The Kurds are a stateless ethnic group with a significant presence across the Middle East, long accustomed to navigating the region's volatile geopolitics.
While there are no official census figures, largely because they lack an independent state and are dispersed across international borders, estimates suggest their global population ranges between 25 million and 45 million.
The vast majority reside in the mountainous regions spanning parts of western Iran, eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, Syria, and Armenia.
As the conflict between the United States and Iran intensifies, international attention has shifted towards the Iranian Kurdish opposition, with reports suggesting that the coalition could potentially engage in the conflict as the Iranian Kurds have been fighting the Iranian regime. Here is how this coalition could shape the ongoing conflict between the US and Iran.
Throughout the Middle East region, Kurdish people shared a common struggle for more rights, freedoms, and autonomy.
The Kurds were divided between the newly-etched borders in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, and they began decades of protest and revolt against their new national authorities.
After the Ottoman Empire collapsed post-World War I, a proposed Kurdish state was included in the plan. However, the new Turkish government took control of the entire Anatolian region after the Turkish independence war.
Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, but the Kurdish population has diverse religious, cultural, social, and political traditions, as well as a variety of Kurdish dialects.
In Iran, Kurdish people make up eight to 17 per cent of the population, and the Kurdish regions in western Iran have long pushed for greater autonomy or independence, as well as improved rights.
According toCNN, in 1946, a Kurdish state—the Republic of Mahabad—was established, but was dismantled by Iranian forces after less than a year. Since then, the Iranian Kurdish have engaged in fights with the regime, operating from outposts on the Iraq-Iran border, where they have thousands of fighters.
Source: International Business Times UK
