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{{Kurds}}
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The [[Kurds]]{{Efn-ua|{{langx|ku|کورد|Kurd}}}} are an [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]]<ref>{{cite book |first=John A. |last=Shoup |title=Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East: An Encyclopedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GN5yv3-U6goC&pg=PA159 |year=2011 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-598843637}}</ref><ref name="NezanK">{{cite web |first=Kendal |last=Nezan |title=A brief survey of The History of the Kurds |url=https://www.institutkurde.org/en/institute/who_are_the_kurds.php |website=Kurdish Institute of Paris |access-date=5 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Bois|first1=Th.|last2=Minorsky|first2=V.|last3=MacKenzie|first3=D.N.|encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition|publisher=Brill Online|title=Kurds, Kurdistān|date=24 April 2012|volume=5|url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/kurds-kurdistan-COM_0544?s.num=53&s.f.s2_parent=s.f.book.encyclopaedia-of-islam-2&s.start=40&s.q=nihawand|quote=The Kurds, an Iranian people of the Near East, live at the junction of (...)|page=439}}</ref> ethnic group in the [[Middle East]]. They have historically inhabited the mountainous areas to the south of [[Lake Van]] and [[Lake Urmia]], a geographical area collectively referred to as [[Kurdistan]]. Most Kurds speak Northern Kurdish [[Kurmanji Kurdish]] (Kurmanji) and [[Central Kurdish]] (Sorani).

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 [[Hasanwayhids]], the [[Marwanids (Diyar Bakr)|Marwanids]], the [[Rawadid dynasty|Rawadid]]s, the [[Shaddadids]], followed by the [[Ayyubid dynasty]] founded by [[Saladin]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge History Of The Kurds|last=James|first=Boris|isbn=978-1-108-47335-4|language=en|pages=30}}</ref> The [[Battle of Chaldiran]] of 1514 is an important turning point in Kurdish history, marking the alliance of Kurds with the [[Ottoman Turks|Ottomans]]. The ''[[Sharafnama|Sharafnameh]]'' of 1597 is the first account of Kurdish history.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge History Of The Kurds|last=James|first=Boris|isbn=978-1-108-47335-4|language=en|pages=40|quote=Written in Persian, the book is the ﬁrst opus relating Kurdish history through the lens of a Kurdish notable.}}</ref> Kurdish history in the 20th century is marked by a rising sense of Kurdish nationhood focused 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 Kurdish insurgent groups and [[Turkish Armed Forces]] was ongoing from 1984 to 1999, and the region continues to be unstable with renewed violence flaring up in the 2000s.

== Etymology ==
There are several theories regarding the origin of the name Kurd. According to one theory, it might be derived from "Cyrtii" (Kurti), a term first recorded in the 2nd century BCE to describe slingers who inhabited the Zagros Mountains.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McDowall |first=David |title=A modern history of the Kurds |date=2021 |publisher=I.B. Tauris |isbn=978-0-7556-0079-3 |edition=Fourth |location= |publication-date=2021 |pages=10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=van Bruinessen |first=Martin |title=Kurdish Ethno-Nationalism versus Nation-Building States |publisher=Gorgias Pres |year=2011 |isbn=978-1463229863 |pages=16}}</ref> In the 13th century, an Italian monk and preacher who visited Kurdistan also used the term "Curti" to refer to the Kurds.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eppel |first=Michael |title=A people without a state: the Kurds from the rise of Islam to the dawn of nationalism |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-4773-1107-3 |edition= |location= |pages=5}}</ref> Alternatively, it might be derived from "Guti." According to Safarastian, the "r" was assimilated after the "u" (Guti > Gurti), following a common linguistic rule in Indo-European languages, particularly those of the East, such as Kurdish, Greek, and Armenian.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Safrastian |first=Arshak |title=Kurds and Kurdistan |publisher=The Harvill Press |year=1948 |pages=16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=Kurd {{!}} History, Culture, & Language {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kurd |access-date=2025-01-06 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |language=en}}</ref>

According to ''The Cambridge History of the Kurds:''
{{blockquote|Many different interpretations have been made in explaining the origin of
the word ‘Kurd’ to this day, but the interpreters often have not dwelled on the word ‘Kırd’, the self-designation the Kırmanj (Zazas) use in certain regions. However, Strabo, the ancient Greek author (64 BC–21 AD), uses the term '''Kύρτι'''οι ('''Kurti'''oi) for Kurds, which is '''Kyrt'''ii in Latin; the similarity of these Greek and Latin terms with the word ‘'''Kırd'''’ and its plural forms ‘'''Kırdi'''’/’'''Kirdi'''’ is remarkable (Strabon cited in Islâm Ansiklopedisi, 1977: 1090; Lecoq, 2006: 232). Likewise, in the Armenian language, the plural form ‘'''Krd'''er’, ‘'''Krd'''akan’ is used for the Kurds.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge History of the Kurds |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2021 |editor-last=Bozarslan |editor-first=Hamit |pages=666 |editor-last2=Gunes |editor-first2=Cengiz |editor-last3=Yadirgi |editor-first3=Veli}}</ref>}}

By the time of the [[Early Muslim conquests|Islamic conquests]] in the 7th century, and possibly earlier, the term 'Kurd' was used with a socio-economic meaning to describe nomadic groups on the western edge of the [[Iranian plateau]] and, possibly, tribes aligned with [[Sasanian Empire|Sassanian]] authority in [[Mesopotamia]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=McDowall |first=David |title=A modern history of the Kurds |publisher=I.B. Tauris |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-7556-0079-3 |edition=Fourth |location= |pages=10}}</ref><ref>Asatrian, Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds, Iran and the Caucasus, Vol.13, pp. 23–24, 2009.</ref> During this period, Kurds were also already present in eastern Anatolia.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge History of the Kurds |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2021 |editor-last=Bozarslan |editor-first=Hamit |pages=610–611 |editor-last2=Gunes |editor-first2=Cengiz |editor-last3=Yadirgi |editor-first3=Veli}}</ref>

Early Islamic writings mention the Kurds across a wide geographical area. However, due to the ambiguity of these accounts, scholars have debated the meaning of the term "Kurds," considering whether it referred to a group defined by ethnicity and language, nomadic lifestyle, or a specific environment in which they lived. A recent study by Boris James, the first scholar to carefully analyze and interpret these writings, focusing on the 12th to 14th centuries, concluded that 12th-century sources show the Kurds had become a unified ethnic group, although divided into several tribes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=van Bruinessen |first=Martin |date=2023-03-15 |title=Boris James, Genèse du Kurdistan. Les Kurdes dans l'Orient mamelouk et mongol (1250-1340) |url=https://journals.openedition.org/bcai/2919 |journal=Bulletin critique des Annales islamologiques |language= |issue=37 |pages=114–116 |doi=10.4000/bcai.2919 |issn=0259-7373}}</ref>

== Antiquity ==
{{main|Origin of the Kurds}}

== Medieval Period ==
===Early Kurdish dynasties===
From Islamic conquest up until 10th century, Kurdish groups played a marginal role in the regions politics, being mentioned from that era as mercenaries and rebels.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Hugh Kennedy |url=https://archive.org/details/the-prophet-and-the-age-of-the-caliphates-the-islamic-near-east-from-the-sixth-t/page/216/mode/1up?view=theater |title=The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East from the 6th to the 11th Century |date=2004-02-01 |pages=214–228}}</ref> the period of 950-1050s, has been called the Kurdish interlude by scholars.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Citation |last=Hillenbrand |first=Carole |title=24 A Cosmopolitan Frontier State: Relations among the Kurds, Arabs, Byzantines, Armenians, Persians and Turks under the Marwanids of Diyar Bakr, 990–1085 |date=2022-05-09 |work=The Medieval Turks |pages=361–375 |url=https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781474485951-027/pdf?licenseType=restricted |access-date=2025-04-15 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |language=en |doi=10.1515/9781474485951-027 |isbn=978-1-4744-8595-1}}</ref> As various [[Kurdish tribes]] seized vast territories and formed their own states. The independent Kurdish principalities were:
*[[Hadhbani]] (900?-1144, in [[Erbil]] and [[East Azerbaijan province|eastern Adharbayjan]]) 
*[[Shaddadid]]s (951–1199, in parts of [[Armenia]] and [[Arran (Azerbaijan)|Arran]]) 
*[[Rawadid]]s (900?–1071/1115) in [[Tabriz]] and [[Maragheh]] 
*[[Hasanwayhid]]s (959–1015) 
*[[Annazid]]s (990–1117, in western [[Jibal]])
*[[Marwanids (Diyar Bakr)|Marwanid]]s (983–1085) of [[Diyarbakır]].

The Kurdish principalities relied on Kurdish tribesmen and nomadic kurds as backbone for their principality's army and military prowess. They never needed [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] [[ghilman]] for mounted troops like the [[Buyid dynasty|Buyids]], because they provided mounted troops from their own ranks.<ref name=":0" />

Later in the 12th century, the Kurdish<ref>{{cite web |title=Hazāraspids |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hazaraspids |website=Iranica Online |publisher=Encyclopædia Iranica |access-date=20 February 2017 |language=en |quote=Hazāraspids, a local dynasty of Kurdish origin which ruled in the Zagros mountains region of southwestern Persia,...}}</ref> [[Hazaraspid]] dynasty established its rule in southern [[Zagros]] and [[Luristan]] and conquered territories of [[Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province|Kuhgiluya]], [[Khuzestan]] and [[Golpayegan]] in the 13th century and annexed [[Shushtar]], [[Hoveizeh]] and [[Basra]] in the 14th century.

One of these dynasties may 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 lake or sea), near ancient [[Ecbatana]] ([[Hamadan]]). It included the vilayets of [[Sinjar]] and [[Shahrizor|Shahrazur]] to the west of the [[Zagros]] mountain range and those of Hamadan, Dinawar and [[Kermanshah]] to the east of this range. An autochthonous [[civilization]] developed around the town of Dinawar (today ruined), located 75&nbsp;km North-East of Kermanshah, whose radiance was later only partially replaced by that of [[Senna (Iran)|Senna]], 90&nbsp;km further North.<ref name="NezanK"/>

[[Marco Polo]] (1254–1324) 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 [[Italians|Italian]] [[Kurdologist]] Mirella Galetti, sorted these writings which were translated into Kurdish.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bakhawan.com/dotkurd/nebez/Inglizi/TheKurds.pdf |title=The Kurds: History and Culture |last=Nebez |first=Jamal |author-link=Jamal Nebez |date=2004 |website=Bakhawan.com |page=55 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050514044915/http://www.bakhawan.com/dotkurd/nebez/Inglizi/TheKurds.pdf |archive-date=2005-05-14}}</ref>

===Ayyubid period===
{{further|Ayyubid dynasty}}
[[Image:Ayyubid.png|thumb|right|250px|The Middle East, c. 1190. Saladin's empire and its vassals shown in red; territory taken from the [[Crusader states]] 1187–1189 shown in pink. Light green indicates Crusader territories surviving [[Saladin]]'s death.]]
[[File:Cristofano dell'altissimo, saladino, ante 1568 - Serie Gioviana.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Saladin, painted 1568]]

One of the periods where Kurds were at the peak of their power was during the 12th century, when [[Saladin]], who belonged to the Rawadiya branch of the [[Hadhabani (tribe)|Hadabani]] tribe, founded the [[Ayyubid]] dynasty, under which several Kurdish chieftainships were established. The dynasty ruled areas extending from the [[Kurdistan|Kurdish regions]] to as far as [[Egypt]] and [[Yemen]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781108623711/type/book |title=The Cambridge History of the Kurds |date=2021-04-22 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-62371-1 |editor-last=Bozarslan |editor-first=Hamit |editor-last2=Gunes |editor-first2=Cengiz |editor-last3=Yadirgi |editor-first3=Veli |name-list-style=amp |edition=1st |doi=10.1017/9781108623711 |s2cid=243594800}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hancock |first=Lee |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bXHpDNO70CcC&dq=saladin+rawadiya&pg=PA23 |title=Saladin and the Kingdom of Jerusalem: The Muslims Recapture the Holy Land in AD 1187 |date=2004 |publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8239-4217-6 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Kurdish quarters ===
In the Middle Ages, in many cities outside of Kurdistan, Kurdish quarters were formed as a result of an influx of Kurdish tribal forces, as well as scholars.{{sfnp|James|2006}} In these cities, Kurds often also had mosques, madrasahs and other edifices.
* In Aleppo, the Haret al-Akrad. The city of Aleppo also had Kurdish mosques like al-Zarzari, al-Mihrani, al-Bashnawayin.{{sfnp|James|2006|p=52}}
* In Baghdad, Darb al-Kurd, recorded since the 11th century.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00587886 |title=Invisibles ou absents? Questions sur la présence kurde à Baghdad aux Ve-VIe/XIe-XIIe Siècles |last=van Renterghem |first=Vanessa |date=2009 |journal=Études Kurdes |language=fr |volume=10 |pages=21–52}}</ref>
* In [[Barda, Azerbaijan|Barda]], Bab al-Akrad,<ref>{{cite book |last=Le Strange |first=Guy |author-link=Guy Le Strange |date=1905 |title=The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate |location=London |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=12}}</ref> recorded in the 10th century.
* In Cairo, Haret al-Akrad, at al-Maqs.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Rashed |first=Mohamed Mahmoud Mostafa |date=2015 |title=Architectural Identity in Contemporary Cairo |type=MSc |chapter=4.1.1 Fatimid and Ayyubid Dynasties |publisher=[[Politecnico di Milano]] |url=https://www.politesi.polimi.it/retrieve/a81cb05b-6efb-616b-e053-1605fe0a889a/Architectural%20Identity%20in%20Contemporary%20Cairo%20-%20Mohamed%20Rashed.pdf |page=94}}</ref>
* In Damascus, Mount Qasyun at [[Rukneddine|Rukn al-dîn]] and Suq al-Saruja.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tejel |first=Jordi |author-link=Jordi Tejel |date=2009 |title=Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society |publisher=Routledge}}</ref> Kurdish notables had also built mosques and madrasahs by name of al-Mudjadiyya, Sab' al-Madjânîn, al-Mihrani. Some other notables who patronized buildings were Balâchû al-Kurdî, Musa al-Kurdi, Habib al-Kurdi. There also was a Kurdish cemetery.{{sfnp|James|2006|p=52}}
* In Gaza, [[Shuja'iyya]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=Amnon |last2=Lewis |first2=Bernard |name-list-style=amp |date=1978 |title=Population and Revenue in the Towns of Palestine in the Sixteenth Century |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=0-691-09375-X}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Haldimann |first1=Marc-André |last2=Humbert |first2=Jean-Baptiste |name-list-style=amp |date=2007 |title=Gaza: à la croisée des civilisations: contexte archéologique et historique |language=fr |location=Neuchâtel |publisher=Éditions Chaman |isbn=978-2-9700435-5-3}}</ref> named after Shuja' al-Din Uthman al-Kurdi, who died in 1239.
* In Hebron, [[Kurds in Hebron|Haret al-Akrad]]: associated with the Ayyubid conquests.
* In Jerusalem, Haret al-Akrad (later Haret esh-Sharaf,<ref>{{cite book |last=Teller |first=Matthew |title=Nine Quarters of Jerusalem |date=2022 |publisher=Profile Books |isbn=978-1-78283-904-0 |page=29 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SgQ3EAAAQBAJ&pg=PT199 |quote=[[Bikur Holim Street]], named for the Bikur Holim Jewish hospital that operated here from 1864 to 1947. But the Arabic on the same signs names the alley as Tariq Haret al-Sharaf ('Sharaf Quarter Road') […] [[Mujir ad-Din]] records that before Haret al-Sharaf the same neighbourhood was known as the Kurdish quarter.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4283477 |title=The Quarters of Jerusalem in the Ottoman Period |last=Arnon |first=Adar |date=January 1992 |journal=Middle Eastern Studies |volume=28 |number=1 |pages=1–65|doi=10.1080/00263209208700889 |jstor=4283477 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> named after a certain Sharaf ad-Din Musa, who died in 1369).{{sfnp|Luz|2014|p=93}} The city also had a madrasah-[[ribat]] by the name of [[:commons:Category:Ribat of Kurt al-Mansuri|Ribat al-Kurd]], built in 1294 by Amir Kurd al-Mansuri (Kurt al-Manṣūrī).{{sfnp|Luz|2014|p=135}}
{{anchor|Kurdish Quarters}}
=== Kurdish principalities from 13th century to 19th century ===
Kurds established several independent states or [[Kurdish principalities|principalities]] such as [[Ardalan]], [[Badinan Emirate|Badinan]], [[Baban]], [[Soran Emirate|Soran]], [[Emirate of Hakkâri|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 the early 14th century. The state of [[Ardalan]] controlled the territories of Zardiawa (Karadagh), [[Khanaqin]], [[Kirkuk]], [[Kifri]], and [[Hawraman]], despite being vassals themselves of the various in [[Persia]] centred succeeding Turkic federations in the region, namely that of the [[Kara Koyunlu]], and the [[Ak Koyunlu]] specifically. The capital city of this state of Ardalan was first in Sharazour in [[Iraqi Kurdistan]], but was moved to [[Sinne]] (in [[Iran]]) later on. The [[Ardalan]] Dynasty was allowed to rule the region as vassals by many of the sovereign rulers over the wider territory, until the [[Qajar dynasty|Qajar]] monarch [[Nasser-al-Din Shah]] (1848–1896) ended their rule in 1867.

==Safavid period==
{{main|Safavid dynasty}}
For many centuries, starting in the early modern period with [[Ismail I]], Shah of [[Safavid dynasty|Safavid]] Persia, and Ottoman Sultan [[Selim I]], the Kurds came under the suzerainty of the two most powerful empires of the [[Near East]] and staunch arch rivals, the [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] Ottoman Empire and the various [[Shia Islam|Shia]] Empires. It started off with the rule of [[Ismail I]], who ruled over all regions that encompass [[Kurdistan|native Kurdish living]] areas, and far beyond. During the years 1506–1510, [[Yazidis]] revolted against [[Ismail I]] (who had Kurdish ancestry himself).<ref>{{cite book |last=Halm |first=Heinz |author-link=Heinz Halm |translator-last1=Watson |translator-first1=Janet |translator-last2=Hill |translator-first2=Marian |date=September 2004 |title=Shi'ism |edition=2nd |publisher=Columbia University Press |page=75 |isbn=978-0-23113-586-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Lapidus |first=Ira M. |author-link=Ira M. Lapidus |date=2002 |title=A History of Islamic Societies |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=233}}</ref><ref name="Tapper1">{{cite book |last=Tapper |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Tapper |date=1997 |title=Frontier Nomads of Iran: A Political and Social History of the Shahsevan |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=39}}</ref><ref name="Yar">{{cite web |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/azerbaijan-vii |last=Yarshater |first=E. |author-link=Ehsan Yarshater |date=1988 |title=Azerbaijan VII: The Iranian Language of Azerbaijan |website=Encyclopædia Iranica}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Babayan |first=Kathryn |author-link=Kathryn Babayan |date=2002 |title=Mystics, Monarchs and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts & London |publisher=Harvard University Press |page=143}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=van Donzel |first=Emeri |author-link=Emeri van Donzel |date=1994 |chapter=Islamic Desk Reference |title=Encyclopedia of Islam |publisher=E.J. Brill |page=381}}</ref>{{Efn-ua|"But the origins of the family of Shaykh Safi al-Din go back not to the Hijaz but to Kurdistan, from where, seven generations before him, Firuz Shah Zarin-kulah had migrated to Adharbayjan."<ref>{{cite book |last=Daftary |first=Farhad |author-link=Farhad Daftary |date=2000 |title=Intellectual Traditions in Islam |publisher=I.B.Tauris |page=147}}</ref>}}{{Efn-ua|"The Safavid family's base of power sprang from a Sufi order, and the name of the order came from its founder Shaykh Safi al-Din. The Shaykh's family had been resident in Azerbaijan since Saljuk times and then in Ardabil, and was probably Kurdish in origin."<ref>{{cite book |last=Garthwaite |first=Gene R. |date=2004 |title=The Persians |chapter=The Safavids (1501–1722) |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |page=159}}</ref>}}{{Efn-ua|The Safavid order had been founded by Shaykh Safi al-Din (1252–1334), a man of uncertain but probably Kurdish origin<ref>{{cite book |last=Daniel |first=Elton L. |author-link=Elton L. Daniel |date=2000 |title=The History of Iran |publisher=Greenwood Press |page=83}}</ref>}}{{Efn-ua|:"The Safawid was originally a Sufi order whose founder, Shaykh Safi al-Din (1252–1334) was a Sunni Sufi master from a Kurdish family in north-west Iran"<ref>{{cite book |last=Kamal |first=Muhammad |date=2006 |title=Mulla Sadra's Transcendent Philosophy |publisher=Ashgate Publishing Ltd. |page=24}}</ref>}}{{Efn-ua|the Turcophone Safavid family of Ardabil in Azerbaijan, probably of Turkicized Iranian (perhaps Kurdish), origin<ref name="Perry">{{cite web |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/turkic-iranian-contacts-i-linguistic |last=Perry |first=John R. |date=24 January 2006 |title=Turkic-Iranian Contacts I: Linguistic Contacts |website=Encyclopædia Iranica}}</ref>}}{{Efn-ua|"From the evidence available at the present time, it is certain that the Safavid family was of indigenous Iranian stock, and not of Turkish ancestry as it is sometimes claimed. It is probable that the family originated in Persian Kurdistan, and later moved to Azerbaijan, where they adopted the Azari form of Turkish spoken there, and eventually settled in the small town of Ardabil sometimes during the eleventh century.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wqj35pAjx6AC&pg=PA259 |last=Savory |first=Roger M. |author-link=Roger Savory |date=1994 |editor1-last=Burke |editor1-first=Peter |editor1-link=Peter Burke (historian) |display-editors=et. al. |title=[[History of Humanity]]: Volume V – From the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century |chapter=Safavids |publisher=Taylor & Francis |page=259|isbn=978-0-415-09309-5 }}</ref>}} Their leader, [[Shir Sarim]], was defeated and captured in a bloody battle wherein several important officers of [[Ismail I|Ismail]] lost their lives. The Kurdish prisoners were put to death "with torments worse than which there may not be".<ref>{{cite book |chapter=The Creation of the Ṣafawí Power to 930/1524. Sháh Isma'íl and His Ancestors |title=The Literary History of Persia |last=Browne |first=Edward G. |author-link=Edward Granville Browne |date=1902 |publisher=[[T. Fisher Unwin]] |page=37 |chapter-url=http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=90001014&ct=16&rqs=573&rqs=596 |access-date=1 March 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929130935/http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=90001014&ct=16&rqs=573&rqs=596 |archive-date=29 September 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the mid-17th century the Kurds on the western borders disposed of firearms, According to [[Jean-Baptiste Tavernier|Tavernier]], the mountain people between [[Nineveh]] and [[Isfahan]] would not sell anything but for gunpowder and bullets. Even so, firearms were incorporated neither wholesale nor wholeheartedly among the Kurds, apparently for the same reasons that hindered their acceptance in iran proper. In a [[Persian language|Persian]] statistical overview of tribes dating from the period of Shah sultan Husayn in the early 18th century, it is said that the Kurds of Zafaranlo tribe refused to carry the Tufang, because they considered it unmanly to do so, as a result of which most continued to fight with lance and sword, and some with arrow and bow.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society |editor-last=Melville |editor-first=Charles |date=1996 |last=Matthee |first=Rudolph (Rudi) |chapter=Unwalled Cities and Restless Nomads: Firearms and Artillery in Safavid Iran |url=https://www.academia.edu/1457873 |language=en |pages=389–416 |publisher=I.B. Tauris}}</ref>

===Displacement of the Kurds===
Removal of the population from along their borders with the [[Ottoman Turks|Ottomans]] in Kurdistan and the Caucasus was of strategic importance to the [[Safavids]]. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds were moved to other regions in the Safavid empire, only to defend the borders there. Hundreds of thousands of other ethnic groups living in the Safavid empire such as the [[Armenians]], [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]], [[Georgians]], [[Circassians]], and [[Turkmens|Turkomans]], were also removed from the border regions and resettled in the interior of [[Persia]], but mainly for other reasons such as socio-economic, and bureaucratic ones. During several periods, as the borders moved progressively eastward, with the Ottomans pushing 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, using a policy of [[scorched earth]] against his Ottoman arch rivals, 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 1,600&nbsp;km (1,000 miles) east, into [[Khorasan province|Khurasan]].

[[Shah Abbas I|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 Mountains|Zagros]] and [[Caucasus Mountains|Caucasus]] approaches, deporting [[Kurds]], [[Armenians]], [[Georgians]], [[North Caucasians]] and others who might, willingly or not, supply, support or be any use in an Ottoman campaign in the region. Shah Abbas forcibly depopulated much of the [[Kurdistan|Kurdish lands]] ahead of the Ottoman expansion. He made it lucrative and prestigious for Kurds to become military conscripts, and raised an army of tens of thousands of predominantly Kurdish soldiers. Abbas also razed villages to the ground and marched the people into the Persian heartland.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.academia.edu/6363821 |title=Khorasan: People of the Mountains in the Land of the Sun |last=Covel |first=Michael |date=October 2014 |via=Academia.edu}}</ref>

The magnitude of [[Safavid Iran|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 I|Shah Abbas]], in furthering the scorched earth policy of his predecessors, ''set upon the country north of the [[Aras (river)|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 [[massacre]]s 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 [[Greater Khorasan|Khurasan]], but many others were scattered into the [[Alburz]] mountains, central [[Persia]], and even [[Balochistan (region)|Balochistan]]. They became the nucleus of several modern Kurdish enclaves outside [[Kurdistan]] proper, in [[Iran]] and [[Turkmenistan]]. On one occasion [[Abbas I of Persia|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.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/deportations |last1=Perry |first1=John R. |last2=Shahbazi |first2=A. Shapur |last3=Kettenhofen |first3=Erich |name-list-style=amp |title=Deportations |date=1994 |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |access-date=13 November 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4310206 |title=Forced Migration in Iran during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries |last=Perry |first=John R. |date=1975 |journal=Iranian Studies |volume=8 |number=4 |pages=199–215|doi=10.1080/00210867508701499 |jstor=4310206 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Massacre of Ganja ===
According to the early 17th century [[Armenian language|Armenian]] historian [[Arakel of Tabriz|Arak'el Davrizhetsi]], the [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] [[Kurdish tribes|Kurdish tribe]] of Jekirlu inhabited the region of [[Ganja, Azerbaijan|Ganja]]. In 1606, when [[Abbas I of Persia|Shah Abbas]] [[Siege of Ganja (1606)|reconquered]] Ganja, he ordered a general massacre of the Jekirlu. Even infants were slaughtered with sharp swords.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The History of Vardapet Aṛakʻel of Tabriz |last=Dawrizhetsʻi |first=Aṛakʻel |publisher=Mazda Publishers |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-56859-182-7 |page=77}}</ref>

===Battle of Dimdim===
There is a well documented historical account [[Battle of DimDim|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 Urmia|Lake]] [[Urmia]] 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 rallied around Amir Khan. After a long and bloody siege led by the [[Safavid Iran|Safavid]] grand vizier [[Hatem Beg Ordubadi|Hatem Beg]], which lasted from November 1609 to the summer of 1610, Dimdim was captured. All the defenders were massacred. [[Shah Abbas I|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 [[Greater Khorasan|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.&nbsp;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]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dimdim |title=Dimdim |last=Hassanpour |first=Amir |author-link=Amir Hassanpour |date=15 December 1995 |website=IranicaOnline}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=[[Iskandar Beg Munshi|Eskandar Beg Monshi]] |year=1979 |title=History of Shah 'Abbas the Great / Tarikh-e Alam-ara-ye Abbasi |publisher=Mazda |isbn=978-0-89158-296-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Dzhalilov |first=O. Dzh. |author-link= Ordîxanê Celîl |date=1967 |title=Kurdski geroicheski epos "Zlatoruki Khan" |trans-title=The Kurdish heroic epic "Gold-hand Khan" |language=ru |location=Moscow |pages=5–26, 37–39, 206}}</ref>

==Ottoman period==
{{further|Ottoman Kurds}}
When Sultan [[Selim I]], after defeating Shah [[Ismail I]] in 1514, annexed [[Western 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 ''[[sanjak]]s'' 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 [[Yerevan]], which had lain in waste since the passage of [[Timur]], with Kurds from the [[Hakkari (historical region)|Hakkari]] and Bohtan districts.

===Janpulat Revolt===
The Janpulat (Turkish: Canpulatoğlu, Arabic: [[Jumblatt|Junblat]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Watenpaugh |first=Heghnar Zeitlian |author-link=Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh |date=2004 |title=The Image of an Ottoman City: Imperial Architecture And Urban Experience in Aleppo in the 16th And 17th Centuries |publisher=BRILL |page=123 |isbn=978-9-00412-454-7}}</ref>) clan was ruled by local Kurdish feudal lords in the [[Jabal al-Akrad]] and [[Aleppo]] region for almost a century before the Ottoman conquest of Syria. Their leader, Hussein Janpulatoğlu, was appointed as governor of Aleppo in 1604, however he was executed by [[Cigalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha|Çiğalzade Sinan Pasha]] allegedly for his late arrival at the [[Battle of Urmia (1604)|Battle of Urmia]]. According to Abul Wafa Al-Urdi, Janpulat had been murdered because of his Kurdish origins. His nephew, [[Ali Janbulad]], revolted in revenge and declared sovereignty in 1606 and was supported by the [[Duke of Tuscany]], [[Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany|Ferdinand I]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Masters |first=Bruce |date=2013 |title=The Arabs of the Ottoman Empire, 1516–1918: A Social and Cultural History |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=38 |isbn=978-1107067790}}</ref> He conquered a region stretching from [[Hama]] to [[Adana]] with 30,000 troops.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bagley |first=F. R. C. |chapter=Egypt and the Eastern Arab countries in the first three centuries of the Ottoman period |date=1997 |orig-date=1969 |title=The Muslim World, A Historical Survey, Vol. III: The Last Great Muslim Empires |location=Leiden |publisher=E. J. Brill |page=70 |isbn=978-9-00402-104-4}}</ref> Grand Vizier, [[Kuyucu Murat Pasha|Murad Pasha]], marched against him with a large army in 1607. Ali Pasha managed to escape and was later pardoned and appointed governor of province of [[Timișoara|Temesvár]] in [[Hungary]]. He was eventually executed by Murad Pasha in [[Belgrade]] in 1610.<ref>{{cite book |last=Finkel |first=Caroline |author-link=Caroline Finkel |date=2007 |title=Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire |publisher=Basic Books |page=179 |isbn=978-0-46500-850-6}}</ref>

===Rozhiki Revolt===
In 1655, ''Abdal Khan'' the Kurdish ''Rozhiki'' ruler of [[Badlis|Bidlis]], formed a private army and fought a full scale war against the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] troops. [[Evliya Çelebi]] noted the presence of many [[Yazidi]]s in his army.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Rozhîkî Revolt, 1065/1655 |last=Reid |first=James J. |date=2000 |journal=Journal of Kurdish Studies |volume=3 |pages=13–40 |doi=10.2143/JKS.3.0.519239}}</ref> The main reason for this armed insurrection was the discord between Abdal Khan and [[Melek Ahmed Pasha|Melek Ahmad Pasha]], the Ottoman governor of [[Diyarbakır]] 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, 1,400 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.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Batak 1876: A massacre and its significance |last=Reid |first=James J. |date=2000 |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |volume=2 |number=3 |pages=375–409 |doi=10.1080/713677621}}</ref>

===Bedr Khan of Botan===
[[File:Khurasani kurdish exclave 1835.png|thumb|200px|Kurdish autonomous states in Khurasani Kurdish exclave circa 1835.]]
Except for the short Iranian recapture under [[Nader Shah]] in the first half of the 18th century, the system of administration introduced by Idris remained unchanged until the close of the [[Russo-Turkish War, 1828–1829|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 [[Ankara]].

After the war with Russia, the Kurds attempted to free themselves from Ottoman control which resulted in the Bedr Khan clan uprising in 1834. The Ottoman Porte made the decision to then end the autonomous regions of the Eastern portion of the Empire. This was done by Rashid Pasha, also a Kurd.<ref name="shadow">{{cite book |last=Meiselas |first=Susan |author-link=Susan Meiselas |year=1998 |title=Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0-67942-389-8}}</ref> 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. In the 1830's, Bedr Khan was defeated by the united Assyrians of Hakkari.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shields |first=Sarah D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PkqBFQ3s9f4C&dq=%22while+some+nestorians+were+subjected+to%22&pg=PA54 |title=Mosul before Iraq: Like Bees Making Five-Sided Cells |date=2000-06-22 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-7914-4488-7 |page=54 |language=en}}</ref>

The modernizing and centralizing efforts of [[Sultan Mahmud II]] antagonized Kurdish feudal chiefs. As a result two powerful [[Kurdish tribes|Kurdish families]] rebelled against the Ottomans in 1830. ''Bedr Khan'' of Botan rose up in the west of Kurdistan, around [[Diyarbakır]], and ''Muhammad Pasha'' of [[Rowanduz|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'' ([[Sulaymaniyah]]) 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. 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 Beg made two campaigns in 1843 and 1846 against the Assyrian Christians (Nestorians) of Hakkari and massacred up to 4,000 Assyrians in an attempt to Islamize the region; those Assyrians who met their fate were the mother and the two brothers of the yet to be spiritual Assyrian leader Mar Shimun.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=Gordon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qpRmBgAAQBAJ |title=Fever and Thirst: An American Doctor Among the Tribes of Kurdistan, 1835-1844 |date=2007-05-01 |publisher=Chicago Review Press |isbn=978-0-89733-657-4 |page=300 |language=en}}</ref>

Bedr Khan became king when his brother died. His brother's son became very upset over this, which the Turks exploited in tricking him into fighting his uncle. They told him that they would make him king if he killed Bedr Khan. Bedr Khan's nephew brought many Kurdish warriors with to attack his uncle's forces. After defeating Bedr Khan, Bedr Khan's nephew was executed instead of becoming king as the Turks had promised.<ref name="shadow"/> There are two famous Kurdish songs about this battle, called "Ezdin Shêr" and "Ez Xelef im". After this, there were further revolts in 1850 and 1852.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Kurdish Question |last=Elphinston |first=W. G. |date=January 1946 |journal=[[Journal of International Affairs]] |volume=22 |number=1 |page=93 |publisher=Royal Institute of International Affairs |doi=10.2307/3017874|jstor=3017874 }}</ref>

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 (historical region)|Hakkari]], Botan ([[Cizre]]) 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, Turkey|Van]] have been re-constituted.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ozgurpolitika.org/2003/02/19/hab44.html |title='Kürdistan' Teriminin Doğurduğu Tartışmalar |trans-title=Debates Aroused by the Term 'Kurdistan' |language=tr |last=Kutlay |first=Dr. Naci̇ |date=19 February 2003 |website=Ozgur Politika |access-date=2007-06-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040121030111/http://www.ozgurpolitika.org/2003/02/19/hab44.html |archive-date=21 January 2004}}</ref> 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.{{sfnp|Dahlman|2002|p=278}}

===Shaikh Ubaidullah's Revolt and Armenians===
[[File:Diyarbekir shepherd, Mardin Kurd, Aljazeera Kurd, 1873.jpg|thumb|Kurdish costumes, 1873.]]
The [[Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78]] was followed by the [[uprising of Sheikh Ubeydullah]] in 1880–1881 to found an independent Kurd [[principality]] under the protection of Turkey. The attempt, at first encouraged by the [[Ottoman Empire|Porte]], as a reply to the projected creation of an Armenian state under the suzerainty of Russia, collapsed after Ubeydullah'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 military|irregular]] [[cavalry]], who were well-armed [[Hamidieh soldier]]s after the Sultan [[Abd-ul-Hamid II]]. Minor disturbances constantly occurred, and were soon followed by a massacre and rape of Armenians at [[Sasun]] by Kurdish nomads and Ottoman troops.<ref name="Bloxham">{{cite book |last1=Bloxham |first1=Donald |title=The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19922-688-7 |page=51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2OdoyKqocnoC&pg=PT30}}</ref>

==20th century history==

===Rise of nationalism===
{{Main|Early Kurdish nationalism|Kurdish nationalism}}
{{Further|Rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire|Kurdish rebellions during World War I}}
Kurdish nationalism emerged at the end of the 19th Century around the same time as Turks and Arabs began to embrace an ethnic sense of identity in place of earlier forms of solidarity such as the idea of Ottoman citizenship or membership of a religious community, or ''millet''.{{sfnp|McDowall|1996|p=2}} Revolts occurred sporadically but only in 1880 with the uprising led by [[Sheikh Ubeydullah]] were demands as an ethnic group or nation made. Ottoman sultan [[Abdul Hamid II|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 (cavalry)|Hamidiye]] regiments during World War I.<ref name=laciner>{{Cite journal |title=The Ideological And Historical Roots of Kurdist Movements in Turkey: Ethnicity Demography, Politics |journal=Nationalism and Ethnic Politics |first1=Sedat |last1=Laçiner |first2=Ihsan |last2=Bal |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=473–504 |doi=10.1080/13537110490518282 |url=http://www.turkishweekly.net/articles.php?id=15 |access-date=19 October 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011225529/http://www.turkishweekly.net/articles.php?id=15 |archive-date=11 October 2007 |year=2004 |s2cid=144607707|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

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.<ref name=natali>{{Cite journal |title=Ottoman Kurds and emergent Kurdish nationalism |journal=Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies |first1=Denise |last1=Natali |authorlink1=Denise Natali |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=383–387 |doi=10.1080/1066992042000300701 |year=2004 |s2cid=220375529}}</ref>

Western powers (particularly the United Kingdom) fighting the Turks also promised the Kurds they would act as guarantors for Kurdish independence, 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 during the [[Second Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire)|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.<ref name=natali/>

===After World War I===
[[File:Kurdistan1920.png|thumb|200px|Provisions of the [[Treaty of Sèvres]] for an independent Kurdistan (in 1920).]]
[[File:Kingdom of kurdistan 1923.png|thumb|200px|Kingdom of Kurdistan in 1923.]]
[[File:Republic of mahabad and south azerbaijan 1945 1946.png|thumb|200px|[[Republic of Mahabad]], 1945–1946.]]
Some Kurdish groups sought self-determination and the championing in the [[Treaty of Sèvres]] of Kurdish autonomy in the [[aftermath of World War I]], [[Mustafa 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]].

From 1922 to 1924 in Iraq, a [[Kingdom of Kurdistan]] existed. When [[Ba'ath]]ist 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 [[Al Jazira, Mesopotamia|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'').<ref>{{cite book |date=1985 |title=Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi Gizli Celse Zabıtları |trans-title=Minutes of Secret Sessions of the Turkish Grand National Assembly |volume=3 |language=tr |location=Ankara |publisher=TBMM |page=551}}</ref>

In 1931, Iraqi Kurdish statesman Mihemed Emîn Zekî, while serving as the Minister of the Economy in the first [[Nuri as-Said]] government, drew the boundaries of Turkish Kurdistan as: "With mountains of Ararat and the [[Georgia (country)|Georgian]] border (including the region of [[Kars Province|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."<ref>{{cite book |last=Zeki |first=Mehmet Emin |date=1992 |orig-date=1977 |title=Kürdistan Tarihi |edition=2nd |location=Ankara |publisher=Beybun yayınları |page=20 |language=tr}}</ref> In 1932, [[Garo Sassouni]], formerly a prominent figure of [[Armenian Revolutionary Federation|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 [[Tunceli|Dersim]], [[Bingöl|Çarsancak]], and Malatya, including the mountains of [[Osmaniye Province|Cebel-i Bereket]] and reaching the Syrian border", also adding, "these are the broadest boundaries of Kurdistan that can be claimed by Kurds."<ref>{{cite book |last=Sasuni |first=Garo |date=1992 |title=Kürt Ulusal Hareketleri ve 15. Yüzyıldan Günümüze Kürt-Ermeni İlişkileri |trans-title=Kurdish National Movements and Kurdish-Armenian Relations from the 15th Century to the Present |language=tr |location=Istanbul |publisher=Med Yayınevi |page=331}}</ref>

During the 1920s and 1930s, several large-scale Kurdish revolts took place in this region. The most important ones were the Saikh Said Rebellion in 1925, the [[Ararat Revolt]] in 1930 and the Dersim Revolt in 1938 (see [[Kurds in Turkey]]). Following these rebellions, the area of Turkish Kurdistan was put under [[martial law]] and many Kurds were displaced. Government also encouraged resettlement of [[Kosovo Albanians|Albanians from Kosovo]] and [[Assyrian people|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.{{sfnp|Dahlman|2002|p=279}}

In 1937 and 1944 Soviet Kurds [[Deportations of Kurds from Transcaucasia|experienced forced deportations]] from Azerbaijan SSR (mostly), Armenian SSR and Georgian SSR.

===World War II===

During World War Two, the Kurds formed 10 companies in the [[Iraq Levies]] that the British had recruited in Iraq. Kurds supported the British in the defeating the pro-Nazi [[1941 Iraqi coup d'état]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/10/10/actually-president-trump-some-kurds-did-fight-world-war-ii/ |title=Actually, President Trump, some Kurds did fight in World War II |first=Siobhán |last=O'Grady |newspaper=The Washington Post|date=10 October 2019}}</ref> Twenty-five percent of the Iraq Levies' 1st Parachute Company was Kurdish. The Parachute Company was attached to the [[Royal Marine Commando]] and was active in Albania, Italy, Greece, and Cyprus.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://assyrianlevies.info/history.html |title=History |website=Assyrian RAF Levies}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/13102019 |title=Kurdish WWII veterans: Trump wasn't born when we fought the Nazis |first=Fazel |last=Hawramy |website=[[Rudaw Media Network|Rudaw]] |date=13 October 2019 |access-date=14 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191014002153/https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/13102019 |archive-date=14 October 2019 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Kurds participated in the Soviet occupation of northern Iraq in 1941,<ref name="Otto17">{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/35901602 |title=Kurds in the USSR, 1917-1956 |first=J. Otto |last=Pohl |journal=Kurdish Studies |volume=5 |number=2 |date=October 2017 |pages=39–40|doi=10.33182/ks.v5i2.442 |doi-broken-date=22 December 2025 }}</ref> creating the [[Persian Corridor]], a vital supply line for the USSR. This led to the short-lived formation of the Kurdish [[Republic of Mahabad]].

Despite the fact they were a tiny minority in the Soviet Union, Kurds played a significant role in the Soviet war effort. On 1 October 1941, [[Samand Siabandov]] was awarded the honour [[Hero of the Soviet Union]]. Kurds served at [[Battle of Smolensk (1941)|Smolensk]], [[Siege of Sevastopol (1941–1942)|Sevastopol]], [[Siege of Leningrad|Leningrad]], and [[Battle of Stalingrad|Stalingrad]]. Kurds took part in the [[Soviet partisans|partisan movement]] behind German lines. Karaseva received both the Hero of the Soviet Union medal and the medal Partisan of the Fatherland War (First Degree) for organising partisans to fight against the Germans in [[Volyn Oblast|Volhynia Oblast]] in Ukraine. Kurds took part in the [[Budapest Offensive|advance into Hungary]] and the [[Soviet invasion of Manchuria|invasion of Japanese-held Manchuria]].<ref name="Otto17"/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/world/middleeast/trump-kurds-normandy.html |title=Trump Says the Kurds "Didn't Help" at Normandy. Here's the History. |first=Jacey |last=Fortin |newspaper=The New York Times |date=10 October 2019}}</ref>

==Post-WWII==

===Turkey===
{{Main|Kurds in Turkey|Turkish Kurdistan|Human rights of Kurdish people in Turkey|Kurdistan Workers' Party|Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present)|Timeline of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict (2015–present)}}
About half of all Kurds live in Turkey. According to the CIA Factbook they account for 18 percent of the Turkish population.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/turkey/ |title=CIA World Factbook: Turkey |access-date=5 November 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210110073821/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/turkey |archive-date=10 January 2021}}</ref> They are predominantly distributed in the southeastern corner of the country.<ref name="coucileu">{{cite report |url=http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc06/EDOC11006.htm |last=Russell-Johnston |first=Lord |author-link=Russell Johnston |date=7 July 2006 |title=The cultural situation of the Kurds |publisher=[[Council of Europe]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061124114527/http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=%2FDocuments%2FWorkingDocs%2FDoc06%2FEDOC11006.htm |archive-date=24 November 2006}}</ref>

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).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=TRA |title=Languages of Turkey (Asia) |website=Ethnologue: Languages of the World |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111018235156/http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=TRA |archivedate=18 October 2011}}</ref> While population increase suggests that the number of speakers has grown, it is also true that the ban on the use of the language in Turkey was only lifted in 1991 and still exists in most official settings (including schools), 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, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]] in 1919.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/11674094 |title=Turkey and the Kurds – From War to Reconciliation? |last=Arin |first=Kubilay Yado |date=2015 |journal=UC Berkeley Center for Right Wing Studies Working Paper Series}}</ref> The [[Treaty of Sèvres]] stipulated the creation of an autonomous Kurdish state in 1920, but the subsequent [[Treaty of Lausanne (1923)]] failed to mention Kurds. After the [[Sheikh Said rebellion]] was suppressed in 1925, [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk|Kemal Atatürk]] established a Reform Council for the East ({{Langx|tr|Şark İslahat Encümeni}})<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AoM8DwAAQBAJ&q=sark+islahat+enc%C3%BCmeni+turkey+Fevzi+Cakmak&pg=PA301 |title=A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire |editor-last1=Suny |editor-first1=Ronald Grigor |editor-last2=Göçek |editor-first2=Fatma Müge |editor-last3=Naimark |editor-first3=Norman |date=2011-02-23 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=301 |isbn=978-0-19-539374-3 |language=en}}</ref> which prepared the [[1925 Report for Reform in the East (Turkey)|Report for Reform in the East]] ({{Langx|tr|Şark İslahat Raporu}}) which encouraged the creation of [[Inspectorates-General (Turkey)|Inspectorates-Generals]] ({{Langx|tr|Umumi Müfettişlikler}}, UMs), in the areas comprising a majority Kurdish population.<ref name=":03">{{Cite web |last=Üngör |first=Umut |title=Young Turk social engineering : mass violence and the nation state in eastern Turkey, 1913- 1950 |url=https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/867135/65687_13.pdf |access-date=9 April 2020 |publisher=University of Amsterdam |page=247}}</ref> Following there were established three regional Inspectorates Generals comprising the Kurdish provinces, the Inspectorates General were ruled with Martial Law and Kurdish notables in the areas were meant to be resettled to the west of Turkey. The Inspectorates Generals were disestablished in 1952.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Bayir |first=Derya |title=Minorities and Nationalism in Turkish Law |date=2016-04-22 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-09579-8 |pages=139–141 |language=en}}</ref>

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]].<ref name="laciner" /> 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 [[Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan|PKK]], or [[Kurdistan Workers Party]] in English.

Following these events, Turkey officially [[Denial of Kurds by Turkey|denied the existence of the Kurds]] or an other distinct ethnic groups 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 can they 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 [[Grand National Assembly of Turkey]], was charged with 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.' In response to this, calls for her arrest blaming her of being a "Separatist" and "Terrorist" were heard in the Turkish parliament.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.amnestyusa.org/action/special/zana.html |title=Leyla Zana, Prisoner of Conscience |publisher=Amnesty International USA |location=New York |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050510082350/http://www.amnestyusa.org/action/special/zana.html |archive-date=10 May 2005}}</ref>
[[Image:Kurdish Boys Diyarbakir.jpg|thumb|left|225px|Kurdish boys, [[Diyarbakir]].]]
The Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan ([[Kurdistan Workers' Party|PKK]]), also known as ''KADEK'' and ''Kongra-Gel'' is Kurdish militant organization which has waged an armed struggle against the Turkish state for cultural and political rights and self-determination for the Kurds. [[Turkey]]'s military allies the US, the EU, and [[NATO]] see the PKK as a terrorist organization.

From 1984 to 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, Turkey|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 who they could not control, the poverty of the southeast, and the Turkish state's military operations.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Radu |first=Michael |year=2001 |title=The Rise and Fall of the PKK |journal=Orbis |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=47–63 |doi=10.1016/s0030-4387(00)00057-0}}</ref> [[Human Rights Watch]] has documented many instances where the Turkish military forcibly destroyed houses and villages. An estimated 3,000 Kurdish villages in Turkey were virtually wiped off the map, representing the displacement of more than 378,000 people.<ref>{{cite report |url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/turkey0305/3.htm#_Toc97005223 |title="Still critical": Prospects in 2005 for Internally Displaced Kurds in Turkey |chapter=Introduction |date=March 2005 |publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]] |access-date=5 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite report |url=http://hrw.org/reports/2002/turkey/ |title=Displaced and Disregarded: Turkey's Failing Village Return Program |date=October 2002 |publisher=Human Rights Watch |access-date=5 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://hrw.org/reports/2002/turkey/ |title=Forced Displacement of Ethnic Kurds from Southeastern Turkey |date=1 October 1994 |publisher=Human Rights Watch |access-date=5 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://store.yahoo.com/hrwpubs/tur.html |title=Turkey Reports |publisher=Human Rights Watch |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605234545/http://store.yahoo.com/hrwpubs/tur.html |archive-date=5 June 2011}}</ref>

[[Nelson Mandela]] refused to accept the ''[[Atatürk International Peace Prize|Atatürk Peace Award]]'' in 1992 because of the oppression of the Kurds,<ref name=yucely>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.aihgs.com/kemal.htm <!--note that aihgs.com is not longer associated with the Institute--> |title=Racist Violence in Europe |editor1-last=Bjorgo |editor1-first=Tore |editor2-last=Witte |editor2-first=Rob |name-list-style=amp |chapter=Double Standard: The Turkish State And Racist Violence |last=Yeşilgöz |first=Yücel |date=1993 |pages=179–193 |publisher=St. Martins's Press |via=Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020309151613/http://www.aihgs.com/kemal.htm |archive-date=9 March 2002}}</ref> but later accepted the award in 1999.<ref name="CT12">{{Cite news |url=https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-296964849 |title=How the awards have just kept flooding in |date=18 July 2012 |work=Cape Times|url-status=dead |archive-date=7 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207130510/https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-296964849/how-the-awards-have-just-kept-flooding-in}}</ref>

===Iraq===
{{Main|Kurds in Iraq|Iraqi Kurdistan|Anfal campaign}}
[[Image:Jalal Talabani Rumsfeld Rice Khalilzad.jpg|thumb|200px|The former president of Iraq, [[Jalal Talabani]], meeting with U.S. officials in [[Baghdad]], Iraq, on 26 April 2006.]]
Kurds make up around 17% of Iraq's population. They are the majority in at least three provinces in Northern Iraq which are known as [[Iraqi Kurdistan]]. 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.adherents.com/adhloc/Wh_155.html |title=Religion by Location |website=Adherents.com |access-date=5 November 2014 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010407205105/http://www.adherents.com/adhloc/Wh_155.html |archive-date=2001-04-07}}</ref> 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.{{sfnp|Harris|1977|pp=118–120}} However, at the same time, the Iraqi regime started an Arabization program in the oil rich regions of Kirkuk and Khanaqin.<ref>{{cite report |chapter-url=http://hrw.org/reports/1993/iraqanfal/ANFALINT.htm |title=Genocide in Iraq: The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds |chapter=Introduction |date=1993 |publisher=Human Rights Watch |isbn=1-56432-108-8}}</ref> 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 [[1975 Algiers Agreement|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 northern Iraq, particularly those around Kirkuk.{{sfnp|Harris|1977|p=121}} Between 1975 and 1978, 200,000 Kurds were deported to other parts of Iraq.<ref>{{cite report |last1=Farouk-Sluglett |first1=Marion |last2=Sluglett |first2=Peter |last3=Stork |first3=Joe |name-list-style=amp |date=1984 |title=Not Quite Armageddon: Impact of the War on Iraq |publisher=[[Middle East Research and Information Project]] |page=24 |doi=10.2307/3012200|jstor=3012200 }}</ref>

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 50 and 100,000 Kurds.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/iraqanfal/ |title=Genocide in Iraq: The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds |date=1993 |publisher=Human Rights Watch |access-date=5 November 2014}}</ref>

After the Kurdish uprising in 1991 ({{langx|ku-Latn|Raperîn}}) led by the [[Patriotic Union of Kurdistan|PUK]] and [[Kurdistan Democratic Party|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.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/articles/031222on_onlineonly04 |title=The View from Israel |last1=Goldberg |first1=Jeffrey |last2=Cappello |first2=Daniel |name-list-style=amp |date=2003-12-18 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=2007-02-03}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/kurds-rejoice-but-fighting-continues-in-north/ | title=Kurds Rejoice, But Fighting Continues in North |agency=Associated Press |publisher=[[Fox News]] |date=9 April 2003}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/10/sprj.irq.war.main/index.html |title=Coalition makes key advances in northern Iraq |date=10 April 2003 |publisher=CNN|access-date=5 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=421832003 |title=Grateful Iraqis surrender to Kurds |first=Damien |last=McElroy |date=11 April 2003 |newspaper=The Scotsman |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213033423/http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=421832003 |archive-date=13 December 2007}}</ref> The area controlled by [[peshmerga]] was expanded, and Kurds had 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,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/kurdwar/articles/20100606.aspx |title=Kurdish War: The Ceasefire Is Over |date=6 June 2010 |website=StrategyPage}}</ref> followed by an air attack on several border villages and rebel positions by the Turkish air force.{{Efn-ua|Quote from the Kurdish rebel website: "On 20 May at 14:00–19:45 part of Medya Defense area; Şehit Beritan, Şekif, Lelikan, Gundê Cennetê, Helikopter Hill and Xinerê area was air attacked were made by Turkish military aircraft. Result of this attacked four of our friends has reached the martyr. As soon as we have solid information about our friends identity we will let the public know."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hezenparastin.com/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=563:air-attack-to-xakurke&catid=1:b-alamalar&Itemid=299 |title=Air Attack to Xakurkê |date=21 May 2010 |website=[[People's Defence Forces|Hêzên Parastina Gel]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711164155/http://www.hezenparastin.com/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=563:air-attack-to-xakurke&catid=1:b-alamalar&Itemid=299 |archive-date=11 July 2011 }}</ref>}}

On 11 July 2014 KRG forces seized control of the Bai Hassan and [[Kirkuk Field|Kirkuk]] oilfields, prompting a condemnation from Baghdad and a threat of "dire consequences", if the oilfields were not relinquished back to Iraq's control.<ref name="KurdsOilfields">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/tensions-mount-between-baghdad-and-iraqs-kurds/2014/07/11/7baeea5e-2bfe-4d07-942b-1653af3d60a3_story.html |title=Tensions mount between Baghdad and Kurdish region as Kurds seize oil fields |last=Hauslohner |first=Abigail |date=11 July 2014 |newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=11 July 2014}}</ref> The [[2017 Kurdistan Region independence referendum]] took place on 25 September, with 92.73% voting in favor of independence. This triggered a [[2017 Iraqi–Kurdish conflict|military operation]] in which the Iraqi government retook control of Kirkuk and surrounding areas, and forced the KRG to annul the referendum.

===Iran===
{{Main|Kurds in Iran|Iranian Kurdistan}}
[[Image:Snah.JPG|thumb|220px|left|A view of [[Sanandaj]], a major city in [[Iranian Kurdistan]]]]
The [[Iranian Kurdistan|Kurdish region]] of [[Iran]] has been a part of the country since ancient times. Nearly all of [[Kurdistan]] was part of the [[Safavid Empire|Iranian Empire]] until its western part was lost during the [[Ottoman–Persian Wars|wars]] against the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=McLachlan |first=Keith |title=Boundaries i. With the Ottoman Empire |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher=Columbia University |location=New York |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/boundaries-i |date=15 December 1989 |access-date=16 August 2013}}</ref> Following the [[dissolution of the Ottoman Empire]], at the [[Treaty of Versailles|Paris Conferences]] in 1919, Tehran demanded various territories including [[Turkish Kurdistan]], [[Mosul]], and even [[Diyarbakır]], but these demands were quickly rejected by Western powers.<ref name="schofield">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Schofield |first=Richard N. |title=Boundaries v. With Turkey|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher=Columbia University |location=New York |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/boundaries-v |date=15 December 1989 |access-date=17 August 2013}}</ref> Instead, the Kurdish area was divided by modern [[Turkey]], [[Syria]] and [[Iraq]].<ref name="kreyenbroekKWL">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Kreyenbroek |first=Philip G. |title=Kurdish Written Literature |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher=Columbia University |location=New York |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/boundaries-i |date=20 July 2005 |access-date=17 August 2013}}</ref> Today, the Kurds inhabit mostly North-Western Iran but also parts of [[Khorasan province|Khorasan]], and constitute approximately 7–10%<ref name="kreyenbroek1719">{{cite book |editor-last1=Kreyenbroek |editor-first1=Philip G. |editor-last2=Sperl |editor-first2=Stefan |title=The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview |last=McDowell |first=David |chapter=The Kurdish question: a historical review |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=London; New York |pages=17–19 |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-41507-265-6 |oclc=24247652 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/kurds00pkre/page/17}}</ref> of Iran's overall population (6.5–7.9 million), compared to 10.6% (2 million) in 1956 or 8% (800,000) in 1850.{{sfnp|Abrahamian|1982|p=12}}

Unlike in other Kurdish-populated countries, there are very strong ethno-linguistical, historical and cultural ties between [[Kurds]] and others as [[Iranian peoples]].<ref name="kreyenbroek1719" /> Some of modern Iranian dynasties like [[Safavids]] and [[Zands]] are considered to be partly of Kurdish origin. [[Kurdish literature]] in all of its forms ([[Kurmanji language|Kurmanji]], [[Sorani language|Sorani]] and [[Gorani language (Zaza-Gorani)|Gorani]]) has been developed within [[History of Iran|historical]] Iranian [[Geography of Iran|boundaries]] under strong influence of [[Persian language]].<ref name="kreyenbroekKWL"/> Due to Kurds sharing a common history, very close cultural and linguistic links as well as common origins with the rest of Iran, this is seen as a reason why Kurdish leaders in Iran do not want a separate Kurdish state.<ref name="kreyenbroek1719"/><ref name="kreyenbroek138141">{{cite book |editor-last1=Kreyenbroek |editor-first1=Philip G. |editor-last2=Sperl |editor-first2=Stefan |title=The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview |last=Sherzad |first=A. |chapter=The Kurdish movement in Iraq: 1975±88 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=London; New York |pages=138–141 |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-41507-265-6 |oclc=24247652 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/kurds00pkre/page/138}}</ref><ref name="banuaziziweiner">{{cite book |last1=Banuazizi |first1=Ali |last2=Weiner |first2=Myron |author-link2=Myron Weiner |title=The State, Religion, and Ethnic Politics: Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan |year=1986 |publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]] |location=Syracuse, N.Y. |pages=186–187 |isbn=978-0-81562-385-4 |oclc=13762196 |url=https://archive.org/details/statereligioneth0000unse/page/186}}</ref>

The [[government of Iran]] has always been implacably opposed to any sign of independence for the Iranian Kurds.<ref name="kreyenbroek1719"/> During and shortly after the [[First World War]], the government of Iran was ineffective and had very little control over events in the country and several Kurdish [[Kurdish tribes|tribal]] chiefs gained local political power, and established large confederations.<ref name="kreyenbroek138141"/> In the same time, a wave of [[nationalism]] from the disintegrating Ottoman Empire has partly influenced some Kurdish chiefs in border region, and they posed as Kurdish nationalist leaders.<ref name="kreyenbroek138141"/> Prior to this, identity in both countries largely relied upon religion i.e. [[Shia Islam]] in the particular case of Iran.<ref name="banuaziziweiner"/><ref name="ashraf">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Ashraf |first=Ahmad |title=Iranian Identity iv. 19th–20th Centuries |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher=Columbia University |location=New York |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/iranian-identity-iv-19th-20th-centuries |date=15 December 2006 |access-date=17 August 2013}}</ref> In 19th century [[Qajar dynasty|Iran]], [[Shia–Sunni relations|Shia–Sunni animosity]] and describing [[Sunni]] Kurds as Ottoman [[fifth column]] was quite frequent.{{sfnp|Abrahamian|1982|p=32}}

During the late 1910s and early 1920s, [[Simko Shikak revolt|tribal revolt]] led by Kurdish chieftain [[Simko Shikak]] swept across Iranian Kurdistan. Although elements of [[Kurdish nationalism]] were present in the movement, historians agree they were hardly articulate enough to justify a claim that recognition of Kurdish identity was a major issue in Simko's movement, and he had to rely heavily on conventional tribal motives.<ref name="kreyenbroek138141"/> [[Pahlavi dynasty|Government]] forces and non-Kurds were not the only ones to have allegedly been attacked, the [[Kurdish population]] was also robbed and assaulted.<ref name="kreyenbroek138141"/><ref name="entessar">{{cite book |last=Entessar |first=Nader |title=Kurdish Politics in the Middle East |publisher=[[Lexington Books]] |location=Lanham |page=17 |year=2010 |isbn=9780739140390 |oclc=430736528}}</ref> The fighters do not appear to have felt any sense of unity or solidarity with fellow Kurds.<ref name="kreyenbroek138141"/> Kurdish insurgency and seasonal migrations in the late 1920s, along with long-running tensions between Tehran and Ankara, resulted in border clashes and even military penetrations in both Iranian and Turkish territory.<ref name="schofield"/> Two regional powers have used Kurdish tribes as tool for own political benefits: Turkey has provided military help and refuge for anti-Iranian Turcophone [[Simko Shikak revolt|Shikak rebels]] in 1918–1922,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=William Edward David |last2=Muratoff |first2=Paul |title=Caucasian battlefields: A History of the Wars on the Turco-Caucasian border, 1828–1921 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |pages=296 |year=1953 |oclc=1102813}}</ref> while Iran did the same during [[Ararat rebellion]] against Turkey in 1930. The Iranian government's forced [[detribalization]] and [[sedentarization]] in the 1920s and 1930s resulted in many tribal revolts in Iranian regions such as [[Azerbaijan (Iran)|Azerbaijan]], [[Luristan]] and [[Iranian Kurdistan|Kurdistan]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Bayat |first=Kaveh |editor-last=Cronin|editor-first=Stephanie|chapter=Chapter 12: Riza Shah and the Tribes |title=The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society Under Riza Shah 1921–1941|series=BIPS Persian Studies Series |publisher=[[Routledge Taylor & Francis Group]] |location=London; New York |pages=224–230 |year=2003 |isbn=9780203423141 |oclc=54059369}}</ref> In particular case of the Kurds, these policies partly contributed to developing revolts among some tribes.<ref name="kreyenbroek138141"/>

As a response to growing [[Pan-Turkism]] and [[Pan-Arabism]] in region which were seen as potential threats to the territorial integrity of Iran, [[Pan-Iranist]] ideology has been developed in the early 1920s.<ref name="ashraf"/> Some of such groups and journals openly advocated Iranian support to the Kurdish opposition against [[Turkey]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Parvin |first=Nassereddin |title=Iran-e Kabir|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher=Columbia University |location=New York |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/iran-e-kabir |date=15 December 2006 |access-date=17 August 2013}}</ref> [[Pahlavi dynasty]] has endorsed Iranian [[Iranian peoples|ethnic]] [[Iranian nationalism|nationalism]]<ref name="ashraf"/> which allegedly seen the Kurds as integral part of the Iranian nation.<ref name="banuaziziweiner"/> Another significant ideology during this period was [[Marxism]] which arose among Kurds under influence of the [[USSR]]. It culminated in the [[Iran crisis of 1946]] which included a bold attempt [[KDP-I]] and [[communist]] groups to try to gain autonomy<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/communism-ii |title=Communism II. In Persia from 1941 to 1953 |last=Zabih |first=Sepehr |date=15 December 1992 |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University}}</ref> to establish the [[USSR|Soviet]] [[puppet government]]{{sfnp|Abrahamian|1982|pp=217–218}}{{sfnp|Romano|2006|p=227}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chelkowski |first1=Peter J. |last2=Pranger |first2=Robert J. |title=Ideology and Power in the Middle East: Studies in Honor of George Lenczowski |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham |year=1988 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ideologypowerinm0000unse/page/399 399] |isbn=978-0-82230-781-5 |oclc=16923212 |url=https://archive.org/details/ideologypowerinm0000unse/page/399}}</ref> called [[Republic of Mahabad]]. It arose along with [[Azerbaijan People's Government]], another Soviet puppet state.<ref name="kreyenbroek1719"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Chubin |first1=Shahram |author-link1=Shahram Chubin |last2=Zabih |first2=Sepehr |title=The Foreign Relations of Iran: A Developing State in a Zone of Great-Power Conflict |year=1974 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |pages=[https://archive.org/details/foreignrelations0000chub/page/39 39–41, 178] |location=Berkeley |isbn=9780520026834 |oclc=1219525 |url=https://archive.org/details/foreignrelations0000chub/page/39}}</ref> The state itself encompassed a very small territory, including [[Mahabad]] and the adjacent cities, unable to incorporate the southern Iranian Kurdistan which fell inside the Anglo-American zone, and unable to attract the tribes outside Mahabad itself to the nationalist cause.<ref name="kreyenbroek1719"/> As a result, when the Soviets withdrew from Iran in December 1946, government forces were able to enter Mahabad unopposed when the tribes betrayed the republic.<ref name="kreyenbroek1719"/>
[[Image:Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.jpg|thumb|175px|left|[[Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf]], [[Mayor of Tehran]]]]
Several [[Marxist]] insurgencies continued for decades ([[1967 Kurdish revolt in Iran|1967]], [[1979 Kurdish rebellion in Iran|1979]], [[KDPI insurgency (1989–96)|1989–96]]) led by [[KDP-I]] and [[Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan|Komalah]], but those two organization have never advocated a Kurdish country as did the [[Kurdistan Workers' Party|PKK]] in [[Turkey]].<ref name="kreyenbroek138141"/>{{sfnp|Abrahamian|1982|p=453}}{{sfnp|Romano|2006|p=240}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Yodfat |first=Aryeh |title=The Soviet Union and Revolutionary Iran |publisher=[[St. Martin's Press]] |location=New York |year=1984 |isbn=9780312749101 |oclc=9282694 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/sovietunionarabi0000yodf}}</ref> Still, many dissident leaders, among others [[Qazi Muhammad]] and [[Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou]], were executed or assassinated.<ref name="kreyenbroek1719"/> During [[Iran–Iraq War]], Tehran has provided support for Iraqi-based Kurdish groups like [[Kurdish Democratic Party|KDP]] or [[Patriotic Union of Kurdistan|PUK]], along with asylum for 1,400,000 Iraqi refugees, mostly [[Kurdish refugees|Kurds]]. Although Kurdish Marxist groups have been marginalized in Iran since the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], in 2004 new [[Iran–PJAK conflict|insurrection]] has been started by [[PJAK]], separatist organization affiliated with the Turkey-based [[Kurdistan Workers' Party|PKK]]<ref name="katzman">{{cite book |last=Katzman |first=Kenneth |title=Iraq: Post-Saddam Governance and Security |publisher=[[Nova Science Publishers]] |location=New York |year=2009 |page=32 |isbn=9781614701163 |oclc=756496931}}</ref> and designated as [[Terrorist organization|terrorist]] by Iran, Turkey and the United States.<ref name="katzman"/> Some analysts claim that the PJAK does not pose any serious threat to the [[government of Iran]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Habeeb |first1=William Mark |last2=Frankel |first2=Rafael D. |last3=Al-Oraibi |first3=Mina |title=The Middle East in Turmoil: Conflict, Revolution, and Change |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |location=Santa Barbara |year=2012 |page=46 |isbn=9780313339141 |oclc=753913763}}</ref> Cease-fire has been established in September 2011 following the Iranian offensive on PJAK bases, but several clashes between PJAK and IRGC took place after it.<ref name="elling">{{cite book |last=Elling |first=Rasmus Christian |title=Minorities in Iran: Nationalism and Ethnicity after Khomeini |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |year=2013 |page=312 |isbn=9780230115842 |oclc=714725127}}</ref> Since the [[Iranian revolution]] of 1979, accusations of discrimination by Western organizations and of foreign involvement by the Iranian side have become very frequent.<ref name="elling"/>

Kurds have been well integrated in [[Politics of Iran|Iranian political life]] during the reign of various governments.<ref name="kreyenbroek138141"/> During the reign of [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]] some members of parliament and high army officers were Kurds, and there was even a Kurdish Cabinet Minister.<ref name="kreyenbroek138141"/> During [[Pahlavi dynasty|Pahlavi]] reign Kurds allegedly received many favours from the authorities, for instance to keep their land after the [[White Revolution|land reforms]] of 1962.<ref name="kreyenbroek138141"/> In the early 2000s, the supposed presence of thirty Kurdish deputies in the 290-strong [[Parliament of Iran|parliament]] has allegedly shown that Kurds have a say in Iranian politics.<ref name="howard">{{cite book |last=Howard |first=Roger |title=Iran in Crisis?: The Future of the Revolutionary Regime and the US Response |publisher=[[Zed Books]] |location=London; New York |year=2004 |pages=185–186 |isbn=9781842774748 |oclc=54966573}}</ref> Some of influential Kurdish politicians during recent years include former [[Vice President of Iran|first vice president]] [[Mohammad Reza Rahimi]] and [[Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf]], [[Mayor of Tehran]] and second-placed [[Iranian presidential election, 2013|presidential candidate]] in 2013. [[Kurdish language]] is today used more than at any other time since the [[Iranian revolution|revolution]], including in several newspapers and among schoolchildren.<ref name="howard"/> Large numbers of Kurds in Iran show no interest in [[Kurdish nationalism]],<ref name="kreyenbroek1719"/> especially [[Shia]] Kurds, and even vigorously reject the idea of autonomy, preferring direct rule from [[Tehran]].<ref name="kreyenbroek1719"/>{{sfnp|Romano|2006|p=240}} Iranian national identity is questioned only in the peripheral Kurdish [[Sunni]] regions.<ref>{{cite book |last=Abrahamian |first=Ervand |author-link=Ervand Abrahamian |title=A History of Modern Iran |url=https://archive.org/details/historymodernira00abra |url-access=limited |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge, U.K.; New York |year=2008 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historymodernira00abra/page/n226 195] |isbn=9780521528917 |oclc=171111098}}</ref>

===Syria===
{{Main|Kurds in Syria|Syrian Kurdistan}}
Kurds and other Non-Arabs account for ten percent of [[Syria]]'s population, a total of around 1.9 million people.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gazetteer.de/wg.php?x=1136895927&men=gpro&lng=en&des=gamelan&dat=200&geo=-106&srt=pnan&col=aohdqcfbeimg&geo=0 |title=Monde |website=World Gazetteer |language=fr |access-date=5 November 2014 |archive-date=12 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112075507/http://www.gazetteer.de/wg.php?x=1136895927&men=gpro&lng=en&des=gamelan&dat=200&geo=-106&srt=pnan&col=aohdqcfbeimg&geo=0 |url-status=dead}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=80256DD400782B8480256F63006435DB |title=Syria: End persecution of human rights defenders and human rights activists |date=7 December 2004 |publisher=Amnesty International USA |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013142249/http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=80256DD400782B8480256F63006435DB |archive-date=13 October 2007}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Syria_Silenced_Kurds">{{cite web |url=http://hrw.org/reports/1996/Syria.htm |title=Syria: The Silenced Kurds |date=October 1996 |publisher=Human Rights Watch |access-date=5 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/13/syria9812.htm |title=Essential Background: Overview of human rights issues in Syria |date=31 December 2004 |publisher=Human Rights Watch |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120530112641/http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/13/syria9812.htm |archive-date=30 May 2012}}</ref> Having been denied the right to Syrian nationality, around 300,000 Kurds have been deprived of any social rights, in violation of international law.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://voanews.com/english/archive/2005-09/2005-09-02-voa15.cfm?CFID=46444555&CFTOKEN=26238763 |title=Syria's Kurds Struggle for Rights |last=Young |first=Jeffrey |date=2 September 2005 |website=[[Voice of America]] |access-date=14 August 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 September 2008 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20080914200349/http://voanews.com/english/archive/2005-09/2005-09-02-voa15.cfm?CFID=46444555&CFTOKEN=26238763}}</ref><ref name="themedialine_12568">{{cite web |url=http://themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=12568 |title=Syria To Grant 300,000 Kurds Citizenship |date=29 January 2006 |website=The Media Line |access-date=5 November 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060524062130/http://themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=12568 |archive-date=2006-05-24}}</ref> As a consequence, these Kurds are in effect trapped within Syria.<ref name="Syria_Silenced_Kurds"/> In February 2006, however, sources reported that Syria was now planning to grant these Kurds citizenship.<ref name="themedialine_12568"/>

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]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/03/19/syria8132.htm |title=Syria: Address Grievances Underlying Kurdish Unrest |date=18 March 2004 |publisher=Human Rights Watch |access-date=5 November 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.amude.net/serhildan/index.html |title=Serhildana 12ê Adarê ya Kurdistana Suriyê |trans-title=12 March Uprising of Syrian Kurdistan |website=amude.net |language=ku |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040407211206/http://amude.net/serhildan/index.html |archive-date=7 April 2004}}</ref>

===Armenia===
{{See also|Armenian–Kurdish relations}}
Between the 1920s and 1990s, [[Armenia]] 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-Yazidis and 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.<ref name=meho>{{cite web |url=http://www.slis.indiana.edu/faculty/meho/meho-bibliography-2001.pdf |title=The Kurds and Kurdistan: A General Background |last=Meho |first=Lokman I. |date=2001 |website=Indiana University Bloomington |page=22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051108010931/http://www.slis.indiana.edu/faculty/meho/meho-bibliography-2001.pdf |archive-date=2005-11-08}}</ref> Recently introduced [[National Assembly (Armenia)#Electoral System|Electoral System]] of the Armenian National Assembly reserves one seat in the [[National Assembly (Armenia)|parliament]] to the representative of the Kurdish minority.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.arlis.am/DocumentView.aspx?docid=105967 |title=ՀՀ ԸՆՏՐԱԿԱՆ ՕՐԵՆՍԳԻՐՔ ՀՀ ՍԱՀՄԱՆԱԴՐԱԿԱՆ ՕՐԵՆՔԸ |trans-title=Republic of Armenia Electoral Legislation (Constitutional Law) |date=2016 |website=Armenian Legal Information System |language=hy |access-date=2018-01-25}}</ref>

===Republic of Azerbaijan===
{{Main|Kurdistan Autonomous Oblast}}
In 1920, two Kurdish-inhabited areas of Jewanshir (capital [[Kalbajar]]) 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 [[Nagorno-Karabakh conflict|conflict]] in [[Nagorno-Karabakh]], many Kurdish areas have been destroyed and more than 150,000 Kurds have been deported by the Armenian forces since 1988.<ref name=meho/>

===Kurds in Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon===
{{main|Ayyubid dynasty}}
The Kurdish leader [[Saladin]] along with his uncles Ameer Adil and Ameer Sherko, were joined by Kurdish fighters from the cities of Tigrit, [[Mosul]], Erbil and Sharazur in a drive towards 'Sham' (today's Syria and Lebanon) in order to protect Islamic lands against crusader attack. The Kurdish King and his uncles ruled north Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Egypt for a short period.{{Efn-ua|A number of contemporary sources make note of this. The biographer [[Ibn Khallikan]] writes, "Historians agree in stating that [Saladin's] father and family belonged to Duwin <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Dvin (ancient city)|Dvin]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>....They were Kurds and belonged to the Rawādiya (sic), which is a branch of the great tribe al-Hadāniya".{{sfnp|Minorsky|1953|p=124}} The medieval historian [[Ibn Athir]] relates a passage from another commander: "... both you and Saladin are Kurds and you will not let power pass into the hands of the Turks"{{sfnp|Minorsky|1953|p=138}}}}{{Efn-ua|"Saladin was a Kurd from Tikrit."<ref>{{cite book |last=Steed |first=Brian L. |date=2009 |title=Piercing the Fog of War: Recognizing Change on the Battlefield |publisher=Zenith Press |page=176}}</ref>}}<ref name="Encyclopedia of World Biography on Saladin">{{cite web |url=http://www.bookrags.com/biography/saladin/ |title=Saladin |website=Encyclopedia of World Biography |access-date=20 August 2008}}</ref> 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 descent.

==See also==
* [[History of Iraqi Kurdistan]]
* [[List of Kurdish dynasties and countries]]
* [[Timeline of Kurdish uprisings]]

== Explanatory notes ==
{{notelist-ua}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* {{cite book |last=Abrahamian |first=Ervand |author-link=Ervand Abrahamian |title=Iran Between Two Revolutions |year=1982 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |location=Princeton, New Jersey |isbn=978-0-69105-342-4 |oclc=7975938}}
* {{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/8625114 |title=Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds |last=Asatrian |first=Garnik |author-link=Garnik Asatrian |date=2009 |journal=Iran and the Caucasus |volume=13 |pages=1–57 |doi=10.1163/160984909X12476379007846}}
* {{cite journal |title=The Political Geography of Kurdistan |last=Dahlman |first=Carl |date=2002 |journal=[[Eurasian Geography and Economics]] |volume=43 |number=4 |pages=271–299 |doi=10.2747/1538-7216.43.4.271}}
* {{cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1043232 |title=Ethnic Conflict and the Kurds |last=Harris |first=George S. |date=September 1977 |journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |volume=433|pages=112–124 |doi=10.1177/000271627743300111 |jstor=1043232 |url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite book |last=James |first=Boris |date=2006 |title=Saladin et les Kurdes: Perceptions d'un Groupe au Temps des Croisades |language=fr |location=Paris |publisher=L'Harmattan |isbn=978-2-29600-105-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Luz |first=Nimrod |date=2014 |title=The Mamluk City in the Middle East: History, Culture, and the Urban Landscape |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-10727-011-4}}
* {{cite book |last=McDowall |first=David |author-link=David McDowall (author) |date=1996 |title=[[A Modern History of the Kurds]] |location=2004 |publisher=I.B. Tauris |isbn=978-1-85043-416-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Minorsky |first=V. |year=1953 |title=Studies in Caucasian History: I. New Light on the Shaddadids of Ganja II. The Shaddadids of Ani III. Prehistory of Saladin |url=https://archive.org/details/studiescaucasian00mino |url-access=limited |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-52105-735-6}} 
* {{cite book |last=Romano |first=David |title=The Kurdish Nationalist Movement: Opportunity, Mobilization and Identity |url=https://archive.org/details/kurdishnationali00roma |url-access=limited |series=Cambridge Middle East studies |volume=22 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge, UK; New York |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-52185-041-4 |oclc=61425259}}

[[Category:History of the Kurdish people| ]]
[[Category:History of Kurdistan| ]]
[[Category:Yazidi history]]