Eastern Kurdistan
or
Iranian Kurdistan
is the part of
Iran
inhabited by
Kurds
, or the part of
Kurdistan
that is within Iran. Some of Iranian Kurdistan is in Iran's
Kurdistan Province
.
Iranian Kurdistan is next to the
Iraqi Kurdistan
. Further to the west are
Turkish Kurdistan
and
Syrian Kurdistan
.
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Eastern Kurdistan is the name for the western and north-western regions of Iran. Iranian Kurdistan is between the central
Zagros Mountains
and the north-western
international border
of Iran.
[1]
: 231
The lands of
Kurdistan Province
,
West Azarbaijan Province
,
Kermanshah Province
,
Ilam Province
are part of Iranian Kurdistan.
[1]
: 231
The lands in parts of
Hamadan Province
where people speak Kurdish are also a part of Kurdistan.
[1]
: 231
The area of Iranian Kurdistan is more than 120,000 square kilometres (46,000 square miles).
[1]
: 231
There are important
rivers
and
forests
and Kurdistan.
[1]
: 231
At Kermanshah, there is an
oil field
.
[2]
Lake Urmia
is a
salt lake
that is the largest lake in Kurdistan.
[2]
The mountains of Kurdistan have always been important for
military strategy
.
[1]
: 231?232
The northern and central Zagros Mountains are where two important
trade routes
of the
Silk Road
economic system passed through Iran.
[1]
: 232
The most common crops in all of Kurdistan are
cereals
and
tobacco
. The most common
livestock
in Kurdistan are
domestic sheep
.
[2]
Farmers
grow
strawberries
and other fruits in southern Iranian Kurdistan.
[2]
Saqqez can be one of the coldest places in all Kurdistan. It can be ?30 °C (?22 °F) in the winter at Saqqez.
[2]
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Iran has the second-largest population of Kurds in the world. (Only
Turkey
has a larger Kurdish population.)
[1]
: 231
Kurds are the third-largest
ethnic group
in Iran, and only the
Persians
and
Azerbaijani people
have larger populations.
[1]
: 231
Iranian Kurdistan is next to Iran's international borders with
Turkey
,
Armenia
, and
Iraq
.
There are different
estimates
of how many Kurds are in Iran.
[1]
: 231
In the
Routledge Handbook on the Kurds
,
scholars
write that there are about 7 million Kurds in Iran.
[3]
: 27
The Kurdish population is about one tenth of Iran's whole population.
[3]
: 27
In
The Kurds: An Encyclopedia
, there scholars write that there are between eight and ten million Kurds in Iran. The Kurdish population is between 11% and 15% of Iran's whole population.
[1]
: 231
Between five and seven million Kurds live in Iranian Kurdistan. Most are
Sunni
, but about 1.5 million are
Shia
Kermanshahi Kurds
, who have not interest in Kurdistan becoming independent.
[4]
[5]
[
better source needed
]
Not all of Iran's Kurds live in Iranian Kurdistan, and many Kurds live in
Khorasan Province
.
[1]
: 231
There are Kurdish populations in the cities of Khorasan, where there are many Kurdish villages spread over 80,000 square kilometres (31,000 square miles). There may now be about two million Kurds in Khorasan, and many of them speak Kurmanji Kurdish.
[1]
: 232
Most of the Kurds of Khorasan live in villages, but there are also populations in
Nishapur
,
Mashhad
,
Sabzevar
,
Quchan
,
Bojnoord
, and
Esfarayen
.
[1]
: 232
In the past, the land of Kurdistan was in two parts.
[6]
From the 17th century, one part was inside the
Ottoman Empire
, and the other part was Iranian Kurdistan.
[6]
Iranian Kurdistan was inside Iran.
[6]
Many of the Kurds in Khorasan Province are
descendants
of the tens of thousands of Kurds whom
Abbas the Great
, the
shah
of Iran, moved from Iranian Kurdistan to the borders of
Afghanistan
and the land that is now
Turkmenistan
.
[1]
: 232
Shah Abbas's government did this between 1598 and 1610.
[1]
: 232
The government had moved many Kurds there in the 16th century, in order to make the Kurds fight against the
Uzbek people
who were then attacking Iran.
[1]
: 232
After the
Persian Constitutional Revolution
of 1905?1911, the Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan's towns supported the new system of local government, but the Kurdish
tribes
in the
countryside
supported the
shah
(
the king of Iran
).
[7]
: 57
The armies of the
Russian Empire
took control of Iranian Kurdistan in
World War I
, during the
Persian Campaign
. The
February Revolution
in
Russia
meant that the Russian
provisional government
no longer wanted to control Iranian Kurdistan.
[8]
: 346
Nikolai Baratov, a Russian army general acting for the government, made an agreement with the local Iranian Kurds.
[8]
: 346
They would attack the Ottoman army and help the Russians, and the Russian government would help set up an
independent
Kurdish
state
.
[8]
: 346
When the Ottoman Empire fell apart after World War I, the
British Empire
and the
French Empire
took parts of Ottoman Kurdistan.
[6]
Although the governments in Britain and France said that a Kurdish
state
could be set up in Turkish Kurdistan, they did not say that Iranian Kurdistan should join it.
[6]
Britain and France did not want to anger Iran, and they made no plans for Iranian Kurds to be part of a new Kurdish state.
[6]
Iran kept Iranian Kurdistan.
[6]
At a Kurdish
congress
,
Sheikh Ubeydullah
brought together Kurds from Iranian Kurdistan and Kurds from the parts of Kurdistan in the
Ottoman Empire
.
Sheikh Ubeydullah
worked for the
unification
of Iranian Kurdistan with Ottoman Kurdistan, and for political
independence
in Kurdistan.
[7]
: 55?57
Iran's
Islamic Republic
stopped letting foreign
scholars
travel into Iran in the 1980s. Because of this, people outside Iran do not know much about Kurds in Iran or about Iranian Kurdistan.
[3]
: 27
The Iranian government is fighting a slow battle with the
Kurdistan Free Life Party
(PJAK).
[9]
: 407
The fighting has increased in 2005 and takes place around the
Qandil Mountains
and the
international border
with Iraq.
[9]
: 407
The PJAK started as a branch of the
Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK) from
Turkish Kurdistan
.
[9]
: 407
The
United Nations
says that the Iranian government
oppresses
Kurds in Iran.
[3]
: 27
The Iranian government
assassinated
Iranian Kurdish leaders living in Europe in the 1980s.
[10]
Asma Jahangir
told the
United Nations Human Rights Council
that almost half of all the
political prisoners
in Iran were Kurds.
[11]
[3]
: 27
One fifth of all the people
executed
in Iran during 2016 were Kurds.
[11]
[3]
: 27
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Kurds in Iran speak a number of
Kurdish languages
. Kurdish language is the most important sign of Kurdish
cultural identity
in Iran.
[9]
: 400
Kurdish is an
Iranian language
and an
Indo-European language
like the
Persian language
, but people that speak Persian do not understand Kurdish.
[9]
: 400
Most Kurds in Iran speak the Sorani
dialect
. Kurds in the Kurdish cities of
Mahabad
,
Saqqez
,
Sanandaj
, and
Marivan
speak Sorani. Kurds also speak Sorani in
Arbil
,
Sulaymaniyah
, and
Kirkuk
in nearby
Iraqi Kurdistan
. In
Kermanshah
, Kurds speak the Kirmanshani dialect. In the
Lorestan
area, the
Lurs people
speak the
Luri language
. The Luri language has similarities with the Kirmanshani dialect. Kermanshah is next to Lorestan. Around the city of
Paveh
and some other towns, Kurds speak the Gorani language.
[9]
: 400
Poetry
is important for Iranian Kurds, because their position is made difficult by the
ideology
and
oppression
of Iran.
[12]
: 95
The culture of Iranian Kurdistan is close to Iraqi Kurdistan's culture.
[12]
: 97
Modern Kurdish language poetry in Iranian Kurdistan came from the Kurdish poetry of modern Iraqi Kurdistan and from modern Persian language poetry.
[12]
: 95
The most important
poets
are Sware Ilkhanizadeh, Fateh Sheikh, Ali Hasaniani and Solayman Chireh.
[12]
: 95
After the
Republic of Mahabad
fell in 1946, three important Iranian Kurdish poets moved to Iraqi Kurdistan: Abdurrahman Sharafkandi (known as Hazhar); Muhammad Amin Shiekholeslami (known as Hemin); and Khalid Hisami (known as Hedi).
[12]
: 100
Iraqi Kurdish poetry was most important for Iranian Kurdish poets in the 1980s. From the 1990s, newer poets like Azad Rostami and Behzad Kordestani used newer forms in their poetry. Omid Warzandeh, Raza Alipour, Kambiz Karimi, Jalal Malaksha and Saleh Suzani are now among the poets of Iranian Kurdistan.
[12]
: 95
Some Iranian Kurdish writers have written
novels
which are important to Kurdish
literature
. Writers have
published
novels in Iraqi Kurdistan as well as in Iranian Kurdistan. Ata Nahayee, Qader Hedayati, Shahram Qawami and Kamran Hamidi are among these writers.
[12]
: 97
Many Iranian Kurds have worked to improve Kurdish culture in Iraqi Kurdistan.
[12]
: 100
In Iraqi Kurdistan, written works by Iranian Kurdish writers are very common.
[12]
: 97
Publishers
in Arbil and Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan make Sorani Kurdish
translations
of works written in other Kurdish dialects.
[12]
: 97
Most of the provinces of Iran on the country's international borders (with the inclusion of Iranian Kurdistan) have lower rates of
literacy
than the
average
for Iran.
[1]
: 240
Before Iran's Literacy Movement Organization (
Persian
:
Nehzat-e Savad Amoozi
) started, it was mostly
madrasas
and other
Islamic
schools that worked for the
education
of the population in Iranian Kurdistan.
[1]
: 240
These schools did not teach much
science
or
technology
, and the teachers taught
religion
and
literature
.
[1]
: 240
In Iran, literacy is a
synonym
for being able to read and write in the
Persian language
. (Persian is the
official language
of Iran and the only language used in government schools.) Because of this, many Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan cannot read or write in Kurdish. Many Kurdish children do not learn Kurdish, and
tutors
and
private schools
are important in teaching Kurdish language and literature.
[1]
: 240
Although Iran's
constitution
makes Persian the only official language, it also makes allowance for other languages to be taught and
published
as a political
right
. Until the 21st century however, there was a total
ban
on Kurdish in schools until the Ministry of Education gave approval to Kurdish language teaching in
middle schools
. In 2015, the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology gave its approval to a
Bachelor of Arts
academic degree
programme at
Sanandaj
's University of Kurdistan.
[1]
: 240
There are Kurdish language magazine and newspapers, and there are local
television programmes
and
radio programmes
in some Kurdish dialects.
[1]
: 240
Many Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan follow the religion of
Yarsanism
.
[13]
About 37
percent
of the two million people in
Kermanshah Province
follow
Yarsanism
.
[13]
There may be one million followers of
Yarsanism
altogether.
[13]
Around Kermanshah, some Kurds belong to
Shia Islam
.
[14]
There are Faili Kurds who belong to Shia Islam in both Iranian Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdistan.
[14]
Starting in the 1960s, about 150,000 Faili Kurds were sent out of Iraq into Iran.
[14]
These Faili Kurds could not prove they had
citizenship
in Iraq because Faili Kurds in the past had not wanted citizenship in the Ottoman Empire.
[14]
Before the 1950s, there were many
Jewish people
in Kurdistan.
[14]
There were 19 Jewish
communities
in Iranian Kurdistan in 1948.
[14]
Most Jewish people left Kurdistan after that time, but there is still a population of Jews in Iranian Kurdistan.
[14]
Iranian Jewish Kurds were more
integrated
with local people than Jews in the rest of Iran were.
[15]
In the 1950s, there were 3,000?4,000 Jewish Kurds in Iran.
[15]
Most of the Jews in Iranian Kurdistan lived in the cities of
Sanandaj
,
Kermanshah
and
Urmia
.
[15]
Many of them were
physicians
or
merchants
.
[15]
After the
Islamic Revolution
in Iran, many Jews left Iranian Kurdistan.
[15]
There used to be many Christian people living in the
plain
around Urmia who belonged to the
Assyrian Church of the East
.
[16]
They were in a lower position in society than the Kurds, the
Turks
, and the
Persians
.
[16]
The plain of Urmia is one of the only places in Kurdistan where there is a large Christian population.
[16]
Most Kurds in Khorasan are
Shia Muslims
.
[1]
: 232
- ↑
1.00
1.01
1.02
1.03
1.04
1.05
1.06
1.07
1.08
1.09
1.10
1.11
1.12
1.13
1.14
1.15
1.16
1.17
1.18
1.19
1.20
1.21
1.22
1.23
Chaman Ara, Behrooz; Amiri, Cyrus (2018). "Iran". In Maisel, Sebastian (ed.).
The Kurds: An Encyclopedia of Life, Culture, and Society
. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. pp. 231?241.
ISBN
978-1-4408-4257-3
.
- ↑
2.0
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
O'Shea, Maria T. (2004).
Trapped Between the Map and Reality: Geography and Perceptions of Kurdistan
. New York and London: Routledge. p. 21.
ISBN
978-0-415-94766-4
.
- ↑
3.0
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
Eccarius-Kelly, Vera (2018).
"Kurdish studies in Europe"
. In Gunter, Michael M. (ed.).
Routledge Handbook on the Kurds
(1st ed.). Abingdon and New York: Routledge. pp. 22?33.
doi
:
10.4324/9781315627427-3
.
ISBN
978-1-315-62742-7
.
S2CID
187174636
.
- ↑
The Kurdish Nationalist Movement by David Romano, page 235
- ↑
A Modern History of the Kurds by McDowall, page 270
- ↑
6.0
6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5
6.6
O'Shea, Maria T. (2004).
Trapped Between the Map and Reality: Geography and Perceptions of Kurdistan
. New York and London: Routledge. p. 10.
ISBN
978-0-415-94766-4
.
- ↑
7.0
7.1
Bozarslan, Hamit (2018).
"An overview of Kurdistan in the 19th century"
. In Gunter, Michael M. (ed.).
Routledge Handbook on the Kurds
(1st ed.). Abingdon and New York: Routledge. pp. 48?61.
doi
:
10.4324/9781315627427-5
.
ISBN
978-1-315-62742-7
.
S2CID
187942087
.
- ↑
8.0
8.1
8.2
Vertyaev, Kirill V. (2018).
"The Russian historical and political approach towards nonconventional independence of Iraqi Kurdistan"
. In Gunter, Michael M. (ed.).
Routledge Handbook on the Kurds
(1st ed.). Abingdon and New York: Routledge. pp. 341?353.
doi
:
10.4324/9781315627427-26
.
ISBN
978-1-315-62742-7
.
S2CID
191713368
.
- ↑
9.0
9.1
9.2
9.3
9.4
9.5
Entessar, Nader (2018).
"Iran and the Kurds"
. In
Gunter, Michael M.
(ed.).
Routledge Handbook on the Kurds
(1st ed.). Abingdon and New York: Routledge. pp. 399?409.
doi
:
10.4324/9781315627427-30
.
ISBN
978-1-315-62742-7
.
S2CID
188814267
.
- ↑
O'Shea, Maria T. (2004).
Trapped Between the Map and Reality: Geography and Perceptions of Kurdistan
. New York and London: Routledge. p. 1.
ISBN
978-0-415-94766-4
.
The assassinations of Iranian Kurdish political figures in Europe throughout the 1990s demonstrated that Iran feels no more in control of its Kurdish minorities than do its neighbours.
- ↑
11.0
11.1
Asma, Jahangir
(2017-03-17).
"UN Human Rights Council: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran"
.
United Nations Digital Library System
: 17.
Violations of the rights of ethnic minorities continue to be reported in the country. Almost one fifth of the executions carried out in Iran in 2016 concerned Kurdish prisoners. Among those executions, 21 were related to the crime of "
moharebeh
" (waging war against God and the State) and 1 to membership in a Kurdish political party. Kurdish political prisoners are said to represent almost half of the total number of political prisoners in the country.
- ↑
12.00
12.01
12.02
12.03
12.04
12.05
12.06
12.07
12.08
12.09
Ahmadzadeh, Hashem (2018).
"Classical and modern Kurdish literature"
. In Gunter, Michael M. (ed.).
Routledge Handbook on the Kurds
(1st ed.). Abingdon and New York: Routledge. pp. 90?103.
doi
:
10.4324/9781315627427-8
.
ISBN
978-1-315-62742-7
.
S2CID
187172240
.
- ↑
13.0
13.1
13.2
O'Shea, Maria T. (2004).
Trapped Between the Map and Reality: Geography and Perceptions of Kurdistan
. New York and London: Routledge. p. 28.
ISBN
978-0-415-94766-4
.
- ↑
14.0
14.1
14.2
14.3
14.4
14.5
14.6
O'Shea, Maria T. (2004).
Trapped Between the Map and Reality: Geography and Perceptions of Kurdistan
. New York and London: Routledge. p. 25.
ISBN
978-0-415-94766-4
.
- ↑
15.0
15.1
15.2
15.3
15.4
O'Shea, Maria T. (2004).
Trapped Between the Map and Reality: Geography and Perceptions of Kurdistan
. New York and London: Routledge. p. 26.
ISBN
978-0-415-94766-4
.
- ↑
16.0
16.1
16.2
O'Shea, Maria T. (2004).
Trapped Between the Map and Reality: Geography and Perceptions of Kurdistan
. New York and London: Routledge. p. 27.
ISBN
978-0-415-94766-4
.