I'm walking the streets of Madrid in a hot summer afternoon and life is beautiful. And then, there it is, staring at me...the frightened look of a boy that couldn't be over the age of fifteen in a poster that expressed the feel of yet another nation that, in the 21st century, dreams of becoming an independent state.
The Kurds (Kurdish:کورد) are an Iranian-speaking ethnolinguistic group mostly inhabiting a region that includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey and which is often referred to as Kurdistan. Kurdish communities can also be found in Lebanon, Armenia, Azerbaijan and, in recent decades, some European countries and the United States (see Kurdish diaspora). They speak Kurdish, an Indo-European language of the Iranian branch. The origins of the group and its relationships with historical entities and names are complex and disputed.(Wikipedia)
The largest part of the Kurd population lives in Turkey (10.6 to 15 million) followed by Iran (4.8 to 6.6 million), Iraq (4 to 6 million), Syria (0.9 to 2 million) and many more also reside in Asia, the Caucasus, Europe and America. They are pretty spread but still manage to keep a collective identity alive.
The (sad) truth is that this kind of dream tends to carry blood. There has been, and continues to be, blood spilled over "Kurdistan".
I wonder if things will ever be different...if the world (us, people) is/will ever be able to handle things differently...my guess is: yes. Let's hope the Kurds shall be as lucky in the near future and make history, while also proving me right :o)
