Kurds'History

     The Kurds are people of Indo-European origin who live mainly in the mountains and uplands where Turkey, Iraq,Syria and Iran meet, in an area known as "Kurdistan" for hundreds of years. They have their own language, related to Persian but divided into two main dialect areas. Although the kurdish people are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, they embrace Jews, Christians, Yazidis and other sects.

     from the 16th century the Ottoman and Persian Empires allowed the Kurdish tribes almost total autonomy in return for keeping, the peace on the rugged but open border area between the two empires. From the mid-19th century, with rifles, machine guns, and later warplanes, the governments of the region increasingly decided to control the border themselves and bring these previously independent tribes under direct control. At the end of World War 1, the Ottoman Empire was carved up and the Kurds found themselves segmented between Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq

     In each of the new post-war countries, the Kurds found they were treated with suspicion, and pressured to conform to the ways of the majority. Their old independence and traditional pastoralist way of life was rapidly reduced. They were expected to learn the main language of the new state in which they found themselves, Turkish, Persian or Arabic, to abandon their Kurdish identity and to accept Turkish, Iranian or Arab nationalism. As a tribal and traditionally minded society the Kurds wanted to be left in peace, but few then were nationalists. Some tribes tried to resist the encroachment of government while their rivals benefited from operating with the government. But an increasing number of Kurds felt the deliberate undermining of their cultural identity

     As of the late 1990s, there were estimated to be more than 20 million Kurds, about half of them in Turkey, where, making up more than 20% of the population, they dwell near the Iranian frontier around Lake Van, as well as in the vicinity of Diyarbakir and Erzurum. The Kurds in Iran, who constitute some 10% of its people, live principally in Azerbaijan and Khorasan, with some in Fars. The Iraqi Kurds, about 23% of its population, live mostly in the vicinity of Dahuk (Dohuk), Mosul, Erbil, Kirkuk, and Sulaimaniyah

for more information please Visit:
http://www.cool.mb.ca/~kakel/kurds.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0828382.html

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