Kurds in Turkmenistan

Turkmen Kurds

Total population
6,097 (0.1%) (1995 census)[1] 50,000 (estimate)[2]
Regions with significant populations
Ashgabat, Baýramaly, Firjuza, Kara Kala, Mary & near the Atrek River and the Kopet Dag.[3][4][5][6]
Languages
Kurdish (Kurmanji), Turkmen, Russian
Religion
Islam[7]
Related ethnic groups
other Iranian peoples, Kurdish diaspora

The Kurds in Turkmenistan form a part of the historically significant Kurdish population in the post-Soviet space, and encompass people born in or residing in Turkmenistan who are of Kurdish origin. In the 17th century, Abbas I of Persia and Nader Shah settled Kurdish tribes from Khuzestan alongside the Iranian-Turkmen border.^[8] More Kurds arrived to Turkmenistan in the 19th century to find unclaimed land and to escape starvation.^[3]

After the dissolution of Kurdistan Uyezd, many Kurds were deported to Turkmenistan.^[9] Stalin deported many Kurds from Caucasus to Turkmenistan in 1937 and again in 1944.^[10] Since the 1980s, The Kurds of Turkmenistan have been subject to government sponsored assimilation programmes.^[8] Under Soviet Turkmenistan the Kurds had their own newspapers and schools, but since the independence of Turkmenistan, the Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov had closed almost all non-Turkmen schools.^[8] The majority of the Turkmen Kurds are followers of Shia Islam, with a small minority of Sunni Islam followers.^[7]

Despite that the History of current Kurds in Turkmenistan started in 17th Century. The relations and first Contacts between Kurds and Turkmens started with the arrival of the Seljuks in the Middle East.

Population

Year	Population	Note
1926[11]	2,308	In the Turkmen SSR
1936[12]	1,954	In the Turkmen SSR
1959[13]	2,263	In the Turkmen SSR
1970[14]	2,933	In the Turkmen SSR
1979[15]	3,521	In the Turkmen SSR
1989[16]	4,387	In the Turkmen SSR
1995[1]	6,097 (0.1%)	In Turkmenistan

See also

• Kurdish diaspora
• Ethnic groups in Turkmenistan
• Kurds of Khorasan

References

1. Итоги всеобщей переписи населения Туркменистана по национальному составу в 1995 году. (in Russian). asgabat.net. Archived from the original on 9 July 2012. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
2. Ismet Chériff Vanly, "The Kurds in the Soviet Union", in: Philip G. Kreyenbroek & S. Sperl (eds.), The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview (London: Routledge, 1992). pg 164: Table based on 1990 estimates: Turkmenistan (50,000)
3. "Kurds". Eesti Keele Instituut. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
4. James Stuart Olson (1994). An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 409. ISBN 9780313274978. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
5. Philip G. Kreyenbroek; Stefan Sperl (1992). The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview. Routledge. p. 163. ISBN 9780415072656. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
6. McDowall, David (1996). A Modern History of the Kurds: Third Edition. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 491. ISBN 978-1-85043-416-0. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
7. Ronald Wixman (1984). The Peoples of the USSR: An Ethnographic Handbook. M.E. Sharpe. p. 117. ISBN 9780765637093. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
8. "Жизнь курдской общины в Туркменистане [The life of the Kurdish community in Turkmenistan]". Gündogar (in Russian). Retrieved 2 December 2012.
9. Leonidas Themistocles Chrysanthopoulos (2002). Caucasus Chronicles: Nation-Building and Diplomacy in Armenia, 1993-1994. Gomidas Institute. ISBN 9781884630057. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
10. Levon Chorbajian; Patrik Donabedi︠a︡n; Claude Mutafian (1994). The Caucasian Knot: The History & Politics of Nagorno-Karabagh. Zed Books. p. 141. ISBN 9781856492881. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
11. Всесоюзная перепись населения 1926 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР (in Russian). Retrieved 2 December 2012.
12. Всесоюзная перепись населения 1939 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР (in Russian). Demoscope.ru. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
13. Всесоюзная перепись населения 1959 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР (in Russian). Demoscope.ru. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
14. Всесоюзная перепись населения 1970 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР (in Russian). Demoscope.ru. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
15. Всесоюзная перепись населения 1979 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР (in Russian). Demoscope.ru. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
16. Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР (in Russian). Demoscope.ru. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 2 December 2012.