WikipediaExtracts:Kurds
Extracted from Wikipedia --
Kurds (Kurdish: کورد, romanized: Kurd) or Kurdish people are an Iranic ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in West Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northern Syria. There are exclaves of Kurds in Central Anatolia, Khorasan, and the Caucasus, as well as significant Kurdish diaspora communities in the cities of western Turkey (in particular Istanbul) and Western Europe (primarily in Germany). The Kurdish population is estimated to be between 25 and 45 million.
Kurds speak the Kurdish languages and the Zaza–Gorani languages, which belong to the Western Iranian branch of the Iranian languages.
Kurds do not comprise a majority in any country, making them a stateless people. After World War I and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the victorious Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres. However, that treaty was not ratified. When the Treaty of Lausanne set the boundaries of modern Turkey three years later, no such provision was made, leaving Kurds with minority status in all of the new countries of Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. Recent history of the Kurds includes rebellions, along with ongoing armed conflicts in Turkish, Iranian, Syrian, and Iraqi Kurdistan. Kurds in Iraq and Syria have autonomous regions, while Kurdish movements continue to pursue greater cultural rights, autonomy, and independence throughout Greater Kurdistan.
