However, there is no such state recognised by international law. The president of the KRG, Massoud Barzani, is the commander-in-chief of the Peshmerga armed forces, which number some , fighters. The Kurds have never lived under centralised Kurdish state control and there are dozens of political factions divided between Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.
In Syria alone there are 17 Kurdish parties. Founded by Abdullah Ocalan in , the PKK took up arms against Ankara in to demand an independent state and has had an uneasy relationship with Turkey ever since. The group is characterised by its Marxist ideology and has been listed as a terrorist organisation by both the US and the European Union.
Two Kurdish parties with a deeply entrenched rivalry share power in Iraqi Kurdistan. However, Nasr said that there are also prominent Kurdish fighters in the ranks of the IS group, most of them from Kurdish regions in Turkey, Iraq notably Halabja or Iran. The jihadist group is keen on showing its Kurdish fighters that its war effort is a religious struggle. This article was adapted from the original in French.
Daily newsletter Receive essential international news every morning. Current estimates are based on population statistics for each department or governorate in the Kurdish majority settlement area.
To this figure is added an estimate of the Kurdish population living in other parts of the country - outside Kurdistan. Also in Turkey the Kurdish settlement area comprises the 23 vilayets departments of eastern and south-eastern Anatolia and the Kurdish districts of Sivas and Marash covering an area of about , square kilometers. So in there are about The numerical importance of this "diaspora" is estimated according to sources at 7 to 10 million, of which more than 3 million in Istanbul, which is the largest Kurdish city in the world and where in the June elections the pro-Kurdish HDP party won 11 seats of deputies.
It should be noted that in , the European Commission assessed the Kurdish population of Turkey in a range of 14 to 18 million. Some Turkish demographers predict that if the current high Kurdish birth rate should continue, the Kurds could by constitute the majority of the population of Turkey?
In August , the jihadists launched a surprise offensive and the Peshmerga withdrew from several areas. A number of towns inhabited by religious minorities fell, notably Sinjar, where IS militants killed or captured thousands of Yazidis. In response, a US-led multinational coalition launched air strikes in northern Iraq and sent military advisers to help the Peshmerga.
In September , IS launched an assault on the enclave around the northern Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee across the nearby Turkish border. Despite the proximity of the fighting, Turkey refused to attack IS positions or allow Turkish Kurds to cross to defend it. In January , after a battle that left at least 1, people dead, Kurdish forces regained control of Kobane.
The Kurds - fighting alongside several local Arab militias under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces SDF alliance, and helped by US-led coalition air strikes, weapons and advisers - then steadily drove IS out of tens of thousands of square kilometres of territory in north-eastern Syria and established control over a large stretch of the border with Turkey.
In October , SDF fighters captured the de facto IS capital of Raqqa and then advanced south-eastwards into the neighbouring province of Deir al-Zour - the jihadists' last major foothold in Syria. The SDF hailed the "total elimination" of the IS "caliphate", but it warned that jihadist sleeper cells remained "a great threat". The SDF was also left to deal with the thousands of suspected IS militants captured during the last two years of the battle, as well as tens of thousands of displaced women and children associated with IS fighters.
The US called for the repatriation of foreign nationals among them, but most of their home countries refused. In October , US troops pulled back from the border with Turkey after the country's president said it was about to launch an operation to set up a 32km mile deep "safe zone" clear of YPG fighters and resettle up to 2 million Syrian refugees there.
The SDF said it had been "stabbed in the back" by the US and warned that the offensive might reverse the defeat of IS, the fight against which it said it could no longer prioritise. Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels made steady gains in the first few days of the operation. In response, the SDF turned to the Syrian government for help and reached a deal for the Syrian army to deploy along the border.
The Syrian government has vowed to take back control of all of Syria. What has Kobane battle taught us? Raqqa: The city fit for no-one. Kurds received harsh treatment at the hands of the Turkish authorities for generations. In response to uprisings in the s and s, many Kurds were resettled, Kurdish names and costumes were banned, the use of the Kurdish language was restricted, and even the existence of a Kurdish ethnic identity was denied, with people designated "Mountain Turks".
Six years later, the group began an armed struggle. Since then, more than 40, people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. In the s the PKK rolled back on its demand for independence, calling instead for greater cultural and political autonomy, but continued to fight. In , a ceasefire was agreed after secret talks were held. The ceasefire collapsed in July , after a suicide bombing blamed on IS killed 33 young activists in the mainly Kurdish town of Suruc, near the Syrian border.
The PKK accused the authorities of complicity and attacked Turkish soldiers and police. Since then, several thousand people - including hundreds of civilians - have been killed in clashes in south-eastern Turkey. Turkey has maintained a military presence in northern Syria since August , when it sent troops and tanks over the border to support a Syrian rebel offensive against IS.
Those forces captured the key border town of Jarablus, preventing the YPG-led SDF from seizing the territory itself and linking up with the Kurdish enclave of Afrin to the west.
Dozens of civilians were killed and tens of thousands displaced.
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