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THE KURDS: ONE PEOPLE, FOUR COUNTRIES
Agence France Presse
March 20, 2013 Wednesday 11:36 AM GMT
Despite their longstanding wish for a single homeland called Kurdistan,
the Kurds are today scattered over four countries spanning half a
million square kilometres: Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
Originally of Indo-European origin, the Kurds trace their roots back
to the Medes of ancient Persia. Mainly Sunni Muslim, they live in
mountainous regions straddling the four countries, and have kept
their language, culture and tribal system.
While their population differs according to official or Kurdish
sources, they number between 25 and 35 million.
The largest number of Kurds lives in Turkey, where their numbers are
disputed, but believed to be between 12 and 15 million.
There are five million Kurds in Iran, about 4.5 million in Iraq and
around two million in Syria.
Large expatriate Kurdish communities also exist in the former Soviet
Union, notably Azerbaijan and Armenia, and in Lebanon and some European
countries such as Germany.
As a large and distinct group Kurds are neither Arabs, Turks or
Persians and are therefore seen as a political threat by all four of
the countries that they inhabit.
In past centuries the Kurds enjoyed periods of self-rule under Kurdish
dynasties in semi-autonomous principalities, some of which survived
until the mid-19th century when they were overthrown by the Ottoman
empire and Persia, as Iran was formerly called.
The Kurds' claim for an ethnic homeland, which dates back to 1695,
has been the source of their problems in a history that has been a
long tale of harassment, discrimination and occasionally of slaughter.
The traditional refuge of the Kurds has always been the mountains,
with their steep pastures and fertile valleys.
Following the Turkish defeat in World War I and the collapse of the
Ottoman empire, Kurdish demands for an independent homeland were
recognised under the Treaty of Sevres (1920), but promises received
from London and Paris were never implemented.
The Sevres treaty was re-negotiated at Lausanne in 1923 and the
Kurdish demands were buried.
With Soviet backing, Iran's Kurds briefly declared a republic at the
end of World War II, but it was soon crushed by the Iranian army.
In recent decades, Turkey and Iraq have been equally ruthless in
frustrating Kurdish demands. Ankara banned until 2002 the use of the
Kurdish language, and even the words Kurd and Kurdish were banished
from public discourse.
Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein carried out a murderous
campaign, systematically wiping out towns and villages using guns,
planes and bulldozers.
In April 1988, near the end of the Iran-Iraq war, Iraqi warplanes
attacked the Kurdish village of Halabja with poison gas, killing the
entire population.
The US-led invasion of Iraq 10 years ago, and the subsequent fall
of the Saddam regime gave Iraqi Kurds new hopes and they now enjoy
wide-ranging autonomy on most issues, have their own parliament
and government.
In Turkey, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) led by Abdullah Ocalan,
who is expected to call for a ceasefire on Thursday, was formed in
1978 and in 1984 launched a campaign for a separate state, plunging
southeast Turkey into a civil war in which some 45,000 people, mostly
Kurds, have died.
In Iran, the western province of Kordestan is dominated by Sunni
Muslims and has seen deadly fighting in recent years between Iranian
security forces and Kurdish rebels of the PJAK group operating out
of rear-bases in neighbouring Iraq.
PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) is closely allied with
Turkey's PKK.
doc-jmy-kd/ck/lc
Agence France Presse
March 20, 2013 Wednesday 11:36 AM GMT
Despite their longstanding wish for a single homeland called Kurdistan,
the Kurds are today scattered over four countries spanning half a
million square kilometres: Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
Originally of Indo-European origin, the Kurds trace their roots back
to the Medes of ancient Persia. Mainly Sunni Muslim, they live in
mountainous regions straddling the four countries, and have kept
their language, culture and tribal system.
While their population differs according to official or Kurdish
sources, they number between 25 and 35 million.
The largest number of Kurds lives in Turkey, where their numbers are
disputed, but believed to be between 12 and 15 million.
There are five million Kurds in Iran, about 4.5 million in Iraq and
around two million in Syria.
Large expatriate Kurdish communities also exist in the former Soviet
Union, notably Azerbaijan and Armenia, and in Lebanon and some European
countries such as Germany.
As a large and distinct group Kurds are neither Arabs, Turks or
Persians and are therefore seen as a political threat by all four of
the countries that they inhabit.
In past centuries the Kurds enjoyed periods of self-rule under Kurdish
dynasties in semi-autonomous principalities, some of which survived
until the mid-19th century when they were overthrown by the Ottoman
empire and Persia, as Iran was formerly called.
The Kurds' claim for an ethnic homeland, which dates back to 1695,
has been the source of their problems in a history that has been a
long tale of harassment, discrimination and occasionally of slaughter.
The traditional refuge of the Kurds has always been the mountains,
with their steep pastures and fertile valleys.
Following the Turkish defeat in World War I and the collapse of the
Ottoman empire, Kurdish demands for an independent homeland were
recognised under the Treaty of Sevres (1920), but promises received
from London and Paris were never implemented.
The Sevres treaty was re-negotiated at Lausanne in 1923 and the
Kurdish demands were buried.
With Soviet backing, Iran's Kurds briefly declared a republic at the
end of World War II, but it was soon crushed by the Iranian army.
In recent decades, Turkey and Iraq have been equally ruthless in
frustrating Kurdish demands. Ankara banned until 2002 the use of the
Kurdish language, and even the words Kurd and Kurdish were banished
from public discourse.
Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein carried out a murderous
campaign, systematically wiping out towns and villages using guns,
planes and bulldozers.
In April 1988, near the end of the Iran-Iraq war, Iraqi warplanes
attacked the Kurdish village of Halabja with poison gas, killing the
entire population.
The US-led invasion of Iraq 10 years ago, and the subsequent fall
of the Saddam regime gave Iraqi Kurds new hopes and they now enjoy
wide-ranging autonomy on most issues, have their own parliament
and government.
In Turkey, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) led by Abdullah Ocalan,
who is expected to call for a ceasefire on Thursday, was formed in
1978 and in 1984 launched a campaign for a separate state, plunging
southeast Turkey into a civil war in which some 45,000 people, mostly
Kurds, have died.
In Iran, the western province of Kordestan is dominated by Sunni
Muslims and has seen deadly fighting in recent years between Iranian
security forces and Kurdish rebels of the PJAK group operating out
of rear-bases in neighbouring Iraq.
PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) is closely allied with
Turkey's PKK.
doc-jmy-kd/ck/lc