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59-739: It has not been as successful as its sister parties, such as the PKK in Turkish Kurdistan and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syrian Kurdistan . The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) closed down PÇDK headquarters and the party was banned in the Kurdistan Region , but it continued to operate. The party contested the 2005 and 2009 Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections but failed to win any seats. The party likewise participated in

118-478: A dialect of Southern Kurdish or as a fourth language under Kurdish is a matter of debate, but the differences between Laki and other Southern Kurdish dialects are minimal. The literary output in Kurdish was mostly confined to poetry until the early 20th century, when more general literature became developed. Today, the two principal written Kurdish dialects are Kurmanji and Sorani. Sorani is, along with Arabic , one of

177-526: A major source of income in the Iraq-Turkey border area. Larger-scale agriculture and industrial activities dominate the economic life of the lower-lying region around Diyarbakır , the largest Kurdish-majority city in the region. Elsewhere, however, military activity and high unemployment has led to extensive migration from the region to other parts of Turkey and abroad. Part of the Fertile Crescent of

236-542: A part of Ottoman sanjaks . However, powerful and less accessible tribes, particularly those close to the frontier with Persia , enjoyed a high degree of autonomy. According to a kanunname (book of law) mentioned by Evliya Çelebi , there were two administrative units different from regular sanjaks: 1) Kurdish sanjaks ( Ekrad Beyliği ), characterized by the hereditary rule of the Kurdish aristocracy and 2) Kurdish governments ( hükümet ). The Kurdish sanjaks, like ordinary sanjaks, had military obligations and had to pay taxes. On

295-502: A variety that was an important literary language since the 14th century, but it was replaced by Central Kurdish in the 20th century. European scholars have maintained that Gorani is separate from Kurdish and that Kurdish is synonymous with the Northern Kurdish group, whereas ethnic Kurds maintain that Kurdish encompasses any of the unique languages or dialects spoken by Kurds that are not spoken by neighbouring ethnic groups. Gorani

354-565: Is a Northwestern Iranian language or group of languages spoken by Kurds in the region of Kurdistan , namely in southeast Turkey , northern Iraq , northwest Iran , and northern Syria . It is also spoken in northeast Iran, as well as in certain areas of Armenia and Azerbaijan . Kurdish varieties constitute a dialect continuum , with some mutually unintelligible varieties, and collectively have 26 million native speakers. The main varieties of Kurdish are Kurmanji , Sorani , and Southern Kurdish ( Xwarîn ). The majority of

413-458: Is a front organisation for the PKK fighters, it admits a shared ideology with them. The central person in the leftist Kurdish movement of the PKK and offshoots is Abdullah Öcalan . Historically a Marxist organisation, the party re-evaluated its ideology with the end of the Soviet Union . Today the party is, amongst other influences, democratic socialist and follows the works of Abdullah Öcalan as

472-597: Is an official language in Iraq. In Syria, on the other hand, publishing materials in Kurdish is forbidden, though this prohibition is not enforced any more due to the Syrian civil war . Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish, prohibiting the language in education and broadcast media. In March 2006, Turkey allowed private television channels to begin airing programming in Kurdish. However,

531-618: Is classified as part of the Zaza–Gorani branch of Indo-Iranian languages. The Zaza language , spoken mainly in Turkey, differs both grammatically and in vocabulary and is generally not understandable by Gorani speakers but it is considered related to Gorani. Almost all Zaza-speaking communities, as well as speakers of the closely related Shabaki dialect spoken in parts of Iraqi Kurdistan , identify themselves as ethnic Kurds. Geoffrey Haig and Ergin Öpengin in their recent study suggest grouping

590-458: Is not a unified language, its many dialects are interrelated and at the same time distinguishable from other Western Iranian languages . The same source classifies different Kurdish dialects as two main groups, northern and central. The average Kurmanji speaker does not find it easy to communicate with the inhabitants of Sulaymaniyah or Halabja . Some linguistic scholars assert that the term "Kurdish" has been applied extrinsically in describing

649-454: Is not recognized in Turkey, and prior to 2013 the use of Kurdish names containing the letters X , W , and Q , which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet , was not allowed. In 2012, Kurdish-language lessons became an elective subject in public schools. Previously, Kurdish education had only been possible in private institutions. In Iran, though it is used in some local media and newspapers, it

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708-515: Is regarded as one of the earliest leaders who pursued modern nationalist ideas among Kurds. In a letter to a British Vice-Consul, he declared: the Kurdish nation is a people apart. . . we want our affairs to be in our hands'.' The breakup of the Ottoman Empire after its defeat in the First World War led to its dismemberment and establishment of the present-day political boundaries, dividing

767-456: Is translated to simply mean Kurdish. The Mokriani variety of Sorani is widely spoken in Mokrian. Piranshahr and Mahabad are two principal cities of the Mokrian area. Zaza–Gorani languages , which are spoken by communities in the wider area who identify as ethnic Kurds, are not linguistically classified as Kurdish. Zaza-Gorani is classified as adjunct to Kurdish, although authorities differ in

826-807: The Ancient Near East , Northern Kurdistan was quickly affected by the Neolithic Revolution that saw the spread of agriculture. In the Bronze Age , it was ruled by the Arameans , followed by the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the Iron Age . Classical antiquity saw the arrival of first Greater Armenia , then the Roman Empire . The early Muslim conquests swept over the region with the spread of Islam . During

885-606: The Middle Ages , the region came under the rule of local chieftains. In the 10th and 11th centuries, it was ruled by the Kurdish Marwanid dynasty. From the 14th century onwards, the region was mostly incorporated into the Ottoman Empire . A tax register (or defter ) dating back to 1527 mentions an area called Vilayet-i Kurdistan , which included seven major and 11 minor emirates (or principalities ). The document refers to

944-573: The Ottoman Empire , Constantinople decided not to settle these in Kurdistan due to the extreme poverty and lack of material resources for the refugees. Yet after some time, the Ottomans started seeing the refugees as a chance to diminish the Kurdish claim to the region and allowed the refugees to settle in the region. From early stage on, some Caucasians went through a voluntary process of Kurdification and thereby had Kurdish as their mother tongue. When

1003-536: The parliamentary elections of Kurdistan held on 21 September 2013 , winning 3,605 votes (0.18%, no representatives elected). In the approach to the elections the PÇDK had been denied a license to operate due to pressure from Turkey, but in the end they were able to take part in the elections. On 20 May 2014, members had been taken into custody by security forces of the KDP during operations against different opposition organisations in

1062-554: The 1990s, forced immigration from the southeast has led millions of Kurds to settle in the cities Ankara , Izmir or Istanbul . There used to be 11 Jewish communities in the Turkish Kurdistan . Much of the region is fertile and has traditionally exported grain and livestock to the cities in the plains. The local economy is dominated by animal husbandry and small-scale agriculture , with cross-border smuggling to and from Iraqi Kurdistan (especially of petroleum ) providing

1121-629: The Kurdish emirates as eyalet (state), an indication of the autonomy they enjoyed. In a Ferman (imperial decree) issued by Suleiman I , around 1533, he outlines the rules of inheritance and succession among Kurdistan beys i.e. the Kurdish aristocracy. Hereditary succession was granted to Kurdish emirates loyal to the Ottoman Empire , and Kurdish princes were granted autonomy within the Empire. The degree of autonomy of these emirates varied greatly and depended on their geopolitical significance. The weak Kurdish tribes were forced to join stronger ones or become

1180-528: The Kurdish languages into Northern Kurdish, Central Kurdish, Southern Kurdish, Zaza , and Gorani, and avoid the subgrouping Zaza–Gorani. The notable professor Zare Yusupova has carried out a lot of work and research into the Gorani dialect (as well as many other minority/ancient Kurdish dialects). During his stay in Damascus , historian Ibn Wahshiyya came across two books on agriculture written in Kurdish, one on

1239-621: The Kurdish question arose in Turkey, it also had an effect on their Caucasian neighbors. Even today, there is an aversion from joining the Kurds in their conflict against the Turkish state, but some individuals of Caucasian origin joined the Kurdistan Workers' Party . As part of their campaign, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) won elections in most Caucasian villages in Turkish Kurdistan. Kurdish language Ancient Medieval Modern Kurdish ( Kurdî , کوردی )

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1298-437: The Kurdish states or hükümets as Cezire, Egil, Genç, Palu and Hazo. In the late 18th and early 19th century, with the decline of the Ottoman Empire , the Kurdish principalities became practically independent. The Ottoman government began to assert its authority in the region in the early 19th century. Concerned with independent-mindedness of Kurdish principalities, Ottomans sought to curb their influence and bring them under

1357-467: The Kurdish-inhabited regions between several newly created states. The establishment and enforcement of the new borders had profound effects for the Kurds, who had to abandon their traditional nomadism for village life and settled farming. There has been significant conflict in Turkey over the Kurdish populations' linguistic rights. At various points in its history Turkey has enacted laws prohibiting

1416-401: The Kurds in Turkey from being massacred. Turkish Kurdistan Ancient Medieval Modern Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan ( Kurdish : Bakurê Kurdistanê ) is the southeastern part of Turkey where Kurds form the predominant ethnic group . The Kurdish Institute of Paris estimates that there are 20 million Kurds living in Turkey, the majority of them in

1475-432: The Kurds of Amadiya . This work is very important in Kurdish history as it is the first acknowledgment of the widespread use of a distinctive Kurdish language. Garzoni was given the title Father of Kurdology by later scholars. The Kurdish language was banned in a large portion of Kurdistan for some time. After the 1980 Turkish coup d'état until 1991 the use of the Kurdish language was illegal in Turkey. Today, Sorani

1534-726: The Kurds speak Kurmanji, and most Kurdish texts are written in Kurmanji and Sorani. Kurmanji is written in the Hawar alphabet , a derivation of the Latin script , and Sorani is written in the Sorani alphabet , a derivation of the Arabic script . A separate group of non-Kurdish Northwestern Iranian languages, the Zaza–Gorani languages , are also spoken by several million ethnic Kurds. The classification of Laki as

1593-539: The PKK does. Although the PKK is seen as a terrorist organisation in the United States , the PÇDK is neutral towards America. "We used to consider the U.S. as the greatest of all imperialist powers. We were a Marxist organization dedicated to a socialist future. But after the Soviet Union collapsed we began a process of re-evaluating Marxism, and PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan indeed wrote several books on this subject," said

1652-510: The PÇDK could be able to gain power in Kurdistan and turn the land even more into a stronghold of the PKK (the PKK operates mainly in the Kandil mountains and on the front against ISIL ), the Turkish government has pushed the KRG to prevent a rise of the PÇDK, which led to the PÇDK being denied licenses during elections and the resolution of the party's headquarters. The PÇDK for its part accused Turkey and

1711-428: The Turkish government said that they must avoid showing children's cartoons , or educational programs that teach Kurdish, and could broadcast only for 45 minutes a day or four hours a week. The state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) started its 24-hour Kurdish television station on 1 January 2009 with the motto "we live under the same sky". The Turkish prime minister sent a video message in Kurdish to

1770-453: The approximate borders of the areas where the main ethnic core of the speakers of the contemporary Kurdish dialects was formed. The most argued hypothesis on the localisation of the ethnic territory of the Kurds remains D.N. Mackenzie 's theory, proposed in the early 1960s (Mackenzie 1961). Developing the ideas of P. Tedesco (1921: 255) and regarding the common phonetic isoglosses shared by Kurdish, Persian, and Baluchi , Mackenzie concluded that

1829-457: The arc of the Taurus Mountains . It has an extreme continental climate —hot in the summer, bitterly cold in the winter. In the first census of Turkey in 1927, Kurdish was the largest first language in the provinces of Ağrı ( 58%), Bitlis ( 75%), Diyarbakır ( 69%), Elazığ ( 53%), Hakkâri ( 89%), Mardin ( 61%), Siirt ( 74%, includes present-day Batman) and Van ( 77%). Moreover, Kurdish was

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1888-610: The cities of Erbil , Dohuk , and Zakho . The operations were justified by the banning of the party some days before, after a demonstration in front of the Kurdistan Region Parliament organised by the PÇDK to commemorate a massacre of PKK members by the KDP in Erbil in 1997, during the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War . PÇDK dissolved itself in 2015 and it was succeeded by Kurdistan Society's Freedom Movement . As feminism

1947-582: The control of the central government in Constantinople. However, removal from power of these hereditary principalities led to more instability in the region from the 1840s onwards. In their place, sufi sheiks and religious orders rose to prominence and spread their influence throughout the region. One of the prominent Sufi leaders was Sheikh Ubeydalla Nahri , who began a revolt in the region between Lakes Van and Urmia . The area under his control covered both Ottoman and Qajar territories. Shaikh Ubaidalla

2006-509: The culture of the vine and the palm tree, and the other on water and the means of finding it out in unknown ground. He translated both from Kurdish into Arabic in the early 9th century AD. Among the earliest Kurdish religious texts is the Yazidi Black Book , the sacred book of Yazidi faith. It is considered to have been authored sometime in the 13th century AD by Hassan bin Adi (b. 1195 AD),

2065-545: The details. groups Kurdish with Zaza Gorani within a "Northwestern I" group, while Glottolog based on Encyclopædia Iranica prefers an areal grouping of "Central dialects" (or "Kermanic") within Northwest Iranic, with Kurdish but not Zaza-Gorani grouped with "Kermanic". Gorani is distinct from Northern and Central Kurdish, yet shares vocabulary with both of them and there are some grammatical similarities with Central Kurdish. The Hawrami dialects of Gorani includes

2124-564: The fact that this usage reflects the sense of ethnic identity and unity among the Kurds. From a linguistic or at least a grammatical point of view, however, Kurmanji and Sorani differ as much from each other as English and German, and it would seem appropriate to refer to them as languages. For example, Sorani has neither gender nor case-endings, whereas Kurmanji has both.... Differences in vocabulary and pronunciation are not as great as between German and English, but they are still considerable. According to Encyclopaedia of Islam , although Kurdish

2183-489: The fifteenth century. From the 15th to 17th centuries, classical Kurdish poets and writers developed a literary language. The most notable classical Kurdish poets from this period were Ali Hariri , Ahmad Khani , Malaye Jaziri and Faqi Tayran . The Italian priest Maurizio Garzoni published the first Kurdish grammar titled Grammatica e Vocabolario della Lingua Kurda in Rome in 1787 after eighteen years of missionary work among

2242-462: The former leader of the party, Fayaq Golpi. He added that "in an era of globalization, you cannot ignore real[i]ties. We then went for democracy and federalism instead. After the liberation of Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein , so many things changed-especially the issue of the USA." The party's relations with Turkey are very negative, since there are many ties between the PKK and the PÇDK. Fearing that

2301-472: The geography of Turkish Kurdistan as following: According to Trotter (1878), the limit of their extent to the north was the line Divriği — Erzurum — Kars . In the region of Erzurum they are found especially to the east and the south-east. The Kurds also occupy the western slopes of Ararat, the districts of Kağızman and Tuzluca . On the west they extend in a wide belt beyond the course of the Euphrates, and, in

2360-515: The great-grandnephew of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir (d. 1162), the founder of the faith. It contains the Yazidi account of the creation of the world, the origin of man, the story of Adam and Eve and the major prohibitions of the faith. According to The Cambridge History of the Kurds , "the first proper 'text'" written in Kurdish is a short Christian prayer. It was written in Armenian characters, and dates from

2419-486: The language the Kurds speak, whereas some ethnic Kurds have used the word term to simply describe their ethnicity and refer to their language as Kurmanji , Sorani , Hewrami , Kermanshahi , Kalhori or whatever other dialect or language they speak. Some historians have noted that it is only recently that the Kurds who speak the Sorani dialect have begun referring to their language as Kurdî , in addition to their identity, which

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2478-696: The largest first language with a plurality in Şanlıurfa with 42%. 69% of the population in Muş Province had Kurdish as their first language in the census of 1935, the first census conducted there after the province was split from Bitlis earlier. Bingöl Province was separated from Muş in 1935, while Tunceli Province was separated from Elazığ in 1936 and Kurdish was also the first language in these newly-established provinces in their first census in 1945 with 56% and 53%, respectively. Moreover, other ethnic groups also exist in Turkish Kurdistan including Arabs , Assyrians , Circassians , Ossetians and Turks . Since

2537-581: The north-west Iranian group". Ludwig Paul concludes that Kurdish seems to be a Northwestern Iranian language in origin, but acknowledges that it shares many traits with Southwestern Iranian languages like Persian , apparently due to longstanding and intense historical contacts. Windfuhr identified Kurdish dialects as Parthian , albeit with a Median substratum. Windfuhr and Frye assume an eastern origin for Kurdish and consider it as related to eastern and central Iranian dialects. The present state of knowledge about Kurdish allows, at least roughly, drawing

2596-717: The opening ceremony, which was attended by Minister of Culture and other state officials. The channel uses the X , W , and Q letters during broadcasting. However, most of these restrictions on private Kurdish television channels were relaxed in September 2009. In 2010, Kurdish municipalities in the southeast began printing marriage certificates , water bills, construction and road signs , as well as emergency, social and cultural notices in Kurdish alongside Turkish. Also Imams began to deliver Friday sermons in Kurdish and Esnaf price tags in Kurdish. Many mayors were tried for issuing public documents in Kurdish language. The Kurdish alphabet

2655-649: The other hand, the Kurdish hükümet neither paid taxes nor provided troops for the Ottoman Army , and the Ottomans preferred not to interfere in their succession and internal affairs. According to Çelebi, by the mid-17th century the autonomy of the Kurdish emirates had diminished. At this time, out of 19 sanjaks of the Diyarbekir Eyalet , 12 were regular Ottoman sanjaks, and the remaining were referred to as Kurdish sanjaks. The Kurdish sanjaks were Sagman, Kulp, Mihraniye, Tercil, Atak, Pertek, Çapakçur and Çermik. Çelebi lists

2714-586: The other languages spoken by Kurds in the region including the Gorani language in parts of Iranian Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdistan. Philip G. Kreyenbroek , an expert writing in 1992, says: Since 1932 most Kurds have used the Roman script to write Kurmanji.... Sorani is normally written in an adapted form of the Arabic script.... Reasons for describing Kurmanji and Sorani as 'dialects' of one language are their common origin and

2773-453: The police have been closing down these private schools. There has been a long-running separatist conflict in Turkey which has cost 30,000 lives, on both sides. The region saw several major Kurdish rebellions during the 1920s and 1930s. These were forcefully put down by the Turkish authorities and the region was declared a closed military area from which foreigners were banned between 1925 and 1965. Kurdish place names were changed and turkified,

2832-499: The region of Sivas, in the districts of Kangal and Divriği. Equally, the whole region includes areas to the east and south-east of these limits... Turkish Kurdistān numbers at least 17 of them almost totally: in the north-east, the provinces of Erzincan , Erzurum and Kars ; in the centre, going from west to east and from north to south, the provinces of Malatya , Tunceli , Elazığ , Bingöl , Muş , Karaköse ( Ağrı ), then Adıyaman , Diyarbakır , Siirt , Bitlis and Van ; Finally,

2891-515: The rest of the 1980s and into the 1990s. By 1993, the total number of security forces involved in the struggle in southeastern Turkey was about 200,000, and the conflict had become the largest counter-insurgency in the Middle East , in which much of the countryside was evacuated, thousands of Kurdish-populated villages were destroyed, and numerous extra judicial summary executions were carried out by both sides. More than 37,000 people were killed in

2950-459: The ruling AKP in a statement at the end of 2011 of planning a massacre of the Kurdish people using chemical and other prohibited weapons and fighting without any ethical principles. The party also claimed that "international communities, institutions and so-called democratic states have been silent in the face of it." They appealed to the Peshmerga forces to accomplish their national duty and protect

3009-533: The southeast. Southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan) is considered to be one of the four parts of Kurdistan , which also includes parts of northern Syria ( Western Kurdistan ), northern Iraq ( Southern Kurdistan ) and northwestern Iran ( Eastern Kurdistan ). The term Turkish Kurdistan is often used in the context of Kurdish nationalism , which makes it a controversial term among proponents of Turkish nationalism . The term has different meaning depending on context. The Encyclopaedia of Islam delineates

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3068-477: The southern provinces of Şanlıurfa (Urfa), Mardin and Çölamerik ( Hakkarî ). Nonetheless, it is emphasized that "the imprecise limits of the frontiers of Kurdistan hardly allow an exact appreciation of the area." The region forms the south-eastern edge of Anatolia , in Upper Mesopotamia . It is dominated by high peaks rising to over 3,700 m (12,000 ft) and arid mountain plateaux , forming part of

3127-407: The speakers of these three languages may once have been in closer contact. Kurdish varieties are divided into three or four groups, with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility. In historical evolution terms, Kurmanji is less modified than Sorani and Pehlewani in both phonetic and morphological structure. The Sorani group has been influenced by among other things its closer cultural proximity to

3186-574: The two official languages of Iraq and is in political documents simply referred to as "Kurdish". The Kurdish varieties belong to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family . They are generally classified as Northwestern Iranian languages, or by some scholars as intermediate between Northwestern and Southwestern Iranian. Martin van Bruinessen notes that "Kurdish has a strong South-Western Iranian element", whereas "Zaza and Gurani [...] do belong to

3245-547: The use of Kurdish in schools. To counter the Dersim rebellion , a turkification process was started by the Turkish government and the Elazığ Girls' Institute ( Turkish : Elazığ Kız Enstitüsü, EGI ) was opened in 1937. The institute was a boarding school for Kurdish girls and young women who had to learn to speak Turkish with their children which before they were not able to as most of them didn't know Turkish. The girls' school

3304-512: The use of Kurdish language was outlawed, the words Kurds and Kurdistan were erased from dictionaries and history books, and the Kurds were only referred to as Mountain Turks . Politicians were often prosecuted and sentenced to prison terms for speaking Kurdish. In 1983, a number of provinces were placed under martial law in response to the activities of the militant separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). A guerrilla war took place through

3363-622: The violence and hundreds of thousands more were forced to leave their homes. The situation in the region has since eased following the capture of the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in 1999 and the introduction of a greater degree of official tolerance for Kurdish cultural activities, encouraged by the European Union . However, some political violence is still ongoing and the Turkish–Iraqi border region remains tense. When refugees from Caucasus reached

3422-405: Was a part of the party's ideology, it had the highest number of female candidates of all parties in Kurdistan during the parliamentary elections in 2013. According to the director of the election office of the PÇDK, Hassan Judi, it is one of the major goals that women's participation won't be below 50%. In 2013, the party's list was headed by a woman, Najiba Mahmood. Even if the party denies that it

3481-602: Was open until 1959. In 2014, several Kurdish NGOs and two Kurdish political parties supported a boycott of schools in Northern Kurdistan to promote the right to education in the Kurdish language in all subjects. While Kurdish identity has become more acceptable in Turkish society, the Turkish government has only allowed the Kurdish language to be offered as an elective in schools. The government has refused to honor other demands. In several southeastern cities, Kurds have established private schools to teach classes in Kurdish but

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