Who are the Kurds? скачать в хорошем качестве

Who are the Kurds?

In the last few years, the Kurdish people have captured international attention, both for their contentious independence referendum, and for their military’s crucial role in the international fight against Isis. The group, which numbers 30 million people, has its own language and unique culture, but has suffered decades of persecution. Scattered over a number of countries in the Middle East, the Kurds have been called the largest stateless ethnic group in the world. We go now to a special report from Iraq by FTV’s Hu Wan-ling and Su Chi-fa, who ask: who are the Kurdish people?The Kurdish people have lived in Upper Mesopotamia for thousands of years. They have a unique cultural heritage, and are recognized as a distinct ethnic group, typically having lighter skin than some groups in the Middle East, as well as deep set eyes of varying colors.We are like a nation without a country. And we’re not free right now.We Kurds are peace-loving people. We are very friendly with the foreigners.The Kurds have their own language and scripts.We have our Kurdish language and Kurdish alphabets.Traditional male clothing consists of baggy trousers and shirts in a single color, with a sash at the waist. The older generation still dress like this every day.Kurdish men express friendship openly by embracing and kissing each other’s cheeks.A friendly greeting must include at least two kisses, if not more.Meanwhile, Kurdish women traditionally wore headscarves, but not face veils. These days young Kurdish women are very relaxed about showing their faces in public and working outside the home. They’re gradually claiming a new position in a society historically centered on men. This is just one factor distinguishing the Kurds from other Middle Eastern peoples. Kurds enjoy religious freedom, but most follow Islam, with more than 90 percent belonging to the Sunni denomination.At holidays, family gatherings, and local celebrations, their warmth and hospitality make guests feel at home.But the Kurds themselves are still waiting for a home to call their own.In Erbil, the capital city of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, you can see evidence of 5000 years of Kurdish heritage.Over the course of history they frequently migrated between the Zagros and Taurus mountain ranges. In the last century, official nation states have been established in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, but the Kurds’ attempts to establish a Kurdish state have failed. Their people are distributed between the four surrounding states. The only autonomous Kurdish region was established in Northern Iraq in 1991.Kurds in other regions have repeatedly experienced state violence and forced displacement. In the past 50 to 100 years, more than a million Kurds have been killed or buried alive by the Iraqi government.Unfortunately Iraq has not treated us kindly. Genocide occurred simply because of religious differences. It’s truly a terrible situation.The Kurdish group, 30 million strong but scattered across different states, is said to be the largest stateless ethnic group in the world today. They’ve lived at the mercy of others for decades, while harboring the dream of an independent state. Iraqi Kurdistan is the region drawing closest to that dream. Many Kurds there are doggedly pursuing independence.With our own culture and language, we have the right to become a country. We’re the same as normal sovereign states. We should have our own state.That’s why today we have to be quite distant from Baghdad. We became distant from Baghdad following the resistance of Baghdad for the implementation of federalism. The KRG, in a new way to others, has decided to take that path towards independence, to fully become independent in its own affairs and its own relations.With their unique history, connection to the land, language and culture, the Kurds are adamant that they are entitled to independence. In recent years some have even dreamed of a Kurdish state cutting through the north of Iraq and Syria all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.But that idea is inimical to the interests of Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey, who are all opposed, making the Kurdish dream of independence just another controversy in the region’s politics, which are unstable at the best of times. This is Hu Wan-ling and Su Chi-fa of FTV News, in our ongoing special report from the Middle East, on the past, present and future of the Kurdish people.