Hundreds of thousands of Kurds also live elsewhere in Iran, especially in the cities of Tabriz, Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz.
In 2000, Iraq's Kurdish population was estimated at approximately 4 million, or 22 percent of the population. From 1920 to 1975, Kurds lived predominantly in the provinces of Mosul, Kirkuk, Arbil, Sulaymaniya, and Diyala. In 1975, eighteen governorates replaced the provinces, and three of them—Sulaymaniya, Dohuk, and Arbil—formed the Autonomous Kurdish Region. In 1992, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) was created. In 2000, more than a million Kurds lived in regions of Iraq outside the control of the KRG, especially in Baghdad, which had a population of a half million. In Syria more than a million Kurds live predominantly in the region along the border with Turkey. The cities of Damascus, Aleppo, Hims, and Hama all have Kurdish populations.
Language
The Kurdish language belongs to the Iranic language group and hence is part of the Indo-European family. In Turkey, Kurds speak the northwestern dialect called Kurmanji. There are also some 4 million Zazaki (Dimili) speakers; most Zazaki speakers speak Kurmanji as well. Many Kurds in Turkey speak only Turkish. In Iran, Kurds speak four Sorani subdialects. In Iraq, Kurds speak Kurmanji and subdialects of Sorani.
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