KURDISTAN

For over two thousand years, the Kurds have lived in the lands of Anatolia and Persia, carrying a unique and rich history. Their homeland exists—it is Kurdistan, stretching from the Anatolian plateau and plains to the Zagros Mountains. Yet, no state has ever acknowledged its borders. The Kurdish language, with its Indo-European roots, is related to Persian and distinctly different from Arabic and Turkish. Despite relentless persecution, it has endured and evolved into multiple dialects. Kurdish civilization, shaped by influences from Persian, Arabic, and Ottoman cultures, has blended Zoroastrianism and Islam. And yet, it has always been relegated to the status of a repressed “ethnic minority.” There is a land, a language, and a culture, but in the early 21st century, the 40 million Kurds of the Middle East remain the world’s largest stateless population.

Together with journalist Olivier Piot, I traveled across Kurdistan to understand this paradox of history. From Kurdish villages and cities in Syria, Iraq, and Turkey to Kurdish exiles from Iran, we undertook twelve journeys to document their lives. We listened to their hopes, dreams, frustrations, and suffering—those of a people forgotten by history. Everywhere we went, the Kurds we met expressed the same sentiment: a profound sense of belonging to a nation that has been sacrificed to the shifting tides of history.

Throughout the centuries, from the great Ottoman and Persian empires to the birth of modern states, Kurdish history has been marked by conflict, oppression, and political deadlocks. The 20th century, in particular, saw the Middle East’s geopolitical map repeatedly redrawn, yet the Kurds never secured recognition of their land and rights. Nearly a century after the Allies’ unfulfilled promise of a “Greater Kurdistan,” the Kurdish struggle for self-determination continues.