Kurdistan (Kurdish: کوردستان, lit. 'land of the Kurds'; [ˌkʊɾdɪˈstɑːn] ), or Greater Kurdistan, is a roughly defined geo-cultural region and stateless nation in West Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languages, and national identity have historically been based. Geographically, Kurdistan roughly encompasses the northwestern Zagros and the eastern Taurus mountain ranges.
Kurdistan generally comprised the following four regions: southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan), northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan), northwestern Iran (Eastern Kurdistan), and northern Syria (Western Kurdistan). Some definitions also include parts of southern Transcaucasia. Certain Kurdish nationalist organizations seek to create an independent nation state consisting of some or all of these areas with a Kurdish majority, while others campaign for greater autonomy within the existing national boundaries. The delineation of the region remains disputed and varied, with some maps greatly exaggerating its boundaries.
Historically, the word "Kurdistan" is first attested in 11th century Seljuk chronicles. Many disparate Kurdish dynasties, emirates, principalities, and chiefdoms were established from the 8th to 19th centuries. Administratively, the 20th century saw the establishment of the short-lived areas of the Kurdish state (1918–1919), Kingdom of Kurdistan (1921–1924), Kurdistansky Uyezd i.e. "Red Kurdistan" (1923–1929), Republic of Ararat (1927–1930), and Republic of Mahabad (1946).
In Iraq, following the Aylūl Revolt, the government entered into an agreement with the rebellious Kurds, granting Kurds local self-rule. Soon after, however, the agreement collapsed. Later, during the Iraqi no-fly zones conflict, which followed the Gulf War, the Iraqi military withdrew from parts of northern Iraq, allowing the Kurds to fill the vacuum and regain lost control in those areas. After the invasion of Iraq, and since the creation of the new Iraqi federal state, the new constitution issued in 2005 recognises Kurdistan Region as a federal region; even though the constitution does not include the term "autonomy", it emphasises decentralisation and devolution, allowing regions and governorates to administer local affairs. In practice, however, only Kurdistan Region has exercised this authority granted by the constitution. In September 2017, Iraqi Kurds held a one-sided independence referendum, which eventually failed and was abandoned. The subsequent effort by the Iraqi government to punish Kurdistan Region has resulted in the latter losing authorities it had previously possessed, and the future of Kurdish autonomy in Iraq has been called into question. Iraqi Kurdish officials have also complained of efforts by the Iraqi government to return to the pre-2003 centralized government and dismantle Kurdistan Region altogether.
There is also a Kurdistan province in Iran, which is not self-ruled. Kurds fighting in the Syrian civil war, under the banner of the Syrian Democratic forces, established the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (commonly called Rojava), a self-governing administration which seeks to retain its autonomy in a proposed federalized Syria.
Kurdistan means "Land of the Kurds" and was first attested in 11th-century Seljuk chronicles. The exact origins of the name Kurd are unclear. The suffix -stan (Persian: ـستان, translit. stân) is Persian for land.
"Kurdistan" was also formerly spelled Curdistan. One of the ancient names of this region was Corduene. The 19th-century Kurdistan Eyalet was the first time that the Ottoman Empire used the term 'Kurdistan' to refer to an administrative unit rather than a geographical region.
Albeit admitting a thorough delineation is difficult, the Encyclopaedia of Islam delineated Kurdistan as following:In Turkey, the Kurds inhabit the whole of the eastern region of the country. According to Trotter (1878), the limit of their extent to the north was the line Divriği—Erzurum—Kars... The Kurds also occupy the western slopes of Ararat, the districts of Kağızman and Tuzluca. On the west they extend in a wide belt beyond the course of the Euphrates, and, in the region of Sivas, in the districts of Kangal and Divriği. Equally, the whole region includes areas to the east and south-east of these limits... Turkish Kurdistan numbers at least 17 of them almost totally: in the north-east, the provinces of Erzincan, Erzurum and Kars; in the centre, going from west to east and from north to south, the provinces of Malatya, Tunceli, Elazığ, Bingöl, Muş, Karaköse (Ağrı), then Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Siirt, Bitlis and Van; Finally, the southern provinces of Şanlıurfa, Mardin and Çölamerik (Hakkâri)...
[Kurds] inhabit the north-west of Iran. Firstly in the provinces of West Azerbaijan, to the east of Lake Rida'iyya..., the districts of Maku, Kotur, Shahpur, and to the south of the lake, Mahabad (ex-Sabla); in the province of Ardalan, called the province of Kurdistan, whose capital is Senna or Sanandaj, Hawraman; in the province of Kermanshah, Qasr-e Shirin...
In Iraq, the Kurds occupy the north and northeast of the country in the liwaʾs or provinces of Duhok... Left outside their administration are Sinjar and Shekhan, peopled by the Yazidis; the liwaʾs of Kirkuk, Arbil and Sulaymaniyah (entirely Kurdish) and, in the... nahiyas of Khanaqin and Mandali, where they are neighbours of the Kurds of Iran to the west of the Zagros.
In Syria, they constitute three distinct belts, in the north of the country and to the south of the highway which forms a frontier and where they are in direct contact with their compatriots in Turkey... [I]n the Kurd Dagh;..., to the east of the Euphrates where the river enters Syria near Jarablus; and finally, a belt of 250 km. in length by 30 km. in depth in the Jazira.
Many of the maps delineating Kurdistan are greatly exaggerated, also incorporating non-Kurdish regions, which has made the subject very controversial.
Various groups, among them the Guti, Hurrians, Mannai (Mannaeans), and Armenians, lived in this region in antiquity. The original Mannaean homeland was situated east and south of the Lake Urmia, roughly centered around modern-day Mahabad. The region came under Persian rule during the reign of Cyrus the Great and Darius I.
The Kingdom of Corduene, which emerged from the declining Seleucid Empire, was located to the south and south-east of Lake Van between Persia and Mesopotamia and ruled northern Mesopotamia and southeastern Anatolia from 189 BC to AD 384 as vassals of the vying Parthian and Roman empires. Corduene became a vassal state of the Roman Republic in 66 BC and remained allied with the Romans until AD 384. After 66 BC, it passed another 5 times between Rome and Persia. Corduene was situated to the east of Tigranocerta, that is, to the east and south of present-day Diyarbakır in south-eastern Turkey.
Some historians have correlated a connection between Corduene with the modern names of Kurds and Kurdistan; T. A. Sinclair and other scholars have dismissed this identification as false, while a common association is asserted in the Columbia Encyclopedia.
Some of the ancient districts of Kurdistan and their corresponding modern names:
Corduene or Gordyene (Siirt, Bitlis and Şırnak)
Zabdicene or Bezabde (Gozarto d'Qardu or Jazirat Ibn or Cizre)