Kurdish History

Paper Summary:

This paper explores the ways in which a heterogeneous group of people come over time, because of historical events as well as some shared characteristics, to see themselves as belonging to a group. The idea of self-determination is very much based on an idea that the group identity is more important than individual differences, and by examining the history of the Kurds we come to have a sense of how cultural differences can be forged into a single social and nationalistic identity.

Table of contents
Introduction
Geography
Origins of Kurds
Demographics
Language
Religion
Birth of Kurdish Nationalism
Political History to 1946
The Mahabad Republic
Recent History
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Many Americans may have only a vague idea of where Kurdistan is, which might reflect only a vague geographical sense of a people far away from the United States. But it also must reflect the fact that Kurdistan as a region and the Kurds as a people are ambiguous in many ways. Although they are looked at from the outside as a single people and have considered themselves to be one people at least in some ways for centuries, they are a very diverse group, internally divided by religion, language and social structure.Such divisions have prevented the Kurds from having a sense of themselves as a unified people, an internal divisiveness that has been exacerbated by the fact the Kurds live under a number of different national governments, including those of Iran, Iraq and Turkey."

More papers on Kurdish History:

• Research Paper # 3985 : "Iraq and the Kurdish Problem: A History"
• Analytical Essay # 14369 : "People Without A Country" ( Ed Gerard Chaliand ) and "The Kurdish Question In Iraq" ( Edmund Ghareeb )"
• Term Paper # 92771 : "The Kurdish Workers Party"

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