Kurdish people

With a world population of approximately forty-five million people in 2024, the Kurdish people, or Kurds, make up the largest ethnic group in the world that does not have its own country. In general, the Kurds live in present-day Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, having been denied a state of their own following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. Geographically, the area known as Kurdistan (the land of the Kurds) also includes parts of Western Europe, primarily Germany, but the population of Kurds is smaller in those countries. Despite being geographically divided, the Kurds remain ethnically and linguistically linked. The Kurds do not endorse a single religion, but the majority follow Sunni Islam. They have continued to support one another, often becoming involved in wars that further the interests of the various ruling groups as they battle for control in the Middle East.

Background

In Turkey, the Kurds are the country's largest ethnic minority groups, making up between 15 and 20 percent of the total population, yet there is a well-documented history of Kurdish discrimination in Turkey. The unsigned Treaty of Sèvres in 1920 would have granted ethnic groups from the former Ottoman Empire, ruled by the Turks, their own countries and autonomy. However, the Turks rejected it and ultimately signed the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which did not include that provision. In 1925, the Kurds revolted in the Sheikh Said Rebellion, demanding a voice in government. The Turks responded by crushing the revolt and stationing Turkish troops throughout Kurdish areas. In 1927, the government passed a law that gave the Turks the authority to forcibly relocate Kurds. Subsequent revolts in Ararat in 1930 and Dersim in 1938 were also crushed, resulting in the passage of Law No. 2510, which allowed the government to evacuate any Kurd who refused to speak Turkish or adopt the Turkish culture. According to scholars Robert Hatem and Mark Dohrmann, the contemporary Southeastern Anatolia Project has claimed to improve the standard of living for Kurds but, in fact, furthered longstanding Turkish goals of urbanization and assimilation, separation of Kurds across international borders, and increased regional military surveillance.

In 1880, in present-day Iran, Shaikh Ubaidullah led a revolt against the Ottoman Empire, inspiring the move toward Kurdish nationalism. The 1925 establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty in Iran and the isolation of the Kurds further heightened the trend toward Kurdish nationalism. After the end of World War II, the Kurds established the Mahabad Republic in 1946, a short-lived independent republic located in northwestern Iran. Kurds make up about 10 percent of the modern Iranian population.

In Iraq, the Kurds make up between 15 and 20 percent of the total population. The nationalist movement started there in the 1940s. Nearly three decades later, war between Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iran, setting off in-fighting between the chief Kurdish political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The KDP and PUK each fought against Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War. A 1983 ceasefire with Iraq failed, but the two groups subsequently formed an alliance, creating the Kurdistan Front. With assistance from Iran, the alliance attacked Halabjah, forcing Iraqi forces to evacuate the city. The government retaliated with a chemical weapons attack that resulted in the deaths of about five thousand Kurdish civilians, who were buried in mass graves.

The Kurdish People Today

Since the end of World War II in 1945 and the advent of the Cold War, the Kurds have often been used by the superpowers in their battle for control of the Middle East and its rich oil resources. Throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century, the Kurds have been subject to the governing classes in their respective countries. Because the Kurds have been intent on gaining autonomy, they have looked to the United States and the international community for assistance.

The establishment of the Mahabad Republic in 1946 in Iran was made possible by support from the Soviets, who were interested in seeing Iran broken up. In the late 1950s, revolution in Iraq led to increased anti-Western feelings throughout the Middle East. In 1972, the governments of Iraq and the Soviet Union signed a treaty of friendship. The Kurds unsuccessfully attempted to use that anti-Western mentality to foster support for Kurdish nationalism.

Abbas Vali, a noted expert on the Kurdish people, asserted in Kurds and the State in Iran: The Making of Kurdish Identity (2014) that increased Kurdish nationalism was a direct response to the marginalization of the Kurds in Iran. The government fought Kurdish nationalism by repeatedly dividing Kurdish territory and dispersing the Kurds.

Major political changes occurred in Turkey in the late 1970s. The Kurds were blamed for much of the upheaval because of the rising militancy of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which was receiving support from the Soviet Union and Kurds from surrounding countries. A state of emergency was declared in 1987 and remained in place until 2002. During that time, the government forcibly evacuated 378,335 Kurds. Another 55,371 were accused of engaging in terroristic activities.

As the Iraq-Iran War ended in 1988, Saddam Hussein’s forces killed or caused the disappearance of thousands of Kurds, eventually burying them in mass graves. Those actions forced hundreds of thousands of Kurds into exile and significantly weakened the power of Iraqi Kurds. However, the Kurds rebelled after the Persian Gulf War, and the Iraqi Kurdistan Front gained control of Kurdish areas and established the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq in 1992. However, war broke out between the KDP and PUK in 1994, resulting in the establishment of individual areas of control.

The outbreak of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 established a no-fly zone in northern Iraq, the home of Iraqi Kurds, allowing the PKK to use the area as a base for continued attacks on Turkey. Despite periodic ceasefires, fighting continued, and the Turkish government was forced to concede the right of the Kurds to retain their own language, history, and culture. Those concessions led to a more permanent ceasefire in 2013. Nevertheless, the PKK remained involved in guerrilla warfare in Turkey.

The American presence during the Iraq War (2003–11) led to de facto autonomy for the Kurds in Iraq, and the KDP and PUK again came together to create a single Kurdish government in 2006. The Kurdish Regional Government was considered the most politically stable section of Iraq. Kurdish forces attempted to help establish overall peace in Iraq, even as tension between Sunnis and Shias continued. In 2014, Kurds from Iraq, Syria, and Turkey took part in fighting against the Sunni Muslim jihadi group known as the Islamic State, which aimed to create a new caliphate in the Middle East. This fighting continued for the next decade across the Middle East. The relationship between the Turkish government and the PKK became increasingly turbulent in the 2020s. Turkey’s attempts at limiting the Kurds from extending their territory into northern Syria led to violence and civilian casualties. Following the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake, hostilities briefly paused, but began again in June of the same year.

Because of the Kurdish people’s historical connection to both Palestine and Israel, the Israel–Hamas war that ensued following the October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the Kurdish people were divided in support, causing tension in Kurdish society. The Kurdish goal of sovereignty, justice, and national identity reflects the histories of society on both sides of the conflict. Kurdish Jews living in Israel at the time largely supported Israel, and Kurdish people practicing Islam across the region supported the Palestinian-backed Hamas. Regardless of allegiance, all Kurdish people living in the region were negatively impacted by the region’s geopolitical turmoil. As the divisive war continued, the KDP announced in March 2024 that they were boycotting the June 2024 elections in Kurdistan following a Supreme Court decision to eliminate a law that historically ensured more electoral seats for the KDP. In October 2024, the KDP won the delayed election with thirty-nine of the one hundred parliament seats.

An Iranian Kurdish woman named Jina Mahsa Amini died September 2022 while in the custody of Iran’s morality police. Amini was arrested for not adhering to the strict Islamic dress code. The police reported Amini died after suddenly collapsing, but first-hand accounts from individuals imprisoned with her, and her autopsy, indicated she was severely beaten. This sparked outrage among the public, resulting in some of the largest protests in Iran’s history. These protests were dubbed the “Women, Life, Freedom Movement.” This resulted in backlash for many Kurdish people who were attacked and killed. Kurdish people living in Iraq’s autonomous region were later targeted by Iranian missile attacks.

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