Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
\Vho are the Kurds?
The Kurds are the descendants of Indo-European
~ tribes who settled among the inhabitants of the
Zagros mountains in various epochs, but probably
mainly during the second millennium BC. The first
mention of Kurds, as 'Cyrtii', occurred in the second
century BC. At the time of the Arab conquest in the
seventh century AD, the term 'Kurd' was used to
denote nomadic people.
The Kurds today, numbering at least 26 million,
struggle to obtain political recognition. and rights as
national communities within the state boundaries in
which they find themselves. They form the largest ethnic
community in th~ Middle East without a state of its own.
Population estin1ates (1993) 0
Country Total population Kurds %
Iran 61,000,000 6,100,000 10%
Iraq 19,300,000 4,400,000 23%
Syria 13,400,000 1,100.000 8%
Turkey 60,000,000 13,200.000 22%
Former
Soviet
Union 500.000
Elsewhere 700,000
Total 26,000,000
(OEstimates are in rounded
figures.)
Where do the Kurds live?
Although Kurds are to be found in Syria, the
Caucasiëin republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Khorasan (in eastern Iran), and in Lebanon, the main
concentration lives today where the Kurdish people
have always lived - in the mountains where Iran, Iraq
and Turkey meet. The heart of this area consists of the
extremely' rugged mountains of the Zagros range.
running in ridges north-west to south-east. In the west
these mountain folds give way to rolling hills, and to
the Mesopotamian plain. To the north the mountains
slo\\'l)' turn to steppe-like plateau and the highlands of
Anatolia. To the east the mountains fall awa\' to lowlands
onto which the Kurds have also spread ..
Although the population is not exdusivel~' Kurdish
in much of this area, the dominant culture is Kurdish.
From the earh' thirteenth centUl\" onwards much of
this area has b~en called Kurdistan', although it \\'as not
until the sixteenth centUT\', after the Kurds had moved
nOlth and west onto th~ Anatolian plateau. th.lt tht'
term Kurdistan came into common usage to denote ,\
s\'stem of Kurdish fiefs. Since the)]. altli'~l\Ighthe tenn
Kurdistan appears on few maps. it is dt'arl;' more than
a geographkai krm siJl(:e it also refers to a human
culture which exists in that ]an,!.
Nevertheless no map of Kurdistan can be drawn
without contention, and for this reason the demographic
map is not a political statement, but a statement
of where large numbers of Kurds are found.
Turkey for all practical purposes denies Kurdistan's
existence, while Iran and Iraq are reluctant to
acknowledge that it is as extensive as many Kurds
would have them accept.
How do Kurds live?
All Kurdish communities are stock-breeders mainly
of sheep, goats and some cattle. In all parts of
Kurdistan the cultivation of cereals is important,
accounting for roughly 15 per cent of the total crop in
Turkey, and 35 per cent and 30 percent respectively in
Iran and Iraq. The principal cash crop o{the Kurdish
foothills is tobacco, but it is of moderate quality and
cannot compete in outside markets. Cotton is also
grown, particularly in Anatolia. In the mountains, fruit
and vegetables are the main crops for local consumption.
No more than a third of Kurdistan's arable land is
actually cultivated, of which one third is always fallow.
The major mineral in Kurdistan is oil, found in commercial
quantities in Kirkuk and Khaniqin (Iraq),
Batman and Silvan in Turkey and at Rumeylan in Syria.
The exploitation of these oilfields by the respective
governments heightens both the Kurdish sense of
injustice and also governmental determination to allow
no separatism to threaten these important resources.
Other minerals in significant quantities include
chrome, coal, copper, iron, and lignite.
Kurdish history
From the sixteenth century, the Ottoman and
Persian empires allowed the Kurdish tribes almost
total autonomy in return for keeping the peace on the
rugged but open border between the two empires. At
the end of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire
was di\ided up and the Kurds found themselves segmented
between Arab Iraq, Iran and Turkey.
In each of the new post-war countries, the Kurds
found they were treated 'With suspicion, and pressured
to confonn to the ways of the majority. The independence
and pastoralist existence they had pre\iously
enjoyed quickly diminished. They were expected to
learn the main language of the state in which they
found themselves, Arabic, Turkish or Persian, to
abandon their Kurdish identity and to accept Arab,
Iranian or TurJ,..ish nationalism.
In TUI'kev, over 13 million Kurds are forbidden to
describe the;nseh-es as Kurds. Although the law banning
the use of spoken Kurdish wa~lifted in 1991, it remains
an offence to use Kurdish in publications, politics or education.
\\11en Turkey was returned to chil government in
198.3 it was wide!\- believed that arnled dissidence had
been crushed and' that order had been restored. partimlar]~'
in the e.L~ternpart of Turkey. Ho\\'e\.t'r. in :\ugllst
19S4 a hitherto largely ullknO\\1l group. Pmtiya Karkmi
Kurdist.Ul tPKK - The Kurdistan "'orkers' Partv) made
two dramatic attacks on am)~' posts in the s()~)th-t'ast.
killing :2~ soldiers. It \\',LSthe heginning of Turke\.'s most
serio~\s k:unlish challenge e\'er: ~, .
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