What is Kurdistan and who are the Kurds?
I’m reading a fascinating book called “The Kurdish Spring: A New Map Of The Middle East” by the American author David L Phillips. He explains just how differentiated are the Kurds – “the largest stateless people in the world” – geographically, linguistically and religiously.
The total area of Kurdistan is about 600,000 square kilometres, roughly equal to the size of France, and the total number of Kurds is an estimated 32 million. But there are four major geographic sectors.
- North Kurdistan is in Turkey. An estimated 22.5 million Kurds live there. The main language is Kurmanji.
- South Kurdistan is in Iraq. Around 8-10 million live there. The main language is Sorani.
- West Kurdistan is in Syria. Some 2.5 million live there. The main language is Kurmanji.
- East Kurdistan is in Iran. around 4.5 million live there. The main language is Sorani.
Around 75% of Kurds are Sunni Muslims. Most of the rest are Shia Muslims but there are significant pockets of Alevi, Sufis, Yazidi and Christian.