Kurdistan

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Kurdistan (Template:Langx, Template:Lit; Template:IPA),<ref name="BritannicaKurdistan">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> or Greater Kurdistan,<ref>Turkey demands Google remove Greater Kurdistan map by Rudaw, December 25, 2018</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> is a roughly defined geo-cultural region in West Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population<ref name="Zaken">Template:Cite book</ref> and the Kurdish culture, languages, and national identity have historically been based.<ref>M. T. O'Shea, Trapped between the map and reality: geography and perceptions of Kurdistan, 258 pp., Routledge, 2004. (see p. 77)</ref> Geographically, Kurdistan roughly encompasses the northwestern Zagros and the eastern Taurus mountain ranges.

Kurdistan generally comprises the following four regions: southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan), northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan), northwestern Iran (Eastern Kurdistan), and northern Syria (Western Kurdistan).<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Some definitions also include parts of southern Transcaucasia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Certain Kurdish nationalist organizations seek to create an independent nation state consisting of some or all of these areas with a Kurdish majority, while others campaign for greater autonomy within the existing national boundaries.<ref>Hamit Bozarslan “The Kurdish Question: Can it be solved within Europe?”, page 84 “The years of silence and of renewal” in Olivier Roy, ed. Turkey Today: A European Country?.</ref> The delineation of the region remains disputed and varied, with some maps greatly exaggerating its boundaries.

Historically, the word "Kurdistan" is first attested in 11th century Seljuk chronicles.Template:Sfn Many disparate Kurdish dynasties, emirates, principalities, and chiefdoms were established from the 8th to 19th centuries. Administratively, the 20th century saw the establishment of the short-lived areas of the Kurdish state (1918–1919), Kingdom of Kurdistan (1921–1924), Kurdistansky Uyezd i.e. "Red Kurdistan" (1923–1929), Republic of Ararat (1927–1930), and Republic of Mahabad (1946).

In Iraq, following the Aylūl Revolt, the government entered into an agreement with the rebellious Kurds, granting Kurds local self-rule. Soon after, however, the agreement collapsed. Later, during the Iraqi no-fly zones conflict, which followed the Gulf War, the Iraqi military withdrew from parts of northern Iraq, allowing the Kurds to fill the vacuum and regain lost control in those areas. After the invasion of Iraq, and since the creation of the new Iraqi federal state, the new constitution issued in 2005 recognises Kurdistan Region as a federal region;<ref>Iraqi Constitution, Article 117</ref> even though the constitution does not include the term “autonomy”, it emphasises decentralisation and devolution, allowing regions and governorates to administer local affairs. In practice, however, only Kurdistan Region has exercised this authority granted by the constitution. In September 2017, Iraqi Kurds held a one-sided independence referendum, which eventually failed and was abandoned. The subsequent effort by the Iraqi government to punish Kurdistan Region has resulted in the latter losing authorities it had previously possessed,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the future of Kurdish autonomy in Iraq has been called into question.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Iraqi Kurdish officials have also complained of efforts by the Iraqi government to return to the pre-2003 centralized government and dismantle Kurdistan Region altogether.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

There is also a Kurdistan Province in Iran, which is not self-ruled. Kurds fighting in the Syrian civil war were able to take control of large sections of northern Syria and establish self-governing regions in an Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (commonly called Rojava), where they seek autonomy in a federal Syria after the war.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Etymology and delineation

Kurdistan means "Land of the Kurds"<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and was first attested in 11th-century Seljuk chronicles.Template:Sfn The exact origins of the name Kurd are unclear. The suffix -stan (Persian: ـستان, translit. stân) is Persian for land.

"Kurdistan" was also formerly spelled Curdistan.<ref>The Edinburgh Encyclopædia, conducted by D. Brewster—Page 511, Original from Oxford University—published 1830</ref><ref>An Account of the State of Roman-Catholick Religion, Sir Richard Steele, Published 1715</ref> One of the ancient names of this region was Corduene.<ref>N. Maxoudian, "Early Armenia as an Empire: The Career of Tigranes III, 95–55 BC", Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society, Vol. 39, Issue 2, April 1952, pp. 156–63.</ref><ref name="A.D. Lee, 1991 pp. 366–374">A.D. Lee, The Role of Hostages in Roman Diplomacy with Sasanian Persia, Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Vol. 40, No. 3 (1991), pp. 366–74 (see p. 371)</ref> The 19th-century Kurdistan Eyalet was the first time that the Ottoman Empire used the term 'Kurdistan' to refer to an administrative unit rather than a geographical region.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Albeit admitting a thorough delineation is difficult, the Encyclopaedia of Islam delineated Kurdistan as following:<ref name="BRILL">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:BlockquoteMany of the maps delineating Kurdistan are greatly exaggerated, also incorporating non-Kurdish regions, which has made the subject very controversial.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Kaya" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

History

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Ancient history

Template:Main Template:Multiple image Various groups, among them the Guti, Hurrians, Mannai (Mannaeans), and Armenians, lived in this region in antiquity.<ref>[1] Template:Webarchive</ref> The original Mannaean homeland was situated east and south of the Lake Urmia, roughly centered around modern-day Mahabad.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> The region came under Persian rule during the reign of Cyrus the Great and Darius I.

The Kingdom of Corduene, which emerged from the declining Seleucid Empire, was located to the south and south-east of Lake Van between Persia and Mesopotamia and ruled northern Mesopotamia and southeastern Anatolia from 189 BC to AD 384 as vassals of the vying Parthian and Roman empires. Corduene became a vassal state of the Roman Republic in 66 BC and remained allied with the Romans until AD 384. After 66 BC, it passed another 5 times between Rome and Persia. Corduene was situated to the east of Tigranocerta, that is, to the east and south of present-day Diyarbakır in south-eastern Turkey.

Some historians have correlated a connection between Corduene with the modern names of Kurds and Kurdistan;<ref name="A.D. Lee, 1991 pp. 366–374" /><ref>Rawlinson, George, The Seven Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World, Vol. 7, 1871. (copy at Project Gutenberg)</ref><ref>Revue des études arméniennes, vol. 21, 1988–1989, p. 281, by Société des études armeniennes, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Published by Imprimerie nationale, P. Geuthner, 1989.</ref> T. A. Sinclair and other scholars have dismissed this identification as false,<ref>T. A. Sinclair, "Eastern Turkey, an Architectural and Archaeological Survey", 1989, volume 3, page 360.</ref><ref>Mark Marciak Sophene, Gordyene, and Adiabene: Three Regna Minora of Northern Mesopotamia Between East and West, 2017. [2] pp. 220-221</ref><ref>Victoria Arekelova, Garnik S. Asatryan Prolegomena To The Study Of The Kurds, Iran and The Caucasus, 2009 [3] pp. 82</ref><ref name="I. Gershevitch, 1968. p. 237">I. Gershevitch, The Cambridge history of Iran: The Saljuq and Mongol periods, Vol. 5, 762 pp., Cambridge University Press, 1968. (see p. 237 for "Rawwadids")</ref> while a common association is asserted in the Columbia Encyclopedia.<ref>Kurds, The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001.</ref>

Some of the ancient districts of Kurdistan and their corresponding modern names:<ref>J. Bell, A System of Geography. Popular and Scientific (A Physical, Political, and Statistical Account of the World and Its Various Divisions), pp. 133–4, Vol. IV, Fullarton & Co., Glasgow, 1832.</ref>

Corduene or Gordyene (Siirt, Bitlis and Şırnak)
Sophene (Diyarbakır)
Zabdicene or Bezabde (Gozarto d'Qardu or Jazirat Ibn or Cizre)
Basenia (Bayazid)
Moxoene (Muş)
Nephercerta (Miyafarkin)
Artemita (Van)

One of the earliest records of the phrase land of the Kurds is found in an Assyrian Christian document of late antiquity, describing the stories of Assyrian saints of the Middle East, such as Abdisho. When the Sasanian Marzban asked Mar Abdisho about his place of origin, he replied that according to his parents, they were originally from Hazza, a village in Assyria. However, they were later driven out of Hazza by pagans, and settled in Tamanon, which according to Abdisho was in the land of the Kurds. Tamanon lies just north of the modern Iraq-Turkey border, while Hazza is 12 km southwest of modern Erbil. In another passage in the same document, the region of the Khabur River is also identified as land of the Kurds.<ref>J. T. Walker, The Legend of Mar Qardagh: Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq (368 pages), University of California Press, Template:ISBN, 2006, pp. 26, 52, 108.</ref> According to Al-Muqaddasi and Yaqut al-Hamawi, Tamanon was located on the south-western or southern slopes of Mount Judi and south of Cizre.<ref>T. A. Sinclair, "Eastern Turkey, an Architectural and Archaeological Survey", Vol. 3, Pindar Press, Template:ISBN, 1989, page 337.</ref> Other geographical references to the Kurds in Syriac sources appear in Zuqnin chronicle, writings of Michael the Syrian and Bar Hebraeus. They mention the mountains of Qardu, city of Qardu and country of Qardawaye.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Post-classical history

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File:Old Kurdistan Map, Ibn Hawqal.png

Map of Jibal (mountains of northeastern Mesopotamia), highlighting "Summer and winter resorts of the Kurds", the Kurdish lands. Redrawn from Ibn Hawqal, 977 CE.

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The map from Mahmud al-Kashgari's Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk (1072–74), included Kurdistan.<ref name = "Gunes">Template:Cite book</ref>

In the tenth and eleventh centuries, several Kurdish principalities emerged in the region: in the north the Shaddadids (951–1174) (in east Transcaucasia between the Kur and Araxes rivers) and the Rawadids (955–1221) (centered on Tabriz and which controlled all of Azerbaijan), in the east the Hasanwayhids (959–1015) (in Zagros between Shahrizor and Khuzistan) and the Annazids (990–1116) (centered in Hulwan) and in the west the Marwanids (990–1096) to the south of Diyarbakır and north of Jazira.<ref>Maria T. O'Shea, Trapped between the map and reality: geography and perceptions of Kurdistan , 258 pp., Routledge, 2004. (see p. 68)</ref><ref name="I. Gershevitch, 1968. p. 237"/>

Kurdistan in the Middle Ages was a collection of semi-independent and independent states called emirates. It was nominally under indirect political or religious influence of Khalifs or Shahs. A comprehensive history of these states and their relationship with their neighbors is given in the text of Sharafnama, written by Prince Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi in 1597.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>For a list of these entities see Kurdistan and its native Provincial subdivisions Template:Webarchive</ref> The emirates included Baban, Soran, Badinan and Garmiyan in the south; Bakran, Bohtan (or Botan) and Badlis in the north, and Mukriyan and Ardalan in the east.

The earliest medieval attestation of the toponym Kurdistan is found in a 12th-century Armenian historical text by Matteos Urhayeci. He described a battle near Amid and Siverek in 1062 as to have taken place in Kurdistan.<ref>Matt'eos Urhayec'i, Template:In lang Ժամանակագրություն (Chronicle), ed. by M. Melik-Adamyan et al., Erevan, 1991. (p. 156)</ref><ref>G. Asatrian, Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds, Iran and the Caucasus, Vol. 13, pp. 1–58, 2009. (see p. 19)</ref> The second record occurs in the prayer from the colophon of an Armenian manuscript of the Gospels, written in 1200.<ref>A.S. Mat'evosyan, Colophons of the Armenian Manuscripts, Erevan, 1988. (p. 307)</ref><ref>G. Asatrian, Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds, Iran and the Caucasus, Vol. 13, pp. 1–58, 2009. (p. 20)</ref>

A later use of the term Kurdistan is found in Empire of Trebizond documents in 1336<ref>Zehiroglu, Ahmet M. "Trabzon Imparatorlugu" 2016 (Template:ISBN); p. 169</ref> and in Nuzhat al-Qulub, written by Hamdallah Mustawfi in 1340.<ref>G. Asatrian, Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds, Iran and the Caucasus, Vol. 13, pp. 1–58, 2009. (see p. 20)</ref>

File:British Government memoranda regarding Article 25 of the Palestine Mandate with respect to Transjordan, March 1921.jpg

British Government 1921 proposal from the Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill, for an autonomous region of Kurdistan.

File:Cedid Atlas (Middle East) 1803.jpg

1803 map from the Cedid Atlas, the first Muslim atlas, showing Kurdistan in blue

According to Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi in his Sharafnama, the boundaries of the Kurdish land begin at the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and stretch on an even line to the end of Malatya and Marash.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Evliya Çelebi, who traveled in the region between 1640 and 1655, mentioned that Kurdistan includes Erzurum, Van, Hakkari, Cizre, Imaddiya, Mosul, Shahrizor, Harir, Ardalan, Baghdad, Derne, Derteng, until Basra.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In the 16th century, after prolonged wars, Kurdish-inhabited areas were split between the Safavid and Ottoman empires. A major division of Kurdistan occurred in the aftermath of the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514, and was formalized in the 1639 Treaty of Zuhab.<ref>C. Dahlman, "The Political Geography of Kurdistan", Eurasian Geography and Economics, Vol.43, No.4, pp.271–299, 2002.</ref> In a geography textbook of late Ottoman military school by Ahmet Cevad Kurdistan span over the cities Erzurum, Van, Urfa, Sulaymanyah, Kirkuk, Mosul and Diyarbakir among others and was one out of six regions of Ottoman Asia.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Modern history

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Allies contrived to split Kurdistan (as detailed in the ultimately unratified Treaty of Sèvres) among several countries, including Kurdistan, Armenia and others. However, the reconquest of these areas by the forces of Kemal Atatürk (and other pressing issues) caused the Allies to accept the renegotiated Treaty of Lausanne (1923) and the borders of the modern Republic of Turkey, leaving the Kurds without a self-ruled region.<ref>Sardar Aziz (2013). "Re-conceptualizing Kurdistan as a Battlefield." "Un mondo senza stati è un mondo senza guerre". Politisch motivierte Gewalt im regionalen Kontext, ed. by Georg Grote, Hannes Obermair and Günther Rautz (EURAC book 60), Bozen–Bolzano, Template:ISBN, pp. 45–61.</ref> Other Kurdish areas were assigned to the new British and French mandated states of Iraq and Syria.

File:WholeRegionSevres.gif

Kurdistan (shaded area) as suggested by the Treaty of Sèvres

At the San Francisco Peace Conference of 1945, the Kurdish delegation proposed consideration of territory claimed by the Kurds, which encompassed an area extending from the Mediterranean shores near Adana to the shores of the Persian Gulf near Bushehr, and included the Lur inhabited areas of southern Zagros.<ref>C. Dahlman, The Political Geography of Kurdistan, Eurasian Geography and Economics, Vol.43, No.4, p. 274.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The historian Jordi Tejel has identified "Greater Kurdistan" as being one of the "Kurdish myths" that the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (KDPS) were involved in promoting to Kurds in Syria.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

An academic source published by the University of Cambridge has described maps of greater Kurdistan created in the 1940s and forward as: "These maps have become some of the most influential propaganda tools for the Kurdish nationalist discourse. They depict a territorially exaggerated version of the territory of Kurdistan, extending into areas with no majority Kurdish populations. Despite their production with political aims related to specific claims on the demographic and ethnographic structure of the region, and their questionable methodologies, they have become 'Kurdistan in the minds of Kurds' and the boundaries they indicate have been readily accepted."<ref name = "Kaya">Template:Cite book</ref>

At the end of the 1991 Gulf War, the Coalition established a no-fly zone over northern Iraq to provide humanitarian relief to and safeguard the Kurds who would be subjected to Iraqi air attacks. Amid the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from three northern provinces, Kurdistan Region emerged in 1992 as an autonomous entity inside Iraq with its own local government and parliament.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

A 2010 US report, written before the instability in Syria and Iraq that exists as of 2014, attested that "Kurdistan may exist by 2030".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The weakening of the Iraqi state following the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has also presented an opportunity for independence for Iraqi Kurdistan,<ref name="opportunity" /> augmented by Turkey's move towards acceptance of such a state although it opposes moves toward Kurdish autonomy in Turkey and Syria.<ref name="turkey_ok" />

Northern Kurdistan

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Abdullah Öcalan pictured 1997

The incorporation into Turkey of the Kurdish-inhabited regions of eastern Anatolia was opposed by many Kurds, and has resulted in a long-running separatist conflict in which tens of thousands of lives have been lost. The region saw several major Kurdish rebellions, including the Koçgiri rebellion of 1920 against the Grand National Assembly, then successive insurrections under the Turkish state, including the 1924 Sheikh Said rebellion, the Republic of Ararat in 1927, and the 1937 Dersim rebellion. All were forcefully put down by the authorities. The region was declared a closed military area from which foreigners were banned between 1925 and 1965.<ref>M.M. Gunter, The Kurds and the future of Turkey, 184 pp., Palgrave Macmillan, 1997. (see p. 6)</ref><ref>G. Chaliand, A people without a country: the Kurds and Kurdistan, 259 pp., Interlink Books, 1993. (see p. 250)</ref><ref>Joost Jongerden, The settlement issue in Turkey and the Kurds: an analysis of spatial policies, modernity and war, 354 pp., BRILL Publishers, 2007. (see p. 37)</ref>

In an attempt to deny their existence, the Turkish government categorized Kurds as "Mountain Turks" until 1991.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Bartkus, Viva Ona, The Dynamic of Secession, (Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 90–1.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The words "Kurds", "Kurdistan", or "Kurdish" were officially banned by the Turkish government.<ref name=bahar /> Following the military coup of 1980, the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life.<ref name=NYTK>Toumani, Meline. Minority Rules, New York Times, 17 February 2008</ref> Many people who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were arrested and imprisoned.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, political parties that represented Kurdish interests were banned.<ref name=bahar>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1983, the Kurdish provinces were included in the state of emergency region, which was placed under martial law in response to the activities of the militant separatist organization the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).<ref name="hue">Kurd, The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia including Atlas, 2005</ref><ref name="nytimes">"[4], NY Times, 28 September 2007</ref> A guerrilla war took place through the 1980s and 1990s in which much of the countryside was evacuated, thousands of Kurdish villages were destroyed by the government, and numerous summary executions were carried out by both sides.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=cengiz>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="ocpw">Martin van Bruinessen, "Kurdistan." The Oxford Companion to the Politics of the World, 2nd edition. Joel Krieger, ed. Oxford University Press, 2001.</ref> Food embargoes were placed on Kurdish villages and towns.<ref name=olson>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=muftah>Template:Cite web</ref> Tens of thousands were killed in the violence and hundreds of thousands were forced to leave their homes.<ref name="bbc">"Kurdish rebels kill Turkey troops", BBC News, 8 May 2007</ref>

Turkey has historically feared that a Kurdish state in Northern Iraq would encourage and support Kurdish separatists in the adjacent Turkish provinces, and have therefore historically strongly opposed Kurdish independence in Iraq. However, following the chaos in Iraq after the US invasion, Turkey has increasingly worked with the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The word 'Kurdistan', whether written or spoken, can still lead to detention and prosecution in Turkey.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Kurdistan has been characterized as an "international colony" by the scholar Ismail Besikci.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

File:Syrian, Iraqi, and Lebanese insurgencies.svg

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Iraqi Kurdistan

The successful 2014 Northern Iraq offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), and the resultant weakening of the ability of the Iraqi state to project power at the time, also presented a "golden opportunity" for the Kurds to increase their independence and possibly declare an independent Kurdish state.<ref name="opportunity">Template:Cite web</ref> The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, who took more than 80 Turkish persons captive in Mosul during their offensive, is an enemy of Turkey, making Kurdistan useful for Turkey as a buffer state. On 28 June 2014 Hüseyin Çelik, a spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), made comments to the Financial Times indicating Turkey's readiness to accept an independent Kurdistan in northern Iraq.<ref name="turkey_ok">Template:Cite web</ref> This became increasingly less likely, however, when in July 2017, the Iraqi government declared victory in the Battle of Mosul against ISIS in the group’s last stronghold in the country. Following this, in September 2017, Iraqi Kurds held a one-sided independence referendum which eventually triggered a military operation wherein the Iraqi government forces attacked the Kurds, defeating them and forcing them to abandon the referendum. A month later, Iraq declared full victory over ISIS and re-established control over all previously occupied territory. Following the Kurds’ failed attempt to achieve independence, the government of Iraq has exacted severe punishment against KRI in a number of punitive measures.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Some Kurdish officials in Iraq have described this as evidence of the Iraqi government’s aim to return to a centralised political system and abandon the federal system it adopted in 2005.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In a leaked letter published by Al-Monitor in September 2023, Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of KRG warned about an imminent collapse of the federal model in Iraq (i.e. a return to centralism) and urged the United States to intervene, saying: "I write to you now at another critical juncture in our history, one that I fear we may have difficulty overcoming. …[W]e are bleeding economically and hemorrhaging politically. For the first time in my tenure as prime minister, I hold grave concerns that this dishonorable campaign against us may cause the collapse of … the very model of a Federal Iraq that the United States sponsored in 2003 and purported to stand by since."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to a report published in 2024 by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Kurdistan Region's autonomy "hangs in the balance" due to several punitive measures imposed against the former by the government of Iraq in an effort to punish it and ultimately strip it completely of its autonomy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Syrian Civil War

Template:See also Various sources have reported that Al-Nusra has issued a fatwā calling for Kurdish women and children in Syria to be killed,<ref>See * David Phillips (World Post column) "President Masoud Barzani of Iraqi Kurdistan has pledged protection for Syrian Kurds from al-Nusra, a terrorist organization, which issued a fatwa calling for the killing of Kurdish women and children"

David Phillips (World Post column) "Al-Nusra Front, Syria's Al-Qaeda affiliate, issued a fatwa condoning the killing of Kurdish women and children"
ITNsource.com "A fatwa (edict) has been issued permitting the shedding of the blood of the Kurds and they called from the mosque loudspeakers that the shedding of the Kurdish blood is halal"</ref> and the fighting in Syria has led tens of thousands of refugees to flee to Iraq's Kurdistan region.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As of 2015, Turkey was actively supporting Al-Nusra,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> but as of January 2017, Turkey's foreign ministry has said that Al-Nusra is a terrorist group and has acted accordingly.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

People

Template:For According to 2016 estimate Kurdish Institute of Paris, total population of Kurdistan is around 34.5 million, and Kurds making 86% of population of Northern Kurdistan.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref> There are Arab, Turkic, Assyrian (Syriac), Armenian and Azerbaijani minorities in Northern Kurdistan.<ref name=":2" /> In Southern Kurdistan there are Christian (Assyrian and Armenian) and Turkish (Turkmen) minorities as well.<ref name=":2" /> Iraqi and Syrian Turkmen share close ties with Turkish people and do not identify with the Turkmen of Turkmenistan and Central Asia.<ref name="Peyrouse2015">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="TheNewYorkTimes">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Kushner1987p202">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Sfn<ref name="Bassem2016">Template:Cite web</ref> Kurdistan has also significant Caucasian population, Caucasians of Kurdistan included Chechens and Ingushes in Varto,<ref name="checheningush2">Template:Cite book</ref> Ossetians in Ahlat<ref name="Gorman2">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Circassians. From early stage on, these Caucasians went through a process of Kurdification and thereby had Kurdish as their mother tongue.<ref>Ahmet Buran Ph.D., Türkiye'de Diller ve Etnik Gruplar, 2012</ref><ref name="cerkes">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Geography

File:Ancient Kurdistan.png

Historic map from 1721 showing borders of Curdistan provinces in Persia

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Kurdistan covers about 190,000 km² (or 73,000 square miles), and its chief towns are Diyarbakır (Amed), Bitlis (Bedlîs) and Van (Wan) in Turkey, Erbil (Hewlêr) and Sulaymaniyah in Iraq, and Kermanshah (Kirmanşan), Sanandaj (Sine), Ilam and Mahabad (Mehabad) in Iran.<ref>Kurdistan, Encyclopædia Britannica</ref> According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, Kurdistan covers around Template:Convert in Turkey, Template:Convert in Iran, Template:Convert in Iraq, and Template:Convert in Syria, with a total area of approximately Template:Convert.<ref name=":0" />

Turkish Kurdistan encompasses a large area of Eastern Anatolia Region and southeastern Anatolia of Turkey and it is home to an estimated 6 to 8 million Kurds.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Subdivisions (Upper and Lower Kurdistan)

In A Dictionary of Scripture Geography (published 1846), John Miles describes Upper and Lower Kurdistan as following:

File:Kurdish States 1902 -outlined.jpg

The States outlined in red are two Kurdish States named Hakkiari and Mosul in this 1902 map. They are referred to as Upper Kurdistan and Lower Kurdistan respectively.

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The northern, northwestern and northeastern parts of Kurdistan are referred to as upper Kurdistan, and includes the areas from west of Amed to Lake Urmia.

The lowlands of southern Kurdistan are called lower Kurdistan. The main cities in this area are Kirkuk and Arbil.

Climate

Much of the region is typified by a continental climate – hot in the summer, cold in the winter. Despite this, much of the region is fertile and has historically exported grain and livestock. Precipitation varies between 200 and 400 mm a year in the plains, and between 700 and 3,000 mm a year on the high plateau between mountain chains.<ref name=":0" /> The mountainous zone along the borders with Iran and Turkey experiences dry summers, rainy and sometimes snowy winters, and damp springs, while to the south the climate progressively transitions toward semi-arid and desert zones.

Flora and fauna

Kurdistan is one of the most mountainous regions in the world with a cold climate receiving annual precipitation adequate to sustain temperate forests and shrubs. Mountain chains harbor pastures and forested valleys, totaling approximately 16 million hectares (160,000 km²), including firs and countryside is mostly oaks, conifers, platanus, willow, poplar and, to the west of Kurdistan, olive trees.<ref name=":0" />

The region north of the mountainous region on the border with Iran and Turkey features meadow grasses and such wild trees as, Abies cilicica, Fagus sylvatica, Quercus calliprinos, Quercus brantii, Quercus infectoria, Quercus ithaburensis, Quercus macranthera, Cupressus sempervirens, Platanus orientalis, Pinus brutia, Juniperus foetidissima, Juniperus excelsa, Juniperus oxycedrus, Prunus cerasus, Salix alba, Fraxinus excelsior, Paliurus spina-christi, Olea europaea, Ficus carica, Populus euphratica, Populus nigra, Crataegus monogyna, Crataegus azarolus, Prunus cerasifera, rose hips, Cercis siliquastrum, pistachio trees, pear and Sorbus graeca. The desert in the south is mostly steppe and would feature xeric plants such as palm trees, tamarix, date palm, fraxinus, poa, white wormwood and chenopodiaceae.<ref>Village on the Euphrates: From Foraging to Farming at Abu Hureyra, by A.M.T Moore, G.C. Hillman and A.J. Legge, Published 2000, Oxford University Press</ref><ref name="auto"/> The steppe and desert in the south, by contrast, have such species as palm trees and date palm.

Animals found in the region include the Syrian brown bear, wild boar, gray wolf, the golden jackal, Indian crested porcupine, the red fox, goitered gazelle, Eurasian otter, striped hyena, Persian fallow deer, long-eared hedgehog, onager, mangar and the Euphrates softshell turtle.<ref>Al-Sheikhly, O.F.; and Nader, I.A. (2013). The Status of the Iraq Smooth-coated Otter Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli Hayman 1956 and Eurasian Otter Lutra lutra Linnaeus 1758 in Iraq. IUCN Otter Spec. Group Bull. 30(1).</ref> Birds include, the hooded crow, common starling, Eurasian magpie, European robin, water pipit, spotted flycatcher, namaqua dove, saker falcon, griffon vulture, little crake and collared pratincole, among others.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Mountains

Mountains are important geographical and symbolic features of Kurdish life, as evidenced by the saying "Kurds have no friends but the mountains."<ref>John Bulloch and Harvey Morris, No Friends but the Mountains: The Tragic History of the Kurds, Template:ISBN</ref> Mountains are regarded as sacred by the Kurds.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Included in the region are Mount Judi and Ararat (both prominent in Kurdish folklore), Zagros, Qandil, Shingal, Mount Abdulaziz, Kurd Mountains, Jabal al-Akrad, Shaho, Gabar, Hamrin, and Nisir.

Water resources

Iraqi Kurdistan is a region relatively rich in water, especially for countries in the Middle East region. It is the source for much of the water supply for neighboring countries. It means that political stability and peace in the region are important to the water supply of the region and preventing wars.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Many think that for conserving the water "returning to traditional water-conserving cultivation techniques" will be needed, as well as "communal economy"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Rivers

The plateaus and mountains of Kurdistan, which are characterized by heavy rain and snow fall, act as a water reservoir for the Near and Middle East, forming the source of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, as well as other numerous smaller rivers, such as the Little Khabur, Khabur, Tharthar, Ceyhan, Araxes, Kura, Sefidrud, Karkha, and Hezil. Among rivers of historical importance to Kurds are the Murat (Arasān) and Buhtān rivers in Turkey; the Peshkhābur, the Little Zab, the Great Zab, and the Diyala in Iraq; and the Jaghatu (Zarrinarud), the Tātā'u (Siminarud), the Zohāb (Zahāb), and the Gāmāsiyāb in Iran.<ref name=":1" />

These rivers, which flow from heights of three to four thousand meters above sea level, are significant both as water sources and for the production of energy. Iraq and Syria dammed many of these rivers and their tributaries. Turkey has an extensive dam system under construction as part of the GAP (Southeast Anatolia Project); though incomplete, the GAP already supplies a significant proportion of Turkey's electrical energy needs.<ref name=":1" /> Due to the extraordinary archaeological richness of the region, almost any dam impacts historic sites.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> With the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, Turkey was accused of withholding water from the reservoir Lake Assad in Syria, while filling the Atatürk dam in Turkey.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Lakes

Kurdistan extends to Lake Urmia in Iran on the east. The region includes Lake Van, the largest body of water in Turkey; the only lake in the Middle East with a larger surface is Lake Urmia – though not nearly as deep as Lake Van, which has a much larger volume. Urmia, Van, as well as Zarivar Lake west of Marivan, and Lake Dukan near the city of Sulaymaniyah, are frequented by tourists.<ref name="Kurdistanica">Template:Cite web</ref>

Petroleum and mineral resources

Kurdistan Region is estimated to contain around Template:Convert of oil, making it the sixth largest reserve in the world. Extraction of these reserves began in 2007.

Al-Hasakah province, also known as Jazira region, has geopolitical importance of oil and is suitable for agricultural lands.

In November 2011, Exxon challenged the Iraqi central government's authority with the signing of oil and gas contracts for exploration rights to six parcels of land in Kurdistan, including one contract in the disputed territories, just east of the Kirkuk mega-field.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This act caused Baghdad to threaten to revoke Exxon's contract in its southern fields, most notably the West-Qurna Phase 1 project.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Exxon responded by announcing its intention to leave the West-Qurna project.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

As of July 2007, the Kurdish government solicited foreign companies to invest in 40 new oil sites, with the hope of increasing regional oil production over the following five years by a factor of five, to about Template:Convert.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Gas and associated gas reserves are in excess of Template:Convert. Notable companies active in Kurdistan include ExxonMobil, Total, Chevron, Talisman Energy, Genel Energy, Hunt Oil, Gulf Keystone Petroleum, and Marathon Oil.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Other mineral resources that exist in significant quantities in the region include coal, copper, gold, iron, limestone (which is used to produce cement), marble, and zinc. The world's largest deposit of rock sulfur is located just southwest of Erbil.<ref>Template:Usurped, Kurdistan Development Corporation.</ref>

In July 2012, Turkey and the Kurdistan Region signed an agreement by which Turkey would regularly supply the KRG with refined petroleum products in exchange for crude oil.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>