The situation in northern Syria has calmed down somewhat after the conclusion of a four-day ceasefire. Before that, the region had been the scene of fierce fighting for weeks between the forces of the Syrian transitional government and the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
A people without a state
According to rough estimates, there are between 30 and 35 million Kurds living in the world. Their exact number is difficult to determine, since the countries in which they live often do not recognize them as an independent ethnic group, which is why they remain outside the statistics. In addition, different dialects are spoken in different parts of the territories inhabited by Kurds. Their religious affiliation is also diverse: while the majority profess Sunni Islam, there are significant communities of Alevis, Yazidis, Shiites, Christians, and others.
Historically, their original homeland was the territory between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire and World War I, their fate was largely predetermined by France and Britain. With the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, the territory was divided into four parts: present-day Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran. This finally destroyed the dream of an independent Kurdistan, enshrined in the previous Treaty of Sèvres. Outside their historical areas, the largest Kurdish community today lives in Europe, mainly in Germany.
Kurds in Syria
After the partition of their homeland, Kurdish tribes remained mainly along the Turkish border, until in the 1960s the Syrian government began a systematic assimilation and aggressive campaign for their Arabization.
As a result of the 1962 census, about 120,000 Kurds lost their Syrian citizenship - they were declared stateless, thus being deprived of their right to property. Subsequently, thousands were forcibly expelled into the desert, and Arab tribes were purposefully settled in the lands liberated by the Kurds. In the following decades, the oppression of the Kurds intensified: bans were imposed on their language, their books and even Kurdish names were strictly prohibited.
Today, approximately 2.5 million Kurds live in Syria, representing about ten percent of the population. During the civil war and the rise of the “Islamic State“ (IS) in 2014 and 2015, they became indispensable partners of the United States in the fight against terrorism and created their own self-governing administration in the northeast of the country.
The situation in Turkey
In Turkey, where 15 to 18 million Kurds live, this ethnic group is not recognized as an independent minority, and until a few years ago they were not allowed to speak their own language or give their children Kurdish names. Since 1984, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has waged an armed struggle against the Turkish state - initially for the creation of its own state, and later for broad autonomy. In May 2025, the PKK officially announced its dissolution.
Although this has given new impetus to the peace process, in which the PKK has signaled a willingness to disarm, the dialogue is currently stagnant. The Kurds are demanding the release of their politicians, an end to the coercive rule in Kurdish cities, and a review of the conditions of detention of the PKK founder Öcalan, who has been in prison since 1999 on charges of treason.
The Iraqi Model of Autonomy and Its Dark Sides
The history of the estimated seven to eight million Kurds in Iraq is marked by extraordinary suffering. Under Saddam Hussein, the population was subjected to genocide. The tragic culmination of this policy was the chemical attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja on March 16, 1988, which killed over 5,000 civilians. After the Second Gulf War, the US-led coalition established a no-fly zone, which cut off the Kurds from Baghdad and allowed them to establish their own self-government.
Since 2005, the autonomous Kurdistan Region has been written into the country's constitution. Politics is mainly dominated by the Barzani and Talabani tribal clans and their parties. Despite relative stability, the region remains vulnerable: in 2014, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, responsible for security in the Kurdish region, failed to repel an ISIS offensive, which led to brutal killings and enslavement of the Yazidis.
Iran – symbol of trauma and dreams
Eight to ten million Kurds live in Iran. The regime sees them as a threat to national unity, as the Kurds took a clear stand against the regime of Muslim clerics very soon after the Islamic Revolution. Over the years, the regime in Tehran has also persecuted some Kurdish activists abroad, even killing them.
Protests against the regime in Iran are particularly likely to erupt in the Kurdish regions, to which Tehran responds with extreme brutality. Deeply etched in the collective memory is the death of the young Kurdish woman Gina Mahsa Amini in 2022, who was detained by the local morality police for improperly wearing a Muslim headscarf and later died in police custody.
Historically, Iran plays a key role: the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad, founded in 1946 with the help of the Soviet Union, which lasted only eleven months, still inspires the Kurdish quest for independence.
Author: Elmaz Topcu