Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran all have large Kurdish minorities seeking varying degrees of autonomy from central government after decades of state repression. Here is an overview of their status.
History
Kurds are a non-Arab, mainly Sunni Muslim people, speaking a language related to Farsi and living in a mountainous area straddling the borders of Armenia, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.
For most of their history they have been subjugated. In modern times Iran, Iraq and Turkey have resisted an independent Kurdish state and Western powers have seen no reason to help establish one.
Kurdish nationalism stirred in the 1890s when the Ottoman Empire was on its last legs. The 1920 Treaty of Sevres, which imposed a settlement and colonial carve-up of Turkey after World War I, promised them independence.
Three years later, Turkish leader Kemal Ataturk tore up that accord, and the Treaty of Lausanne, ratified in 1924, divided the Kurds amongst the new nations of the Middle East.
Kurdish revolts in the 1920s and 1930s were put down by Turkish forces. The Kurds were not recognized as a separate people or allowed to speak their language in public. They fared little better in northern Iraq, where, under a British mandate, revolts were quashed in 1919, 1923 and 1932.
Syria
Before Syria's conflict erupted in 2011, Kurds made up about 8 percent of the population. Damascus deprived thousands of Kurds of citizenship rights, banned the teaching of their language and clamped down on Kurdish political activities.
However, in April 2011, President Bashar Assad vowed to grant citizenship to Kurds in an attempt to cool resentment. Subsequently Assad's forces focused on crushing the mainly Sunni Arab uprising in central Syria, turning a blind eye to elements of self-rule in the remote northern and eastern Kurdish regions.
Turkey
Kurds form about 20 percent of the population. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), founded in 1978, took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast. Since then, more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's president and former prime minister, removed restrictions on Kurdish language usage. Around half of Kurds voted for his ruling AK Party, and peace talks with Kurds were a major part of his platform.
But Ankara's failure to intervene militarily in Kobani or allow weapons to be sent to its defenders has led to deadly protests and fueled rumors that Turkey secretly supports the Islamic State group.
Iraq
Kurds constitute 15 to 20 percent of the population, inhabiting the three northern provinces of Iraqi Kurdistan. The region has been autonomous since 1991 and has its own government and armed forces but still relies on the Baghdad central government for its budget.
Iran
Kurds form about 7 percent of the population. In 2011 Iran pledged to step up military action against PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan), a PKK offshoot that has sought greater autonomy for Kurdish areas of Iran.
Kurds, along with other religious and ethnic minorities, faced increasing discrimination under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rule from 2005 to 2013.
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