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Kurdistan Kurdistan (literally meaning "the land of Kurds") (old: Koordistan, Curdistan, Kurdia, also in Kurdish: Kurdewarî) is the name of a geographic and cultural region in the Middle East, inhabited traditionally predominantly by the Kurds. As a traditional ethnographic region, Kurdistan is generally held to include the contiguous regions in northern and northeastern Mesopotamia with large Kurdish populations. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, Kurdistan is a mountainous region of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, inhabited predominantly by Kurds including 27-28 million people in a 190,000 km² (74,000 sq. mi) area, while according to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, it includes a 390,000 km² area. Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in Kurdistan, which covers an area as big as France. Larger parts of Kurdistan became a province of the Ottoman Empire. Following World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Kurds were promised an independent nation-state in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres. Turkish nationalists, however, rejected the terms of the treaty, and following the defeat of the Greek forces in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), the Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923 in Turkey's favor. The larger area known as Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan was given to Turkey and the rest was accepted as part of the British Empire (except for the Iranian Kurdistan, which at that time was part of Persia). Since that time Kurdish nationalists have continued to seek independence in an area including the region identified at Sèvres. However, the idea of an independent nation-state came to a halt when the surrounding countries joined to reject the independence of Kurdistan. Iraqi Kurdistan region and Kurdistan Province in Iran are officially acknowledged parts of Kurdistan. Turkish and Syrian governments do not recognize their controlled parts of Kurdistan as a demographic or geographic region. EtymologyThe region was known with various cognates of the word Kurd (meaning land of Kurds) during the ancient history of the Mesopotamia. The ancient Sumerians referred to it as Kur-a, Gutium, or Land of Karda, the Elamites as Kurdasu, the Akkadians as Kurtei, the Assyrians as Kurti, the Babylonians as Qardu, the Greeks and the Romans as Corduene. One of the first records of using the term 'Kurdistan' is by Sultan Sanjar the Seljuk King in the 12th century. He formed a province named Kurdistan centered at Bahar situated to the northeast of Hamadan. This province was located between Azerbaijan and Luristan. It included the regions of Hamadan, Dinawar, Kermanshah and Senna, to the east of the Zagros and to the west of Sharazur (Kirkuk) and Khuftiyan, on the river Zab. HistoryAncient periodThe very first mention of the Kurds in history was about 3,000 BC, under the name Gutium, as they fought the Summerians (Spieser). Later around 800 BC, the Indo-European Median tribes settled in the Zagros mountain region and coalesced with the Gutiums, and thus the modern Kurds speak an Aryan language (Morris). The Kurds are mentioned by Xenophon, a Greek mercenary, as he retreated from Persia with ten thousand men in 401 BC, he says of the Kurds, "These people, lived in the mountains and were very war-like and not subject to the Persian king. Indeed once a royal army of 120,000 thousand had once invaded their country, and not a man of them came back..(Morris)." (Jensen 1996) The tract to this day known as Kurdistan, the high mountain region south and south-east of Lake Van between Persia and Mesopotamia, was in the possession of Kurds from before the time of Xenophon, and was known as the country of the Carduchi (Greek:Καρδούχοι) , as Cardyene or Cordyene. Kurds claim descent from various ancient groups; among them the Guti, Mannai (Mannaeans), Hurrian and Medes. The original Mannaean homeland was situated east and south of the Lake Urmia, roughly centered around modern-day Mahabad. The Medes came under Persian rule during the reign of Cyrus the Great and Darius. Centuries later, Kurdish-inhabited areas in the Middle East witnessed the clash of the two competing super powers of those times, namely the Sassanid Empire and the Roman Empire. At their peak, the Romans ruled large Kurdish-inhabited areas, particularly the western and northern Kurdish areas in the Middle East. Kurdish Kingdoms like Corduene and Commagene were vassal states of the Roman Empire. From 189 BC to 384 AD, the ancient kingdom of Corduene ruled northern Mesopotamia. It was situated to the east of Tigranocerta (i.e., to the east and south of present-day Diyarbakir in south-eastern Turkey). It became a vassal state of the Roman Republic in 66 BC. It remained allied with the Romans until 384 AD. Medieval periodIn the 7th century A.D., Arabs conquered most of the Middle East, and Kurds became subjects of Arab Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates. In the second half of the 10th century, Kurdistan was shared amongst five big Kurdish principalities. In the North the Shaddadid (951-1174) (in parts of Armenia and Arran) and the Rawadid (955-1221) (in Tabriz and Maragheh) ,in the East the Hasanwayhid (959-1015) and the Annazid (990-1116) (in Hulwan, Kermanshah and Khanaqin) and in the West the Marwanid (990-1096) of Diyarbakir. Kurds in the Middle Ages were living in several semi-independent states called "emirates". 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 Bitlisi in 1597.The most famous Kurdish Emirates included Baban, Soran, Badinan and Garmiyan in present-day Iraq; Bakran, Botan (or Bokhtan) and Badlis in Turkey, and Mukriyan and Ardalan in Iran. In 17th century, Ahmad Khani (Ehmedê Xanî) wrote "Mem û Zîn", the Kurdish national epic, and he was seen by some as an early advocate of Kurdish nationalism.
Modern periodIn the 16th century A.D., the Kurdish inhabited areas were split between Safavid Iran and the Ottoman Empire after long wars. Before World War I, most Kurds lived within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire in the province of Kurdistan. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Allies created several countries within its former boundaries. Originally, Kurdistan along with Armenia was to be one of them, according to the never-ratified Treaty of Sèvres. However, the reconquest of these areas by Kemal Atatürk and other pressing issues caused the Allies to accept the renegotiated Treaty of Lausanne, giving this territory to Turkey and leaving the Kurds without a self-ruled region. Other Kurdish areas were assigned to the new British and French mandated states of Iraq and Syria under both treaties. Since WWI, Kurdistan has been divided between several states, in all of which Kurds are minorities. Many Kurds have campaigned for independence or autonomy, often through force of arms. There has been no support by any of the regional governments, however, and little by outside powers, for changes in regional boundaries. A sizable Kurdish diaspora exists in Western Europe that participates in agitation for Kurdish issues, but most of the governments in the Middle East have historically banned open Kurdish activism.
In Iraq, Kurdish guerrilla groups, known in the Kurdish culture as 'Peshmerga', have fought for a Kurdish state. In Iraqi Kurdistan, Peshmerga fought against the (former) Iraqi government before and during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and now comprise significant parts of Iraqi army forces such as police especially in Iraqi Kurdistan as well as some neighboring regions. Another militant group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), has fought an armed campaign in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran for over thirty years. In Turkey, more than 30,000 Turkish and Kurdish people have died as a result of the war between the state and the PKK, with alleged atrocities being committed by both sides. In Iranian Kurdistan, frequent unrest and occasional military crackdown have happened throughout the 1990s and even to the present . Iranian Kurdistan is one of the most heavily militarized areas of Iran since World War II and the military is present in every village (see Ethnic Cleavage as a Component of Global Military Expenditures, Journal of Peace Research, p.24, 1987). In Iran, Kurds twice had their own controlled free area without government control: The Republic of Mahabad in Iran which was the second independent Kurdish state of the 20th century, after the Republic of Ararat in modern Turkey; and second time after the Iranian Revolution in 1979. There have also been casualties in
All these political crises and conflicts in Kurdistan, lead to make it to one of the most militarized regions on earth; all of those countries which have Kurdistan within their political borders have focused military operations in the region. PeopleIn addition to Kurds who comprise the majority of the population of the region there are also communities of Assyrian, Armenian, Ossetian, Jewish, Arab, and Azeri people traditionally scattered throughout the region alongside Kurds. Most of its inhabitants being Muslim there are also significant numbers of various other religious sects such as Yazidi, Yarsan, Alevi, Christian, Judaism, Sarayi, Bajwan and Haqqa etc. Although Kurdistan is regarded as a region rich in oil and other minerals, in comparison to the central parts of respective governments, it is largely undeveloped, with the exception of Iraqi Kurdistan. GeographyAccording to Encyclopaedia Britannica, Kurdistan covers about 74,000 sq mi (191,660 km²), and its chief towns are Diyarbakir, Bitlis, and Van in Turkey, Mosul and Karkuk (Kirkuk) in Iraq, and Kermanshah in Iran. According to Encyclopaedia of Islam, Kurdistan covers around 190,000 km² in Turkey, 125,000 km² in Iran, 65,000 km² in Iraq, and 12,000 km² in Syria and the total area of Kurdistan is estimated at approximately 392,000 km². Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in Kurdistan, which covers an area as big as France. The Kurdistan Province in Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan are both included in the usual definition of Kurdistan. Iranian Kurdistan encompasses Kurdistan Province and greater parts of West Azarbaijan, Kermanshah, Ilam Province and smaller parts of Hamadan Province and Lorestan. Iraqi Kurdistan is divided into 6 governorates which until this time three of them plus parts of other ones are under the control of Kurdistan Regional Government.
ForestsAlthough Kurdistan has a harsh and cold climate, it is not a desert. Mountain chains are covered with pasture, and its valleys with forests. There are around 16 million hectares (160,000 km²) of forests in all parts of Kurdistan. Oaks, firs and other conifers can be found in those forests. The platanus, willow and poplar, are found near waters and rivers . MountainsMountains, even to this day, have been important geographical and symbolic figures in Kurdish life, so that there is a saying that Kurds have no friends but the mountains . The Mount Judi is the most important mountain in Kurdish folklore and along with Mount Ararat is one of the mountains that is thought to be the final resting place of Noah's Ark. Other important mountains of Kurdistan are ChelCheme, Zagros Shingar, Qendil, Shaho, Gabar, etc. RiversThere are many rivers in Kurdistan that are at least as important, if not more important, than oil. The plateaus and mountains of Kurdistan, which are characterized by heavy rainfall and in winter a heavy coat of snow, are a water reservoir for the Near and Middle East. This is the source of the famous Tigris and Euphrates Rivers as well as numerous other smaller rivers like the Khabur, Tharthar, Ceyhan, Araxes, Kura, Sefidrud, Karkha, Hezil, which their major tributaries spring from the mountains of Kurdistan. Those rivers that are entirely or nearly entirely in Kurdistan are usually of historical importance to the Kurds. Among these are the Murat (Arasān) and Buhtān rivers in northern and western Kurdistan (in Turkey); the Peshkhābur, the Lesser and the Greater Zab, and the Sirwan/Diyala in central Kurdistan (in Iraq); and the Jaghatu (Zarrinarud), the Tātā'u (Siminarud), the Zohāb (Zahāb), and the Gāmāsiyāb in southern Kurdistan etc. With their water, the Tigris and the Euphrates give life not only to the Mesopotamian plain and whole of Kurdistan but also to Iraq and Syria. These rivers, which flow down from heights of three to four thousand meters above sea level, are also very significant for the production of energy. Iraq and Syria have built numerous dams across these rivers and their tributaries. But the most important ones are a series of dams that were built by Turkey as part of the GAP project (Southeast Anatolia Project). The GAP project is still not complete, but it already supplies a significant proportion of Turkey's electrical-energy needs. Due to the extraordinary archaeological richness of the land, almost any dam built in Kurdistan drowns a portion of Kurdish history . LakesThere are a number of lakes in Kurdistan. The eastern borders of Kurdistan ends with the Lake Urmia and the western borders with semi-contiguous Kurdish-inhabited regions to the Mediterranean sea. Lake Van is the world's fourth largest non-saline body of water by volume. The Zarivar Lake around Mariwan as well as Lake Dukan around the city of Sulaymaniyah are considerable touristic sites . Underground resourcesThere are many oil and mineral resources in Kurdistan. KRG-controlled parts of Iraqi Kurdistan only by itself is estimated to have around 45bn barrels of oil reserves making it 6th largest in the world, mostly recently discovered and its extraction is said to begin within the first three months of the next near (2007?). These are excluding those of Kirkuk and Mosul, cities claimed by the KRG to be included in its territory. Albeit for a long time oil was extracted mainly in these two cities through Iraq by former Baath regime. Gas and associated gas reserves are in excess of 100 TCF. Other underground resources that exist in significant quantities in the region include copper, iron, zinc and cement. The world´s largest deposit of rock sulphur is located just southwest of Erbil (Hewlêr). Other important underground resources include coal, gold, marble, etc. ClimateThere are many rivers flowing and running through mountains of Kurdistan making it distinguished by its fertile lands, plentiful water, picturesque nature. The mountainous nature of Kurdistan, the difference of temperatures in its various parts, and its wealth of waters, make Kurdistan a land of agriculture and tourism. The climate of Kurdistan is harsh, because of its high altitude. There is a lot of snowfall in the high mountains. Percipitation varies between 200 to 400 mm a year in the plains, and between 700 to 3,000 mm a year on the high plateaux between mountain chains. Historical attractionsBeing homeland for various ancient nations for millennia, there are a large number of historical sites and attractions in Kurdistan.
source: Wikipedia
Kurdish: An Indo-European Language
By Siamak Rezaei Durroei Kurdish is a member of the Indo-Iranian language group which is a branch of
the Indo-European family, the largest language family in the world. Indo-European|Indo-Iranian|| |Indian Iranian| || | |Sanskrit Western Eastern____|____ ____|____| | | |Old Persian Median Scythian AvestanFigure from S. Karimi( 1989) Phd DissertationKurdish, Ashkani (Parthian) Pahlavi, Baluchi and Mazandarani are from the western branch of the Northern group of Iranian languages, while Persian and middle Persian (Sassanid Pahlavi) belong to the south. In old era western branch consisted of languages such as Old Persian and Median. It has been claimed that Kurdish is closer to old Persian than Median. From another perspective, Kurdish (western) and Osetin (Eastern) form the Northern branch of Iranain languages. Osetin is spoken by around 600,000 in Turkey (Bitlis, Erzerum, Kars, Anatalya) and Georgia. There is no reliable source for the population of Kurdish speakers. Kurds are estimated from 20-40 Millions. A percentage of these are native speakers. The following, based on Hassanpour(1992) shows the estimated number of Kurds in year 2000 projected from Kurdish Nationalist references: Country Population (M.) Kurds M.(% of total) ---------------------------------- Iraq[c] 23.753 6.65 (28%) Turkey[a] 67.748 15.58 (23%) Iran[b] 74.644 11.94 (16%) Syria[d] 17.328 1.90 (11%) USSR[e] 0.73 ---------------------------------- Total 36.800 million -- Population of Kurds in 2000 --- [a] Kendal (1980) [b] Ghassemlou (1980) [c] Vanly(1980) [d] Nazdar (1980) [e] Kendal(1980) Iranian_______|________| |Southern Northern____|____ ____|____| | | |West East West East| | | |Persian Pashto Kurdish OsetinKurdish vs. PersianKirmanji-Kurdi dialects (Kurmanci/Sorani and Zaza/Gorani (Hawrami) among others) have preserved many features of older Iranian languages. But grammatical features such as ergativity or clitic movement exist in Kurdish which is not reported in Modern Persian. Kurdish exhibits different aspects of tense/aspect ergativity in its dialects (Bynon 1979). Ergativity has been also reported in Eastern Iranian language, Pashto (Kalbasi 1988), but ergativity never fully developed in Persian and its former ancestors and the existance of eragtivity in Pashto might be because of language contact with Indian and Pamir languages, while in Kurdish it might be a result of influence of caucasian languages (such as hurrian) which were spoken in the region. The origin of ergativity in Kurdish needs further research (see (Pirejko79) and (Steiner79) for origins of ergativity). The interesting thing about ergativity in Kurdish is that the two major dialects of Kurdish Kurmanji (North) and Sorani (south) exhibit different aspects of ergativity (Bulut 1995). The past transitive ergativity in Sorani in parallel to clitic movement is discussed in (Friend 1985). The (past transitive) ergativity in Kurmanji is a formal structure manifested by noun as well as verb morphology and verb agreement rules (Matras 1992). But according to (Dorleijn92,97) Ergativity in Kurmanji dialects is in danger and is eroding. The existance of specificity-object marker "ra" in persian gives more flexible word order to Persian in contrast to Kurdish dialects which lack such a marker. Markers with analogous role exist in Turkish, Urdu and the existance of such a marker in Persian might be as a result of contact with Turkish. Another difference between Kurdish and Persian is the existance of clitic movement phenomenon in Sorani verbal construction which is closely related to ergativity in Kurdish. To my knowledge, this feature has not been reported for old Persian. Gender distiction has also been preserved in dialects such as Kurmanji which does not exist in Modern Persian. Kirmanji-Kurdi DialectsKirmanji-Kurdi____________|______________| | |Kirmanji (Modern) Hawrami (Old)| | |.--------|-------. ------- | ------.[South] [Central] [North] [North] [South]Kirmanshahi Sorani Kurmanji Dimili(Kirmanjki) Hawrami
Among Kirmanji-Kurdi dialects, the Kurmanji has been reported as the most
archaic dialect in its phonetic and morphological structures [MacKenzie61].
Garzoni, Lerch, Rhea, Chodsko, Beresin, Hornli, Peter and Fossum refer to Sorani
as the purest and best Kurdish [Fossum19] (Fossum particularly refers to the
group of dialects which was spoken by the Bebeh tribes in the districts of
Suleimania). Soane(191?) refered to the Sorani dialect spoken by Mokri tribe
(south of Lake Urmia) as the purest dialects of Kurdish in its accent and
grammatical form. The reader of Ethnologue should be aware that although Ethnologue is an invaluable source of language statistics, but the authorities for its facts are mostly Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) Bible translators. The following paragraph highlights the issue further: What Ethnologue, in its various editions, has tried to do is to
identify all the linguistically distinct traditional societies of the world; it
incidentally includes all languages, including the 200 or so spoken by truly
huge numbers of people. The user of Ethnologue should be aware of
certain axes that are being ground. Ethnologue tends to exaggerate the
number of languages in the world. A linguist who attends to linguistic
structure only, leaving speaker attitudes aside, will recognize fewer than 50
per cent of the number of distinct languages that are recognized in
Ethnologue. For example, Ethnologue doubles the number of languages
that I, as a linguist who with colleagues has done a dialect survey of the
whole of Guatemala, recognize for that country. I recognize about twenty-four
languages including Spanish, while Ethnologue gives fifty-four. This
proportion (`reality' 1 : SIL 2) may hold in other parts of the western
hemisphere, and in some areas, such as Mexico and Peru, Ethnologue is
even further from what I accept as reality. While we may concede that SIL is
reporting on ethnolinguistic and sociolinguistic difference, we should not
accept that low intelligibility of spoken and/or written language between
communities is incontrovertible evidence for the existence of distinct
languages. This is not a trivial disagreement, because while speaker
attitudes can change and will often differ from individual to individual within
a community, the linguistic structures do not change very readily and hence are
the primary phenomena to be accounted for. I used to (and still do) think of
myself as a `splitter, not a lumper', but I need to distance myself from `those
who multiply entities needlessly', which is a tendency that is apparent in
Ethnologue Number of Kurdish SpeakersAccording to a statistics from World Evangelization Research Center (available from Batonic World Prayer Center), the percentage of Kurds and Kurdish speakers in different countries (North/Central dialect) by the year 2000 will be: Country North(%) Central(%) General(%) Total(%) Total(Kurds in Million)
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Iraq 6.5% 8.5% 6.5% 21.0% 4.98
Turkey** 8.8% - 8.0% 16.8% 11.38
Iran* 0.4% 4.5% 6.0% + [7.1%Lori] 10.9% +[7.1] 8.13 + [5.29 Lori]
Syria 7.3% - 7.3% 7.3% 1.27
Lebanon 4.0% - - 4.0% 0.1309
Armenia 2.0% - - 2.0% 0.0648
Georgia 0.6% - - 0.6% 0.0341
Kyrgyzstan 0.33% - - 0.33% 0.0170
Azerbaijan 0.2% - - 0.2% 0.0139
Kazakstan 0.15% - - 0.15% 0.0273
Afghanistan - - 0.1% 0.1% 0.0267
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All Kurds in year 2000 = 26.07 M. + [5.29 Lori]
* It seems that this statistics does not include the 1-2 million
Kurmanji (North) speakers in Khorasan (Iran).
** This figure also includes 1,165,000 Dimili Kurds and 169,400
Alevica-Kirmanjki speakers in Turkey in year 2000.
*** The statistics does not include Kurds in Diaspora and if we
contrast it with the figures by Kurdish nationalists, the figure
for each country is around 6% less (e.g. 23 - 16.8 in the case of
Turkey) than what is claimed by nationalists. This might be as a
result of the difference between the number of Kurdish speakers and
the number of Kurds (but not necessrily speaking the language).
The only official data on dialects can be based on the census in Iraq (1947). Hassanpour (1992) based on Edmonds (1957) gives this statistics for each liwa in 1947: Liwa Total Population Kurds Dialect (% of liwa) (% of Kurds) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sulaymania 222,700 222,700 Sorani 100.0% 24.7% Arbil 240,500 218,000 Sorani 91.0% 24.3% Kirkuk 285,900 151,575 Sorani 53.0% 16.8% Mosul 602,000 210,970 Kurmanji 35.0% 23.4% Diyala 110,200 27,360 Fayli/ 65.6% 8.0% (Khanaqin and Mandali) Kirmanshahi Other (baghdad) n.a. 23,400 Unknown - 2.6% ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Kurdish Population 900,000 100% The following data based on Hassanpour(1992) gives further information about Kurdish speakers: - According to official Turkish census (1935) 9.3% were Kurdish speaker by Mother Tongue. In 1965 this % was 7.1% of total population. - According to official Iranian census (1956) 5.3% were Kurdish speaker and 5.6% Lori speaker. This contrast with 1949-53 Geograhical Dictionary in which 8.8% were Kurdish speaker and 5.2% Lori speaker. The underestimation in 1956 is political. - According to official Iraqi census (1957) 16.44% were Kurdish speaker. This contrasts with 2.15% Turkish and 0.96% Assyrian and Kaldanian speaker. - No official figure is available for Syria. The French mandate official gave 110,000 as moderate estimate in the late 1930s. - Official figures in USSR put the number of Kurds+ Yazidis in 1926 as (54,661 + 14,523), the number of Kurds in 1959, 1970 and 1979 were respectively 58,7999, 88,930 and 115,858. (34,4 + 96.4), 89.9, 87.6 and 83.6% claimed Kurdish as Mother tongue respectively.
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