n.
Member of an ethnic and linguistic group native to parts of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey (see Kurdistan ).
Kurds speak one of two dialects of Kurdish, a West Iranian language related to Modern Persian. Traditionally nomadic, most were forced into farming by the redrawing of state borders after World War I (191418). Most Kurds are Sunnite Muslims; Sufism is widely practiced. Plans for a Kurdish state, promised by the Treaty of Sèvres (1920), which dissolved the Ottoman Empire , were never realized. Kurds in Turkey, Iran, and Iraq have been variously persecuted and pressured to assimilate; Iraqi attacks were particularly severe during the Iran-Iraq War (198090) and following the Persian Gulf War (199091). See also Kurdistan Workers' Party .