Kurdish History Timeline

by Borgna Brunner

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The Kurds have lived in a mountainous, roughly 74,000-square-mile region known as Kurdistan for the past two millennia. Throughout their history they have remained under the thumb of various conquerors and nations. Since the early 20th century, the region has been divided between Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq, all of which have repressed, often brutally, their Kurdish minority. The Kurds, who number 20–25 million, are the largest ethnic group in the world without their own nation. Full Kurdish History Timeline

7th Century	1920s–1960s	1970s–1980s	1990s	2000s

7th Century

The Kurds are conquered by the Arabs, beginning centuries of living under the rule of others. Their land is later occupied by the Seljuk Turks, the Mongols, the Safavid dynasty, and, beginning in the late 13th century, the Ottoman Empire