Kurds
Kurdish people or Kurds (Kurdish: کورد, Kurd) are an Iranic[36][37][38] ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northern Syria.[39] There are exclaves of Kurds in Central Anatolia, Khorasan, and the Caucasus, as well as significant Kurdish diaspora communities in the cities of western Turkey (in particular Istanbul) and Western Europe (primarily in Germany). The Kurdish population is estimated to be between 30 and 45 million.[2][40]
"Kurd" redirects here. For other uses, see Kurd (disambiguation).
Kurds speak the Kurdish languages and the Zaza–Gorani languages, which belong to the Western Iranian branch of the Iranian languages.[41][42]
Kurds do not comprise a majority in any country, making them a stateless people.[43] After World War I and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the victorious Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres. However, that promise was broken three years later, when the Treaty of Lausanne set the boundaries of modern Turkey and made no such provision, leaving Kurds with minority status in all of the new countries of Turkey, Iraq, and Syria.[44] Recent history of the Kurds includes numerous genocides and rebellions, along with ongoing armed conflicts in Turkish, Iranian, Syrian, and Iraqi Kurdistan. Kurds in Iraq and Syria have autonomous regions, while Kurdish movements continue to pursue greater cultural rights, autonomy, and independence throughout Kurdistan.
Kurdish (Kurdish: Kurdî or کوردی) is a collection of related dialects spoken by the Kurds.[52] It is mainly spoken in those parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey which comprise Kurdistan.[53] Kurdish holds official status in Iraq as a national language alongside Arabic, is recognized in Iran as a regional language, and in Armenia as a minority language. The Kurds are recognized as a people with a distinct language by Arab geographers such as Al-Masudi since the 10th century.[54]
Many Kurds are either bilingual or multilingual, speaking the language of their respective nation of origin, such as Arabic, Persian, and Turkish as a second language alongside their native Kurdish, while those in diaspora communities often speak three or more languages. Turkified and Arabised Kurds often speak little or no Kurdish.
According to Mackenzie, there are few linguistic features that all Kurdish dialects have in common and that are not at the same time found in other Iranian languages.[55]
The Kurdish dialects according to Mackenzie are classified as:[56]
The Zaza and Gorani are ethnic Kurds,[57] but the Zaza–Gorani languages are not classified as Kurdish.[58]
Mercier. Kurde (Asie) by Auguste Wahlen, 1843
Armenian, Turkish and Kurdish females in their traditional clothes, 1873
A Kurdish chief
