Kurdistan

Kurdish Homeland

Kurdistan, land of the Kurds, is a geographic area, not a country or a state. It is located at “the edge of empires and the crossroads of civilizations." Kurdistan's boundaries, generally, are a mountainous expanse of some 200,000 square miles (roughly the size of France) straddling the present state boundaries of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and the former Soviet Republics of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Kurds are considered as one of the largest ethnic minorities in the world without a country of their own.

Learn more about Kurdistan

The Kurds were promised a state of their own by the 1920 Sevres Peace Treaty in Paris after World War I, but instead they were divided between Iraq , Iran , Syria , and Turkey. Since World War I, the Kurds have revolted several times against the countries they occupy, because the ruling regimes of these countries have attempted to destroy the Kurds’ politics, culture, economics, and linguistic identity.

The lineage and origin of the Kurds as an indigenous and identifiable ethnic group may be traced to antiquity. By 700 A.D., the term “Kurd” appears in Arab writings to refer to a nomadic group whose socio-economic base was pastoral and resided in present-day Kurdistan. They have occupied modern Kurdistan continuously for more than two thousand years. However, their ancestry is difficult to distinguish because of their early nomadic culture, albeit confined to a specific geographic region and, they have been subject to the rule by various powers throughout their history (e.g.the Ottoman-Turks, Persian-Iranians and Arab-Islamic imperial powers). These imperial powers created conditions for various fabricated truths and claims through manipulation of historical records regarding the origin and existence of the Kurdish people. The Kurds have neither kept a meticulous history, nor participated in recording their historical geographic areas, natural resources, population and ethnicity. Different regional imperial powers created data and information about the Kurds, which more than likely, was recorded at the expense of Kurds. It is not clear when precisely a distinct Kurdish identity emerged; however, based on current literature, their sense of community emerged early during the twentieth century.

More recently, Kurds fought for independence from Arab Iraq. In 1988, Saddam Hussein retaliated, killing at least 80,000 Kurds and razing villages in the so-called Anfal campaign. But the Kurds won autonomy after the American military set up a no-flight zone over Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991 to prevent incursions by the Iraqi Army. Today, approximately 2,000 Kurds have joined Iraqi/Baghad security forces to help secure the city. “This is possibly the first time since the days of Saladin, the revered 12th-century Kurdish warrior-king, that Kurdish forces have been given the task of controlling swaths of Baghdad.” They help to secure the streets for their historic enemies, the Arabs. Finally, the current president of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, is Kurdish.

Demographics

It is estimated that 35 million Kurds live in the Southwest Asian region of Kurdistan, while one or two million Kurds have immigrated to Western European countries such as Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and France. The population of Kurds living outside of Southwest Asia is called the Kurdish Diaspora.

Turkish Kurds:

• 15.4 Million Kurds living in Turkey

• Kurds make up 24% of Turkey's total population

Syrian Kurds:

• 1.3 Million Kurds living in Syria

• Kurds make up 9.5% of Syria's total population

Iraqi Kurds:

• 4.3 Million Kurds living in Iraq

• Kurds make up 22% of Iraq's total population

Iranian Kurds:

• 6.8 Million Kurds living in Iran

• Kurds make up 11% of Iran's total population

Kurdish Diaspora:

The Kurdish diaspora consist of more than one and a half million Kurds. Refugees, migrants, and second and third generation citizens make up this population of Kurds. The following is an estimation of the population of the Kurdish Diaspora in 1996:

• Germany (600,000-650,00)

• Afghanistan (200,000)

• Azerbaijan (150,000)

• France (100,000-120,000)

• Brazil (100,000-?)

• Netherlands (70,000-80,000)

• Switzerland (60,000-70,000)

• Georgia (60,000)

• Austria (50,000-60,000)

• Belgium (50,000-60,000)

• Armenia (45,000)

• Turkmenistan (40,000)

• Britain (20,000-25,000)

• Sweden (25,000-30,000)

• United States (15,000-20,000)

• Greece (20,000-25,000)

*Smaller number of Kurdish families live in almost every other country in the world including Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Note: Per below, the population of Kurds in the United States may be as high as 35,000.

Nearly 85-90 percent of the Kurds that make up the diaspora come from Turkish Kurdistan.

Population of Kurds in the US

In the United States, it is believed that the Kurdish population may be as high as 35,000, the large majority of which come from Iran. It is estimated that some 23,000 Iranian Kurds are living in the United States. Iraqi Kurds also form a large part of the community in the United States. During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, about 10,000 Iraqi refugees were admitted to the United States, most of which were Kurds and Shiites who had assisted or were sympathizers of the U.S.–led war. Most Kurds live in Tennessee, Southern California, the majority of the Iranian Kurds live in Los Angeles, and most of the Iraqi Kurds live in San Diego. The community also includes Jewish Kurds.

Surprisingly, Nashville, Tennessee is home to one of the largest Kurdish populations outside the Middle East. The wave of immigration started after the first Gulf War in the early 1990s. Since then, the Kurdish community has swelled to more than 8,000 people, adding to a foreign-born population that's approaching 10% of the city's population. More immigrants are purchasing homes, making them an important factor in the housing recovery, and although the Muslim Religion is against paying interest on loans, organizations such as Habitat for Humanity have stepped up to assist the housing needs of many Kurds.

In addition, based on the Portland Public Schools 2010-2011 school year, and Language Summary by School, there are 16 Kurdish speaking children attending all schools within the district. This is out of a total student population of 45,795.

Although little information or data is available on the number of Kurdish immigrants currently living in Oregon, the Kurdish Human Rights Watch, Inc. (KHRW) was mandated in 1989 to help immigrants achieve self-sufficiency and human rights. KHRW began in 1989 in response to the atrocities committed against the Kurdish minorities by Saddam Hussein including crimes against humanity, chemical weapon use and genocide of the 1980s. KHRW has grown into an international humanitarian service organization with six community service sites in the United States, one of which is Portland, and four community service sites in Iraq. KHRW’s mandate has grown over the past 13 years to enable IDPs (internally displaced homeless families) in northern Iraq and refugees in the United States and is the primary Kurdish community-based organization in America and Oregon, which help Kurds achieve successful integration.

Culture

Kurdish culture and society cannot be described under any singular construct. There are important distinctions between Kurdish groups in different parts of Kurdistan and between “tribal” and “non-tribal” Kurds. The former may be generally described as a patrilineal, who typically marry within their group as required by custom or law, are segmentary tribes, or ashiret. Ashiret may constitute either a tribe or a confederation of tribal groups, and may also comprise non-descent groups, clans, or descent lineages. The term ashiret is used to describe a tribal structure and the condition of being tribal.

The latter, non-tribal, Kurds historically comprise a peasant class of both Kurds and non-Kurdish sharecroppers, subject to tribal rule, though such distinctions are less visible today. Non-tribal Kurds also include those who are unaware, by chance or by choice, of their kinship. Kurdish cultural topography directly reflects the territorial division of land according to ashiret, and land rights generally follow descent or clan lines. Though private property is common today, collective property regimes associated with pasturage endure through the allocation of land to local villages and sedentary clans.

The cohesion of a Kurdish tribe is based on a mixture of blood ties and territorial allegiances associated with strong religous loyalties. The majority of the members of traditional and modern Kurdish culture are Sunni Muslims; as such, religion plays a prominent and daily role in Kurdish Life. The largely non-literate share of traditional Sunni Muslims in Kurdish culture understand or interpret religous truths differently in many ways from the highly literate traditions of Sunni or Shi'ite Islam. In addition to Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim Kurds, there is also a Christian population of several thousand Kurds, and more than 150,000 Jewish Kurds, most of whom live in Israel today. Although they are a religious minority, the Christian and Jewish Kurds are Kurdish in their culture and language.

However, religious differences are not responsible for the rise of class-based distinctions, as much as that brought about by urbanization in the 20th century. Modernization and the rise of competing, national identities have altered Kurdish ethnic consciousness. Still, the gradual erosion of Kurdish identity is not simply due to modernization and urbanization; anti-Kurdish chauvinism and marginalization has been experienced by Kurds since their existence and most recently under Kemalist Turkey, Ba‘thist Syria and Iraq, and both the Shah’s and Ayatollahs’ Iran.

In spite of all these potential tribal, religious and political pressure points, which threaten Kurdish nationalism, traditional Kurdish oral literature, poems, music, tribal costume, written literature and folklore which form Kurdish cultural identity and sense of nationalism are being recorded in written form. Finally, another famous traditional art form, dating back to the eighteenth century of hand woven Kurdish rugs and kilems is still practiced today. These rugs are made by individual tribal or village women, and appreciated worldwide for their natural dyes, rich colors and finely knotted weave. Conceivably this practice and traditional art form will be preserved as well.

Literature

Despite much oppression of the Kurdish Language from the Iranian government, there has been culture and literature contributed by the Iranian Kurds to that country. There has been much exchange of literature between Iranian and Iraqi Kurds because Persian and Arabic share a script. However, due to the restriction of education in the Kurdish language many Turkish Kurds cannot read in Arabic script, as Turkish is written in a Roman Alphabet. This has drastically limited the exchange of literature in Turkish Kurdistan. Similarly in Syria the ban against publication in Kurdish has severely limited the written tradition of Kurdish literature that began in Gurâni a dialect written and spoken by members of Kurdish high society before the 12th century.

Education

• The struggle for education in the Kurdish language has been present since the British Mandate Period of the 1920s in Iraq and Iran.

• During this time the mandate system began to reorganize the educational systems constructed by the Ottoman Turks, which were primarily French models.

• It was proposed that the medium of instruction should be Arabic or the local “vernacular” (e.g. Kurdish, Turkish, or Persian). Under this principle Kurdish and other minority languages were seen as inferior and were only used for instruction at the primary school level. Despite protest of the Kurdish people, Arabic remained the language of instruction at the secondary level until the 1970s.

• Government officials posited that translation of textbooks from Arabic to Kurdish would be costly. Kurdish officials countered that it was impertinent to the growth of the Kurdish language through educational instruction, yet the opposition claimed that it was to the ultimate benefit of the Kurdish people to receive instruction in Arabic, the language of the dominant culture.

• Similar struggles for native language instruction for the Kurdish people existed from the 70s and 80s in Iran, Syria, the USSR, and in the Kurdish Diaspora.

• Throughout the struggle for education in Kurdistan, shortages in schools and teachers have stifled the Kurdish language and caused widespread problems of illiteracy amongst the Kurdish people

• In Turkey, the illiteracy rate amongst Kurds is more than 72 percent. In Iran, it is 70 percent. Kurds are the second least literate minority group living in Iran. In Iraq, Syria, and the Soviet Union there is only a slightly higher rate of literacy amongst Kurds.

• There are seven universities in the Kurdistan region, including two English language universities, the University of Kurdistan Hawler in Erbil which opened in 2006, and the American University in Iraq in Suleimaniah, which opened in 2007.

Implications for SLPs

• Kurdish is written right to left, English left to right.

• Kurdish short vowels are not shown in writing.

• Kurdish word order is Subject-Object-Verb order.

• Kurdish word stress falls on the last syllable of most words.

• Kurdish does not have the English phonemes /w/, /ð/, /θ/, and vowel sounds /æ/, /Ʌ/, /ε/, /З/, /ɑ/, /ɒ/, and /ɔ/ therefore, Kurdish speakers of English may need to learn how to produce these.

• Kurdish culture is a patrilinear, therefore, the male is head of the family and makes most decisions and should be consulted in any major decisions regarding treatment.

• English to Kurdish/Kurdish to English Translator

Useful Words and Phrases

English Kurdish

How are you? Choni?

Good Morning Bayani bash

Good Afternoon Ewara Bash

Good night Shaw Bash

Good day Roj Bash

Welcome Bakher Beyt

How much is this? Ama ba chanda?

Yes Bale

No Na

Please Bey-zahmet

You're welcome Shayani niya

Mr. Ahmed Kak Ahmed (honorific term for men)

Miss/Mrs. Sayran Sayran Khan (honorific term for women)

With pleasure Saw chaw

Excuse me Ba yarmateet

Do you speak English? Inglizi ezani?

I don't speak Kurdish Kurdi nazanm

Tea without sugar! Chai bey shak

Translation Phrase Pronunciation

Kurdish Kurdî (Kur-di)

Good morning Beyanî bas (ba-ya-nî-bash)

Good day Roj Bas (rozh-bash)

Good bye serçawan (sar-cha-wan)

Welcome be xêr hatî (be xêr hatî)

Please tikaye (t-ka-ya)

Thank you spas (spas)

Sorry bibûre (b-bu-ra)

That one howe (ho-wa)

How much? çende (chan-da)

Yes belê (ba-le)

No na (na)

I don't understand tê nagem (te-na-gam)

Where's the bathroom awdes le kwêye? (aw-das-la-kue-ya)

Do you speak English? Tu inglîsî dezanî? (tu-in-gli-si-da-za-ni)