbakır...
), Veransher (Viranşehir
Viransehir
Viranşehir is a market town serving a cotton-growing area of Şanlıurfa Province, in southeastern Turkey, 93 km east of Şanlıurfa city and 53 km north-west of the Syrian border at Ceylanpınar...
), Sairt (Siirt
Siirt
- External links :* * * *...
), Sulaimania
Sulaimania
Sulaimania may refer to:*Sulaymaniyah, a town in Iraq*Sulaimania , a genus in the mint family of plants*Sulaimania, a spider genus in the Tetrablemmidae family....
and Sauj Bulaq (Mahabad
Mahabad
-Culture:Muhammad Qazi translated more than 70 important literary works into Persian. Other writers and poets have hailed from Mahabad in the 19th and 20th century including Wafaei , Hejar , Hêmin , Abdorrahamn Zabihi and Giw Mukriyani...
). He established a Kurdish principality in these regions until 1845. He struck his own coins, and his name was included in Friday sermons. Bedr Khan Beg made two campaigns in 1843 and 1846 against the peaceful Assyrian Christians (Nestorians) of Hakkari region and massacred 50,000 Assyrians. Those Assyrians who met their fait were the mother and the two brothers of the spiritual Assyrian leader Mar Shimun. In 1847, the Turkish forces turned their attention toward this area, and defeated Bedr Khan and exiled him to Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
. He was later allowed to return to Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
, where he lived until his death in 1868.
Bedr Khan become a king when his brother died. His brother's son got very upset over this and finally the Turks tricked him in fighting his uncle. They told him that they would make him king if he killed Bedr Khan. So he brought many kurdish warriors with him and attacked his uncle's forces.. Finally he won over him, but instead of becoming a king like the Turks said, he got executed. There are two famous kurdish songs about this battle, called "Ezdin Shêr" and "Ez Xelef im"
(both can be found on http://www.kurdishmusic.eu/siwanperwerm.html)
After him, there were further revolts in 1850 and 1852.
Shaikh Ubaidullah's Revolt and Armenians
Principality
A principality is a monarchical feudatory or sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a monarch with the title of prince or princess, or by a monarch with another title within the generic use of the term prince....
under the protection of Turkey. The attempt, at first encouraged by the Porte
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, as a reply to the projected creation of an Armenian state under the suzerainty of Russia, collapsed after Obaidullah's raid into Persia, when various circumstances led the central government to reassert its supreme authority. Until the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829 there had been little hostile feeling between the Kurds and the Armenians, and as late as 1877–1878 the mountaineers of both races had co-existed fairly well together.
In 1891 the activity of the Armenian Committees induced the Porte to strengthen the position of the Kurds by raising a body of Kurdish irregular
Irregular military
Irregular military refers to any non-standard military. Being defined by exclusion, there is significant variance in what comes under the term. It can refer to the type of military organization, or to the type of tactics used....
cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
, which was well-armed and called Hamidieh soldiers after the Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid II. Minor disturbances constantly occurred, and were soon followed by the massacre of Armenians at Sasun and other places, 1894–1896, in which the Kurds took an active part. Some of the separatist Kurds, aimed to establish a separate Kurdish state.
Rise of nationalism
Kurdish nationalism emerged after World War I with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire which had historically successfully integrated (but not assimilated) the Kurds, through use of forced repression of Kurdish movements to gain independence. Revolts did occur sporadically but only in 1880 with the uprising led by Sheik UbeydullahSheik Ubeydullah
Sheikh Ubeydullah , also known as Sayyid Ubeydullah, was the leader of the first modern Kurdish nationalist struggle...
were demands as an ethnic group or nation made. Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid
Abdul Hamid II
His Imperial Majesty, The Sultan Abdülhamid II, Emperor of the Ottomans, Caliph of the Faithful was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire...
responded by a campaign of integration by co-opting prominent Kurdish opponents to strong Ottoman power with prestigious positions in his government. This strategy appears successful given the loyalty displayed by the Kurdish Hamidiye
Hamidiye
Hamidiye may refer to:* Hamidiye , Kurdish cavalry of the Ottoman era, established 1890* Ottoman cruiser Hamidiye, a warship of the Balkan wars and World War I...
regiments during World War I.
The Kurdish ethnonationalist movement that emerged following World War I and end of the Ottoman empire was largely reactionary to the changes taking place in mainstream Turkey, primarily radical secularization
Secularization
Secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...
which the strongly Muslim Kurds abhorred, centralization of authority which threatened the power of local chieftains and Kurdish autonomy, and rampant Turkish nationalism
Turkish nationalism
Turkish nationalism is a political ideology that promotes and glorifies the Turkish people, as either a national, ethnic or linguistic group and puts the interests of the state over other influences, including religious ones.-Pan-Turkism:...
in the new Turkish Republic which obviously threatened to marginalize them.
Western powers (particularly the United Kingdom) fighting the Turks also promised the Kurds they would act as guarantors for Kurdish freedom, a promise they subsequently broke. One particular organization, the Kurdish Teali Cemiyet (Society for the Rise of Kurdistan
Society for the Rise of Kurdistan
Society for the Rise of Kurdistan was an organisation formed in 1918, in Istanbul, with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state in eastern Turkey....
, or SAK) was central to the forging of a distinct Kurdish identity. It took advantage of period of political liberalization in during the Second Constitutional Era
Second Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire)
The Second Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire began shortly after Sultan Abdülhamid II restored the constitutional monarchy after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution. The period established many political groups...
(1908–1920) of Turkey to transform a renewed interest in Kurdish culture
Kurdish culture
Kurdish culture is a group of distinctive cultural traits practiced by Kurdish people...
and language into a political nationalist movement based on ethnicity.
During the relatively open government of the 1950s, Kurds gained political office and started working within the framework of the Turkish Republic to further their interests but this move towards integration was halted with the 1960 Turkish coup d'état. The 1970s saw an evolution in Kurdish nationalism as Marxist political thought influenced a new generation of Kurdish nationalists opposed to the local feudal authorities who had been a traditional source of opposition to authority, eventually they would form the militant separatist PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, European Union, NATO and many states that includes United States), or Kurdistan Workers Party
Kurdistan Workers Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
in English.
Kurds under the Young Turks regime
Jakob KünzlerJakob Künzler
Jakob Künzler was a Swiss who resided in an oriental mission in Urfa and who witnessed the Armenian Genocide....
, head of a missionary hospital in Urfa, has documented the large scale ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
of both Armenians and Kurds by the Young Turks
Young Turks
The Young Turks , from French: Les Jeunes Turcs) were a coalition of various groups favouring reformation of the administration of the Ottoman Empire. The movement was against the absolute monarchy of the Ottoman Sultan and favoured a re-installation of the short-lived Kanûn-ı Esâsî constitution...
during World War I. He has given a detailed account of deportation of Kurds from Erzurum
Erzurum
Erzurum is a city in Turkey. It is the largest city, the capital of Erzurum Province. The city is situated 1757 meters above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 361,235 in the 2000 census. .Erzurum, known as "The Rock" in NATO code, served as NATO's southeastern-most air force post during the...
and Bitlis
Bitlis
Bitlis is a town in eastern Turkey and the capital of Bitlis Province. The town is located at an elevation of 1,400 metres, 15 km from Lake Van, in the steep-sided valley of the Bitlis River, a tributary of the Tigris. The local economy is mainly based on agricultural products which include...
in winter of 1916. The Kurds were perceived to be subversive elements that would take the Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
side in the war. In order to eliminate this threat, Young Turks embarked on a large scale deportation of Kurds from the regions of Djabachdjur, Palu, Musch, Erzurum and Bitlis. Around 300,000 Kurds were forced to move southwards to Urfa and then westwards to Aintab
Gaziantep
Gaziantep , Ottoman Turkish: Ayintab) previously and still informally called Antep; ʻayn tāb is a city in southeast Turkey and amongst the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. The city is located 185 kilometres northeast of Adana and 127 kilometres by road north of Aleppo, Syria...
and Marasch
Kahramanmaras
-Industry:Kahramanmaraş's industry is mainly based on textile and ice cream. Kahramanmaraş is one of the biggest textile industry cities of Turkey. Companies like Kipaş, İskur, Arsan and Bozkurt are one of the richest companies in the city...
. In the summer of 1917, Kurds were moved to the Konya
Konya
Konya is a city in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. The metropolitan area in the entire Konya Province had a population of 1,036,027 as of 2010, making the city seventh most populous in Turkey.-Etymology:...
region in central Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
. Through this measures, the Young Turk leaders aimed at eliminating the Kurds by deporting them from their ancestral lands and by dispersing them in small pockets of exiled communities. By the end of World War I, up to 700,000 Kurds were forcibly deported and almost half of the displaced perished.
After World War I
Some of the Kurdish groups sought self-determination and the championing in the Treaty of SèvresTreaty of Sèvres
The Treaty of Sèvres was the peace treaty between the Ottoman Empire and Allies at the end of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles was signed with Germany before this treaty to annul the German concessions including the economic rights and enterprises. Also, France, Great Britain and Italy...
of Kurdish autonomy in the aftermath of World War I
Aftermath of World War I
The fighting in World War I ended in western Europe when the Armistice took effect at 11:00 am GMT on November 11, 1918, and in eastern Europe by the early 1920s. During and in the aftermath of the war the political, cultural, and social order was drastically changed in Europe, Asia and Africa,...
, Kemal Atatürk prevented such a result. Kurds backed by the United Kingdom declared independence in 1927 and established so-called Republic of Ararat
Republic of Ararat
The Republic of Ararat or Kurdish Republic of Ararat was a self-proclaimed Kurdish state. It was located in the northeasten part of modern Turkey, being centered on Karaköse Province...
. Turkey suppressed Kurdist revolts in 1925, 1930, and 1937–1938, while Iran did the same in the 1920s to Simko Shikak
Simko Shikak
Simko Shikak also Ismail Agha Shikak ) was a Kurdish chieftain of the Shakak tribe...
at Lake Urmia
Lake Urmia
Lake Urmia , ancient name: Lake Matiene) is a salt lake in northwestern Iran, near Iran's border with Turkey. The lake is between the Iranian provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, west of the southern portion of the similarly shaped Caspian Sea...
and Jaafar Sultan of Hewraman region who controlled the region between Marivan
Marivan
Marivan also known as Qal‘eh-ye Marīvān - "Fort Marivan"; formerly, Dez Shahpur , also Romanized as Dezh Shāhpūr and Dezh Shapoor) is a city in and capital of Marivan County, Kurdistan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 91,664, in 22,440 families...
and north of Halabja
Halabja
Halabja , is a Kurdish town in Northern Iraq, located about north-east of Baghdad and 8–10 miles from the Iranian border....
. A short-lived Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
-sponsored Kurdish Republic of Mahabad
Republic of Mahabad
The Republic of Mahabad , officially known as Republic of Kurdistan and established in Iranian Kurdistan, was a short-lived, Kurdish government that sought Kurdish autonomy within the limits of the Iranian state. The capital was the city of Mahabad in northwestern Iran...
in Iran did not long outlast World War II.
From 1922–1924 in Iraq a Kingdom of Kurdistan
Kingdom of Kurdistan
The Kingdom of Kurdistan can refer to two short-lived unrecognized states formed in the 1920s in the geo-cultural region of Kurdistan after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, in the territory officially under the jurisdiction of the British Mandate of Mesopotamia.-Northern Iraq:During the collapse...
existed. When Ba'athist administrators thwarted Kurdish nationalist ambitions in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, war broke out in the 1960s. In 1970 the Kurds rejected limited territorial self-rule within Iraq, demanding larger areas including the oil-rich Kirkuk
Kirkuk
Kirkuk is a city in Iraq and the capital of Kirkuk Governorate.It is located in the Iraqi governorate of Kirkuk, north of the capital, Baghdad...
region. For recent developments see Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...
.
In 1922, an investigation was initiated for Nihad Pasha, the commander of El-Cezire front, by Adliye Encümeni (Council of Justice) of Grand National Assembly of Turkey
Grand National Assembly of Turkey
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey , usually referred to simply as the Meclis , is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Constitution. It was founded in Ankara on 23 April 1920 in the midst of the Turkish War of Independence...
with allegations of fraud. During a confidential convention on the issue on 22 July, a letter of introductions by the Cabinet of Ministers and signed by Mustafa Kemal
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was an Ottoman and Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey....
was read. The text was referring to the region as "Kurdistan" three times and providing Nihad Pasha with full authorities to support the local Kurdish administrations (idare-i mahallîyeye dair teşkilâtlar) as per the principle of self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
(Milletlerin kendi mukadderatlarını bizzat idare etme hakkı), in order to gradually establish a local government in the regions inhabited by Kurds (Kürtlerle meskûn menatık).
In 1931, Iraqi Kurdish statesman Mihemed Emîn Zekî, while serving as the Minister of Economy in the first Nuri as-Said
Nuri as-Said
Nuri Pasha al-Said was an Iraqi politician during the British Mandate and during the Kingdom of Iraq. He served in various key cabinet positions, and served seven terms as Prime Minister of Iraq....
government, drew the boundaries of Turkish Kurdistan as: "With mountains of Ararat and the Georgian
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
border (including the region of Kars
Kars Province
Kars Province is a province of Turkey, located in the northeastern part of the country. It shares part of its border with the Republic of Armenia.The provinces of Ardahan and Iğdır were until the 1990s part of Kars Province.-History:...
, where Kurds and Georgians live side by side) to the north, Iranian border to the east, Iraqi border to the south, and to the west, a line drawn from the west of Sivas to İskenderun
Iskenderun
İskenderun is a city and urban district in the province of Hatay on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. The current mayor is Yusuf Hamit Civelek .-Names:...
. These boundaries are also in accord with those drawn by the Ottomans." In 1932, Garo Sassouni, formerly a prominent figure of Dashnak
Armenian Revolutionary Federation
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation is an Armenian political party founded in Tiflis in 1890 by Christapor Mikaelian, Stepan Zorian, and Simon Zavarian...
Armenia, defined the borders of "Kurdistan proper" (excluding whole territory of Wilsonian Armenia
Wilsonian Armenia
Wilsonian Armenia refers to the boundary configuration of the Armenian state in the Treaty of Sèvres, drawn by US President Woodrow Wilson State Department. The Treaty of Sèvres was a peace treaty that had been drafted and signed between the Western Allied Powers and the defeated government of the...
) as: "...with a line from the south of Erzincan to Kharput, incorporating Dersim, Çarsancak
Bingöl
Bingöl is a city in Eastern Turkey. It is also known as Çabakcur , which means violent water in Armenian. It is surrounded by mountains and a large number of glacier lakes, hence the name . Lately, the town has become a popular tourist destination...
, and Malatya, including the mountains of Cebel-i Bereket
Osmaniye Province
Osmaniye Province is a Turkish province located in southern Turkey. It became a province in 1996. The province was part of Adana Province. It covers an area of 3,767 km² and has a population of 479,221 . The province is situated in Çukurova, a geographical, economical and cultural region.The...
and reaching the Syrian border", also adding, "these are the broadest boundaries of Kurdistan that can be claimed by Kurds."
During 1920s and 1930s, several large scale Kurdish revolts took place in this region. The most important ones were 1) Saikh Said Rebellion in 1925, 2) Ararat Revolt in 1930 and 3) Dersim Revolt in 1938 (see Kurds in Turkey
Kurds in Turkey
Ethnic Kurds compose a significant portion of the population in Turkey . Unlike the Turks, the Kurds speak an Indo-European language...
). Following these rebellions, the area of Turkish Kurdistan was put under martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
and a large number of the Kurds were displaced. Government also encouraged resettlement of Albanians from Kosovo
Albanians in Kosovo
Albanians are the largest ethnic group in Kosovo . According to the 1991 Serbian census, boycotted by Albanians, there were 1,596,072 ethnic Albanians in Kosovo or 81.6% of population...
and Assyrians
Assyrian people
The Assyrian people are a distinct ethnic group whose origins lie in ancient Mesopotamia...
in the region to change the population makeup. These events and measures led to a long-lasting mutual distrust between Ankara and the Kurds .
- For more recent Kurdish history see Kurds, Iranian KurdistanIranian KurdistanIranian Kurdistan is an unofficial name for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has borders with Iraq and Turkey. It includes Kurdistan Province, Kermanshah Province, Ilam Province and parts of West Azerbaijan province....
, Turkish KurdistanTurkish KurdistanTurkish Kurdistan is an unofficial name for the southeastern part of Turkey, which is inhabited predominantly by ethnic Kurds. The area covers between 190,000 to 230,000 km² , or nearly a third of Turkey...
, Iraqi KurdistanIraqi KurdistanIraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...
, Kurds in TurkeyKurds in TurkeyEthnic Kurds compose a significant portion of the population in Turkey . Unlike the Turks, the Kurds speak an Indo-European language...
and Kurds in SyriaKurds in SyriaKurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria making up 10% of the country's population. Most of them are Sunni Muslims; there are also Yazidi and Yarsan Kurds in Syria and small numbers of Christians and Alawis. They face routine discrimination and harassment by the Syrian...
.
Turkey
About half of all Kurds live in Turkey. According to the CIA Factbook they account for 18 percent of the Turkish population. They are predominantly distributed in the southeastern corner of the country.
The best available estimate of the number of persons in Turkey speaking the Kurdish language is about five million (1980). About 3,950,000 others speak Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji
Kurmanji
Kurmanji or Northern Kurdish is the most commonly spoken dialect of the Kurdish language.- Scripts and books :...
) (1980). While population increase suggests that the number of speakers has grown, it is also true that use of the language has been discouraged in Turkish cities, and that many fewer ethnic Kurds live in the countryside where the language has traditionally been used. The number of speakers is clearly less than the 15 million or so persons who identify themselves as ethnic Kurds.
From 1915 to 1918, Kurds struggled to end Ottoman rule over their region. They were encouraged by Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
's support for non-Turkish nationalities of the empire and submitted their claim for independence to the Paris Peace Conference
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
in 1919. The Treaty of Sèvres
Treaty of Sèvres
The Treaty of Sèvres was the peace treaty between the Ottoman Empire and Allies at the end of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles was signed with Germany before this treaty to annul the German concessions including the economic rights and enterprises. Also, France, Great Britain and Italy...
stipulated creation of an autonomous Kurdish state in 1920, but the subsequent Treaty of Lausanne
Treaty of Lausanne
The Treaty of Lausanne was a peace treaty signed in Lausanne, Switzerland on 24 July 1923, that settled the Anatolian and East Thracian parts of the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. The treaty of Lausanne was ratified by the Greek government on 11 February 1924, by the Turkish government on 31...
in 1923 failed to mention Kurds. In 1925 and 1930, Kurdish revolts were forcibly suppressed.
As late as 1994, however, Leyla Zana
Leyla Zana
Leyla Zana , is a Kurdish politician, who was imprisoned for 10 years for her political actions which were claimed to be against the unity of Turkey. When she was a member of pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, she was banned from joining any political party for five years with the Constitutional...
, the first female Kurdish representative in Turkey's Parliament, was charged for making "separatist speeches" and sentenced to 15 years in prison. At her inauguration as an MP, she reportedly identified herself as a Kurd. Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
reported that "[s]he 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!'"
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, northeastern Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and northwestern Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. It is an ethnic
Ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism is a form of nationalism wherein the "nation" is defined in terms of ethnicity. Whatever specific ethnicity is involved, ethnic nationalism always includes some element of descent from previous generations and the implied claim of ethnic essentialism, i.e...
secession
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
ist organization using diplomacy towards the Turkish state, but also force against military targets for the purpose of achieving its political goal.
Between 1984 and 1999, the PKK and the Turkish military engaged in open war, and much of the countryside in the southeast was depopulated, with Kurdish civilians moving to local defensible centers such as Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey...
, Van
Van, Turkey
Van is a city in southeastern Turkey and the seat of the Kurdish-majority Van Province, and is located on the eastern shore of Lake Van. The city's official population in 2010 was 367,419, but many estimates put this as much higher with a 1996 estimate stating 500,000 and former Mayor Burhan...
, and Şırnak
Sirnak
Şırnak is a town in southeastern Turkey. It is the capital of Şırnak Province, a new province that split from the Hakkari province...
, 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. Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
has documented many instances where the Turkish military forcibly evacuated villages, destroying houses and equipment to prevent the return of the inhabitants. An estimated 3,000 Kurdish villages in Turkey were virtually wiped from the map, representing the displacement of more than 378,000 people.
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
refused to accept the Atatürk Peace Award in 1992 because of the oppression of the Kurds. After the rejection, Turkish press called him 'An Ugly African' and 'Terrorist Mandela'.
Iraq
Kurds make around 17% of Iraq's population. They are the majority in at least three provinces in Northern Iraq which are known as Iraqi KurdistanIraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...
. Kurds also have a presence in Kirkuk
Kirkuk
Kirkuk is a city in Iraq and the capital of Kirkuk Governorate.It is located in the Iraqi governorate of Kirkuk, north of the capital, Baghdad...
, Mosul
Mosul
Mosul , is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial...
, Khanaqin
Khanaqin
Khanaqin is a city in Iraq. It is located at 34.3°N, 45.4°E in the Diyala Governorate, near the Iranian border on a tributary of the Diyala River...
, and Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
. There are around 300,000 Kurds living in the Iraqi capital Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, 50,000 in the city of Mosul
Mosul
Mosul , is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial...
and around 100,000 Kurds living elsewhere in Southern Iraq. Kurds led by Mustafa Barzani
Mustafa Barzani
Mustafa Barzani also known as Mullah Mustafa was a Kurdish nationalist leader, and the most prominent political figure in the modern Kurdish politics. In 1946 he was chosen as the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party to lead the Kurdish revolution against Iraqi regimes...
were engaged in heavy fighting against successive Iraqi regimes from 1960 to 1975. In March 1970, Iraq announced a peace plan providing for Kurdish autonomy. The plan was to be implemented in four years. However, at the same time, the Iraqi regime started an Arabization program in the oil rich regions of Kirkuk and Khanaqin. The peace agreement did not last long, and in 1974, the Iraqi government began a new offensive against the Kurds. Moreover in March 1975, Iraq and Iran signed the Algiers Accord, according to which Iran cut supplies to Iraqi Kurds. Iraq started another wave of Arabization by moving Arabs to the oil fields in Kurdistan, particularly those around Kirkuk. Between 1975 and 1978, two-hundred thousand Kurds were deported to other parts of Iraq.
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 between fifty and one-hundred thousand Kurds.
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is a Kurdish political party in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was founded on June 1, 1975, by coordinations between Jalal Talabani and Nawshirwan Mustafa...
and KDP, Iraqi troops recaptured the Kurdish areas and hundreds of thousand of Kurds fled to the borders. To alleviate the situation, a "safe haven" was established by the 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. The area controlled by peshmerga
Peshmerga
Peshmerga or Peshmerge is the term used by Kurds to refer to armed Kurdish fighters. Literally meaning "those who face death" the Peshmerga forces of Kurdistan have been in existence since the advent of the Kurdish independence movement in the early 1920s, following the collapse of the Ottoman...
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 were scheduled to be held in 2007, to determine the final borders of the Kurdish region.
In early June 2010, following a visit to Turkey, by one of the PKK leaders, the PKK announced an end to the cease fire, followed by an air attack on several border villages and rebel positions by the Turkish air force.
Iran
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
s, Kurds, and speakers of other Indo-European
Indo-European
Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...
languages in Iran are descendants of the Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
tribes that began migrating from Central Asia into what is now Iran in the 2nd millennium BC. 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
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
them into the mainstream of national life and, along with their fellow Kurds in adjacent regions of Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and Turkey, has sought either regional autonomy
Autonomy
Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...
or the outright establishment of an independent
Independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....
Kurdish state". 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.".
Kermanshahi Kurds
Kermanshahi refers to Iranian people who live mainly in Kermanshah province.Kermanshahi Kurdish has one of the greatest speakers in the southern branch. Kermanshahi Kurdish is spoken in and around the city of Kermanshah and in Kermanshah province.The overwhelming majority of Kermanshahi people...
, with the population of 1,550,000, have no interest in autonomy.
In the 17th century, a large number of Kurds were deported by Shah Abbas I to Khorasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
in Eastern Iran and resettled in the cities of Quchan
Quchan
Quchan is a city in and capital of Quchan County, in Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran. It is located due south of the border city of Ashgabat. At the 2006 census, its population was 96,953, in 25,066 families.-Population:...
and Birjand
Birjand
Birjand is the east Iranian provincial capital of South Khorasan and the centre of the county Birjand resp. Quhestan, known for its saffron, barberry, rug and handmade carpet exports....
, while others migrated to Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
where the took refuge. The Kurds of Khorasan, numbering around 700,000, still use the Kurmanji
Kurmanji
Kurmanji or Northern Kurdish is the most commonly spoken dialect of the Kurdish language.- Scripts and books :...
Kurdish dialect.
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
Simko Shikak
Simko Shikak also Ismail Agha Shikak ) was a Kurdish chieftain of the Shakak tribe...
(against Pahlavi
Pahlavi dynasty
The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi The Pahlavi dynasty consisted of two Iranian/Persian monarchs, father and son Reza Shah Pahlavi (reg. 1925–1941) and Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi The Pahlavi dynasty ...
s in the 1920s).
In January 1946, during the Soviet occupation of north-western Iran, the Soviet-backed Kurdish Republic of Mahabad
Republic of Mahabad
The Republic of Mahabad , officially known as Republic of Kurdistan and established in Iranian Kurdistan, was a short-lived, Kurdish government that sought Kurdish autonomy within the limits of the Iranian state. The capital was the city of Mahabad in northwestern Iran...
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
Qazi Muhammad
Qazi Muhammad was a nationalist and religious Kurdish leader and the Head of the Republic of Kurdistan, the second modern Kurdish state in the Middle East ....
was hanged publicly in Mahabad
Mahabad
-Culture:Muhammad Qazi translated more than 70 important literary works into Persian. Other writers and poets have hailed from Mahabad in the 19th and 20th century including Wafaei , Hejar , Hêmin , Abdorrahamn Zabihi and Giw Mukriyani...
. After the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...
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.
After the Iranian revolution, intense fighting occurred between militant Kurdish groups and the Islamic Republic between 1979 and 1982. In August 1979, Ruhollah Khomeini
Ruhollah Khomeini
Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran...
declared a "holy war
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
" 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. An image of a firing squad of Revolutionary Guards executing Kurdish prisoners around Sanandaj
Sanandaj
Sanandaj , also Romanized as Senneh and Sinneh) is a city in and the capital of Kurdistan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 311,446, in 81,380 families....
gained international fame and won the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
in 1980,and there is also other images available of Kurdish militants capturing the supporters of the Iranian regime. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
The Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution , often called Revolutionary Guards, is a branch of Iran's military, founded after the Iranian revolution...
fought to reestablish government control in the Kurdish regions; as a result, around ten thousand Kurds were killed. Since 1983, the Iranian government has maintained control over the Iranian Kurdistan. Frequent unrest and the occasional military crackdown have occurred since the 1990s.
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
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
activists in Iran have been threatened by Iranian authorities in connection with their work. Following the killing of Kurdish opposition activist Shivan Qaderi
Shivan Qaderi
Shivan Qaderi Shivan Qaderi Shivan Qaderi (a.k.a Sayed Kamal Astam, Sayed Kamal Astom, Shwane Qadri, or Sayed Kamal Asfaram, in Kurdish:(Şivan Qaderî) was an Iranian Kurd who with two other men were shot by Iranian security forces in Mahabad, on July 9, 2005...
and two other Kurdish men by Iranian security forces in Mahabad
Mahabad
-Culture:Muhammad Qazi translated more than 70 important literary works into Persian. Other writers and poets have hailed from Mahabad in the 19th and 20th century including Wafaei , Hejar , Hêmin , Abdorrahamn Zabihi and Giw Mukriyani...
on 9 July 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
Roya Toloui
Roya Toloui is a prominent Kurdish-Iranian journalist, human rights activist and feminist, currently residing in US. She was born in Baneh in western Iran...
, a Women's rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
activist and head of the Rasan ("Rising") newspaper in Sanandaj
Sanandaj
Sanandaj , also Romanized as Senneh and Sinneh) is a city in and the capital of Kurdistan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 311,446, in 81,380 families....
, who was alleged to be tortured for two months for involvement in the organization of peaceful protests throughout Kurdistan province. According to the one of Iran analyst's of International Crisis Group
International Crisis Group
The International Crisis Group is an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization whose mission is to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts around the world through field-based analyses and high-level advocacy.-History:...
(a NGO founded in 1995 by World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
Vice-President and former US diplomats ), "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."
Syria
Kurds and other Non-Arabs account for 10% of SyriaSyria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
's population, a total of around 1.9 million people. This makes them the largest ethnic minority in the country. They are mostly concentrated in the northeast and the north, but there are also significant Kurdish populations in Aleppo and Damascus. Kurds often speak Kurdish in public, unless all those present do not. Kurdish human rights activists are mistreated and persecuted. No political parties are allowed for any group, Kurdish or otherwise.
Techniques used to suppress the ethnic identity of Kurds in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
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. 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. As a consequence, these Kurds are in effect trapped within Syria. In February 2006, however, sources reported that Syria was now planning to grant these Kurds citizenship.
On 12 March 2004, beginning at a stadium in Qamishli
Qamishli
Qamishli is a city in north eastern Syria on the border with Turkey, adjoining the Turkish city of Nusaybin, and close to Iraq. It is part of the Al-Hasakah Governorate, and is the administrative capital of the Al Qamishli District within the governorate....
(a city in northeastern Syria where many Kurds live), 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 inhabited towns along the northern border with Turkey, and then to Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
and Aleppo
Aleppo
Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...
.
Afghanistan
Kurds had been living in regions bordering modern day Afghanistan since the 16th century notably in north eastern Iran where the Safavid ruler Shah Abbas exiled thousands of Kurds. Many of those who were exiled ultimately made their way into AfghanistanAfghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, taking residence in Herat
Herat
Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...
and other cities of western Afghanistan. The Kurdish colony in Afghanistan numbered some tens of thousands during the 16th century. Some Kurds held high governmental positions within Afghanistan, such as Ali Mardan Khan
Ali Mardan Khan
Ali Mardan Khan was a Kurdish noble at the court of Safavid King Shah Tahmasp but after surrendering the Afghan city of Qandahar to Emperor Shah Jahan in 1638, he was a well recognised figure at the Mughal court.-Life:...
who was appointed the governor of Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
in 1641. The Kurds devotedly sided with the Afghans during their conflicts with the Safavid Empire, and in their subsequent conflicts with other regional powers. The number of Kurds currently in Afghanistan is difficult to calculate, though one figure notes that there are approximately 200,000. It remains unclear however whether the Kurds of Afghanistan have retained the Kurdish language.
Armenia
Between the 1930s and 1980s, ArmeniaArmenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
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
Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...
, 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.
Azerbaijan
In 1920, two Kurdish-inhabited areas of Jewanshir (capital KalbajarKalbajar
]Kalbajar is a rayon of Azerbaijan. Kalbajar is a Kurdish name meaning Stone City. The entire region is now under the control of Armenian forces who call the western half Karvajar. The eastern half is part of Nagorno-Karabakh, making up part of the province of Martakert...
) and eastern Zangazur (capital Lachin
Lachin
Lachin is a town in Azerbaijan and the regional center of the Lachin Rayon. Since 1992 the area has been under the control of the de facto independent unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which has renamed the town Berdzor . The town and its surrounding region serve as the strategic Lachin...
) were combined to form the Kurdistan Okrug (or "Red Kurdistan"). The period of existence of the Kurdish administration 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
Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...
, many Kurdish areas have been destroyed and more than 150,000 Kurds have been deported since 1988.
Kurds In Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon
The Kurdish leader Salah El Din Al-Ayubi along with his uncles Ameer Adil and Ameer Sherko, were joined by Kurdish fighters from the cities of Tigrit,Mosul, Arbil and Sharazur in a drive towards 'Sham' (Today Syria and Lebanon) in order to protect Islamic lands against the crusader attack. The Kurdish King and his uncles ruled north Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Egypt for a short period. Salah El Din in Syria, Ameer Sherko in Egypt and Ameer Adil in Jordan, with family members ruling most of the cities of today's Iraq. The Kurds built many monumental castles in the lands which they ruled especially in what was called 'Kurdistan of Syria' and in Damuscus, the capital of Syria. A tall building, called 'Qalha', is still standing, in the mid south-west quarter of Damascus. The Ayubian dynasty continued there for many years, all from Kurdish decent.Genetics
The Kurds are Aryan race. Although Kurdistan came under the successive dominion of various conquerors, including the ArmeniansArmenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
, Romans
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, Byzantines
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
, Arabs, Ottoman Turks
Ottoman Turks
The Ottoman Turks were the Turkish-speaking population of the Ottoman Empire who formed the base of the state's military and ruling classes. Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks is scarce, but they take their Turkish name, Osmanlı , from the house of Osman I The Ottoman...
, and Persians, they may have remained relatively unmixed by the influx of invaders, because of their protected and inhospitable mountainous homeland.
Genetic testing
Genetic testing
Genetic testing is among the newest and most sophisticated of techniques used to test for genetic disorders which involves direct examination of the DNA molecule itself. Other genetic tests include biochemical tests for such gene products as enzymes and other proteins and for microscopic...
amongst randomly chosen Kurdish
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
populations has began to shed light into the disparate origins of the Kurds. The results reveal a variety of connections amongst the Kurds, when assessing paternal and maternal lineages. Overall the Kurds share some genetic ties to other speakers of Iranian languages
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages form a subfamily of the Indo-Iranian languages which in turn is a subgroup of Indo-European language family. They have been and are spoken by Iranian peoples....
as well as with various peoples from the Caucasus such as the Armenians which suggests that the Kurds have ancient ethnic ties that connect them to both the early inhabitants of the Kurdistan area, such as the Hurrians.
Similarity to Europeans and peoples of the Caucasus
A study by Richards and colleagues of mitochondrial DNAMitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within eukaryotic cells that convert the chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, adenosine triphosphate...
in the Near East found that Kurds, Azeris, Ossetians and Armenians show a high incidence of MtDNA U5 lineages, which are common among Europeans, although rare elsewhere in the Near East. The sample of Kurds in this study came from northwest Iran and northeast Iraq, where Kurds usually predominate.
A geographically broad study of the Southwest and Central Asian Corridor found that populations located west of the Indus Valley mainly harbor mtDNAs of western Eurasian origin.
When Ivan Nasidze and his colleagues examined both Mitochondrial and Y-Chromosome DNA, they found Kurdish groups most similar genetically to other West Asian groups, and most distant from Central Asian groups, for both mtDNA and the Y-chromosome. However, Kurdish groups show a closer relationship with European groups than with Caucasian groups based on mtDNA, but the opposite based on the Y-chromosome, indicating some differences in their maternal and paternal histories.
Similarity to Azeris of Iran
According to DRB1, DQA1 and DQB1 allele frequencies showed a strong genetic tie between Kurds and Azeris of Iran. According to the current results, present-day Kurds and Azeris of Iran seem to belong to a common genetic pool.Similarity to Georgian people
David Comas and colleagues found that Mitochondrial sequence pools in Georgians and Kurds are very similar, despite their different linguistic and prehistoric backgrounds. Both populations present mtDNA lineages that clearly belong to the Western Eurasian gene pool.Similarity to Jewish people
There also appear to be some links to northern Semitic peoples such as the Syrians and possibly ancient HebrewsHebrews
Hebrews is an ethnonym used in the Hebrew Bible...
, but fewer links to southern Semites in the Arabian peninsula
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
in spite of the region having been conquered very early by Muslim Arabs. In 2001 Nebel et al. compared three Jewish and three non-Jewish groups from the Middle East: Ashkenazim, Sephardim, and Kurdish Jews from Israel; Muslim Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian Authority Area; Bedouin from the Negev
Negev
The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
; and Muslim Kurds. They concluded that Kurdish and Sephardic Jews were indistinguishable from one another, whereas both differed slightly, yet significantly, from Ashkenazi Jews. Nebel et al. had earlier (2000) found a large genetic relationship between Jews and Palestinians, but in this study found an even higher relationship of Jews with Iraqi Kurds. They conclude that the common genetic background shared by Jews and other Middle Eastern groups predates the division of Middle Easterners into different ethnic groups.
Interestingly, Nebel et al. (2001) also found that the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH), considered the most definitive Jewish haplotype, was found among 10.1% of Kurdish Jews, 7.6% of Ashkenazim, 6.4% of Sephardim, 2.1% of Palestianian Arabs, and 1.1% of Kurds. The CMH and the most frequent Kurdish haplotype (MKH) were the same on five markers (out of six) and very close on the other marker. The MKH was shared by 9.5% of Kurds, 2.6% of Sephardim, 2.0% of Kurdish Jews, 1.4% of Palestinian Arabs, and 1.3% of Ashkenazim. The general conclusion is that these similarities result mostly from the sharing of ancient genetic patterns, and not from more recent admixture between the groups.
Further reading
- Nineveh and Its Remains: A Narrative of an Expedition to Assyria 1867, Massacre of Nestorians by Bedr Khan Beg, Pages 129–174.
- John Murray (1867), Nineveh and its remains: a narrative of an expedition to Assyria during the years 1845, 1846 and 1847
External links
- "A Brief Survey of the History of the Kurds", by Kendal Nezan, President of the Kurdish Institute of Paris.
- Yezidism: historical roots, International Journal of Kurdish Studies, January 2005.
- The forced conversion of the Jewish community of Persia and the beginnings of the Kurds
- Encyclopaedia of Kurdistan KURDISTANICA
- KURDISTANICA: History of Judaism in Kurdistan
- Kurdish Institute Kurdish language, history, books and latest news articles.
- "Battle of DimDim" in Encyclopædia Iranica
- "Deportations, part III. In the Islamic Period", Encyclopædia Iranica.