Member of an ethnic and linguistic group native to parts of what are now Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, and Syria (&see; Kurdistan). Kurds speak one of two dialects of Kurdish, a West Iranian language related to Modern Persian. Traditionally nomadic, most were forced into farming by the redrawing of state borders after World War I (1914–18).
Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims; Sufism is widely practiced. Plans for a Kurdish state, promised by the Treaty of Sèvres (1920), which dissolved the Ottoman Empire, were never realized. Kurds in Turkey, Iran, and Iraq have been variously persecuted and pressured to assimilate; Iraqi attacks were particularly severe during the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88) and following the Persian Gulf War (1990–91). &Seealso; Kurdistan Workers' Party.
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