Kurdish nationalism
.jpg) Kurdish-inhabited area according to the CIA (1992). |
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| Language | Kurdish languages |
|---|---|
| Location | Western and Northwestern Iranian Plateau: Upper Mesopotamia, Zagros, Southeastern Anatolia, including parts of northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey |
| Area (est.) | 190,000–390,000 km² 74,000–151,000 sq.mi |
| Population | 25 to 45 million(Est.) |
Kurdish nationalism is the political and social movement holding that the Kurdish people are deserving of a sovereign nation in their homeland, Kurdistan, partitioned out of the territories in which Kurdish people form a majority. These territories lie in northern Iraq (including Iraqi Kurdistan), northwestern Iran (Iranian Kurdistan), eastern and southeastern Turkey (Turkish Kurdistan), and northern Syria (Syrian Kurdistan).
Early Kurdish nationalism had its roots in the days of the Ottoman Empire, within which Kurds were a significant ethnic group. With the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the Kurdish-majority territories were divided between the newly formed states of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey, making Kurds a significant ethnic minority in each state. Kurdish nationalist movements have long been suppressed by Turkey, Iran and the Arab-majority states of Iraq and Syria, all of whom fear loss of territory to a potential independent Kurdistan. Since the 1970s, Iraqi Kurds have pursued the goal of greater autonomy and even outright independence against the Baath Party regimes, which responded with brutal repression. Since the 1980s, the Kurdish-Turkish conflict led by Kurdish armed groups challenged the Turkish state, which responded with martial law. After the 1991 uprisings in Iraq, Iraqi Kurds were protected against the armies of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein by NATO-enforced no fly zones, allowing them considerable autonomy and self-government outside the control of the Iraqi central government. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraqi Kurdistan became an autonomous region, enjoying a great measure of self-governance but stopping short of full independence.
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