The Kurds – People Without a State

The Kurds are an ancient people of the Middle East. They live in a mountainous region called Kurdistan, which includes parts of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Azerbaijan and Armenia. The Kurds, who are Muslims and speak a language that is like Persian, have lived in this region for thousands of years, but they have never had a country of their own. Instead they have been oppressed a lot by other people.

There are about 30 million Kurds today. Almost half of them live in Turkey, where they make up 20% of that population. Other countries in the Middle East with a large Kurdish population are Iran, Iraq and Syria. Many Kurds have come to Europe where they live in Germany, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

Kurds often live in tribes in the countryside. They are farmers who grow cotton, tobacco and sugar beets. Some of them are nomads who raise sheep and goats. They bring their animals to mountain pastures in the summer and return to their home villages in the winter. Many Kurds have specialized on the production of textiles and handicrafts, especially carpets and rugs. In the past decades some have gone to larger cities outside Kurdistan, like Istanbul or Ankara.

After the Ottoman Empire collapsed at the beginning of the 20 th century new states like Iraq or Syria were created in the Middle East but not a separate Kurdistan. At first the Kurds were promised their own country but then the new Middle Eastern states did not want anindependent Kurdistan. Since this period Kurds have always fought for their independence. This has led to conflicts in the countries in which they live. 

Map of Kurdistan

The Kurds were treated very badly, especially by the Turkish government, who called them “Mountain Kurds”. They forbade them to speak their language and didn’t wear traditional Kurdish clothes in the cities.

In Iraq the Kurds have faced a similar repression. In the 1980s they helped Iran in the war against Iraq. Saddam Hussein punished the Kurds by attacking villages with chemical weapons. Thousands were killed, many fled to Iran. After the Gulf War, in which the Kurds once again started a rebellion against the Iraqigovernment, the United States created a safe zone for the Kurds in northern Iraq.

In 1978 Abdullah Öcalan founded the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, considered to be a terrorist organization and which has been fighting against the Turkish army. In 1999 Turkish authoritiescaptured Öcalan in Kenya. He was put on trial in Turkey and sentenced to death. But the sentencewas later on turned into life in prison.

Some Turkish leaders have realized that more democracy and less repression may be the only way toimprove the life of the Kurds in Turkey. Others think, however, that the success of the Iraqi Kurds mayencourage their Turkish neighbors.

  

Where Kurds Live

Middle East
Turkey	15 million
Iran	5 million
Iraq	5 million
Syria	1.5 million
Europe
Germany	600 000
France	120 000
Sweden	100 000
The Netherlands	70 000
Switzerland	60 000
Austria	50 000
Asia
Afghanistan	200 000
Azerbaijan	100 000