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Kurdistan

Kurdistan (Kurdish: کوردستان ,Kurdistan [ˌkʊɾdɪˈstɑːn] (listen); lit. "land of the Kurds")[3] or Greater Kurdistan[4][5] is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population[6] and the Kurdish culture, languages, and national identity have historically been based.[7] Geographically, Kurdistan roughly encompasses the northwestern Zagros and the eastern Taurus mountain ranges.[8]

Kurdistan
کوردستان

Kurdish-inhabited areas (according to the CIA, 1992)[1][2]
Area
 • Coordinates37°00′N 43°00′E / 37.000°N 43.000°E / 37.000; 43.000Coordinates: 37°00′N 43°00′E / 37.000°N 43.000°E / 37.000; 43.000
History
Today part of

Kurdistan generally comprises the following four regions: southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan), northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan), northwestern Iran (Eastern Kurdistan), and northern Syria (Western Kurdistan).[9][10] Some definitions also include parts of southern Transcaucasia.[11] Certain Kurdish nationalist organizations seek to create an independent nation state consisting of some or all of these areas with a Kurdish majority, while others campaign for greater autonomy within the existing national boundaries.[12]

Historically, the word "Kurdistan" is first attested in 11th century Seljuk chronicles.[13] Many disparate Kurdish dynasties, emirates, principalities, and chiefdoms were established from the 8th to 19th centuries. Administratively, the 20th century saw the establishment of the short-lived areas of the Kurdish state (1918–1919), Kingdom of Kurdistan (1921–1924), Kurdistansky Uyezd i.e. "Red Kurdistan" (1923–1929), Republic of Ararat (1927–1930), and Republic of Mahabad (1946).

Iraqi Kurdistan first gained autonomous status in a 1970 agreement with the Iraqi government, and its status was re-confirmed as the autonomous Kurdistan Region within the federal Iraqi republic in 2005.[14] There is also a Kurdistan Province in Iran, but it is not self-ruled. Kurds fighting in the Syrian Civil War were able to take control of large sections of northern Syria and establish self-governing regions in an Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, where they call for autonomy in a federal Syria after the war.[15]

Etymology and delineation

Kurdistan means "Land of the Kurds"[16] and was first attested in 11th-century Seljuk chronicles.[13]The exact origins of the name Kurd are unclear. The suffix -stan (Persian: ـستان, translit. stân) is Persian for land.

"Kurdistan" was also formerly spelled Curdistan.[17][18] One of the ancient names of Kurdistan is Corduene.[19][20] The 19th-century Kurdistan Eyalet was the first time that the Ottoman Empire used the term 'Kurdistan' to refer to an administrative unit rather than a geographical region.[21]

Albeit admitting a thorough delineation is difficult, the Encyclopaedia of Islam delineated Kurdistan as following:[22]

In Turkey, the Kurds inhabit the whole of the eastern region of the country. According to Trotter (1878), the limit of their extent to the north was the line DivriğiErzurumKars... The Kurds also occupy the western slopes of Ararat, the districts of Kağızman and Tuzluca. On the west they extend in a wide belt beyond the course of the Euphrates, and, in the region of Sivas, in the districts of Kangal and Divriği. Equally, the whole region includes areas to the east and south-east of these limits... Turkish Kurdistan numbers at least 17 of them almost totally: in the north-east, the provinces of Erzincan, Erzurum and Kars; in the centre, going from west to east and from north to south, the provinces of Malatya, Tunceli, Elazığ, Bingöl, Muş, Karaköse (Ağrı), then Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Siirt, Bitlis and Van; Finally, the southern provinces of Şanlıurfa, Mardin and Çölamerik (Hakkarî)...

[Kurds] inhabit the north-west of Iran. Firstly in the provinces of West Azerbaijan, to the east of Lake Rida'iyya..., the districts of Maku, Kotur, Shahpur, and to the south of the lake, Mahabad (ex-Sabla); in the province of Ardalan, called the province of Kurdistan, whose capital is Senna or Sanandaj, Hawraman; in the province of Kermanshah, Qasr-e Shirin...

In Iraq, the Kurds occupy the north and northeast of the country in the liwaʾs or provinces of Duhok... Left outside their administration are Sinjar and Shekhan, peopled by the Yazidis; the liwaʾs of Kirkuk, Arbil and Sulaymaniyah (entirely Kurdish) and, in the... nahiyas of Khanaqin and Mandali, where they are neighbours of the Kurds of Iran to the west of the Zagros.

In Syria, they constitute three distinct belts, in the north of the country and to the south of the highway which forms a frontier and where they are in direct contact with their compatriots in Turkey... [I]n the Kurd Dagh;..., to the east of the Euphrates where the river enters Syria near Jarablus; and finally, a belt of 250 km. in length by 30 km. in depth in the Jazira.

History

Ancient history

 
Ancient Kurdistan as Kard-uchi, during Alexander the Great's Empire, 4th century BCE
 
19th-century map showing the location of the Kingdom of Corduene in 60 BCE

Various groups, among them the Guti, Hurrians, Mannai (Mannaeans), and Armenians, lived in this region in antiquity.[23] The original Mannaean homeland was situated east and south of the Lake Urmia, roughly centered around modern-day Mahabad.[24] The region came under Persian rule during the reign of Cyrus the Great and Darius I.

The Kingdom of Corduene, which emerged from the declining Seleucid Empire, was located to the south and south-east of Lake Van between Persia and Mesopotamia and ruled northern Mesopotamia and southeastern Anatolia from 189 BC to AD 384 as vassals of the vying Parthian and Roman empires. Corduene became a vassal state of the Roman Republic in 66 BC and remained allied with the Romans until AD 384. After 66 BC, it passed another 5 times between Rome and Persia. Corduene was situated to the east of Tigranocerta, that is, to the east and south of present-day Diyarbakır in south-eastern Turkey.

Some historians have correlated a connection between Corduene with the modern names of Kurds and Kurdistan;[20][25][26] T. A. Sinclair dismissed this identification as false,[27] while a common association is asserted in the Columbia Encyclopedia.[28]

Some of the ancient districts of Kurdistan and their corresponding modern names:[29]

  1. Corduene or Gordyene (Siirt, Bitlis and Şırnak)
  2. Sophene (Diyarbakır)
  3. Zabdicene or Bezabde (Gozarto d'Qardu or Jazirat Ibn or Cizre)
  4. Basenia (Bayazid)
  5. Moxoene (Muş)
  6. Nephercerta (Miyafarkin)
  7. Artemita (Van)

One of the earliest records of the phrase land of the Kurds is found in an Assyrian Christian document of late antiquity, describing the stories of Assyrian saints of the Middle East, such as Abdisho. When the Sasanian Marzban asked Mar Abdisho about his place of origin, he replied that according to his parents, they were originally from Hazza, a village in Assyria. However, they were later driven out of Hazza by pagans, and settled in Tamanon, which according to Abdisho was in the land of the Kurds. Tamanon lies just north of the modern Iraq-Turkey border, while Hazza is 12 km southwest of modern Erbil. In another passage in the same document, the region of the Khabur River is also identified as land of the Kurds.[30] According to Al-Muqaddasi and Yaqut al-Hamawi, Tamanon was located on the south-western or southern slopes of Mount Judi and south of Cizre.[31] Other geographical references to the Kurds in Syriac sources appear in Zuqnin chronicle, writings of Michael the Syrian and Bar Hebraeus. They mention the mountains of Qardu, city of Qardu and country of Qardawaye.[32]

Post-classical history

 
Map of Jibal (mountains of northeastern Mesopotamia), highlighting "Summer and winter resorts of the Kurds", the Kurdish lands. Redrawn from Ibn Hawqal, 977 CE.
 
Map from Mahmud al-Kashgari's Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk (1072–74), showing Arḍ al-Akrād, Arabic for "land of Kurds", located between Arḍ al-Šām (ie. Syria), and Arḍ al-ʿIrāqayn (ie. Iraq).

In the tenth and eleventh centuries, several Kurdish principalities emerged in the region: in the north the Shaddadids (951–1174) (in east Transcaucasia between the Kur and Araxes rivers) and the Rawadids (955–1221) (centered on Tabriz and which controlled all of Azerbaijan), in the east the Hasanwayhids (959–1015) (in Zagros between Shahrizor and Khuzistan) and the Annazids (990–1116) (centered in Hulwan) and in the west the Marwanids (990–1096) to the south of Diyarbakır and north of Jazira.[33][34]

Kurdistan in the Middle Ages was a collection of semi-independent and independent states called emirates. It was nominally under indirect political or religious influence of Khalifs or Shahs. A comprehensive history of these states and their relationship with their neighbors is given in the text of Sharafnama, written by Prince Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi in 1597.[35][36] The emirates included Baban, Soran, Badinan and Garmiyan in the south; Bakran, Bohtan (or Botan) and Badlis in the north, and Mukriyan and Ardalan in the east.

The earliest medieval attestation of the toponym Kurdistan is found in a 12th-century Armenian historical text by Matteos Urhayeci. He described a battle near Amid and Siverek in 1062 as to have taken place in Kurdistan.[37][38] The second record occurs in the prayer from the colophon of an Armenian manuscript of the Gospels, written in 1200.[39][40]

A later use of the term Kurdistan is found in Empire of Trebizond documents in 1336[41] and in Nuzhat al-Qulub, written by Hamdallah Mustawfi in 1340.[42]

 
British Government 1921 proposal from the Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill, for an autonomous region of Kurdistan.
 
1803 map from the Cedid Atlas, the first Muslim atlas, showing Kurdistan in blue
 
Kurdish independent kingdoms and autonomous principalities circa 1835

According to Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi in his Sharafnama, the boundaries of the Kurdish land begin at the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and stretch on an even line to the end of Malatya and Marash.[43] Evliya Çelebi, who traveled in the region between 1640 and 1655, mentioned that Kurdistan includes Erzurum, Van, Hakkari, Cizre, Imaddiya, Mosul, Shahrizor, Harir, Ardalan, Baghdad, Derne, Derteng, until Basra.[44]

In the 16th century, after prolonged wars, Kurdish-inhabited areas were split between the Safavid and Ottoman empires. A major division of Kurdistan occurred in the aftermath of the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514, and was formalized in the 1639 Treaty of Zuhab.[45] In a geography textbook of late Ottoman military school by Ahmet Cevad Kurdistan span over the cities Erzurum, Van, Urfa, Sulaymanyah, Kirkuk, Mosul and Diyarbakir among others and was one out of six regions of Ottoman Asia.[46]

Modern history

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Allies contrived to split Kurdistan (as detailed in the ultimately unratified Treaty of Sèvres) among several countries, including Kurdistan, Armenia and others. However, the reconquest of these areas by the forces of Kemal Atatürk (and other pressing issues) caused the Allies to accept the renegotiated Treaty of Lausanne (1923) and the borders of the modern Republic of Turkey, leaving the Kurds without a self-ruled region.[47] Other Kurdish areas were assigned to the new British and French mandated states of Iraq and Syria.

 
Kurdistan (shaded area) as suggested by the Treaty of Sèvres

At the San Francisco Peace Conference of 1945, the Kurdish delegation proposed consideration of territory claimed by the Kurds, which encompassed an area extending from the Mediterranean shores near Adana to the shores of the Persian Gulf near Bushehr, and included the Lur inhabited areas of southern Zagros.[48][49]

The historian Jordi Tejel has identified "Greater Kurdistan" as being one of the "Kurdish myths" that the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (KDPS) were involved in promoting to Kurds in Syria.[50]

An academic source published by the University of Cambridge has described maps of greater Kurdistan created in the 1940s and forward as: "These maps have become some of the most influential propaganda tools for the Kurdish nationalist discourse. They depict a territorially exaggerated version of the territory of Kurdistan, extending into areas with no majority Kurdish populations. Despite their production with political aims related to specific claims on the demographic and ethnographic structure of the region, and their questionable methodologies, they have become 'Kurdistan in the minds of Kurds' and the boundaries they indicate have been readily accepted."[51]

At the end of the 1991 Gulf War, the Coalition established a no-fly zone over northern Iraq to provide humanitarian relief to and safeguard the Kurds who would be subjected to Iraqi air attacks. Amid the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from three northern provinces, Kurdistan Region emerged in 1992 as an autonomous entity inside Iraq with its own local government and parliament.[52]

A 2010 US report, written before the instability in Syria and Iraq that exists as of 2014, attested that "Kurdistan may exist by 2030".[53] The weakening of the Iraqi state following the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has also presented an opportunity for independence for Iraqi Kurdistan,[54] augmented by Turkey's move towards acceptance of such a state although it opposes moves toward Kurdish autonomy in Turkey and Syria.[55]

Northern Kurdistan

 
Abdullah Öcalan pictured 1997

The incorporation into Turkey of the Kurdish-inhabited regions of eastern Anatolia was opposed by many Kurds, and has resulted in a long-running separatist conflict in which tens of thousands of lives have been lost. The region saw several major Kurdish rebellions, including the Koçgiri rebellion of 1920 under the Ottomans, then successive insurrections under the Turkish state, including the 1924 Sheikh Said rebellion, the Republic of Ararat in 1927, and the 1937 Dersim rebellion. All were forcefully put down by the authorities. The region was declared a closed military area from which foreigners were banned between 1925 and 1965.[56][57][58]

In an attempt to deny their existence, the Turkish government categorized Kurds as "Mountain Turks" until 1991.[59][60][61] The words "Kurds", "Kurdistan", or "Kurdish" were officially banned by the Turkish government.[62] Following the military coup of 1980, the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life.[63] Many people who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were arrested and imprisoned.[64] Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, political parties that represented Kurdish interests were banned.[62]

In 1983, the Kurdish provinces were included in the a state of emergency region, which was placed under martial law in response to the activities of the militant separatist organization the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).[65][66] A guerrilla war took place through the 1980s and 1990s in which much of the countryside was evacuated, thousands of Kurdish villages were destroyed by the government, and numerous summary executions were carried out by both sides.[67][68][69] Food embargoes were placed on Kurdish villages and towns.[70][71] Tens of thousands were killed in the violence and hundreds of thousands were forced to leave their homes.[72]

Turkey has historically feared that a Kurdish state in Northern Iraq would encourage and support Kurdish separatists in the adjacent Turkish provinces, and have therefore historically strongly opposed Kurdish independence in Iraq. However, following the chaos in Iraq after the US invasion, Turkey has increasingly worked with the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government.[73] The word 'Kurdistan', whether written or spoken, can still lead to detention and prosecution in Turkey.[74][75][76] Kurdistan has been characterized as an "international colony" by the scholar Ismail Besikci.[77]

 
Military situation on August 27, 2019:
  Controlled by Syrian Kurds
  Controlled by Iraqi Kurds
  Controlled by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIL, ISIS, IS)

Iraqi Kurdistan

The successful 2014 Northern Iraq offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, with the resultant weakening of the ability of the Iraqi state to project power, also presented a "golden opportunity" for the Kurds to increase their independence and possibly declare an independent Kurdish state.[54] The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, who took more than 80 Turkish persons captive in Mosul during their offensive, is an enemy of Turkey, making Kurdistan useful for Turkey as a buffer state. On 28 June 2014 Hüseyin Çelik, a spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), made comments to the Financial Times indicating Turkey's readiness to accept an independent Kurdistan in northern Iraq.[55]

Syrian Civil War

Various sources have reported that Al-Nusra has issued a fatwā calling for Kurdish women and children in Syria to be killed,[78] and the fighting in Syria has led tens of thousands of refugees to flee to Iraq's Kurdistan region.[79][80][81] As of 2015, Turkey was actively supporting Al-Nusra,[82] but as of January 2017, Turkey's foreign ministry has said that Al-Nusra is a terrorist group and has acted accordingly.[83]

People

The Kurds are a people of Indo-Iranian origin. They speak an Iranian language known as Kurdish, and comprise the majority of the population of the region – however, included therein are Arab, Armenian, Assyrian,[84] Azerbaijani, Jewish, Ossetian, Persian, and Turkish communities. Most inhabitants are Muslim, but adherents to other religions are present as well – including Yarsanism, Yazidism, Alevis, Christians, and in the past, Jews, most of whom emigrated to Israel.[85]

Geography

 
Historic map from 1721 showing borders of Curdistan provinces in Persia

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Kurdistan covers about 190,000 km² (or 73,000 square miles), and its chief towns are Diyarbakır (Amed), Bitlis (Bedlîs) and Van (Wan) in Turkey, Erbil (Hewlêr) and Sulaymaniyah in Iraq, and Kermanshah (Kirmanşan), Sanandaj (Sine), Ilam and Mahabad (Mehabad) in Iran.[86] According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, Kurdistan covers around 190,000 km² (73,000 sq. mi.) in Turkey, 125,000 km² (48,000 sq. mi.) in Iran, 65,000 km² (25,000 sq. mi.) in Iraq, and 12,000 km² (5,000 sq. mi.) in Syria, with a total area of approximately 392,000 km² (151,000 sq. mi.).[9]

Iraqi Kurdistan is divided into six governorates, three of which (and parts of others) are under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government. Iranian Kurdistan encompasses Kurdistan Province and the greater parts of West Azerbaijan, Kermanshah, and Īlām provinces. Syrian Kurdistan is located primarily in northern Syria, and covers the province of Al Hasakah and northern Raqqa Governorate, northern Aleppo Governorate and also Jabal al-Akrad (Mountain of the Kurds) region. The major cities in this region are Qamishli (Kurdish: Qamişlo) and Al Hasakah (Kurdish: Hasakah).

Turkish Kurdistan encompasses a large area of Eastern Anatolia Region and southeastern Anatolia of Turkey and it is home to an estimated 6 to 8 million Kurds.[87] There are another 9 to 12 million Turkish citizens of Kurdish descent in predominantly Turkish regions of Turkey as the majority of Turkish Kurds no longer live in Southeastern Anatolia.

Subdivisions (Upper and Lower Kurdistan)

In A Dictionary of Scripture Geography (published 1846), John Miles describes Upper and Lower Kurdistan as following:

 
The States outlined in red are two Kurdish States named Hakkiari and Mosul in this 1902 map. They are referred to as Upper Kurdistan and Lower Kurdistan respectively.

Modern Curdistan is of much greater extent than the ancient Assyria, and is composed of two parts the Upper and Lower. In the former is the province of Ardelan, the ancient Arropachatis, now nominally a part of Irak Ajami, and belonging to the north west division called Al Jobal. It contains five others namely, Betlis, the ancient Carduchia, lying to the south and south west of the lake Van. East and south east of Betlis is the principality of Julamerick, south west of it is the principality of Amadia. the fourth is Jeezera ul Omar, a city on an island in the Tigris, and corresponding to the ancient Bezabde. the fifth and largest is Kara Djiolan, with a capital of the same name. The pashalics of Kirkook and Solimania also comprise part of Upper Curdistan. Lower Curdistan comprises all the level tract to the east of the Tigris, and the minor ranges immediately bounding the plains and reaching thence to the foot of the great range, which may justly be denominated the Alps of western Asia.[88]

The northern, northwestern and northeastern parts of Kurdistan are referred to as upper Kurdistan, and includes the areas from west of Amed to Lake Urmia.

The lowlands of southern Kurdistan are called lower Kurdistan. The main cities in this area are Kirkuk and Arbil.

Climate

Much of the region is typified by a continental climate – hot in the summer, cold in the winter. Despite this, much of the region is fertile and has historically exported grain and livestock. Precipitation varies between 200 and 400 mm a year in the plains, and between 700 and 3,000 mm a year on the high plateau between mountain chains.[9] The mountainous zone along the borders with Iran and Turkey experiences dry summers, rainy and sometimes snowy winters, and damp springs, while to the south the climate progressively transitions toward semi-arid and desert zones.

Flora and fauna

Kurdistan is one of the most mountainous regions in the world with a cold climate receiving annual precipitation adequate to sustain temperate forests and shrubs. Mountain chains harbor pastures and forested valleys, totaling approximately 16 million hectares (160,000 km²), including firs and countryside is mostly oaks, conifers, platanus, willow, poplar and, to the west of Kurdistan, olive trees.[9]

The region north of the mountainous region on the border with Iran and Turkey features meadow grasses and such wild trees as, Abies cilicica, Fagus sylvatica, Quercus calliprinos, Quercus brantii, Quercus infectoria, Quercus ithaburensis, Quercus macranthera, Cupressus sempervirens, Platanus orientalis, Pinus brutia, Juniperus foetidissima, Juniperus excelsa, Juniperus oxycedrus, Prunus cerasus, Salix alba, Fraxinus excelsior, Paliurus spina-christi, Olea europaea, Ficus carica, Populus euphratica, Populus nigra, Crataegus monogyna, Crataegus azarolus, Prunus cerasifera, rose hips, Cercis siliquastrum, pistachio trees, pear and Sorbus graeca. The desert in the south is mostly steppe and would feature xeric plants such as palm trees, tamarix, date palm, fraxinus, poa, white wormwood and chenopodiaceae.[89][88] The steppe and desert in the south, by contrast, have such species as palm trees and date palm.

Animals found in the region include the Syrian brown bear, wild boar, gray wolf, the golden jackal, Indian crested porcupine, the red fox, goitered gazelle, Eurasian otter, striped hyena, Persian fallow deer, long-eared hedgehog, onager, mangar and the Euphrates softshell turtle.[90] Birds include, the hooded crow, common starling, Eurasian magpie, European robin, water pipit, spotted flycatcher, namaqua dove, saker falcon, griffon vulture, little crake and collared pratincole, among others.[91]

Mountains

Mountains are important geographical and symbolic features of Kurdish life, as evidenced by the saying "Kurds have no friends but the mountains."[92] Mountains are regarded as sacred by the Kurds.[93] Included in the region are Mount Judi and Ararat (both prominent in Kurdish folklore), Zagros, Qandil, Shingal, Mount Abdulaziz, Kurd Mountains, Jabal al-Akrad, Shaho, Gabar, Hamrin, and Nisir.

Water resources

Iraqi Kurdistan is a region relatively rich in water, especially for countries in the Middle East region. It is the source for much of the water supply for neighboring countries. It means that political stability and peace in the region are important to the water supply of the region and preventing wars.[94] Many think that for conserving the water "returning to traditional water-conserving cultivation techniques" will be needed, as well as "communal economy"[95]

Rivers

The plateaus and mountains of Kurdistan, which are characterized by heavy rain and snow fall, act as a water reservoir for the Near and Middle East, forming the source of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, as well as other numerous smaller rivers, such as the Little Khabur, Khabur, Tharthar, Ceyhan, Araxes, Kura, Sefidrud, Karkha, and Hezil. Among rivers of historical importance to Kurds are the Murat (Arasān) and Buhtān rivers in Turkey; the Peshkhābur, the Little Zab, the Great Zab, and the Diyala in Iraq; and the Jaghatu (Zarrinarud), the Tātā'u (Siminarud), the Zohāb (Zahāb), and the Gāmāsiyāb in Iran.[96]

These rivers, which flow from heights of three to four thousand meters above sea level, are significant both as water sources and for the production of energy. Iraq and Syria dammed many of these rivers and their tributaries. Turkey has an extensive dam system under construction as part of the GAP (Southeast Anatolia Project); though incomplete, the GAP already supplies a significant proportion of Turkey's electrical energy needs.[96] Due to the extraordinary archaeological richness of the region, almost any dam impacts historic sites.[96] With the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, Turkey is was accused of withholding water from the reservoir Lake Assad in Syria, while filling the Atatürk dam in Turkey.[97]

Lakes

Kurdistan extends to Lake Urmia in Iran on the east. The region includes Lake Van, the largest body of water in Turkey; the only lake in the Middle East with a larger surface is Lake Urmia – though not nearly as deep as Lake Van, which has a much larger volume. Urmia, Van, as well as Zarivar Lake west of Marivan, and Lake Dukan near the city of Sulaymaniyah, are frequented by tourists.[98]

Petroleum and mineral resources

Kurdistan Region is estimated to contain around 45 billion barrels (7.2×10^9 m3) of oil, making it the sixth largest reserve in the world. Extraction of these reserves began in 2007.

Al-Hasakah province, also known as Jazira region, has geopolitical importance of oil and is suitable for agricultural lands.

In November 2011, Exxon challenged the Iraqi central government's authority with the signing of oil and gas contracts for exploration rights to six parcels of land in Kurdistan, including one contract in the disputed territories, just east of the Kirkuk mega-field.[99] This act caused Baghdad to threaten to revoke Exxon's contract in its southern fields, most notably the West-Qurna Phase 1 project.[100] Exxon responded by announcing its intention to leave the West-Qurna project.[101]

As of July 2007, the Kurdish government solicited foreign companies to invest in 40 new oil sites, with the hope of increasing regional oil production over the following five years by a factor of five, to about 1 million barrels per day (160,000 m3/d).[102] Gas and associated gas reserves are in excess of 2,800 km3 (100×10^12 cu ft). Notable companies active in Kurdistan include ExxonMobil, Total, Chevron, Talisman Energy, Genel Energy, Hunt Oil, Gulf Keystone Petroleum, and Marathon Oil.[103]

Other mineral resources that exist in significant quantities in the region include coal, copper, gold, iron, limestone (which is used to produce cement), marble, and zinc. The world's largest deposit of rock sulfur is located just southwest of Erbil.[104]

In July 2012, Turkey and the Kurdistan Region signed an agreement by which Turkey would regularly supply the KRG with refined petroleum products in exchange for crude oil.[105]

Gallery

See also

References

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  2. ^ "The Kurdish lands". Library of Congress. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  3. ^ "Kurdistan". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
  4. ^ Turkey demands Google remove Greater Kurdistan map by Rudaw, December 25, 2018
  5. ^ Kaya, Zeynep (2020). Mapping Kurdistan: Territory, Self-Determination and Nationalism. Cambridge University Press. pp. 2, 137, 177, 197.
  6. ^ Zaken, Mordechai (2007). Jewish Subjects and Their Tribal Chieftains in Kurdistan: A Study in Survival. Leiden, The Netherlands: BRILL. pp. 1–2. ISBN 9789004161900. Kurdistan was never a sovereign state, though the area with an ethnic and linguistic majority of Kurdish population is defined as Kurdistan.
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  10. ^ Bengio, Ofra (2014). Kurdish Awakening: Nation Building in a Fragmented Homeland. University of Texas Press. p. 2. Hence the terms: rojhalat (east, Iran), bashur (south, Iraq), bakur (north, Turkey), and rojava (west, Syria).
  11. ^ Kurdistan. World Encyclopedia (1 ed.). Oxford University Press. 2014. ISBN 9780199546091. Extensive mountainous and plateau region in sw Asia, inhabited by the Kurds and including parts of E Turkey, NE Iran, N Iraq, NE Syria, S Armenia and E Azerbaijan.
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  18. ^ An Account of the State of Roman-Catholick Religion, Sir Richard Steele, Published 1715
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Sources

  • Mitchell, Colin Paul (2010). "Kurdistan". In Bjork, Robert E. (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199574834.

Further reading

  • Beşikçi, İsmail. Selected Writings [about] Kurdistan and Turkish Colonialism. London: Published jointly by Kurdistan Solidarity Committee and Kurdistan Information Centre, 1991. 44 p. Without ISBN
  • Beşikçi, İsmail (2015). International Colony Kurdistan. London: Gomidas Institute. ISBN 978-1-909382-20-6.
  • King, Diane E. Kurdistan on the Global Stage: Kinship, Land, and Community in Iraq (Rutgers University Press; 2014) 267 pages; Scholarly study of traditional social networks, such as patron-client relations, as well as technologically mediated communication, in a study of gender, kinship, and social life in Iraqi Kurdistan.
  • Öcalan, Abdullah, Interviews and Speeches [about the Kurdish cause]. London: Published jointly by Kurdistan Solidarity Committee and Kurdistan Information Centre, 1991. 46 p. Without ISBN
  • Reed, Fred A. Anatolia Junction: a Journey into Hidden Turkey. Burnaby, B.C.: Talonbooks [sic], 1999. 320 p., ill. with b&w photos. N.B.: Includes a significant coverage of the Turkish sector of historic Kurdistan, the Kurds, and their resistance movement. ISBN 0-88922-426-9

External links

  •   Media related to Kurdistan at Wikimedia Commons

kurdistan, other, uses, disambiguation, kurdish, کوردستان, ˌkʊɾdɪˈstɑːn, listen, land, kurds, greater, roughly, defined, cultural, territory, western, asia, wherein, kurds, form, prominent, majority, population, kurdish, culture, languages, national, identity,. For other uses see Kurdistan disambiguation Kurdistan Kurdish کوردستان Kurdistan ˌkʊɾdɪˈstɑːn listen lit land of the Kurds 3 or Greater Kurdistan 4 5 is a roughly defined geo cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population 6 and the Kurdish culture languages and national identity have historically been based 7 Geographically Kurdistan roughly encompasses the northwestern Zagros and the eastern Taurus mountain ranges 8 KurdistanکوردستانKurdish inhabited areas according to the CIA 1992 1 2 Area Coordinates37 00 N 43 00 E 37 000 N 43 000 E 37 000 43 000 Coordinates 37 00 N 43 00 E 37 000 N 43 000 E 37 000 43 000HistoryToday part ofNorthern Kurdistan Turkey Southern Kurdistan Iraq Eastern Kurdistan Iran Western Kurdistan Syria Kurdistan generally comprises the following four regions southeastern Turkey Northern Kurdistan northern Iraq Southern Kurdistan northwestern Iran Eastern Kurdistan and northern Syria Western Kurdistan 9 10 Some definitions also include parts of southern Transcaucasia 11 Certain Kurdish nationalist organizations seek to create an independent nation state consisting of some or all of these areas with a Kurdish majority while others campaign for greater autonomy within the existing national boundaries 12 Historically the word Kurdistan is first attested in 11th century Seljuk chronicles 13 Many disparate Kurdish dynasties emirates principalities and chiefdoms were established from the 8th to 19th centuries Administratively the 20th century saw the establishment of the short lived areas of the Kurdish state 1918 1919 Kingdom of Kurdistan 1921 1924 Kurdistansky Uyezd i e Red Kurdistan 1923 1929 Republic of Ararat 1927 1930 and Republic of Mahabad 1946 Iraqi Kurdistan first gained autonomous status in a 1970 agreement with the Iraqi government and its status was re confirmed as the autonomous Kurdistan Region within the federal Iraqi republic in 2005 14 There is also a Kurdistan Province in Iran but it is not self ruled Kurds fighting in the Syrian Civil War were able to take control of large sections of northern Syria and establish self governing regions in an Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria where they call for autonomy in a federal Syria after the war 15 Contents 1 Etymology and delineation 2 History 2 1 Ancient history 2 2 Post classical history 2 3 Modern history 2 3 1 Northern Kurdistan 2 3 2 Iraqi Kurdistan 2 3 3 Syrian Civil War 3 People 4 Geography 4 1 Subdivisions Upper and Lower Kurdistan 4 2 Climate 4 3 Flora and fauna 4 4 Mountains 4 5 Water resources 4 6 Petroleum and mineral resources 5 Gallery 6 See also 7 References 8 Sources 9 Further reading 10 External linksEtymology and delineationKurdistan means Land of the Kurds 16 and was first attested in 11th century Seljuk chronicles 13 The exact origins of the name Kurd are unclear The suffix stan Persian ـستان translit stan is Persian for land Kurdistan was also formerly spelled Curdistan 17 18 One of the ancient names of Kurdistan is Corduene 19 20 The 19th century Kurdistan Eyalet was the first time that the Ottoman Empire used the term Kurdistan to refer to an administrative unit rather than a geographical region 21 Albeit admitting a thorough delineation is difficult the Encyclopaedia of Islam delineated Kurdistan as following 22 In Turkey the Kurds inhabit the whole of the eastern region of the country According to Trotter 1878 the limit of their extent to the north was the line Divrigi Erzurum Kars The Kurds also occupy the western slopes of Ararat the districts of Kagizman and Tuzluca On the west they extend in a wide belt beyond the course of the Euphrates and in the region of Sivas in the districts of Kangal and Divrigi Equally the whole region includes areas to the east and south east of these limits Turkish Kurdistan numbers at least 17 of them almost totally in the north east the provinces of Erzincan Erzurum and Kars in the centre going from west to east and from north to south the provinces of Malatya Tunceli Elazig Bingol Mus Karakose Agri then Adiyaman Diyarbakir Siirt Bitlis and Van Finally the southern provinces of Sanliurfa Mardin and Colamerik Hakkari Kurds inhabit the north west of Iran Firstly in the provinces of West Azerbaijan to the east of Lake Rida iyya the districts of Maku Kotur Shahpur and to the south of the lake Mahabad ex Sabla in the province of Ardalan called the province of Kurdistan whose capital is Senna or Sanandaj Hawraman in the province of Kermanshah Qasr e Shirin In Iraq the Kurds occupy the north and northeast of the country in the liwaʾs or provinces of Duhok Left outside their administration are Sinjar and Shekhan peopled by the Yazidis the liwaʾs of Kirkuk Arbil and Sulaymaniyah entirely Kurdish and in the nahiyas of Khanaqin and Mandali where they are neighbours of the Kurds of Iran to the west of the Zagros In Syria they constitute three distinct belts in the north of the country and to the south of the highway which forms a frontier and where they are in direct contact with their compatriots in Turkey I n the Kurd Dagh to the east of the Euphrates where the river enters Syria near Jarablus and finally a belt of 250 km in length by 30 km in depth in the Jazira HistoryMain article History of the Kurds Ancient history Main articles Hurrians Gutian people Mannaeans Corduene Assyria and Armenians Ancient Kurdistan as Kard uchi during Alexander the Great s Empire 4th century BCE 19th century map showing the location of the Kingdom of Corduene in 60 BCE Various groups among them the Guti Hurrians Mannai Mannaeans and Armenians lived in this region in antiquity 23 The original Mannaean homeland was situated east and south of the Lake Urmia roughly centered around modern day Mahabad 24 The region came under Persian rule during the reign of Cyrus the Great and Darius I The Kingdom of Corduene which emerged from the declining Seleucid Empire was located to the south and south east of Lake Van between Persia and Mesopotamia and ruled northern Mesopotamia and southeastern Anatolia from 189 BC to AD 384 as vassals of the vying Parthian and Roman empires Corduene became a vassal state of the Roman Republic in 66 BC and remained allied with the Romans until AD 384 After 66 BC it passed another 5 times between Rome and Persia Corduene was situated to the east of Tigranocerta that is to the east and south of present day Diyarbakir in south eastern Turkey Some historians have correlated a connection between Corduene with the modern names of Kurds and Kurdistan 20 25 26 T A Sinclair dismissed this identification as false 27 while a common association is asserted in the Columbia Encyclopedia 28 Some of the ancient districts of Kurdistan and their corresponding modern names 29 Corduene or Gordyene Siirt Bitlis and Sirnak Sophene Diyarbakir Zabdicene or Bezabde Gozarto d Qardu or Jazirat Ibn or Cizre Basenia Bayazid Moxoene Mus Nephercerta Miyafarkin Artemita Van One of the earliest records of the phrase land of the Kurds is found in an Assyrian Christian document of late antiquity describing the stories of Assyrian saints of the Middle East such as Abdisho When the Sasanian Marzban asked Mar Abdisho about his place of origin he replied that according to his parents they were originally from Hazza a village in Assyria However they were later driven out of Hazza by pagans and settled in Tamanon which according to Abdisho was in the land of the Kurds Tamanon lies just north of the modern Iraq Turkey border while Hazza is 12 km southwest of modern Erbil In another passage in the same document the region of the Khabur River is also identified as land of the Kurds 30 According to Al Muqaddasi and Yaqut al Hamawi Tamanon was located on the south western or southern slopes of Mount Judi and south of Cizre 31 Other geographical references to the Kurds in Syriac sources appear in Zuqnin chronicle writings of Michael the Syrian and Bar Hebraeus They mention the mountains of Qardu city of Qardu and country of Qardawaye 32 Post classical history Main articles Shaddadids Rawadids Hasanwayhids Annazids and Marwanids Diyar Bakr Map of Jibal mountains of northeastern Mesopotamia highlighting Summer and winter resorts of the Kurds the Kurdish lands Redrawn from Ibn Hawqal 977 CE Map from Mahmud al Kashgari s Diwan Lughat al Turk 1072 74 showing Arḍ al Akrad Arabic for land of Kurds located between Arḍ al Sam ie Syria and Arḍ al ʿIraqayn ie Iraq In the tenth and eleventh centuries several Kurdish principalities emerged in the region in the north the Shaddadids 951 1174 in east Transcaucasia between the Kur and Araxes rivers and the Rawadids 955 1221 centered on Tabriz and which controlled all of Azerbaijan in the east the Hasanwayhids 959 1015 in Zagros between Shahrizor and Khuzistan and the Annazids 990 1116 centered in Hulwan and in the west the Marwanids 990 1096 to the south of Diyarbakir and north of Jazira 33 34 Kurdistan in the Middle Ages was a collection of semi independent and independent states called emirates It was nominally under indirect political or religious influence of Khalifs or Shahs A comprehensive history of these states and their relationship with their neighbors is given in the text of Sharafnama written by Prince Sharaf al Din Bitlisi in 1597 35 36 The emirates included Baban Soran Badinan and Garmiyan in the south Bakran Bohtan or Botan and Badlis in the north and Mukriyan and Ardalan in the east The earliest medieval attestation of the toponym Kurdistan is found in a 12th century Armenian historical text by Matteos Urhayeci He described a battle near Amid and Siverek in 1062 as to have taken place in Kurdistan 37 38 The second record occurs in the prayer from the colophon of an Armenian manuscript of the Gospels written in 1200 39 40 A later use of the term Kurdistan is found in Empire of Trebizond documents in 1336 41 and in Nuzhat al Qulub written by Hamdallah Mustawfi in 1340 42 British Government 1921 proposal from the Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill for an autonomous region of Kurdistan 1803 map from the Cedid Atlas the first Muslim atlas showing Kurdistan in blue Kurdish independent kingdoms and autonomous principalities circa 1835 According to Sharaf al Din Bitlisi in his Sharafnama the boundaries of the Kurdish land begin at the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and stretch on an even line to the end of Malatya and Marash 43 Evliya Celebi who traveled in the region between 1640 and 1655 mentioned that Kurdistan includes Erzurum Van Hakkari Cizre Imaddiya Mosul Shahrizor Harir Ardalan Baghdad Derne Derteng until Basra 44 In the 16th century after prolonged wars Kurdish inhabited areas were split between the Safavid and Ottoman empires A major division of Kurdistan occurred in the aftermath of the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514 and was formalized in the 1639 Treaty of Zuhab 45 In a geography textbook of late Ottoman military school by Ahmet Cevad Kurdistan span over the cities Erzurum Van Urfa Sulaymanyah Kirkuk Mosul and Diyarbakir among others and was one out of six regions of Ottoman Asia 46 Modern history After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire the Allies contrived to split Kurdistan as detailed in the ultimately unratified Treaty of Sevres among several countries including Kurdistan Armenia and others However the reconquest of these areas by the forces of Kemal Ataturk and other pressing issues caused the Allies to accept the renegotiated Treaty of Lausanne 1923 and the borders of the modern Republic of Turkey leaving the Kurds without a self ruled region 47 Other Kurdish areas were assigned to the new British and French mandated states of Iraq and Syria Kurdistan shaded area as suggested by the Treaty of Sevres At the San Francisco Peace Conference of 1945 the Kurdish delegation proposed consideration of territory claimed by the Kurds which encompassed an area extending from the Mediterranean shores near Adana to the shores of the Persian Gulf near Bushehr and included the Lur inhabited areas of southern Zagros 48 49 The historian Jordi Tejel has identified Greater Kurdistan as being one of the Kurdish myths that the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria KDPS were involved in promoting to Kurds in Syria 50 An academic source published by the University of Cambridge has described maps of greater Kurdistan created in the 1940s and forward as These maps have become some of the most influential propaganda tools for the Kurdish nationalist discourse They depict a territorially exaggerated version of the territory of Kurdistan extending into areas with no majority Kurdish populations Despite their production with political aims related to specific claims on the demographic and ethnographic structure of the region and their questionable methodologies they have become Kurdistan in the minds of Kurds and the boundaries they indicate have been readily accepted 51 At the end of the 1991 Gulf War the Coalition established a no fly zone over northern Iraq to provide humanitarian relief to and safeguard the Kurds who would be subjected to Iraqi air attacks Amid the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from three northern provinces Kurdistan Region emerged in 1992 as an autonomous entity inside Iraq with its own local government and parliament 52 A 2010 US report written before the instability in Syria and Iraq that exists as of 2014 attested that Kurdistan may exist by 2030 53 The weakening of the Iraqi state following the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has also presented an opportunity for independence for Iraqi Kurdistan 54 augmented by Turkey s move towards acceptance of such a state although it opposes moves toward Kurdish autonomy in Turkey and Syria 55 Northern Kurdistan Main articles Kurdish Turkish conflict 1978 present and Iraqi Kurdish conflict Abdullah Ocalan pictured 1997 The incorporation into Turkey of the Kurdish inhabited regions of eastern Anatolia was opposed by many Kurds and has resulted in a long running separatist conflict in which tens of thousands of lives have been lost The region saw several major Kurdish rebellions including the Kocgiri rebellion of 1920 under the Ottomans then successive insurrections under the Turkish state including the 1924 Sheikh Said rebellion the Republic of Ararat in 1927 and the 1937 Dersim rebellion All were forcefully put down by the authorities The region was declared a closed military area from which foreigners were banned between 1925 and 1965 56 57 58 In an attempt to deny their existence the Turkish government categorized Kurds as Mountain Turks until 1991 59 60 61 The words Kurds Kurdistan or Kurdish were officially banned by the Turkish government 62 Following the military coup of 1980 the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life 63 Many people who spoke published or sang in Kurdish were arrested and imprisoned 64 Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s political parties that represented Kurdish interests were banned 62 In 1983 the Kurdish provinces were included in the a state of emergency region which was placed under martial law in response to the activities of the militant separatist organization the Kurdistan Workers Party PKK 65 66 A guerrilla war took place through the 1980s and 1990s in which much of the countryside was evacuated thousands of Kurdish villages were destroyed by the government and numerous summary executions were carried out by both sides 67 68 69 Food embargoes were placed on Kurdish villages and towns 70 71 Tens of thousands were killed in the violence and hundreds of thousands were forced to leave their homes 72 Turkey has historically feared that a Kurdish state in Northern Iraq would encourage and support Kurdish separatists in the adjacent Turkish provinces and have therefore historically strongly opposed Kurdish independence in Iraq However following the chaos in Iraq after the US invasion Turkey has increasingly worked with the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government 73 The word Kurdistan whether written or spoken can still lead to detention and prosecution in Turkey 74 75 76 Kurdistan has been characterized as an international colony by the scholar Ismail Besikci 77 Military situation on August 27 2019 Controlled by Syrian Kurds Controlled by Iraqi Kurds Controlled by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ISIL ISIS IS Iraqi Kurdistan The successful 2014 Northern Iraq offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant with the resultant weakening of the ability of the Iraqi state to project power also presented a golden opportunity for the Kurds to increase their independence and possibly declare an independent Kurdish state 54 The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant who took more than 80 Turkish persons captive in Mosul during their offensive is an enemy of Turkey making Kurdistan useful for Turkey as a buffer state On 28 June 2014 Huseyin Celik a spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party AKP made comments to the Financial Times indicating Turkey s readiness to accept an independent Kurdistan in northern Iraq 55 Syrian Civil War See also Rojava conflict and Syrian Kurdish Islamist conflict 2013 present Various sources have reported that Al Nusra has issued a fatwa calling for Kurdish women and children in Syria to be killed 78 and the fighting in Syria has led tens of thousands of refugees to flee to Iraq s Kurdistan region 79 80 81 As of 2015 Turkey was actively supporting Al Nusra 82 but as of January 2017 Turkey s foreign ministry has said that Al Nusra is a terrorist group and has acted accordingly 83 PeopleMain article Kurds The Kurds are a people of Indo Iranian origin They speak an Iranian language known as Kurdish and comprise the majority of the population of the region however included therein are Arab Armenian Assyrian 84 Azerbaijani Jewish Ossetian Persian and Turkish communities Most inhabitants are Muslim but adherents to other religions are present as well including Yarsanism Yazidism Alevis Christians and in the past Jews most of whom emigrated to Israel 85 Geography Historic map from 1721 showing borders of Curdistan provinces in Persia According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica Kurdistan covers about 190 000 km or 73 000 square miles and its chief towns are Diyarbakir Amed Bitlis Bedlis and Van Wan in Turkey Erbil Hewler and Sulaymaniyah in Iraq and Kermanshah Kirmansan Sanandaj Sine Ilam and Mahabad Mehabad in Iran 86 According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam Kurdistan covers around 190 000 km 73 000 sq mi in Turkey 125 000 km 48 000 sq mi in Iran 65 000 km 25 000 sq mi in Iraq and 12 000 km 5 000 sq mi in Syria with a total area of approximately 392 000 km 151 000 sq mi 9 Iraqi Kurdistan is divided into six governorates three of which and parts of others are under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government Iranian Kurdistan encompasses Kurdistan Province and the greater parts of West Azerbaijan Kermanshah and ilam provinces Syrian Kurdistan is located primarily in northern Syria and covers the province of Al Hasakah and northern Raqqa Governorate northern Aleppo Governorate and also Jabal al Akrad Mountain of the Kurds region The major cities in this region are Qamishli Kurdish Qamislo and Al Hasakah Kurdish Hasakah Turkish Kurdistan encompasses a large area of Eastern Anatolia Region and southeastern Anatolia of Turkey and it is home to an estimated 6 to 8 million Kurds 87 There are another 9 to 12 million Turkish citizens of Kurdish descent in predominantly Turkish regions of Turkey as the majority of Turkish Kurds no longer live in Southeastern Anatolia Subdivisions Upper and Lower Kurdistan In A Dictionary of Scripture Geography published 1846 John Miles describes Upper and Lower Kurdistan as following The States outlined in red are two Kurdish States named Hakkiari and Mosul in this 1902 map They are referred to as Upper Kurdistan and Lower Kurdistan respectively Modern Curdistan is of much greater extent than the ancient Assyria and is composed of two parts the Upper and Lower In the former is the province of Ardelan the ancient Arropachatis now nominally a part of Irak Ajami and belonging to the north west division called Al Jobal It contains five others namely Betlis the ancient Carduchia lying to the south and south west of the lake Van East and south east of Betlis is the principality of Julamerick south west of it is the principality of Amadia the fourth is Jeezera ul Omar a city on an island in the Tigris and corresponding to the ancient Bezabde the fifth and largest is Kara Djiolan with a capital of the same name The pashalics of Kirkook and Solimania also comprise part of Upper Curdistan Lower Curdistan comprises all the level tract to the east of the Tigris and the minor ranges immediately bounding the plains and reaching thence to the foot of the great range which may justly be denominated the Alps of western Asia 88 The northern northwestern and northeastern parts of Kurdistan are referred to as upper Kurdistan and includes the areas from west of Amed to Lake Urmia The lowlands of southern Kurdistan are called lower Kurdistan The main cities in this area are Kirkuk and Arbil Climate Much of the region is typified by a continental climate hot in the summer cold in the winter Despite this much of the region is fertile and has historically exported grain and livestock Precipitation varies between 200 and 400 mm a year in the plains and between 700 and 3 000 mm a year on the high plateau between mountain chains 9 The mountainous zone along the borders with Iran and Turkey experiences dry summers rainy and sometimes snowy winters and damp springs while to the south the climate progressively transitions toward semi arid and desert zones Flora and fauna Kurdistan is one of the most mountainous regions in the world with a cold climate receiving annual precipitation adequate to sustain temperate forests and shrubs Mountain chains harbor pastures and forested valleys totaling approximately 16 million hectares 160 000 km including firs and countryside is mostly oaks conifers platanus willow poplar and to the west of Kurdistan olive trees 9 The region north of the mountainous region on the border with Iran and Turkey features meadow grasses and such wild trees as Abies cilicica Fagus sylvatica Quercus calliprinos Quercus brantii Quercus infectoria Quercus ithaburensis Quercus macranthera Cupressus sempervirens Platanus orientalis Pinus brutia Juniperus foetidissima Juniperus excelsa Juniperus oxycedrus Prunus cerasus Salix alba Fraxinus excelsior Paliurus spina christi Olea europaea Ficus carica Populus euphratica Populus nigra Crataegus monogyna Crataegus azarolus Prunus cerasifera rose hips Cercis siliquastrum pistachio trees pear and Sorbus graeca The desert in the south is mostly steppe and would feature xeric plants such as palm trees tamarix date palm fraxinus poa white wormwood and chenopodiaceae 89 88 The steppe and desert in the south by contrast have such species as palm trees and date palm Animals found in the region include the Syrian brown bear wild boar gray wolf the golden jackal Indian crested porcupine the red fox goitered gazelle Eurasian otter striped hyena Persian fallow deer long eared hedgehog onager mangar and the Euphrates softshell turtle 90 Birds include the hooded crow common starling Eurasian magpie European robin water pipit spotted flycatcher namaqua dove saker falcon griffon vulture little crake and collared pratincole among others 91 Mountains Mountains are important geographical and symbolic features of Kurdish life as evidenced by the saying Kurds have no friends but the mountains 92 Mountains are regarded as sacred by the Kurds 93 Included in the region are Mount Judi and Ararat both prominent in Kurdish folklore Zagros Qandil Shingal Mount Abdulaziz Kurd Mountains Jabal al Akrad Shaho Gabar Hamrin and Nisir Water resources Iraqi Kurdistan is a region relatively rich in water especially for countries in the Middle East region It is the source for much of the water supply for neighboring countries It means that political stability and peace in the region are important to the water supply of the region and preventing wars 94 Many think that for conserving the water returning to traditional water conserving cultivation techniques will be needed as well as communal economy 95 RiversThe plateaus and mountains of Kurdistan which are characterized by heavy rain and snow fall act as a water reservoir for the Near and Middle East forming the source of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as well as other numerous smaller rivers such as the Little Khabur Khabur Tharthar Ceyhan Araxes Kura Sefidrud Karkha and Hezil Among rivers of historical importance to Kurds are the Murat Arasan and Buhtan rivers in Turkey the Peshkhabur the Little Zab the Great Zab and the Diyala in Iraq and the Jaghatu Zarrinarud the Tata u Siminarud the Zohab Zahab and the Gamasiyab in Iran 96 These rivers which flow from heights of three to four thousand meters above sea level are significant both as water sources and for the production of energy Iraq and Syria dammed many of these rivers and their tributaries Turkey has an extensive dam system under construction as part of the GAP Southeast Anatolia Project though incomplete the GAP already supplies a significant proportion of Turkey s electrical energy needs 96 Due to the extraordinary archaeological richness of the region almost any dam impacts historic sites 96 With the outbreak of the Syrian civil war Turkey is was accused of withholding water from the reservoir Lake Assad in Syria while filling the Ataturk dam in Turkey 97 LakesKurdistan extends to Lake Urmia in Iran on the east The region includes Lake Van the largest body of water in Turkey the only lake in the Middle East with a larger surface is Lake Urmia though not nearly as deep as Lake Van which has a much larger volume Urmia Van as well as Zarivar Lake west of Marivan and Lake Dukan near the city of Sulaymaniyah are frequented by tourists 98 Petroleum and mineral resources Kurdistan Region is estimated to contain around 45 billion barrels 7 2 10 9 m3 of oil making it the sixth largest reserve in the world Extraction of these reserves began in 2007 Al Hasakah province also known as Jazira region has geopolitical importance of oil and is suitable for agricultural lands In November 2011 Exxon challenged the Iraqi central government s authority with the signing of oil and gas contracts for exploration rights to six parcels of land in Kurdistan including one contract in the disputed territories just east of the Kirkuk mega field 99 This act caused Baghdad to threaten to revoke Exxon s contract in its southern fields most notably the West Qurna Phase 1 project 100 Exxon responded by announcing its intention to leave the West Qurna project 101 As of July 2007 the Kurdish government solicited foreign companies to invest in 40 new oil sites with the hope of increasing regional oil production over the following five years by a factor of five to about 1 million barrels per day 160 000 m3 d 102 Gas and associated gas reserves are in excess of 2 800 km3 100 10 12 cu ft Notable companies active in Kurdistan include ExxonMobil Total Chevron Talisman Energy Genel Energy Hunt Oil Gulf Keystone Petroleum and Marathon Oil 103 Other mineral resources that exist in significant quantities in the region include coal copper gold iron limestone which is used to produce cement marble and zinc The world s largest deposit of rock sulfur is located just southwest of Erbil 104 In July 2012 Turkey and the Kurdistan Region signed an agreement by which Turkey would regularly supply the KRG with refined petroleum products in exchange for crude oil 105 Gallery A typical Kurdish village in Hawraman Kurdistan Canyon in Rawanduz in northern Iraqi Kurdistan Ze river in Zebari region Iraqi Kurdistan The city of Piranshahr center of Mokrian district northwestern Iran The city of Batman Northern Kurdistan eastern Turkey Countryside in SulaymaniyahSee alsoArk of Nuh or Noah Armenian highlands Assyrian homeland Irredentism Lists of active separatist movements Mountains of Ararat Thamanin Zagros Mountains Mount JudiReferences Kurdish lands Retrieved 6 November 2019 The Kurdish lands Library of Congress Retrieved 6 November 2019 Kurdistan Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Retrieved 29 July 2010 Turkey demands Google remove Greater Kurdistan map by Rudaw December 25 2018 Kaya Zeynep 2020 Mapping Kurdistan Territory Self Determination and Nationalism Cambridge University Press pp 2 137 177 197 Zaken Mordechai 2007 Jewish Subjects and Their Tribal Chieftains in Kurdistan A Study in Survival Leiden The Netherlands BRILL pp 1 2 ISBN 9789004161900 Kurdistan was never a sovereign state though the area with an ethnic and linguistic majority of Kurdish population is defined as Kurdistan M T O Shea Trapped between the map and reality geography and perceptions of Kurdistan 258 pp Routledge 2004 see p 77 Kurdistan permanent dead link Britannica Concise a b c d Bois Th Minorsky V MacKenzie D N 2002 Kurds Kurdistan Encyclopaedia of Islam 2 ed BRILL ISBN 9789004161214 At present the different provinces of Kurdistan cover around 190 000 km2 in Turkey 125 000 km2 in Iran 65 000 km2 in Iraḳ and 12 000 km2 in Syria The total area of Kurdistan can then be estimated at approximately 392 000 km2 Bengio Ofra 2014 Kurdish Awakening Nation Building in a Fragmented Homeland University of Texas Press p 2 Hence the terms rojhalat east Iran bashur south Iraq bakur north Turkey and rojava west Syria Kurdistan World Encyclopedia 1 ed Oxford University Press 2014 ISBN 9780199546091 Extensive mountainous and plateau region in sw Asia inhabited by the Kurds and including parts of E Turkey NE Iran N Iraq NE Syria S Armenia and E Azerbaijan Hamit Bozarslan The Kurdish Question Can it be solved within Europe page 84 The years of silence and of renewal in Olivier Roy ed Turkey Today A European Country a b Mitchell 2010 Iraqi Constitution Article 113 Kurds seek autonomy in democratic Syria BBC 16 August 2012 Vanly Ismet Cherif Vanly Ismet Cheriff 1977 Coup d oeil sur la culture nationale Kurde Oriente Moderno 57 9 10 445 doi 10 1163 22138617 0570910007 ISSN 0030 5472 JSTOR 25816505 The Edinburgh encyclopaedia conducted by D Brewster Page 511 Original from Oxford University published 1830 An Account of the State of Roman Catholick Religion Sir Richard Steele Published 1715 N Maxoudian Early Armenia as an Empire The Career of Tigranes III 95 55 BC Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society Vol 39 Issue 2 April 1952 pp 156 63 a b A D Lee The Role of Hostages in Roman Diplomacy with Sasanian Persia Historia Zeitschrift fur Alte Geschichte Vol 40 No 3 1991 pp 366 74 see p 371 Yadirgi Veli 3 August 2017 The Political Economy of the Kurds of Turkey ISBN 9781107181236 Bois Th Minorsky V MacKenzie D N 2002 Kurds Kurdistan Encyclopaedia of Islam 2 ed BRILL doi 10 1163 1573 3912 islam COM 0544 ISBN 9789004161214 1 Archived 1 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine Mahabad Britannica Online Encyclopedia Retrieved 13 May 2011 Rawlinson George The Seven Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World Vol 7 1871 copy at Project Gutenberg Revue des etudes armeniennes vol 21 1988 1989 p 281 by Societe des etudes armeniennes Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian Published by Imprimerie nationale P Geuthner 1989 T A Sinclair Eastern Turkey an Architectural and Archaeological Survey 1989 volume 3 page 360 Kurds The Columbia Encyclopedia Sixth Edition 2001 J Bell A System of Geography Popular and Scientific A Physical Political and Statistical Account of the World and Its Various Divisions pp 133 4 Vol IV Fullarton amp Co Glasgow 1832 J T Walker The Legend of Mar Qardagh Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq 368 pages University of California Press ISBN 0 520 24578 4 2006 pp 26 52 108 T A Sinclair Eastern Turkey an Architectural and Archaeological Survey Vol 3 Pindar Press ISBN 978 1 904597 76 6 1989 page 337 Mouawad R J 1992 The Kurds and Their Christian Neighbors The Case of Orthodox Syriacs Parole de l Orient XVII 127 141 Maria T O Shea Trapped between the map and reality geography and perceptions of Kurdistan 258 pp Routledge 2004 see p 68 I Gershevitch The Cambridge history of Iran The Saljuq and Mongol periods Vol 5 762 pp Cambridge University Press 1968 see p 237 for Rawwadids Sharafnama History of the Kurdish Nation Mazdapublishers com Retrieved 10 December 2017 For a list of these entities see Kurdistan and its native Provincial subdivisions Archived 18 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine Matt eos Urhayec i in Armenian Ժամանակագրություն Chronicle ed by M Melik Adamyan et al Erevan 1991 p 156 G Asatrian Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds Iran and the Caucasus Vol 13 pp 1 58 2009 see p 19 A S Mat evosyan Colophons of the Armenian Manuscripts Erevan 1988 p 307 G Asatrian Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds Iran and the Caucasus Vol 13 pp 1 58 2009 p 20 Zehiroglu Ahmet M Trabzon Imparatorlugu 2016 ISBN 978 605 4567 52 2 p 169 G Asatrian Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds Iran and the Caucasus Vol 13 pp 1 58 2009 see p 20 Ozoglu Hakan 2004 Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State State University of New York Press pp 27 28 ISBN 978 0 7914 5993 5 Ozoglu Hakan 2004 Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State State University of New York Press p 34 ISBN 978 0 7914 5993 5 C Dahlman The Political Geography of Kurdistan Eurasian Geography and Economics Vol 43 No 4 pp 271 299 2002 Ozkan Behlul 4 May 2014 Making a National Vatan in Turkey Geography Education in the Late Ottoman and Early Republican Periods Middle Eastern Studies 50 3 461 doi 10 1080 00263206 2014 886569 ISSN 0026 3206 S2CID 144455272 Sardar Aziz 2013 Re conceptualizing Kurdistan as a Battlefield Un mondo senza stati e un mondo senza guerre Politisch motivierte Gewalt im regionalen Kontext ed by Georg Grote Hannes Obermair and Gunther Rautz EURAC book 60 Bozen Bolzano ISBN 978 88 88906 82 9 pp 45 61 C Dahlman The Political Geography of Kurdistan Eurasian Geography and Economics Vol 43 No 4 p 274 The map presented by the Kurdish League Delegation March 1945 Akakurdistan com Retrieved 13 May 2011 Tejel Jordi 2008 Syria s Kurds History Politics and Society Routledge p 92 ISBN 9780415613460 The KDPS continued to promote the teaching of the Kurdish language in Latin characters and to cultivate the nationalist doctrine of the Syrian Kurds using Kurdish myths Kawa and Greater Kurdistan Kaya Zeynep N 2020 Mapping Kurdistan Territory Self Determination and Nationalism Cambridge University Press p 108 ISBN 9781108474696 Gareth R V Stansfield 2003 Iraqi Kurdistan Political development and emergent democracy pp 146 152 CiteSeerX 10 1 1 465 8736 ISBN 0 415 30278 1 Turkey may be divided a Kurdish state could become a reality by 2030 U S Intelligence report ekurd net permanent dead link a b The Rise of ISIS a Golden Opportunity for Iraq s Kurds aucegypt edu 27 June 2014 a b Turkey Ready To Accept Kurdish State in Northern Iraq International Business Times UK 28 June 2014 M M Gunter The Kurds and the future of Turkey 184 pp Palgrave Macmillan 1997 see p 6 G Chaliand A people without a country the Kurds and Kurdistan 259 pp Interlink Books 1993 see p 250 Joost Jongerden The settlement issue in Turkey and the Kurds an analysis of spatial policies modernity and war 354 pp BRILL Publishers 2007 see p 37 Turkey Linguistic and Ethnic Groups Bartkus Viva Ona The Dynamic of Secession Cambridge University Press 1999 pp 90 1 Celik Yasemin 1999 Contemporary Turkish foreign policy 1 publ ed Westport Conn Praeger p 3 ISBN 978 0 275 96590 7 a b Baser Bahar 2015 Diasporas and Homeland Conflicts A Comparative Perspective Ashgate Publishing p 63 ISBN 978 1 4724 2562 1 Toumani Meline Minority Rules New York Times 17 February 2008 Aslan Senem 2014 Nation Building in Turkey and Morocco Cambridge University Press p 134 ISBN 978 1 107 05460 8 Kurd The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia including Atlas 2005 2 NY Times 28 September 2007 Ibrahim Ferhad 2000 The Kurdisch conflict in Turkey obstacles and chances for peace and democracy Munster New York N Y Lit St Martin s press p 182 ISBN 978 3 8258 4744 9 Gunes Cengiz 2013 The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey From Protest to Resistance Routledge p 130 ISBN 978 1 136 58798 6 Martin van Bruinessen Kurdistan The Oxford Companion to the Politics of the World 2nd edition Joel Krieger ed Oxford University Press 2001 Olson Robert 1996 The Kurdish nationalist movement in the 1990s its impact on Turkey and the Middle East Lexington Ky University Press of Kentucky p 16 ISBN 978 0 8131 0896 4 Shaker Nadeen After Being Banned for Almost a Century Turkey s Kurds Are Clamoring to Learn Their Own Language Muftah Kurdish rebels kill Turkey troops BBC News 8 May 2007 Bloomberg Business Bloomberg com Khalidi Ari 1 May 2017 Three raising Kurdistan flag during May Day arrested in Turkey www kurdistan24 net Retrieved 4 October 2020 English Duvar 29 October 2021 Police detain Kurdish man for calling Turkey s southeast Kurdistan www duvarenglish com in Turkish Retrieved 7 February 2022 Police detain citizen who told IYI Party Chair Aksener Kurdistan is denied Bianet October 2021 Retrieved 7 February 2022 Deniz Duruiz Summer 2020 Ayҫa Alemdaroglu Elif Babul Arang Keshavarzian Nabil Al Tikriti eds Tracing the Conceptual Genealogy of Kurdistan as International Colony Middle East Report Middle East Research and Information Project 295 Retrieved 9 January 2021 See David Phillips World Post column President Masoud Barzani of Iraqi Kurdistan has pledged protection for Syrian Kurds from al Nusra a terrorist organization which issued a fatwa calling for the killing of Kurdish women and children David Phillips World Post column Al Nusra Front Syria s Al Qaeda affiliate issued a fatwa condoning the killing of Kurdish women and children ITNsource com A fatwa edict has been issued permitting the shedding of the blood of the Kurds and they called from the mosque loudspeakers that the shedding of the Kurdish blood is halal Some 30 000 Syrians flee to Iraq s Kurdistan region more expected UNHCR 20 August 2013 Martin Chulov 19 August 2013 Syrian Kurds continue to flee to Iraq in their thousands The Guardian Syrian Kurds Flee To Iraq by the Thousands Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty 20 August 2013 Kim Sengupta 12 May 2015 Turkey and Saudi Arabia alarm the West by backing Islamist extremists the Americans had bombed in Syria The Independent Reuters Staff 26 January 2017 Turkey sees Nusra Front as terrorist group acts accordingly source Reuters Retrieved 26 September 2017 Basic Information Czech Kurdish Chamber of Commerce Retrieved 14 December 2017 Photos of Kurdish Jews in Israel Saradistribution com Retrieved 13 May 2011 Kurdistan Encyclopaedia Britannica Myrie Clive 26 October 2007 Middle East Kurds show coded support for PKK BBC News Retrieved 13 May 2011 a b A Dictionary of Scripture Geography p 57 by John Miles 486 pages Published 1846 Original from Harvard University Village on the Euphrates From Foraging to Farming at Abu Hureyra by A M T Moore G C Hillman and A J Legge Published 2000 Oxford University Press Al Sheikhly O F and Nader I A 2013 The Status of the Iraq Smooth coated Otter Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli Hayman 1956 and Eurasian Otter Lutra lutra Linnaeus 1758 in Iraq IUCN Otter Spec Group Bull 30 1 Iraq s Marshes Show Progress toward Recovery Wildlife Extra Archived from the original on 9 May 2010 Retrieved 7 August 2010 John Bulloch and Harvey Morris No Friends but the Mountains The Tragic History of the Kurds ISBN 0 19 508075 0 Iraqi Kurds No Friend but the Mountains The Huffington Post 7 October 2013 King Marcus 22 May 2018 A Watershed Moment for Iraqi Kurdistan Subnational Hydropolitics and Regional Stability Environmental Change and Security Program Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Retrieved 24 May 2019 Keller Sean 6 February 2018 Agriculture and Autonomy in the Middle East Local Futures Economics of Happiness International Society for Ecology and Culture Retrieved 24 May 2019 a b c The Water Kurdistanica The Encyclopedia of Kurdistan 11 October 2018 Retrieved 5 November 2022 Turkish dams threaten northeast Syria with ecological and economic blight Syria Direct 11 August 2020 Retrieved 5 November 2022 Economy Water The Encyclopaedia of Kurdistan Retrieved 14 December 2017 westernzagros com PDF Archived from the original PDF on 9 November 2013 Exxon s Kurdistan Zawya 4 March 2012 Archived from the original on 17 April 2012 Retrieved 31 December 2012 Iraq says expects Exxon to finish West Qurna Sale by December Reuters Retrieved 31 December 2012 Iraqi Kurds open 40 new oil sites to foreign investors Iraq Updates 9 July 2007 Archived from the original on 12 October 2007 Retrieved 13 May 2011 Kurdistan Oil and Gas Activity Map PDF Western Zagros Archived from the original PDF on 9 November 2013 Retrieved 31 December 2012 Official statements on the oil and gas sector in the Kurdistan region Archived 12 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine Kurdistan Development Corporation First Shipment of Kurdistan Crude Arrives in Turkey BrightWire Archived from the original on 18 January 2013 SourcesMitchell Colin Paul 2010 Kurdistan In Bjork Robert E ed The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0199574834 Further readingBesikci Ismail Selected Writings about Kurdistan and Turkish Colonialism London Published jointly by Kurdistan Solidarity Committee and Kurdistan Information Centre 1991 44 p Without ISBN Besikci Ismail 2015 International Colony Kurdistan London Gomidas Institute ISBN 978 1 909382 20 6 King Diane E Kurdistan on the Global Stage Kinship Land and Community in Iraq Rutgers University Press 2014 267 pages Scholarly study of traditional social networks such as patron client relations as well as technologically mediated communication in a study of gender kinship and social life in Iraqi Kurdistan Ocalan Abdullah Interviews and Speeches about the Kurdish cause London Published jointly by Kurdistan Solidarity Committee and Kurdistan Information Centre 1991 46 p Without ISBN Reed Fred A Anatolia Junction a Journey into Hidden Turkey Burnaby B C Talonbooks sic 1999 320 p ill with b amp w photos N B Includes a significant coverage of the Turkish sector of historic Kurdistan the Kurds and their resistance movement ISBN 0 88922 426 9External links Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica article Kurdistan Media related to Kurdistan at Wikimedia Commons Portals Asia Geography Kurdistan Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Kurdistan amp oldid 1129656277, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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