by Nicole Parris

Created on: August 24, 2009   Last Updated: September 17, 2009

The word Kurdistan literally translates to the land of the Kurds, and the land is actually all that they have. Kurdistan isn't an officially recognized country. It refers to a mountainous area of about 75,000 square miles that straddles the borders of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Without a country to officially call their own, the over 26 million Kurdish people have been forced to call parts of four other nations their home.

Since the beginning of the 16th century the Kurdish people have been residents in land controlled by more powerful nations. Ancient Kurdistan was made up of several small states, many of which were independent and were ruled by their own monarch. They existed this way up until the battle of Chaldiran which took place in 1514. After the battle these states were split between Iran and the Ottoman empire, and so began the Kurds' current state as residents in a foreign land.

For the next few centuries the Kurds were subject to whomever was the most powerful nation at the time. At the end of World War I the Kurdish people were given a glimmer of hope that soon they would have their own country. At the end of the war the allies, made up of 10 nations, negotiated a treaty known as the Treaty of Sevres. The allied nations had planned to create several countries in the area that had formerly been the Ottoman empire, but do to diplomatic issues, mainly concerning the nation of Turkey's claim to the land, the allies abandoned the treaty. A new treaty was drawn up, and the land the Kurds had looked to as the country they had so desperately desired was now part of the New Republic of Turkey.

Nearly 70 years later the Kurds would inadvertently move one step closer to having their own sovereign nation. At the end of the first gulf war after fierce fighting, Iraq had withdrawn its troops from the northern part of the country, leaving the area free for the Kurds, many of whom had fled the country during the fighting, to return to the area. Free from the influence of another government, the Kurds flourished. They established schools and their own local government and parliament in 1992, known as the Kurdistan Regional Government, which also governs three of the Kurdish provinces of Iran.
Despite the accomplishes of Iraqi Kurdistan, the three other countries with large Kurdish populations refuse to recognize the Kurds as more than a minority ethnic group. Turkey, Iran, and Syria refuse to give them a designated area to govern over. In an attempt to assimilate

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