Kurdistan - Kurdish Conflict
The Kurd population, probably numbering close to 16 million, inhabits the wide arc from eastern Turkey and the northwestern part of Syria through Soviet Azarbaijan and Iraq to the northwest of the Zagros Mountains in Iran. About half of all Kurds worldwide live in Turkey. Most of the rest live in adjacent regions of Iran, Iraq, and Syria. They represent by far the largest non-Arab ethnic minority of Iraq, accounting in 1987 for about 19 percent of the population, or around 3.1 million, and also Turkey's largest non-Turkish ethnic group.
In Turkey, the Kurds are concentrated in eleven provinces of the southeast, the same area that their ancestors inhabited when Xenophon mentioned the Kurds in the fifth century B.C. There also are isolated Kurdish villages in other parts of Turkey. Kurds have been migrating to Istanbul for centuries, and since 1960 they have migrated to almost all other urban centers as well. There are Kurdish neighborhoods, for example, in many of the gecekondus or shantytowns, which have grown up around large cities in western Turkey. Turkey's censuses do not list Kurds as a separate ethnic group. Consequently, there are no reliable data on their total numbers. In 1995, estimates of the number of Kurds in Turkey ranged from 6 million to 12 million.
In Iraq, the Kurdish dialect of Kurmanji is divided into North Kurmanji (also called Bahdinani) and South Kurmanji (also called Sorani). South Kurmanji, or Sorani, is the language of a plurality of Kurds in Iraq. Major subdialects of South Kurmanji are Mukri, Ardalani, Garmiyani, Khushnow, Pizhdar, Warmawa, Kirmanshahi, and Arbili (or Sorani proper). Kurds in Iraq are the overwhelming majority in As Sulaymaniyah, Irbil, and Dahuk governorates. Although the government hotly denies it, the Kurds are almost certainly also a majority in the region around Kirkuk, Iraq's richest oil-producing area. Kurds are settled as far south as Khanaqin. Once mainly nomadic or seminomadic, Kurdish society was characterized by a combination of urban centers, villages, and pastoral tribes since at least the Ottoman period. By the nineteenth century, about 20 percent of Iraqi Kurds lived in historic Kurdish cities such as Kirkuk, As Sulaymaniyah, and Irbil. The migration to the cities, particularly of the young intelligentsia, helped develop Kurdish nationalism. Since the early 1960s, the urban Kurdish areas have grown rapidly. Kurdish migration--in addition to being part of the general trend of urban migration--was prompted by the escalating armed conflict with the central authorities in Baghdad, the destruction of villages and land by widespread bombing, and such natural disasters as a severe drought in the 1958-61 period. In addition to destroying traditional resources, the severe fighting has hindered the development of education, health, and other services.
There are approximately 4 million Kurds in Iran. They are the third most important ethnic group in the country after the Persians and Azarbaijanis and account for about 9 percent of the total population. They are concentrated in the Zagros Mountain area along the western frontiers with Turkey and Iraq and adjacent to the Kurdish populations of both those countries. The Kurdish area of Iran includes most of West Azarbaijan, all of Kordestan, much of Bakhtaran (formerly known as Kermanshahan) and Ilam, and parts of Lorestan. Historically, the Kurds of Iran have been both urban and rural, with as much as half the rural population practicing pastoral nomadism in different periods of history. By the mid-1970s, fewer than 15 percent of all Kurds were nomadic. In addition, during the 1970s there was substantial migration of rural Kurds to such historic Kurdish cities as Bakhtaran (known as Kermanshah until 1979), Sanandaj, and Mahabad, as well as to larger towns such as Baneh, Bijar, Ilam, Islamabad (known as Shahabad until 1979), Saqqez, Sar-e Pol-e Zahab, and Sonqor. Educated Kurds also migrated to non-Kurdish cities such as Karaj, Tabriz, and Tehran. There are also scatterings of Kurds in the provinces of Fars, Kerman, and Baluchestan va Sistan, and there is a large group of approximately 350,000 living in a small area of northern Khorasan. These are all descendants of Kurds whom the government forcibly removed from western Iran during the seventeenth century.
The Kurds speak a variety of closely related dialects, which in Iran are collectively called Kirmanji. The dialects are divided into northern and southern groups, and it is not uncommon for the Kurds living in adjoining mountain valleys to speak different dialects. There is a small body of Kurdish literature written in a modified Arabic script. Kurdish is more closely related to Persian than is Baluchi and also contains numerous Persian loanwords. In large Kurdish cities, the educated population speaks both Persian and Kurdish.
Although the Kurds comprise a distinct ethnic group, they are divided by class, regional, and sectarian differences similar to those affecting ethnic Turks. Religious divisions often have been a source of conflict among the Kurds. Although the government of Turkey does not compile official data on religious affiliation, scholars estimate that at least two-thirds of the Kurds in Turkey nominally are Sunni Muslims, and that as many as one-third are Shia Muslims of the Alevi sect. Unlike the Sunni Turks, who follow the Hanafi school of Islamic law, the Sunni Kurds follow the Shafii school. Like their Turkish counterparts, adult male Kurds with religious inclinations tend to join Sufi brotherhoods. The Naksibendi and Kadiri orders, both of which predate the republic, have large Kurdish followings in Turkey although their greatest strength is among the Kurds of Iran. The Nurcular, a brotherhood that came to prominence during the early republican years, also has many Kurdish adherents in Turkey.
Whereas the number of Kurds belonging to the Alevi sect of Shia Islam is uncertain, the majority of Alevi are either Arabs or Turks. Historically, the Alevi lived in isolated mountain communities in southeastern Turkey and western Syria. The Kurdish Alevi have been migrating from their villages to the cities of central Anatolia since the 1950s. Whereas Kurdish and Turkish Alevi generally have good relations, the competition between Alevi and Sunni Turks for urban jobs led to a revival of traditional sectarian tensions by the mid-1970s. These intertwined economic and religious tensions culminated in a series of violent sectarian clashes in Kahramanmaras, Corum, and other cities in 1978-79 in which hundreds of Alevi died.
A small but unknown number of Kurds also adhere to the secretive Yazidi sect, which historically has been persecuted by both Sunni and Shia Muslims. Small communities of Yazidi live in Mardin, Siirt, and Sanli Urfa provinces. Yazidi are also found among Kurds in Armenia, Iran, and Iraq. In Turkey the Yazidi believe that the government does not protect them from religious persecution. Consequently, as many as 50 percent of all Yazidi have immigrated to Germany, where they feel free to practice their heterodox form of Islam.
Class differences also divide the Kurds. Wealthy landowners in rural areas and entrepreneurs in urban areas tend to cooperate with the government and espouse assimilation. Many of these Kurds are bilingual or even speak Turkish more comfortably than Kurdish, which they disparage as the language of the uneducated. The economic changes that began in the 1960s have exacerbated the differences between the minority of assimilated Kurds and the majority who have retained a Kurdish identity. Militant Kurdish political groups such as the PKK have exploited these class differences since 1984.
In Iran, the majority of both rural and urban Kurds in West Azarbaijan and Kordestan practice Sunni Islam. There is more diversity of religious practice in southern Kurdish areas, especially in the Bakhtaran area, where many villagers and townspeople follow Shia beliefs. Schismatic Islamic groups, such as the Ahl-e Haqq and the Yazdis, both of which are considered heretical by orthodox Shias, traditionally have had numerous adherents among the Kurds of the Bakhtaran region. A tiny minority of Kurds are adherents of Judaism.
In 2003, the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq led to developments for Iraq's Kurdish population. The Iraqi Kurds expressed interest in a federal system of government that would grant them a measure of autonomy. As of May 2003, the US had maintained that any government installed in Iraq would be voted on by a parliament, made of groups representing the Iraqi population. The Kurds would clearly represent a minority in that parliament.
Kurds are distinct from the Arabs, Turks, and Persians (Iranians) of their region, but are ethnically and linguistically closest to Persians. Kurdish origins are commonly traced back to the Empire of the Medes in the sixth century BC.
Kurds live in the mountainous region of the Middle East where the borders of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran meet. There are an estimated 20-25 million Kurds throughout the Middle East. The region they inhabit is sometimes called Kurdistan, although this does not refer to a political designation. The Kurds have always been a stateless people.
The name “Kurd” was a generic term used to denote nomads, and non-Arabs in particular. In Kurdish, the name “Kurd” means “warrior” or “ferocious fighter.” By the time of the Islamic conquest of the northern Middle East in the 7th century AD, the name “Kurd” was already in use as a term to designate the population of Western Iranians in the Zagros Mountains.
Kurds in Iraq make up 15-20 percent of the Iraqi population of 24 million, or about 4-5 million people. The number of Kurds in Iraq is a disputed issue, and the Kurds accuse the Iraqi government of undercounting the Kurds to reduce their status as a significant minority.
By the beginning of the 16th century, the Shia Safavid (Iranian) Empire had emerged as a rival to the Ottoman Empire. The Kurds found themselves in the middle of the territories claimed by the Sunni Turkic Ottomans and the Shia Persian Safavids. The two empires fought at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514, where the Ottomans defeated the Safavid Shah. The result of the battle established a boundary between the two empires that split the Kurds between Turkic and Persian empires.
Kurdish cultural identity has been fundamentally influenced by their experience at the intersection of the Turkic, Persian and Arab cultures. These three cultures have dominated Kurdish culture, in part because of the empire and state borders that have prevented coordination and unity within the larger Kurdish population.
From the mid-16th century through World War I, the Ottoman Empire ruled three provinces or vilayets Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul that comprise contemporary Iraq. The Kurdish area in modern-day Iraq was part of the Mosul vilayet.
Iraqi Kurdish areas span three provinces: Dohuk, Arbil, and Sulaymaniyah of Iraq. Kurds also comprise a substantial portion of the population in and around Kirkuk, and live as far south as Khanaqin.
Kurds in Iraq are divided between the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) factions in northern Iraq. These entities are political-military-tribal organizations. The KDP and PUK are currently cooperating with each other, although they fought a civil war in 1996.
Kurds consider Kirkuk, a 5,000 year old city and a center of oil production, as the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, even though it is under Iraqi government control and even though it contains more Arabs than Kurds. Both the KDP and the PUK regard Kirkuk as a key piece in their plan for a secure and economically viable independent Kurdistan.
Kurds speak Kurdish, which is a language distinct from Arabic, Turkish and Persian . There are several dialects of the Kurdish language that are specific to different regions of Kurdistan. In Iraq, the dominant dialects are Kurmanji (Northern) Kurdish and Surani (Southern) Kurdish.
Almost all Kurds are Muslim. Kurdish Muslims are mostly of the Sunni branch, but mainly follow the Shafi’i school of Sunni Islam, which distinguishes them from the majority of the Iraqi Arab Sunni Muslim population, which is primarily of the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam. There is also a strong Sufi mystic following among the Kurds. Sufism contributes to a less orthodox practice of Islam among much of the Kurdish population.
Most of the Kurds who are of the Shia branch of Islam are called Faili Kurds. The Faili Kurds live around Kirkuk and south to Khanaqin. Many of the Faili Kurds support the PUK.
Over time, the Kurds’ physical location on the border of empires and modern nation-states has had a significant impact on Kurdish identity. Kurds see themselves as not only existing without a state, but as existing between and across states. This influences how they view external powers and gives them a highly tactical view of alliances.
Tribal connections remain a source of social ties in Iraqi Kurdish society. Although almost all Kurds are permanently settled and earn their livelihood from agriculture, handicrafts or industrial work, tribal ties are a source of support in times of hardship and can still be use to mobilize communities against outside interference.
