Editing Kurds (section)

==Population==
{{main|Kurdish population}}
The number of Kurds living in [[Southwest Asia]] is estimated at between 30 and 45 million, with another one or two million living in the [[Kurdish diaspora]]. Kurds comprise anywhere from 18 to 25% of the population in [[Turkey]],<ref name="CIAonline"/><ref name="Mackey">{{cite book|first=Sandra|last=Mackey|title=The Reckoning: Iraq and the Legacy of Saddam|url=https://archive.org/details/reckoningiraqleg00mack|url-access=registration|publisher=W.W. Norton and Co.|year=2002|page=[https://archive.org/details/reckoningiraqleg00mack/page/350 350]|isbn=9780393051414|quote=As much as 25% of Turkey is Kurdish}} This would raise the population estimate by about 5 million.{{dubious|date=October 2014}}<!--What does this even mean and what was her source? Without context, this may refer to area not population.--></ref> 15 to 20% in [[Iraq]];<ref name="CIAonline"/> 10% in [[Iran]];<ref name="CIAonline"/> and 9% in [[Syria]].<ref name="CIAonline"/><ref name="USDOS2012">{{cite web|title=Background Note: Syria|author=Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs|work=State.gov|publisher=US State Department|location=Washington, DC|date=9 March 2012|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3580.htm|access-date=2 August 2015}} The CIA ''World Factbook'' reports all non-Arabs make up 9.7% of the Syrian population, but does not break out the Kurdish figure separately. However, this State Dept. source provides a figure of 9%.  {{as of|2015|08}}, the current document at this state.gov URL no longer provides such ethnic group data.</ref> Kurds form regional majorities in all four of these countries, ''viz.'' in [[Turkish Kurdistan]], [[Iraqi Kurdistan]], [[Iranian Kurdistan]] and [[Syrian Kurdistan]]. The Kurds are the fourth largest [[ethnic groups in West Asia|ethnic group in West Asia]] after [[Arabs]], [[Persian people|Persians]], and [[Turkish people|Turks]].

The total number of Kurds in 1991 was placed at 22.5&nbsp;million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 24% in Iran, 18% in Iraq, and 4% in Syria.<ref>{{cite web|title=A Stateless Nation's Quest for Sovereignty in the Sky|first=Amir|last=Hassanpour|date=7 November 1995|publisher=[[Concordia University]]|url=http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/~siamakr/Kurdish/KURDICA/hassanpour.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070820033216/http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/~siamakr/Kurdish/KURDICA/hassanpour.html|archive-date=20 August 2007|access-date=3 August 2015}} Paper presented at the Freie Universitat Berlin.  For the figure, cites: {{cite news|title=The Kurds: A Nation Denied|first=David|last=McDowall|year=1992|location=London|publisher=Minority Rights Group}}</ref>

Recent emigration accounts for a population of close to 1.5&nbsp;million in Western countries, about half of them [[Kurds in Germany|in Germany]].

A special case are the Kurdish populations in the [[Transcaucasus]] and [[Central Asia]], displaced there mostly in the time of the [[Russian Empire]], who underwent independent developments for more than a century and have developed an ethnic identity in their own right.<ref>"The Kurds of Caucasia and Central Asia have been cut off for a considerable period of time and their development in Russia and then in the Soviet Union has been somewhat different. In this light the Soviet Kurds may be considered to be an ethnic group in their own right." ''[[The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire]]'' {{cite web|title=Kurds|url=http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/kurds.shtml|publisher=Institute of Estonia (EKI)|access-date=22 June 2012}}</ref> This group's population was estimated at close to 0.4&nbsp;million in 1990.<ref>Ismet Chériff Vanly, "The Kurds in the Soviet Union", in: Philip G. Kreyenbroek & S. Sperl (eds.), ''The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview'' (London: Routledge, 1992), p. 164: Table based on 1990 estimates: 
Azerbaijan (180,000), Armenia (50,000), Georgia (40,000), Kazakhstan (30,000), Kyrgyzstan (20,000), Uzbekistan (10,000), Tajikistan (3,000), Turkmenistan (50,000), Siberia (35,000), Krasnodar (20,000), Other (12,000) (total 410,000).</ref>