Kurdish people
The
Kurds are an ethnic group
indigenous to a region often referred to as
Kurdistan, an area which includes adjacent parts of
Iran,
Iraq,
Syria, and
Turkey. Kurdish communities can also be found in
Lebanon,
Armenia,
Azerbaijan (
Kalbajar and
Lachin, to the west of
Nagorno Karabakh) and, in recent decades, some European countries and the
United States (See
Kurdish diaspora). Ethnically related to other Iranian people groups
[Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia, s.v. "Iran," (by Eric Hooglund), section 3A (accessed 24 July 2006).] they speak
Kurdish, an
Indo-European language of the
Iranian branch.
Historically, the Kurds have continuously sought self-determination, and have fought the
Sumerians,
Assyrians,
Persians,
Mongols, European
crusaders, and
Turks.
[Encyclopedia Britannica Online, s.v. "Kurds," (accessed 4 August 2006).] Estimated at about 30 million people, the Kurds comprise one of the largest ethnic groups in the world without a separate country. In the 20th century, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq have put down many Kurdish uprisings.
[Encyclopedia Britannica Online, s.v. "Kurds." ]The name "Kurd" comes from the Greek word "Καρδουχος" (Kardoùchos) singular and "Καρδουχοι"(Kardoùchi) plural.This comes from the words "καρδια" (kardià=heart) and "εχω" (ècho=I have).The name was bestowed on the people who "had the heart" to give hospitality to tired Greek soldiers who were passing through the mountains to Persia in order to help K`yros(/Kuros) to come into the power.
Ancient period
Although Kurds have inhabited their highlands for several millennia BC, their prehistory is not very well known.
[Encyclopedia Britannica Online, s.v. "Kurd," (accessed 4 August 2006); "Kurds in Iraq," in Eurolegal Services,http://www.eurolegal.org/neoconwars/kurdsiraq.htm.] The earliest known evidence of a unified and distinct culture in the Kurdish mountains dates back to the
Halaf culture of 8,000-7,400 years ago. This was followed by the
Hurrian period (in Mesopotamia and Zagros-Taurus mountains) which lasted from 6,300 to about 2,600 years ago. The Hurrians spoke a language which was possibly part of the
Northeast Caucasian (or the proposed
Alarodian) family of languages, akin to modern
Chechen and
Lezgian. The Hurrians spread out and eventually dominated significant territories outside their
Zagros-
Taurus mountainous base. However, like their Kurdish descendants, they did not expand very far from the mountains. As they settled, the Hurrians divided into a number of clans and subgroups, founding city-states, kingdoms and empires with eponymous clan names. These included the
Gutis,
Kurti,
Khaldi,
Nairi,
Mushku,
Mannaeans (
Mannai),
Mitanni,
Urartu,
Lullubi and the
Kassites among others. All these tribes were part of the larger group of
Hurrians (Khurrites), and together helped to shape the Hurrian phase of Kurdish history
[The Encyclopedia of Kurdistan, s.v. "Origin," (by Mehrdad A. Izady), (accessed 4 August 2006).]It is assumed that this people's original language was influenced and/or gradually replaced by the west Iranic, with the arrival of the Medes to Kurdistan.
[A. Arnaiz-Villena, J. Martiez-Lasoa and J. Alonso-Garcia, "The correlation Between Languages and Genes: The Usko-Mediterranean Peoples," Human Immunology 62 (2001) No. 9:1057.] The Medes themselves are believed by some scholars to be closely related to the earlier Mitannis
[Theses for the Reconstraction of Ancient Histroy; From the End of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt to the Advent of the Alexander the Great; By: IMMANUEL VELIKOVSKY 1945[1]].
There are numerous historical records which refer to the antecedents of the modern Kurds. One of the first mentions of the Kurds in historical records, appears in cuneiform writings from the Sumerians 3,300 BC, who referred to the "land of the Karda"
["Iraqi Kurds " Their History And Culture," in Cultural Orientation Website, Refugee Factsheet no. 13 (Washington, DC: Cultural Orientation Project, Center for Applied Linguistics, 2004. http://www.culturalorientation.net/kurds/khist.html] in the heartland of the same region which today they inhabit as they fought Sumerians. In early
Sumerian writings about the northern and northeastern parts of
Mesopotamia, The area was referred to as the land of the "Karda" or "Qarduchi" and the land of the "Guti" or "Gutium". These are described as being the same people only differing in tribal name. The
Babylonians called these people "Gardu" and "Qarda". In neighbouring area of
Assyria, they were "Qurti" or "Guti". When the
Greeks entered the territory, they referred to these people as either "Kardukh", "Carduchi", "Gordukh", Kyrti(oi), Romans as Cyrti. The Armenians called the Kurds "Gortukh" or "Gortai-kh" and the Persians knew them as "Gord" or "Kord". In the
Syriac,
Hebrew and
Chaldean languages they were, respectively, "Qardu", "Kurdaye" and "Qurdaye". In
Aramaic and
Nestorian they were "Qadu".
[Hennerbichler 2004: "Die Kurden," by Ferdinand Hennerbichler, ISBN 963 214 575 5, pubd by the author, Dr. Ferdinand Hennerbichler, Edition fhe, Albert es Hennerbichler Bt., H-9200 Mosonmagyarovar, Slovakia, 2004;] There is also a Kurdish self-name 'Kur-manj' which some connect to the
Kurd/kur + Mede/Mait-anni.
These groups, except the Mitanni leadership, are thought to have been non-Indo-Europeans. Kurds consider themselves Indo-European as well as descendants of the groups mentioned above. According to the Encyclopaedia Kurdistanica, Kurds are the descendants of all those who have historically settled in
Kurdistan, not of any one particular group. A people such as the
Guti (Kurti),
Mede(Mard), Carduchi(Gordyene),
Adiabene, Zila and
Khaldi signify not
the ancestor of the Kurds but only one ancestor
[[2]].
The present-day home of the Kurds, the high mountain region south and south-east of
Lake Van between Persia and Mesopotamia, was in the possession of Kurds before the time of the
ancient Greek historian Xenophon, and was known as the country of the
Carduchi,
Cardyene or
Cordyene. Xenophon referred to the Kurds in the
Anabasis as "Kardukhi...a fierce and protective mountain-dwelling people" who attacked Greek armies in
400 BCE.
[[3]] A Kurdish kingdom named
Corduene, situated to the east of
Tigranocerta[[4]] (east and south of present-day
Diyarbakir,
Turkey) became a province of the
Roman Empire in
66 BCE and was under Roman control for four centuries until
384 CE.
[[5]]Medieval period
|
Kurdish Cavalry in the passes of the Caucasus mountains; from: The New York Times (New York), January 24, 1915 |
In the 7th century, Arabs conquered the Kurdish regions and converted the majority of Kurds to Islam.In the second half of the 10th century, the Kurdish area was shared amongst four big Kurdish principalities. In the North were the
Shaddadid (
951-
1174) in parts of present-day
Armenia and
Arran, and the
Rawadid (
955-
1221) in
Tabriz and
Maragheh. In the East were the
Hasanwayhids (
959-
1015) and the
Annazid (
990-
1117) in
Kermanshah,
Dinawar and
Khanaqin. In the West were the
Marwanid (990-
1096) of
Diyarbakir. After these, the
Ayyubid (
1171-
1250) of
Syria and the
Ardalan dynasty (14th century-
1867) were established in present-day
Khanaqin,
Kirkuk and
Sinne. The Kurdish areas were ruled by several Kurdish principalitis up to the last century.
The
Kurdish language belongs to the north-western sub-group of the
Iranian languages, which in turn belongs to the
Indo-Iranian branch of the
Indo-European family. Kurdish may have borrowed heavily from Caucasian and Aramaic languages given certain peculiarities which make it distinct from other
Iranian languages. Most of the ancestors of the Kurds spoke various languages of the Indo-European family.
The original language of the Kurds was Hurrian, a non Indo-European language belonging to the Caucasian family. This older language was replaced by the Indo-European around
850 BCE, with the arrival of the Medes to Kurdistan
[The correlation Between Languages and Genes: The Usko-Mediterranean Peoples, Human Immunology, vol. 62, p.1057, 2001 ]. Nevertheless, Hurrian influence on Kurdish is still evident in its
ergative grammatical structure and
toponyms[A. Arnaiz-Villena, E,Gomez-Casado, J.Martinez-Laso, Population genetic relationships between Mediterranean populations determined by HLA distribution and a historic perspective, Tissue Antigens, vol.60, issue 2, p. 117, 2002].
Most Kurds are
bilingual or
polylingual, speaking the languages of the surrounding peoples such as
Arabic,
Turkish and
Persian as a
second language.
Kurdish Jews and some
Kurdish Christians (not be confused with ethnic Assyrians of Kurdistan) usually speak
Aramaic (for example:
Lishana Deni) as a first language. Aramaic is a
Semitic language related to
Hebrew and Arabic rather than Kurdish.
The
Kurdish language is comprised of two major dialects and several sub-dialects
[[6]] [[7]]:
*The
Kurmanji dialect group
*The
Sorani dialect group
*Other subdialects include
Gorani,
Zazaki, Feyli, Kermanshahi and Laki.
The latter which is spoken by a small portion of Kurds is not linguistically considered Kurdish by a number of linguists.
According to a recent genetic study, the Kurd's ancestors were from an old Mediterranean substratum, i.e.
Hurrian and
Hittite groups and that Kurds have no mix with an Aryan invasion which was supposed to have happened about 1200 BC.
"It is concluded that this invasion, if occurred, had a relatively few invaders in comparison to the already settled populations, i.e. Anatolian Hittite and Hurrian groups (older than 2000 B.C.). These may have given rise to present-day Kurdish, Armenian and Turkish populations."[[8]].
In
2001, a team of
Israeli,
German, and
Indian scientists discovered that among the various Jewish communities, the
Ashkenazi Jews showed a closer relationship to the
Muslim Kurds than to the
Semitic-speaking population further south in the
Arabian peninsula, while the Jewish Kurds and
Sephardic Jews seemed to be closely related to each other. Most of the 95 Kurdish Muslim test subjects came from northern Iraq. Moreover, according to another study, the CMH (
Cohen modal haplotype) is a
genetic marker from the northern
Middle East which is not unique to Jews.
[[9]] In another study, Kurdish Jews were found to be close to Muslim Kurds, but so were
Ashkenazim and
Sephardim, suggesting that much if not most of the genetic similarity between Jewish and Muslim Kurds descends from ancient times
[[10]].
Genetic distance comparisons have revealed that the
Turkic and
Turkmen speaking peoples in the
Caspian area cluster with the
Kurds,
Greeks and
Iranis (Ossetians). The
Persian speakers are genetically remote from these populations, they are, however, close to the
Parsis who migrated from
Iran to
India at the end of the 7th Century A.D.
[[11]]According to the
Encyclopedia Britannica,
"The Persians, Kurds, and speakers of other Indo-European languages in Iran are descendants of the Aryan tribes that began migrating from Central Asia into what is now Iran in the 2nd millennium BC."[[12]] According to the
Columbia Encyclopedia, the Kurds, as well as other migrant ethnic groups of the region, are of the "least mixed descent of the original Iranians."
[[13]] However this classification is based mainly on linguistic and historical data and does not prejudice the fact there is a complexity of ethnical elements incorporated in them.
[[14]]The exact number of Kurdish people living in the
Middle East is unknown, due to both an absence of recent census analysis and the reluctance of the various governments in Kurdish-inhabited regions to give accurate figures.
According to the CIA Factbook, Kurds comprise 20% of the population in
Turkey, 15-20% in
Iraq, 9% in
Syria, 7% in
Iran and 1.3% in
Armenia. In all of these countries except Iran, Kurds form the second largest ethnic group. In other words about 55% of the world's Kurds live in Turkey, 22% in Iran, 16.5% in Iraq and 6.5% in Syria
[[https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html]].
There are other sources which report a higher population for Kurds than mentioned above. Furthermore it is estimated that Kurds especially in Turkey have a birth rate still higher than their main neighboring ethnic groups whose birth rate is slowly decreasing.
[[15]][[16]](pp. 19,24) Kurds, numbering about 30 million people, are regarded as the fourth largest ethnicity in the
Middle East after
Arabs,
Persians and
Turks by 2000.
Kurds in Iraq
Under the former
Iraqi Ba'athist regime, which ruled Iraq from
1968 until
2003, Kurds were initially granted limited
autonomy (1970), and after the
Barzani revolt in 1961, were given some high-level political representation in
Baghdad. However, for various reasons, including the pro-Iranian sympathies of some Kurds during the
Iran-Iraq War in the
1980s, the regime implemented anti-Kurdish policies and a
de facto civil war broke out. Iraq was widely-condemned by the international community, but was never seriously punished for oppressive measures, including possibly using
chemical weapons against the Kurds, which resulted in thousands of deaths. (See
Halabja poison gas attack.) However, a report by the U.S. Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) in the aftermath of the Halabja poison gas attack stated that the primary agent used was mustard gas and not a biological weapon, indicating possible Iranian, not Iraqi, involvement.[
17] The campaign of Iraqi government against Kurds in
1988 was called
Anfal (Spoils of War). The Anfal attacks led to destruction of 2,000 villages and death of 300,000 Kurds
[[18]].
|
Jalal Talabani elected as president of Iraq meeting with U.S. officials in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 26, 2006. |
After the Kurdish uprising in 1991 (
KurdishRaperîn, led by the
PUK and
KDP), Iraqi troops recaptured the Kurdish areas, 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-led invasion in
2003. 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 unifed Kurdistan Region and by 2007 there will be a referendum in other Kurdish-inhabited regions of Iraq outside the KRG-controlled areas.
Kurds in Turkey
About half of all Kurds live in Turkey, and they account between 20%
[[19]] to 30%
[[20]] of total population of Turkey (numbering between 14 to 21 million). They are predominantly distributed in the southeastern corner of the country. Modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal (better known as Atatürk in
Turkish—), enacted a constitution 70 years ago which denied the existence of distinct ethnic groups like Kurds in Turkey. As a result, any expression by the Kurds (as well as other minorities in Turkey) of unique ethnic identity has been harshly repressed. 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.
|
Coffee shop in Diyarbakır, 1909 |
More than 3,000 Kurdish villages in Turkey were virtually wiped from the map by the Turkey's security forces during 1980s and 1990s. As a result, more than 378,000 Kurdish villagers were forcibly displaced and left homeless see
[[21]],
[[22]] and
[[23]]. Also see Report D612, October, 1994, "Forced Displacement of Ethnic Kurds"(A Human Rights Watch Publication)
[[24]]).
In
1994 Leyla Zana (the first female Kurdish representative in the Turkey's Parliament), was charged for
separatist speech and sentenced to 15 years in prison. At her inauguration as an MP, she reportedly identified herself as a Kurd.
Amnesty International reported "She took the oath of loyalty in
Turkish, as required by law, then added in
Kurdish, 'I shall struggle so that the Kurdish and Turkish peoples may live together in a democratic framework.' Parliament erupted with shouts of 'Separatist', 'Terrorist', and 'Arrest her'"
[[25]].
The Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK), also known as
KADEK and
Kongra-Gel, is a terrorist (By U.S., European Union, and UK) organization, dedicated to creating an independent Kurdish state in a territory (traditionally referred to as
Kurdistan) that consists of parts of southeastern
Turkey, northeastern
Iraq, northeastern
Syria and northwestern
Iran. It is an
ethnic secessionist organization using force and threat of force against both civilian and military targets for the purpose of achieving its political goal.
Kurds in Iran
|
Republic of Kurdistan, Mehabad 1946 |
The Kurds constitute approximately 7% of Iran's overall population. The
Shia Muslim Kurds primarily living in the
Ilam and
Kermanshah provinces of
Iran are well integrated into the national Iranian life while Sunni Kurds have resisted the
Iranian government's efforts, both before and after the revolution of
1979, to
assimilate them into the mainstream of national life and, along with their fellow Kurds in adjacent regions of
Iraq and
Turkey, have sought either regional autonomy or the outright establishment of an
independent Kurdish state in the region
[[26]].
During 19th and 20th centuries, successive Iranian governments have crushed Kurdish revolts led by Kurdish notables such as
Shaikh Ubaidullah against
Qajars in
1880 and
Simko against
Pahlavis in
1920s
[[27]]. The
Republic of Mahabad was established in Iran Kurdistan in
1946 (the second independent Kurdish state of the
20th century, after the
Republic of Ararat in modern
Turkey). After the
military coup in
1953,
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi became more autocratic and suppressed most opposition including ethnic minorities such as Kurds. He also prohibited any Kurdish language instruction
[[28]].
In recent years, intense fighting occurred between Kurds and the Iranian state between 1979 and 1982. The
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps fought to reestablish government control in the Kurdish regions. As a result around 10,000 Kurds were killed
[[29]]. Since 1983 the Iranian government has had control over the area which the Kurds inhabit
[[30]]. Frequent unrest and occasional military crackdown have also happened throughout the
1990s and even to the present
[[31]].
According to a recent article from
Slate, "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." [
32]
In Iran, Kurds express their cultural identity freely, but are denied the right of self-government or administration. Similar to other parts of Iran, membership of any non-governmental political party in Kurdistan could be punishable by persecution, imprisonment and even death. Kurdish
human rights activists in Iran have been threatened by Iranian authorities in connection with their work.
[[33]] [[34]]On
July 9 2005, after the killing of a Kurdish opposition activist,
Shivan Qaderi and two other Kurdish men by Iranian security forces in
Mahabad, for six weeks, riots and protests erupted in Kurdish towns and villages throughout Eastern Kurdistan, with scores killed and injured, and an untold number arrested without charge. The Iranian authorities also shut down several major Kurdish newspapers arresting reporters and editors.
[[35]]On January 3, 2006
Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi, an 18 year old Kurdish girl from
Karaj, was sentenced to death for murder by a criminal court of the Islamic Republic of Iran for stabbing a man who she claims tried to rape her and her fifteen year old niece when she was 17. As Nazanin has claimed that she only acted in self-defense, critics have pointed out that in another country she might be acquitted or receive only a short prison sentence. Iran also has a young age of eligibility for the death penalty - 15 years for males, and 9 for females. There has been a great level of international protest at this possible action of execution by the Iranian authorities.
Kurds in Syria
Kurds account for 10% of the population in Syria or about 1.9 million people
[[36]] making them the largest ethnic minority in the country. Kurds often speak Kurdish in public, unless all those present do not. Kurdish human rights activists are mistreated and persecuted.
[[37]] No political parties are allowed for any group, Kurdish or otherwise.
Techniques used to suppress the ethnic identity of Kurds in
Syria include various bans on the use of the
Kurdish language, refusal to register children with Kurdish names, replacement of Kurdish place names with new names in
Arabic, prohibition of businesses that do not have Arabic names, not permitting Kurdish private schools, and the prohibition of books and other materials written in Kurdish.
[[38]] [[39]] About 300,000 Kurds have been deprived of any social rights due to having been arbitrarily denied the right to Syrian nationality in violation of international law.
[[40]] [[41]] These Kurds, who have no claim to a nationality other than Syrian, are literally trapped in Syria.
[[42]]But according to some sources Syria is recently (February 2006) planning to grant citizenship to those 300,000 Kurds deprived citizenship living in the country.
[[43]]On March 12, 2004, in days of clashes began at a stadium in
Qamishli, a largely Kurdish city in northeastern Syria, at least 30 people were killed and more than 160 were injured. The unrest spread to other Kurdish towns along the northern border with Turkey, and then to
Damascus and
Aleppo.
[[44]] [[45]]Kurds in Armenia
As part of the
Soviet Union from the
1930's to the
1980's, Kurds in Armenia had the status of a protected minority under Soviet Law. They had their own state-sponsored newspaper, a radio broadcast and were allowed to hold cultural events. During the conflict in
Nagorno-Karabakh, many non-Yazidi Kurds were forced to leave their homes. Upon the disintegration of
Soviet Union, Kurds in Armenia were stripped of their cultural privileges, and most of them fled to Russia or Western Europe
[[46]] (p.22).
Kurds in Azerbaijan
Main article: Kurdistan Autonomous Oblast
In
1920, two Kurdish inhabited areas of
Jewanshir (capital:
Kalbajar) and eastern
Zangazur (capital:
Lachin) were combined to form the Kurdistan Autonomous Province or
Red Kurdistan. The period of local autonomy for Kurds was brief and did not last after
1929. During the
Stalin period up to late
1950s, Kurds faced many repressive measures including deportations. Since
1988, many Kurdish areas have been destroyed and more than 150,000 Kurds have been deported as a result of the conflict in
Nagorno-Karabakh (
[[47]], p.22).
Main articles: Yazidism, Yarsan, Alevi, Yazdanism, Kurdish Jews, Kurdish Christians |
The Great Mosque of Diyarbakir is the oldest and one of the most significant mosques in Anatolia. Following the Muslim conversion of Diyarbakir (Amed) in 639, the St Thomas Church (built in 629) was used in part as a mosque. The church was eventually fully converted to a mosque; repaired 1092 |
Before the spread of
Islam in the 7th century CE, Kurds practised various religions like, Christianity, Judaism,
Zoroastrianism and some indigenious religions
[[48]]. The majority practised their indigenous religions, today referred to as
Yazdanism. There are
Yazidism and
Yarsan, which may stem from and eventually replaced those indigenious religions. Most Yazidis live in Iraqi Kurdistan, in the vicinity of
Mosul and
Sinjar.
[[49]]. The
Yarsan, (or
Ahl-e Haqq) religion is practised in western Iran, primarily around
Kermanshah.
Christianity and
Judaism both are still practised in very small numbers.
[[50]] Rabbi Asenath Barzani, who lived in
Mosul from 1590 to 1670 was among the very first Jewish women to become a Rabbi.
Today majority of Kurds are officially
Muslim, belonging to the
Shafi school of
Sunni Islam, (and to a much lesser degree, the
Hanafi) Schools of
Sunni Islam. There is also a significant minority of Kurds that are
Shia Muslims, primarily living in the
Ilam and
Kermanshah provinces of
Iran and Central Iraq ("Al-Fayliah" Kurds). The
Alevis are another religious minority among the Kurds, mainly found in Turkey.
|
Turtles Can Fly movie poster |
Kurdish culture is a group of distinctive cultural traits practiced by Kurdish people
[[51]]. It is a legacy from the various ancient peoples who shaped modern Kurds and their society, but primarily of three layers of indigenious (
Hurrian), ancient Iranian (
Medes) and
Islamic roots.
The Kurdish culture is close to that of other groups of the
Iranian peoples; e.g. celebrating
Newroz as the new year day, which is on March 21.
[[52]] Kurdish films mainly evoke poverty and the lack of rights of Kurdish people in the region.
Yilmaz Guney (
Yol)
[[53]] and
Bahman Qubadi (
A Time for Drunken Horses and
Turtles Can Fly) are among the better known Kurdish directors.
Traditionally, there are three types of Kurdish Classical performers -
storytellers (
çîrokbêj),
minstrels (
stranbêj) and
bards (
dengbêj). There was no specific music related to the Kurdish princely courts, and instead, music performed in night gatherings (
şevbihêrk) is considered classical. Several musical forms are found in this genre. Many songs and are
epic in nature, such as the popular Lawik's which are heroic ballads recounting the tales of Kurdish heroes of the past like
Saladin.
Heyrans are love ballads usually expressing the melancholy of separation and unfulfilled love.
Lawje is a form of religious music and
Payizoks are songs performed specifically in autumn. Love songs, dance music, wedding and other celebratory songs (
dîlok/narînk), erotic poetry and
work songs are also popular.
*
History of the Kurds*
Kurdistan*
Demographics of Iran*
Demographics of Iraq*
Demographics of Syria*
Demographics of Turkey*
Genetic insights into the background of the Kurds*
Kurdish Muslims*
Kurdish Jews*
Accession of Turkey to the European Union*
Kurdish Christians*
List of Kurdish people*
Kurdish organisationsModern Kurdish governments
*
Iraqi Kurdistan*
Republic of Mahabad (1946)
*
Republic of Ararat (1927-1931)
*
Kingdom of Kurdistan*
Kurds and Kurdistan, Encyclopaedia of Islam.
*
Kurds, Encyclopaedia Britannica.
*
Kurd, Encyclopaedia Britannica.
*
The Kurdish Institute of Paris Kurdish language, history, books and latest news articles.
*
The Encyclopaedia of Kurdistan*
Istanbul Kurdish Institute*
The Kurdish Center of International Pen*
Kurdish Library, supported by the
Swedish Government.
*
Yazidism: Historical Roots, International Journal of Kurdish Studies, Jan. 2005.
*
Ethnic Cleansing and the Kurds*
The Kurds in the Ottoman Hungary by Zurab Aloian
*
Kurdish Tribes entry in the
Encyclopædia Iranica*
"The Other Iraq"*
"Kurd û Cîhaniyan"The Kurdish Issue in Turkey
*
A report on the Kurdish IDP's - 2005*
A German newspaper's take on the Kurdish issue - 2005*
The Guardian - What's in a name? Too much in Turkey - 2001*
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists' take - 1999
