Iraqi Kurds
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|
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| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Estimates from 6.5 million | |
| Languages | |
| mainly Kurdish (Sorani and Kirmanji), but also Arabic, Syriac | |
| Religion | |
| Mostly Sunni Islam; minorities practice Shia Islam, Yarisan, Kurdish Christianity, Zoroastrianism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Iranian people |
Kurds in Iraq (Kurdish: کوردانی باشووری کوردستان / کوردانی عێڕاق) are people born in or residing in Iraq who are of Kurdish origin. The Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Iraq, comprising between 15% and 20% of the country's population according to the CIA World Factbook.
The Kurdish people within Iraq have grappled with various political statuses over their history. Once assumed to receive full independence via the Treaty of Sevres, Iraqi Kurds have experienced a recent and troubled history of betrayal, oppression, and genocide. After the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, Iraqi Kurds, now governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), face a crossroads in the political trajectory of Iraqi Kurdistan. Factors that play into their future include Kurdish diversity and factions, Kurdish relationships with the United States, Iraq's central government, and neighboring countries, previous political agreements, disputed territories, and Kurdish ethnonationalism.
The Kurdish people are an ethnic group whose origins are in the Middle East. They are one of the largest ethnic groups in the world that do not have a state of their own. The region of Kurdistan, the original geographic region of the Kurdish people and the home to the majority of Kurds today, covers contemporary Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. This geo-cultural region means "Land of the Kurds". Iraqi Kurdistan is an autonomous region in northern Iraq, covering 40,643 square kilometres (15,692 sq mi) and has a population of approximately 4 million people. Kurdish populations occupy the territory in and around the Zagros mountains. These arid unwelcoming mountains have been a geographic buffer to cultural and political dominance from neighboring empires.Persians, Arabs, and Ottomans were kept away, and a space was carved out to develop Kurdish culture, language, and identity.
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