The vast Kurdish homeland of about 23,000
square miles is about the areas of Germany and Britain combined, or roughly
equal to France or Texas. Kurdistan
consist basically of the mountainous areas of the central and northern Zagros,
the eastern one-third of the Taurus and Pontus, and the northern half of the
Amanus ranges. The symbolises between the Kurds and their mountains has been so
strong that they have become synonymous: Kurds home ends where the mountains
end. Kurds as a distinct people have survived only living in the mountains. The
highest point in the land now are respectively NT. Alvand of southern Kurdistan
in Iran at 11,745 feet, Mt. Halgurd in central Kurdistan in Iraq at 12,249, Mt.
Munzur at 12,600 feet in western Kurdistan and Mt. Ararat at 16,946 feet in
northern Kurdistan, both in Turkey.
There
are also two large Kurdish enclaves in central
and north central Anatolia in Turkey an in the province of Khurasan in
Northeast Iran. The mean annual precipitation is 60-80 inches per year in the
central regions and 20-40 inches on the descent to the lower elevation. Most
precipitation is on form of snow, which can fall for six months of the year,
becoming the resource for many great rivers, such as the Tigris and the Euphrates
in the otherwise arid Middle East. The overall mean annual temperature is 55-65
degrees Fahrenheit, getting cooler as one ascends the central massifs.
The land, once most tatty forested, has been
massively cleared, especially in this century, with inevitable soil erosion and
parched landscape. Contrary to the heavy damage sustained by the woodlands, the
pasture lands remain in reasonably good condition and continue to be a
productive to nomadic herding economy alongside the basic agriculture.
despite its mountainous nature, Kurdistan has
more arable land proportionally than most Middle Eastern countries. Expansive
river valleys create a fertile lattice work in Kurdistan. This may well explain
the fact that the verity invention of agriculture took place primarily in
Kurdistan around 12,000 years ago. The revolution accompanied speedy
domestication of almost all basic cereals and livestocks in the region (with
the notable exception of cows and rice).
Kurd are now predominantly of Mediterranean racial
stock, resembling southern Europeans and the Levantines in skin, general
colouring and physiology. There is yet a persistent recurrence of two racial
substrata: a darker aboriginal Palaeo- Caucasian element, and more localised
occurrence of blondism of the alpine type in the heartland of Kurdistan. The
"Aryanization" of the aboriginal Palaeo- Caucasian Kurds,
linguistically, culturally and racially, seems to have begun by the beginning
of the 2nd millennium BC, with the continues immigration and settlement of
Indo- European- speaking tribes, such as the Hittites, Mitannis, Haigs, Medes,
Persian, Scythians and alans. The process was more or less complete by the
beginning of the Christina era, bye with time the Kurds had absorbed enough
Iranic blood and clture, particularly Meidian and Alan, to form the basic
physical typology and cultural identity.
Kurds are speakers of Kurdish, a member of the
north-western subdivision of the iranic branch of the Indo- European family of
languages, which is akin to Persian, and by extension to other European
languages. It is fundamentally different from semetic Arabic and Altaic
Turkish. Modern Kurdish divides into two major groups: 1) the Kurmanji group
and, 2) the Dimili- Gurani group. These are supplemented by scores of sub-
dialects as well. The most popular vernacular is that of kurmanji (or
kirmancha), spoken bye about three- quarters of the Kurds today. Kurmanji
divided into North kurmanji (also called Bahdinani, with around 15 million speakers, primarily in
Turkey, Syria, and the former Soviet Union) and South kurmanji (also called
sorani, with about 6 million speakers, primarily in Iraq and Iran).
To the far north of the Kurdistan along Kizil
Irmak and Murat rivers in Turkey, Dimili (less accurately but more Kurdistan2
period lasted from 6.300 to about 2.600 years
ago, much more is known of the Hurrians.
They spoke a language of the Northeast Caucasian family of languages (or
Alarodian), kin to modern Chechen and Lezgian.
The Hurrisans spread far and wide, dominating much territory outside
their Zagros- Taurus mountain base. Their settlement of was completed- all the way to he Aegean coasts. Like their
Kurdish descendants, they however did not expand too far from mountains. Their
intrusions into the neighbouring plains of the Mesopotamia and the Iranian
Plateau, therefore, where primarily
military annexations with little
population settlement. Their economy was surprisingly integrated and focused,
alone with their political bonds, mainly running parallel with the Zagros-
Taurus mountains, rather than radiating out to the lowlands, as was the case
during the preceding (foreign) Ubaid cultural period. The mountain plain
economic exchanged remained secondary in importance, judging by the
archaeological remains of goods and their origin.
The Hurrians- whose name survives now most
prominently in the dialect and district of Hawraman/Awraman in Kurdistan-
divided into many clans and subgroups, who set up city- states, kingdoms and
empires known today after their respective clan names. These included the Guti,
Kurti, Khadi, Mards, Mushku, Manna, Hatti, Mittanni, Urartu, and the Kassites,
to name just a few. All these were Hurrians, and together form the Hurrian
phase of Kurdish history.
By about 4.00 years ago, the first van- guard
of the Indo- European- speaking peoples were trickling into Kurdistan in
limited numbers and settling there. These formed the aristocracy of the
Mittani, Kassite, and Hittite kingdom,
while the common people there remained solidly Hurrrian. By about 3.000 years
ago, the trickle and turned into a flood, and Hurrian Kurdistan was fast
becoming Indo- European Kurdistan. Far from having been wiped out, the Hurrian
legacy, despite its linguistic eclipse, remains the single most important element
of the Kurdish culture until today. It forms the substructure for every aspects
of Kurdish existence, from their native religion to their art, their social
organisation, women's status, and even the form of their militia warfare.
Meds, Scythians and Sagarthians are just
better- known clans of the Indo- European- speaking ARYANS who settled in Kurdistan . By about 2.600 years ago, he
Medusa had already set up an empire that included all Kurdistan and vast territories
far beyond. Medeans were followed by scores of other kingdoms and city-
statesQall dominated by Aryan aristocracies and if not so already.
By the advent of the classical era in 300 BC.
Kurds were already experiencing and domination of many neighbouring regions.
Important Kurdish polities of this time were all by- products of this
movements. The Zelan Kurdish clan of Compagne (Adyaman area), for example,
spread to establish in addition to Zelanid empire of PontusQall in Anatolia.
This became ROMAN Vassals bye the end of the first century BC. In the east the
Kurdish kingdom of Gordyene, Cortea, Media, Kirm, adn Adiabene had, bye the
first century B C, became confederate members of the Parthian Federation.
While all larger Kurdish Kingdoms of the west
gradually lost their existence to the Romans, in the east they survived intothe
3rd century A D and the advent of the Sasanian Persian empire. The last major
Kurdish dynasty, the kayosids, fell in AD 380. SmallerKurdish principalities
(called the Kotyar, "mountain administors") however, preserved their
autonomous existence into the 7th century and the coming of islam.
Several socio- economic revolutions in the garb
of the religious movements emerged in Kurdistan at this time, many due to the
exploitation bye central governments, some due to natural disasters. These
continued as underground movement into the Islamic era, bursting forth
periodically to demand social reforms. The Mazdakite and Khurramite movements
are best- known among these.
The eclipse of the Sasanian and Byzantine power
bye the Muslim
commonly known as Zaza) dialect is spoken by
about 4 million Kurds. There are small pockets of this language spoken in
various corners of Anatolia, northern Iraq, northern Iran and the Caucasus as
well.
In the far southern Kurdistan, both in Iraq and
Iran, the Gurani dialect is spoken bye about 3 million Kurds. Gurani along with
its two major subdivision: Laki and Awramani, meritspecial attention for its
wealth of sacred and secular literature stretching over a millennium.
In Iraq and Iran a modified version of the
Perso- Arabic alphabet has been adapted to South Kurmanji (Sorani). The Kurds
of Turkey have recently embarked on an extensive compaign of publication in the
North Kurmanji dialect of Kurmanji (Bahdinani) from their publishing houses in
Europe. These employed a modified from of the latin alphabet. The Kurds of the
former Soviet Union first began writing Kurdish in the Armenian alphabet in the
1920s, followed by Latin in 1927, then
Cyrillic in 1945, and now in both Cyrillic and Latin. Gurani dialects continue
to employ the Persian alphabet without any change. Dimili now uses the same
modified Latin alphabet as North Kurmanji for print.
Nearly three fifths of the Kurds, almost all
Kurmanji- speakers, are today at least nominally Sunni Muslim of Shafiite rite.
There are also some followers of mainstream Shiite Islam among the Kurds,
particularly in an around the cities of Kirmanshah, to Hamadan and Bijar in
southern and eastern Kurdistan and the Khurasan. These Shiite Kurds are followers
number around half a million. The overwhelming majority of Muslim Kurds are
followers of one several one several mystic Sufi orders, most importantly the
Bektashi order of the Northwest Kurdistan, the Naqshabandi order in the west
and north, Qadiri orders of east and central Kurdistan, and Naqshabandi of
south.
The rest of the Kurds are followers of several
indigenous Kurdish faiths of great antiquate and originality, which are
variations and permutation of an ancient religion that can be reasonably but loosely
labelled as Yaradinism or the :cult of
Angels". The three surviving major divisions of this religion are Yezidism
(in west and west- central Kurdistan, ca 2% of all Kurds), Yarsanism, or the Ahl- i Haqq (in southern
Kurdistan, ca 13% of all Kurds), and Alevism or Kizil Bash (in western
Kurdistan and the Khurasan, ca 20%)/ Minor communities of Kurdish jews,
Christians and Baha'is are around found in various croners of Kurdistan. The
ancient Jewish community has progressively emigrated to Israel, while the
Christian community is merging their identity with that of the Assyrians.
Being
the inhabitants of their launder no "beginnings" for Kurdish history
and people. Kurds and their history are the end of products of thousands of years of continuous
international evolution and assimilation of new peoples and ideas introduced
sporadically into their land. Genetically, Kurds are the descendants of all who
ever came to settle in Kurdistan, and not any one of them. A people such as
Guti, Kurti, Med, Mard, Carduchi, Gordyene, adiyanbene, zila and Khaldisignify
not the ancestor of the Kurds but only ancestor.
Archaeological finds continue to that some of
mankind's earliest steps towards development of agricultural. Domestication of
many common farm animals (sheep, goats, hogs and dogs) record keeping (the
token system), development, of domestic
technologies (wearing, fired pottery making and glazing), metallurgy and
urbanisation took place in Kurdistan, dating back between 12.000 and 8.000
years ago.
The earliest evidence so far of a unified and
distinct culture (and possibly, ethnicity) by people inhabiting the Kurdish
mountains dates back to the Half
culture of 8.000- 7.400 years ago. This was followed bye the spread of the
Ubaidian culture, which was a foreign introduction from Mesopotamia. After
about a millennium, its dominance was
replaced bye the Hurrian culture, which may or may not have been the Halafian
people reasserting their dominance over their mountainous homeland. The Hurrian
Caliphate, and its own subsequent weakening,
permitted the Kurdish principalities and "mountain administrators" to
set up new, independent states. The Shaddadids of the Caucasus and Armenia, the
Rawadids of Azerbaijan, the Marwandis of eastern Anatolia; the Hasanwaydhids,
Fadhilwayhids, and Ayyarids of the central Zagros and the Shabankara of Fars
and Kirman are same of the medieval Kurdish dynasties.
The Ayyubies stand out from these by the
vastness of their domain. From their Capital at Cairo they ruled territories of
eastern Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Western Arabia, Syria, the Holy Lands, Armenia,
and much of kurdistan. As the custodians of Islam's holy cirrus of Mecca,
Medina and Jerusalem, the Ayyubids were instrumental in the defeat and
expulsion of the Crusades the Holy Land.
With the 12th and 13th centuries the Turkish
nomads arrived in the area who in time politically dominated vast segments of
the Middle East. Most independent Kurdish states succumbed to various Turkish
kingdoms and empires. Kurdish principalities, however, survived and continued
with their autonomous existence until the 17th century. Intermittently, these
would rule independently when local empires weakened or collapsed.
The advent of the Safavid and Ottoman empires
in the area and their division of Kurdistan into the uneven imperial
dependencies was on a par with the practice of the preceding centuries.
Their introduction of artillery and scorched- earth policy into
Kurdistan was a new, and devastating development.
In the course of the 16th to 18th centuries,
vast portions of Kurdistan were systematically devastated and large number of
Kurds were deported to far corners of the Safavid and Ottoman empires. The
magnitude of death and destruction wrought on Kurdistan unified its people in
their call to rid the land of these foreign vandals. The lasting mutual
suffering awakened in Kurds a community feeling a nationalism, that called for
a unified Kurdish state and fostering of Kurdish culture and language. That's
the historian Sharaf al- Din Bitlisi wrote the first pan- Kurdish history the
Sharafnama in 1597, as Ahmad Khani composed the national epic of Mem- o- Zin in
1695, which called for a Kurdish state to fend for its people. Kurdish
nationalism was born.
For one last time a large Kurdish kingdom- the
Zand, was born in 1750. Like the meieval Ayyubids, however, the Zands set up
their capital and kingdom outside Kurdistan, and pursued no policies aimed at
unification of the Kurdish nation. By 1867, the very last autonomous Kurdish
principalities were being systematically eradicated bye the Ottoman and Persian
goverments that ruled Kurdistan. They now ruled directly, via governors, all
Kurdish provinces. The situation further deteriorated after the end of the WWI
and dissolution of Ottoman Empire.
The Treaty of Sevres (signed August 10, 1921)
anticipated and independent Kurdish state to cover large portions of the former
Ottoman Kurdistan. Unimpressed bye the Kurds' many bloody uprisings for
independence, France and Britain divided up Ottoman Kurdistan between Turkey,
Syria and Iraq. The treaty of Lasagne (signed June 24, 1923) formalised this
division. Kurds of Persia/Iran, meanwhile, were kept where they were by
Teheran.
Drawing of well- guarded state boundaries
dividing Kurdistan has, since 1921, afflicted Kurdish society with such a
degree of fragmentation, that its impact is tearing apart the Kurds' unity as a
nation. The 1920s saw the setting up of Kurdish Autonomous Province (the
"Red Kurdistan") in soviet Azerbaijan. It was disbanded in 1929. In
1945, Kurds set up a Kurdish republic
at Mahabad in the Soviet, occupied zone in Iran. It lasted one year, until it
was reoccupied by the Iranian army.
Since 1970s, the Iraqi Kurds have enjoyed and
official autonomous status in portion of that state's Kurdistan. By the end of
1991, they had become all but independent from Iraq. By 1995, however, the
Kurdish goverment in arbil was at the verge of political suicide due to the
outbreak of factional fighting between various Kurdish warlords.
Since 1987 the Kurds in Turkey by themselves
constituting a majority of all Kurds in Turkey have waged a war of national
liberation agains ankara's 70 years heavy handed suppression of any vestige of
the Kurdish indetity and its rich and ancient culture. The massive uprising had
bye 1995 propelled Turkey in a state of civil war. The burgeoning and youthful
Kurdish population in Turkey, is now demanding absolute equality with the
Turkish component in that state, and failing that, full independence.
In the Caucasus, the fledgling Armenian
Republic, in the course of 1922-94 wined out the entire Kurdish community of
the former "Red Kurdistan". Having ethnically "cleansed"
it, Armenia has effectively annexed Red Kurdistan's territory that forms the
land bridge between the Armenian enclave of Nagorno- Karabakh and Armenia
proper.
Since the end of World War I, Kurdistan has
been administered bye five sovereign states, with the largest portions of the
land being respectively in Turkey (43%), Iran (32%), Iraq (18%), Syria (6%) and
the former Soviet Union (2%). The
Iranian Kurds have lived under that state's jurisdiction since 1514 and the
Battle of Chaldiran. The other three quarters of the Kurds lived in the Ottoman
Empire from that ate until its break- up following W.W.I. The French Mandate
Syria received a piece, and the British incorporated central Kurdistan or the
Mosul Vilayet" and its oil fields at Kirkuk into their recently created
Mandate of Iraq. Northern and western
Kurdistan were to be given choice of independence by the Treaty of sevres
(August 10, 1920) which dismantled the defunct Ottoman Empire, but instead they
were awarded to the newly established Republic of Turkey under the term of the
Treaty of Lasagne (June 24, 1923). The Russian/Soviet Kurds had passed into
their sphere in the course of the 19th century when territories were ceded by
Persia/Iran .
The Kurds remained the only ethnic group in the
world with indigenous representatives in three world geopolitical blocs: Arab
World (in Iraq and Syria), NATO (in Turkey), the South Asian- Central Asian
bloc (in Iran and Turkmenistan) and until recently the
Soviet bloc (in the Caucasus, now Armenia
Azerbaijan and Georgia) As a matter fact, until the end of the Cold War, Kurds along with the Germans were the only
people in their world with their home territories used as a front line of fire
by both Nato and the Warsaw Pact forces.
The most important single features of Kurdistan
society since the end of medieval times has been its strong tribal organisation,
with independence or autonomy being the political status of the land, with
society's process of developing the next stage of societal convergence- and the
creation of a political culture of interest in a pan- Kurdish polity- was well
under way in Kurdistan when it was decisively aborted with the parcelling out
of the country at the end of the First World War. Tribal confederacies thus
remain the highest form of social
organisation, while the political progress and the elite remain to large degree
tribal. Today in the absence of a national Kurdish state and government, tribes
serve as the highest native source of authority in which people place their
allegiance.
Kurdish lands, rich in natural resources, have
always sustained and promoted a large population. While registering modest
gains since the late 19th century, but particularly in the first decade of the
20th, Kurds lost demographic ground relative to neighboring ethnic groups. This
was due as much to their less developed economy and health care system as it
was to direct masseurs, deportations, famines, etc. The tota lnumber of Kurds
actually decreased in this period, while every other major ethnic group in the
area boomed. Since the middle of the 1960th this negative demographic trend has
reserved, and Kurd are steadily regaining the demographic position of
importance that they traditionally held, representing 15% of the over- all
population of the middle East in Asia- a phenomenon common since at least the
4th millennium BC.
Today Kurds are the fourth ethnic group in
Middle East, after the Arabs, Persians, and Turks. They largest concentrations
are now respectively in Turkey ( approx.52% of all Kurds), Iran 25.5%), Iraq
(16%), Syria (5%) and the CIS (1.5%). Barring a catastrophe, Kurds will become
the third most populations ethnic group in the Middle East by the 2000,
displacing the Turks. Furthermore, if present demographic trend hold, as they
are likely t, in about fifty years
Kurds will also replace the Turks as the majority ethnic group in Turkey
itself.
There is now one Kurdish city with a population
of nearly a million (Kirminshah), two with over half a million (Diyabaekir,
Kirkuk), five between a quarter and half a million (Antep, Arbil, Hamadan,
Malatya, Suleymania,), and quarter of a million people (adiyaman, Dersim
[Tunceli], dohuk, Elazig [Kharpu], Haymana, Khanaqin, Mardin, Qamishli, Qochan,
Sanandaj, Siirt and Urfa).
State
Turkey Iran Iraq
Syria
total
pop
56.7 55.6 18.8
12.6
total
Kurds 13.7 6.6 4.4 1.3
CIS, 0.3
%Kurdish
24.1 12.4 23.5
9.2
Total Kurds (in all countries):
26.3 (1990 in millions)
Kurdish studies, an International Journal The
Kurdish Library, Vol.5, Number 1&2 Spring- Fall, 1992