Facts About The Kurds: Culture, History And Much More Explained

The Kurds had initially been the people of ancient Mesopotamia.

They once lived on the fertile plains of the Mesopotamian region and later extended their influence over the adjoining highlands. These people have a vibrant multi-lingual culture that traces its origins to hoary antiquity.

Despite being influential in political matters in the Middle East for an extended period of time in the middle ages, they have been reduced to refugees and asylum-seekers in the present times. Their fight for an independent and sovereign state of Kurdistan has been in the limelight for most of the 20th century.

Let's find out what led the Kurds to get their own country in the Middle East and why the crisis surrounding the Kurds seems far from being resolved.

Kurdish Politics

Kurds represent one of the oldest and most prominent ethnic groups globally. Despite the Kurds having an ancient contiguous tradition, they are yet to have an independent nation-state of their own.

If we go by population count, the Kurds total to around 30 million worldwide.

In fact, the Kurds are the fourth major ethnic group in the Middle East and are only behind the Arabs, the Persians, and the Turks in numbers. With such a large and thriving Kurdish population present in different parts of the Middle East, it is astounding that the Kurds do not have their own state.

Since the end of the First World War and after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Kurds have gradually become more and more vocal about their rights to a Kurdish state.

This is only natural since the modern world of the 20th century has witnessed large-scale anti-colonial movements and anti-imperialist campaigns that have severely rebuked the acceptance of military dictatorships and state-sponsored pogroms.

The Kurdish rebellion for a separate and independent state of Kurdistan has remained a significant issue in the Middle East since the 'big' powers of the West and Turkey managed to keep out the legitimate grievances of the Kurds out of the Treaty of Ankara of 1925.

Owing to a lengthy civil war with insurgent Kurdish forces for a more significant part of the 20th century, the Iraqi government had no choice but to set up the Kurdish Autonomous Region in northern Iraq in 1974.

This was, however, a move only on paper, and the Iraqi military under

General Saddam Hussein continued to afflict unimaginable pain and injury on the Kurds living in northern Iraq. The situation with the Kurds of Northern Iraq improved to some extent once Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi military were soundly defeated by the United States military and NATO forces in the Persian Gulf War of 1990-91.

It was only as late as in 2005 that the autonomy of the Kurds of northern Iraq was made constitutional under the new government in Iraq in the post-Saddam Hussein era.

The scenario changed drastically once a new crisis showed its face in the Middle East after 2010. With the rise of a new terrorist outfit called ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) or ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), the Kurdish stalemate was brought to the attention of the global stakeholders yet again.

This was when the Iraqi central government had grown weak and ineffective in dealing with the rising atrocities committed by the members of this new terrorist organization.

History Of Kurdistan

Kurdistan is a term used to depict a historically tied region to the Kurds. Kurdistan, or Kordestan, is the geographic zone inhabited by the Kurds of the Middle East.

Although it is not recognized as a legitimate state by the rest of the world, the people known as 'Kurds' have populated this part of the world for a very long time.

The region of Kurdistan spreads over the plateaus and mountainous areas of the eastern part of Turkey, northern Iraq, and also portions of Armenia and northern Syria. Both Syria and Iraq have formally declared the Kurdish-dominated parts of their countries as the province of Kordestan and the Kurdish Autonomous Region, respectively.

From the geographic point of view, the Kurds have belonged to the area that encompasses the eastern segment of the Taurus Mountains and most of the whole of the Zagros Mountains. These mountainous regions have been the home of the Kurds since at least the first millennium BC.

A researcher has not yet ascertained the ethnicity of the Kurds. Once they were converted to Islam in the latter half of the first millennium AD, the Kurds continued to play a significant role in the region's geopolitics.

The Kurds have had their own long list of rulers, going back to the dynasty of the Shaddadis of the 10-12th centuries AD. The Shaddadis were a Kurdish ruling class that ruled over the Kurdish populated parts of Armenia around this time.

This area, where the power of the Shaddadis was centered, was known as Transcaucasia. Other notable Kurdish ruling dynasties included the Marwanids, who ruled from Diyarbakir, the Hasanwayhids of the region known as Kermanshah, and the dynasty of the Annazids, who were based in Helwan.

The importance of the Kurds may have declined during the periods of the Mongols and the Turkmen in the early half of the second millennium AD. Still, they made their way back into the major political fold when the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Dynasty began vying for power in the Middle East.

Under the Ottomans, the Kurds could preserve some form of political identity. Still, it was always subservient to the Ottoman power center in Constantinople.

A handful of Kurdish principalities, such as Baban, Soran, Bahdinan, Hakari, and Bohtan in Turkey, and Ardelean and Mukri in Persia, survived centuries of the onslaught to emerge as semi-autonomous regions within more significant political entities.

But Kurdistan as a proper political space for Kurdish people remained a distant dream for most Kurdish civilians well into the beginning of the 20th century.

All this changed with the defeat and absolution of the Ottoman Empire after the end of the First World War. With the Ottomans gone from Turkey, the stage was set for something of historical magnitude to take place.

Several Western leaders gave the Kurds a lot to cheer about around this time. The most potent rhetoric was produced by the then President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson.

According to President Wilson's famous '14 Points', all the non-Turkish populations living for centuries under the Ottomans were to be given the means to take hold of their polity and decode what they would like to do with their political future.

Much to the chagrin of the Kurdish nationalists, the words of President Wilson failed to live up to their promise.

Kurds In Syria

Syria has a large population of ethnic Kurds, a number that is close to 2.5 million. The Kurds in Syria talk in a dialect of the Kurdish language known as 'Kirimanji.' The largest concentration of Kurds in Syria can be found in the north of Aleppo's city. This is where the foothills of the Taurus mountains lie. 

The second-largest hub of Syrian Kurds is scattered along the Syro-Turkish border in a region known as Jazirah. Most of the Kurds living in these areas came to these parts in the first half of the 20th century to escape the severe oppression orchestrated by the Turkish forces.

The large population of Kurds in several parts of Syria has created fissures in Syrian society because most Arabs view the Kurds as 'outsiders' and 'foreigners.'

When the terror of ISIS/ISIL started knocking on the doors of the Kurdish settlements in northern Syria, the Kurds had no option but to take up arms to defend their hard-fought lands. From the early 2010s until the time ISIS/ISIL was finally beaten in 2014, the primary resistance to ISIS's movements in Iraq and Syria came from Kurdish forces. 

Even before international coalition forces could arrive on the scene, the Kurdish forces were fighting a war against the terrorist group all over Iraq and Syria.

What is seen as a significant turnaround for the Kurds is that during the war against ISIS, the Kurdish forces had managed to capture large portions of land in Northern Syria, where they are still very firmly entrenched.

However, the tide turned again for the Kurds. In 2019, the United States sided with its military ally Turkey to push back Kurdish forces from its territories in the ISIS war years.

In a series of military attacks, Turkish forces have crossed the Syrian border time and again to launch assaults on the Kurds with the full knowledge of the United Nations Security Council.

Effect Of WWI

Once the First World War was over and the Ottomans were on the losing side, the victorious Allies decided to liquidate the vast empire of the Ottomans into semi-autonomous principalities.

During the proceedings of the Treaty of Sevres of 1920, the representatives of the deposed Ottoman ruler and the members of the new Turkish government met with the politicians of the Allied countries to determine the fate of the erstwhile constituent parts of the Ottoman Empire.

After a series of talks and discussions, the Allies deemed fit to carve out three new sovereign Arab states of Iraq, Hejaz, and Syria in the Middle East. Another country, Armenia, was carved out from another part of the former empire.

The Kurdish people were given the option to join either of the three new Arab states or remain a separate independent state.

Back then, the Kurds were distributed in the Ottoman province of Mosul. The situation looked good for the Kurds at Sevres, but it soon collapsed when the Treaty of Sevres was ultimately superseded and was left unsigned by all the participating nations.

One of the reasons why the Treat of Sevres did not see the light of the day was the rise of a new militant Turkish state in Turkey under the charismatic and robust leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

With increasing pressure from modern Turkey on the western powers, the Treaty of Sevres took a backseat, and a new revised treaty, called the Treaty of Lausanne, was brought to the table.

This event of 1923 is seen as the most significant event in the history of the Kurds in the modern era.

The Laussane treaty did not have the sections of either Kurdistan or Armenia, and the question of the future of the Kurds and the Armenians was passed on to the League of Nations. Several historians and political observers have termed this as no less than a historical blunder.

When the world had a golden opportunity to solve the Kurdish crisis once and for all, it missed the bus.

At the League of Nations' chambers, the fate of the province of Mosul, where most of the Kurds were living at that time, was rested on the hands of the Iraqi government. The Armenian issue was transferred over to the Soviet Union to resolve, which incorporated the region and turned it into a communist state.

All hopes of a revision of the decision were quashed when the Treaty of Lausanne was made official in Ankara in 1925, when the United Kingdom, Iraq, and Turkey signed and ratified it.

FAQs

Q: What are Kurdish traditions and culture?

A: Although they have suffered under a series of repressive governments, be it in Syria, Turkey, or Iraq, the Kurds have managed to keep their age-old customs and traditions alive today. Kurds have a rich culture that is mainly derived from folk traditions.

Similar to the ancient Persians, the Kurds celebrate the new year on the day of 'Nawroz.' Since the Kurds have a strong oral tradition, written records are scarce in their society.

Through the oral tradition, tales of bravery and romance are passed on from one generation to another. Dance and music are the other vital aspects of Kurdish society.

Q: What are the Kurds known for?

A: The Kurds are ancient people of Mesopotamian origin who have lived in and around the mountainous regions of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Armenia for at least two thousand years. The Kurdish language comes from a branch of the Indo-Iranian language family.

Presently, the Kurds are embroiled in a never-ending fight for the recognition of their right to an independent state of Kurdistan in the Middle East.

Q: What is the religion of the Kurds?

A: The majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslims. Almost 98% of Kurds living in Iraq and adjoining areas are identified as Sunni Muslims. An exception is the Kurdish Yazidis, who do not identify as Muslims. Only around two percent of Kurds follow the Shia Muslim tradition.

Q: What kind of food do Kurds eat?

A: Kurdish cuisine has similarities with Iraqi, Turkish, Armenian, and Syrian food styles. Kurds are non-vegetarians who love to eat biriyani. Some food items popular among the Kurds include kofta, dolma, bread, and tea.

Q: What does Kurdistan mean in English?

A: Kurdistan is the name by which ethnic Kurds address where they have been living continuously for more than a thousand years. The name Kurdistan is of the Kurdish language, and in Persian, it is called Kordestan.

The geographic area of Kurdistan covers regions spread over four modern-day countries. These four countries are Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Armenia. Out of the four, Turkey constitutes the largest portion of Kurdistan.

Q: What language is spoken in Kurdistan?

A: The people who reside in Kurdistan communicate with each other in the Kurdish language. The Kurdish language is of Indo-Iranian origin, and around 40 million Kurds use it in their day-to-day affairs.