 | ||
Kurds in Iran also known as Iranian Kurds are Iranians of Kurdish ethnicity who speak Kurdish language as of their first language. The Kurds are the third largest ethnic group in Iran after the ethnic Persians and Iranian Azerbaijanis, comprising more than 10% of the country's population according to the CIA.
Contents
Geographic distribution
Iranian Kurdistan or Eastern Kurdistan (Kurdish: Rojhilatê Kurdistanê), is an unofficial name for the parts of northwestern Iran inhabited by Kurds which borders Iraq and Turkey. It includes the Kurdistan Province, Kermanshah Province, parts of West Azerbaijan Province and Ilam Province.
Kurds generally consider Iranian Kurdistan to be one of the four parts of a greater Kurdistan, which also includes parts of southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan), northern Syria (Western Kurdistan), and northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan).
According to the last census conducted in 2006, the four Kurdish-inhabited provinces in Iran, West Azerbaijan (2,873,459), Kermanshah Province (1,879,385), Kurdistan Province (1,440,156), and Ilam Province (545,787) have a total population of 6,738,787. Pockets of Persian Lurs inhabit the southern areas of Ilam Province. Kurds make up 21% of the population in West Azerbaijan Province.
The total Kurdish population makes up about 9%—10% of Iran's population a significant portion are Sunni Muslims. Sunni Kurds inhabit Kermanshah Province, except for those parts where people are Jaff, and Ilam Province; as well as some parts of Kurdistan and Hamadan provinces. The Kurds of North Khorasan Province in northeastern Iran are also adherents of Sunni Islam. During the Shia revolution in Iran the major Kurdish political parties were unsuccessful in absorbing Sunni Kurds, who at that period had no interest in autonomy. However, since the 1990s Kurdish nationalism has seeped into the Sunni Kurdish area partly due to outrage against government's violent suppression of Kurds farther north.
Kurdish separatism in Iran
Kurdish separatism in Iran or the Kurdish–Iranian conflict is an ongoing, long running, separatist dispute between the Kurdish opposition in Western Iran and the governments of Iran, lasting since the emergence of Pahlavi Reza Shah in 1918.