The Kurds today are an oppressed people, mostly by ISIS, but there was a time when they were the oppressors and very practiced butchers.
​About 15 million to 20 million Kurds live in a mountainous area straddling the borders of Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. About 8 million live in southeastern Turkey. The Kurds are a non-Arabic people who speak a language related to Persian. Most adhere to the Sunni Muslim faith.​
Kurds in the past have been described as generally vicious, heartless, cruel and cowardly. They have been described as robbers and murderers. They are, for the most part, destitute of religious belief. However, as nominal Muslims, they were formerly permitted to be armed by the Turks, who finding it impossible to subdue them, caused them to be enrolled as irregular cavalry and practically confided to them the duty of robbing and enslaving their Christian neighbors.
Kurds are mostly a Sunni Muslim people with their own language and culture. Today most Kurds live in contiguous areas of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Syria. A mountainous region of southwest Asia generally known as Kurdistan.
Before World War I, traditional Kurdish life was nomadic, revolving around sheep and goat herding throughout the Mesopotamian plains and highlands of Turkey and Iran. The breakup of the Ottoman Empire after the war created a number of new nation-states, but not a separate Kurdistan. Kurds, no longer free to roam, were forced to abandon their seasonal migrations and traditional ways.
The Kurds have been subjugated by neighboring peoples for most of their history. In modern times, Kurds have tried to set up independent states in Iran, Iraq and Turkey, but their efforts have been crushed every time.
During the early 20th century, Kurds began to consider the concept of nationalism, a notion introduced by the British amid the division of traditional Kurdistan among neighboring countries. The 1920 Treaty of Sevres, which created the modern states of Iraq, Syria and Kuwait, was to have included the possibility of a Kurdish state in the region. However, it was never implemented. After the overthrow of the Turkish monarchy by Kemal Ataturk, Turkey, Iran and Iraq each agreed not to recognize an independent Kurdish state.
The Kurds received especially harsh treatment at the hands of the Turkish government, which tried to deprive them of Kurdish identity by designating them "Mountain Turks," outlawing their language and forbidding them to wear traditional Kurdish costumes in the cities. The government also encouraged the migration of Kurds to the cities to dilute the population in the uplands. Turkey continues its policy of not recognizing the Kurds as a minority group.
In Iraq, Kurds have faced similar repression. After the Kurds supported Iran in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein retaliated, razing villages and attacking peasants with chemical weapons. The Kurds rebelled again after the Persian Gulf War only to be crushed again by Iraqi troops. About 2 million fled to Iran and 5 million currently live in Iraq.
Today the Kurds are fighting ISIS who are trying to create an Islamic Caliphate in Iraq and Syria. The Kurds have been largely successful in fighting ISIS thus far.