Language and religion

“Kurd” is an Indo-European language, of Iranian ling, different from Persian, Arabian, Turkish; it has its own grammar and a rich written literature from the X century. The two principal dialects are the “Kurmangi” and the “Sorani”. The Kurds of Turkey use the Latin alphabet, those from Russia the Cyrillic, whereas the Iraq, Syrian, Iranian Kurds use the Arabian alphabet. Today only in Iraq the Kurd language is officially recognized and partially studied at school, but in the public offices of the Kurd territories, the official language is Arab,. In Soviet Armenia there are some Kurd schools. In Turkey writing and speaking Kurd is forbidden from the Constitution. In Syria there are not any schools or newspapers in Kurd. In Iran the Kurd language is not studied at school, but some radio-TV stations broadcast in Kurd. The governments of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, have always tried to thwart the development of the Kurd language, banning the development of a common language and of a unique way of writing for all the Kurds of Kurdistan. In the last years, in several European universities departments of Kurd language and literature have been opened.

About 70% of Kurds is Muslim. The majority of them is Sunnite and a minority (2, 3 millions), is Shiite. 30% of the Kurds is made up of Christian and Hebraic communities, and of several brotherhoods and sects as “Naqishibandi”, “Ahli-Haq”, “Ali-Ilahi”, “Qadiri” and “Yezidi”. The last have their pre-Islamic religion with a sacred book named “Mass-hafé rash”, “The Black Book”.

Since the oppressor states tend to deprive the Kurd people of their identity, even negating their existence, it’s hard to specify the number of the Kurds. Indeed, from the 1960s, these states have intensified their repressive policy, deporting more and more the Kurd people away from their origin territories, and settling the Turkish, Persian and Arabian population. But the scientists assert that the number of Kurds is about of 30 millions, so divided: 13 millions in Turkey, 8 millions and half in Iran, 1 million and 300.000 in Syria, 1 million and 200.000 in Russia, 150.000 in Lebanon. As regards the rest of the Kurds, they have emigrated all over the world.