The Kurdistan File
Kurdish Institute at Brussels
Compte d’auteur
The goal of this publication is not to judge the Kur-dish political parties, nor to analyse their actions and strategies, nor to propose a solution for the Kurdish problem.
It is simply to be considered as an instrument of in-formation on the general plight of the Kurdish people and an appeal for solidarity to all democratic forces.
To obtain the maximum impact, this book is published in three languages: French, Dutch and English. We are convinced that only with objective information a just cause can be defended.
The Kurdish Institute at Brussels (formerly Têkoşer), is a social and cultural organisation. It is independent from all political parties. It was founded in 1978 and is recognized and subsidized by the Ministry of the French Community in Belgium.
The Kurdish Institute pursues a double aim. On the one hand it helps Kurds living in Belgium to integrate themselves in the Belgian society, while honouring their cultural identity. On the other hand, it informs the Belgian and European public opinion amongst other about the Kurds’ history and culture.
Contents
Why This Publication? / 5
Who Are the Kurds? / 5
Kurdistan: Geography / 7
Population / 8
Langage / 9
Religion / 9
Natural Ressources / 16
Economic and Social Situation / 16
The Cultural Situation / 17
Historical Summary / 18
The origins of the Kurds / 18
Antiquity: The Medes / 18
The Middle-Ages: Different principalities / 20
19th century: The Kurdish Insurrections / 22
20th Century: The Kurdish national movement until the First World War / 22
1920: The Sèvres Treaty, a historic date / 24
1922: The Lausanne Treaty / 26
Turkish Kurdistan / 27
The situation after the Second World War / 32
12 September 1980: The fateful coup d'état / 33
1983-1986: The Turkish army bombs Iraqi Kurdistan / 35
Deportations / 36
Hunger Strikes / 37
A special governor for Kurdistan / 37
Anticipated elections / 37
The Besikçi case / 39
Turkey's double game / 40
An incident in the Turkish parliament / 40
The U.S. regards the Turkish Kurds as a national minority / 41
The Diyarbekir prison: a historic strike / 41
The establishment of a new front / 43
The end of August 1988: Kurdish refugees flee from Iraq to Turkish (and Iranian) Kurdistan / 44
Iranian Kurdistan / 45
1945: The Kurdish Republic of Mahabad / 45
1979: The Islamic Revolution / 53
Ayatollah Khomeini's attitude / 54
Iraqi Kurdistan / 59
At the eve of the second world war / 51
Barzani's long march / 63
1947-1956: The PDK without Barzani / 65
October 7, 1958: The return of Barzani / 68
The battle for liberation: 1961 - 1975 / 68
March 6, 1975: the Algiers Agreement / 72
The situation after the collapse of the movement / 73
Chemical bombs / 75
Syrian Kurdistan / 78
The Kurds In the USSR / 85
Cultural life until 1935 / 88
The present-day situation / 90
The Kurds In Europe / 91
Some Reflections / 96
Some Historic Dates / 99
Bibliography / 101
Appendices / 103
WHY THIS PUBLICATION?
The goal of this publication is not to judge the Kur-dish political parties, nor to analyse their actions and strategies, nor to propose a solution for the Kurdish problem.
It is simply to be considered as an instrument of in-formation on the general plight of the Kurdish people and an appeal for solidarity to all democratic forces.
To obtain the maximum impact, this book is published in three languages: French, Dutch and English. We are convinced that only with objective information a just cause can be defended.
Who Are the Kurds?
As the history and culture of the Kurds is little known in the West, we will first try to present all the elements which define the Kurds as a people: the geo-graphical location of Kurdistan, the people, their language, their religion, ... Then we will present a historic overview and a brief outline of the present situation.
Kurdistan
Area: 500,000 km2 (10 times the size of Belgium)
Population: 25 million, of which 20 million live in-side Kurdistan and 5 million in dispersion (in Europe: 500,000).
Language: Kurdish. Indo-European language, belonging to the group of north-western Iranian languages.
Religion: 95% are Sunnite Muslims.
Kurdistan: Geography
Kurdistan (Land of the Kurds) is a vast mountainous territory with an area of 500,000 km2. Shaped in the form of a crescent, it expands between the Black Sea and the steppes of Mesopotamia on the one hand and the Anti-Taurus and the Iranian tableland on the other:
From east to west:
From Lake Daryacheh ye Reza'iyeh in Iran right up to the regions around Maras and Malatya in Turkey down to the Kurdish Mountain in north-eastern Syria and the Gulf of Alexandrette in the Mediterranean Sea.
From north to south:
From the Transcaucasian border of the Soviet Union to the Persian Gulf.
Since the First World War, at the end of which the French and the British divided the Middle East amongst themselves, Kurdistan has been split up over four coun-tries: Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.
There are also several Kurdish settlements in the USSR, scattered over the republics Transcaucasia and Central Asia. The majority lives in Azerbaijan and Armenia. The rest lives in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirghiz and Turkmen. As such, there is no Kurdish territory - an extension of Kurdistan - in the USSR. 8
Population
As there exist no official vital statistics on the exact number of Kurds, we can only advance an approximative number: 25 million, of which 20 million live in Kurdistan and 5 million in dispersion.
Following is their partition:
In Kurdistan:
Turkish Kurdistan: 10 million (24% of the Turkish po-pulation)
Iranian Kurdistan: 6 million (16%)
Iraqi Kurdistan: 3 million (27%)
Syrian Kurdistan: 800,000 (9%)
In dispersion:
Capitals and their environment: Istanbul, Ankara, Te-heran, Baghdad, Damascus, Aleppo: 4 million
USSR: 350,000 Israel:150,000 Lebanon: 100,000
Jordan, U.A.E., Afghanistan, Somalia, ... several tens of thousand.
Western countries: Europe, United States, Canada, Australia, ...: 600,000
In all Kurdish regions other peoples live: Armenians, Arameans, Assyrians, Arabs, Turks, Chaldeans, ...
Language
Kurdish is an Indo-European language. It belongs to the north-western group of Iranian languages. According to the specialists N. Marr, 0. Mann, V. Minorsky, Wikander, the Kurdish language retains its specific unity in spite of the existence of different dialects. Accor-ding to Minorsky, it distinguishes itself clearly from Persian. J. Morgan specifies that the Kurdish language does not belong to the Persian dialects, but is "a special language, sister to Persian, and perhaps older than it". It is very different from Turkish Altaic and Semite Arabic.
Religion
95% of all Kurds are Sunni Muslims. There exists an Alawite minority (Shi'ite sect) and 50,000 Yezidis. The religion of the latter is a mixture of Zoroastrian and Muslim beliefs. The ancient Kurdish religion was Zoroastrianism.
Father Thomas Bois, who studied religious and cultural life in Kurdistan from nearby, wrote in the magazine "Proche-Orient Chretien" from Amman, Jordan: "The Kurds are an important part (...) but little known in the Muslim world, in which they are embedded between Shi'ite Iran, more or less laicized Turkey, and the Sunni Arabs of Iraq and Syria. One can already expect that at this crossroads of Islam, the Kurds' religion risks to have some peculiar characteristics, which distinguish it from its neighbours and largely remain ignored" .
Before Islam: Zoroastrianism
The Medes, the last ancestors of the Kurds, were Mazdeans. Their great god was called Ahura Muzd "The perfect creator" or "The wise lord". Next to this god, there were some lesser gods: Mithra, the god of the sun, of contracts, of redemption; and Anahita, goddess of waters and procreation. The Medes worshipped all nature's forces. The magicians (in Kurdish: Pir "elder or sage") made blood sacrifices to the gods and maintained the holy fire in a chamber on top of the temple. These magicians recognized two principles: the Good "Hurmuzd" and the Evil "Ehremen".
Zerdecht "Zoroaster" reformed this Mazdean religion. He was born in the country of Mukri, in the middle of Iranian Kurdistan, in 660 B.C. His preachings were lyrical works preserved in the holy book Zend-Avesta.
The importance of Zoroastrism resides in its principle of dualism (the Good and the Evil). This religion bloomed widely and spread even into India. The Jewish, Christian and Muslim religions were all three inspired by this dualism1.
Zoroaster rejected several Mazdean principles, such as the blood sacrifices and the intoxicating beverage Haoma during religious ceremonies. However, he retained the principle of fire (in Kurdish: Agir) "symbol of justice and the battle against evil forces"2. Even to-day, during the Kurdish national feast-day Newroz "the new day" - which is often celebrated clandestinely - the Kurds dance and sing around a fire. This celebration however is not religious. It symbolizes the people's struggle against oppression.
Zoroaster's basic principle was the active and eternal struggle against Evil, the choice of every human between light and darkness, the Good and the Evil (Hurmuzd and Ehremen) and an absolute respect for all forms of life, including animals and plants. His morals are summarized in the triad: "good thoughts, good words, good works"3.
…..
1 Paul du Breuil, Zarathoustra et la transfiguration dumonde, Payot, 1978.
2 Duchesne-Guillenin, Religions de 1'Orient Ancien, collection Je sais, je crois, n°141, 1957, p. 103.
3 Ghirshman, R., L'lran des origines d l'Islam, Payot 1951, p. 142.
Kurdish Institute at Brussels
The Kurdistan File
Compte d’auteur
Compte d’auteur
The Kurdistan File
The Kurdish Institute at Brussels
Kurdish Foundation
Free University Brussels
(U.L.B.)
Original Title: Dossier Kurdistan,
Published in March 1988
English (updated) translation by J.P. Zanders,
September 1989.
The Kurdish Institute at Brussels
Permanency: Monday till Friday between 9am and 5pm.
Address: 4, Rue Bonr.eels - 1040 Brussels
ISSN 0773-3887
