The Kurdish people have been dubbed "the largest people without a piece of land"^[1], reflecting the irredentist cause for an independent Kurdistan. Languages Kurdish Religions Predominantly Sunni Muslim also some Shia, Yazidism, Yarsan, Judaism, Christianity Related ethnic groups other Iranian peoples (Talysh Baluch Gilak Bakhtiari Persians) The Kurds are an ethnic group who consider themselves to be indigenous to a region often referred to as Kurdistan, an area which includes adjacent parts... irredentism is position advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity and/or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. ... For other uses, see Kurdistan (disambiguation). ...

The majority of Kurds have been removed from their traditional homelands, often violently. Due to the removal from their homes, the diaspora mostly create a nationalism that can be called "transnationalism". ^[2] Kurds are one of the Iranian peoples and speak Kurdish, a north-Western Iranian language related to Persian. ...

History

The ethnic origins of the Kurdish people are unclear; however, it is generally agreed that as a distinct identifiable group they have inhabited the area north of Mesopotamia for two to four thousand years.^[3] Modern Kurdish nationalism emerged after World War One with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire which had historically successfully integrated, but not assimilated, the Kurds. Revolts did occur sporadically but only in 1880 with the uprising led by Sheik Ubeydullah were demands as an ethnic group or nation made. Ottoman Sultan Abdulhammid responded by a campaign of integration by co-opting prominent Kurdish opponents to strong Ottoman power with prestigious positions in his government. This strategy appears successful given the loyalty displayed by the Kurdish Hamidiyie Regiments during WWI.^[4] The Kurdish ethnonationalist movement that emerged following WWI and end of the Ottoman empire was largely reactionary to the changes taking place in mainstream Turkey, primarily radical secularization which the strongly Muslim Kurds abhorred, centralization of authority which threatened the power of local chieftains and Kurdish autonomy, and rampant Turk ethnonationalism in the new Turkish Republic which obviously threatened to marginalize them.^[5] One particular organization, the Kurdish Teali Cemiyet (Society for the Advancement of Kurdistan, or SAK)was central to the forging of a distinct Kurdish identity. It took advantage of period of political liberalization in during the Second Constitutional Period (1908-1920)of Turkey to transform a renewed interest in Kurdish culture and language ("Kurdism") into a political nationalist movement based on ethnicity.^[6] This emphasis on Kurds as a distinct ethnicity was encouraged by turn of the century Russian anthropologists who suggested that the Kurds were a European race (compared to the asiatic Turks) based on physical characteristics and their language which is part of the Indo-European language group.^[7] While these researchers had ulterior political motives (to sow dissent in the Ottoman Empire) their findings were embraced and still accepted today. During the relatively open government of the 1950s Kurds gained political office and started working within the framework of the Turkish Republic to further their interests but this move to towards integration was halted with the 1960 military coup.^[8] The 1970s saw an evolution in Kurdish nationalism as Marxist political thought influenced a new generation of Kurdish nationalists opposed to the local feudal authorities who had been a traditional source of opposition to authority, eventually they would form the militant separatist Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PPK), or Kurdistan Worker's Party in English. Mesopotamia was a cradle of civilization geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... Ottoman redirects here. ... Ottoman redirects here. ...

A nation straddling many nation states including Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Russia the Kurds have been subject to the nation building projects all said states with varying degrees of success. The traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle was effective in resisting assimilation while it was maintained.

Background

References

A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Bibliography

• Gürbey, G., 1996, ‘The development of the Kurdish Nationalism Movement in Turkey

See also

• Kurdistan Workers Party
• Turkish nationalism

The Kurdistan Workers Party (Kurdish: or PKK, Turkish: , also called KADEK, Kongra-Gel, and KCK) is an armed militant group founded in the 1970s and led, until his capture in 1999, by Abdullah Öcalan. ... Turkish Nationalism is a political ideology that promotes and glorifies the Turkish people, as either a national, ethnic or linguistic group. ...

External links

• The Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism and the Sheikh Said Rebellion, 1880-1925