Kurds in Russia constitute a historically significant part of the diaspora. They are closely associated with communities in the Caucasus and Central Asia. In 2010, a total of 63,818 ethnic Kurds living in Russia were registered by the census.
History
At the beginning of the XIX century, the main goal of the Russian Empire was to ensure the neutrality of the Kurds in the wars against Persia and the Ottoman state. At the beginning of the XIX century, they settled in the Caucasus. At this time, the territory was already included in the Russian Federation.
In the XX century, the Kurds were persecuted and exterminated by the Turks and Persians, and this led to the fact that they moved to Russian Transcaucasia. In 1804–1813, and then in 1826–1828, when the Russian Empire and the Persian were at war, the authorities allowed this people to settle on the territory of the Russian Federation and Armenia. And only during the Crimean War and the Russian-Turkish (1877-1878 gg.) Kurds began to move in large numbers. According to the census of 1897, 99,900 representatives of this ethnic group lived in the Russian Empire.
Population
It turns out that the diaspora lives not only in Russia, the Kurds are also in their historical region, which today is divided between Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. The population is estimated at 35 million.
So how many Kurds are there in Russia? According to rough estimates published in the CIA handbook, the number in Turkey is 12 million, in Iran - six, in Iraq - from five to six, and in Syria - less than two. These total values add up to almost 28 million in Kurdistan and surrounding areas. In Russia today, about 60 thousand people live. Recent emigration has led to the emergence of a diaspora with a population of about 1.5 million people, about half of which are in Germany. The question of how many Kurds live in Russia is quite relevant. Unfortunately, every year the figure decreases.
A special case is the Kurdish population in Transcaucasia and Central Asia, moved there mainly during the time of the Russian Empire, which underwent independent development for more than a century, and independently developed ethnic identity. The population of this group was estimated at 0.4 million in 1990.
Cooperation of Kurds in the Russian Federation with the population of Iraq and Syria in the fight against ISIS was widely covered by Western media. However, less well-known is the fact that Russia’s relations with various groups date back nearly two centuries.
Spread across the mountainous borders of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, the Kurds number about 30 million people. Although they are united in the struggle for civil and political rights, they include various tribal affiliations and speak different dialects. Most Kurds are Muslims (mostly Sunnis, but also Shiites). Some are adherents of the Yezidi faith, a religion that shares common elements with Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism.
The southern expansion of Russia (from the 18th century) in search of safe borders and natural resources led to contact with various Kurdish tribes. Since then, Moscow has maintained relations with expansion both inside and outside. This story is an important part of Russia's relations with the Middle East and emphasizes its unique position between Europe and Asia. Below are 10 of the most significant moments in Russian-Kurdish relations from Pushkin to Peshmerga.
Poet and peacock
The conquest of the Russian Federation of the Caucasus led to the emergence of several new ethnic groups in the tsarist state. Among them there were many Yezidis - these are also the famous Kurds of Russia who are called “peacock”, thanks to Melek Taus. The angel bird is one of the central figures in their faith. During the escort of the Russian military in the Turkish campaign of 1829, the poet Pushkin encountered a squad of Yezidis in the army.
“About three hundred families live at the foot of Mount Ararat,” Alexander Sergeevich wrote in “Journey to Arzrum.” They recognized the power of the Russian sovereign. From the Yezidi leader Hassan Aga, a tall monster, a man in a red tunic and a black cap, Pushkin learned about the peculiarities of their faith. After exchanging this good news with curious Yezidis, the poet was relieved to find that they were far from worshiping the devil, as many claim.
Kurds Science Founder
The famous Russian writer Khachatur Abovyan made a huge contribution to the development of the ethnic group. He is the founder of Kurdistics. Educated in Dorpat (present-day Tartu, Estonia), at the invitation of Friedrich Parrot, he was the first Armenian author to write in his native ethnic language. Although Abovyan is a major national figure, his views were universal. Many famous Kurds in Russia were personally acquainted with the scientist.
Abovyan quickly became a "true friend" of the Yezidis. He wrote a lot about their lives and customs, although he mistakenly claimed that their faith was a heretical offshoot of the Armenian church. In 1844, the leader of Hasanli Yazidov, Timur Aga, was invited by Prince Mikhail Vorontsov, the new governor of the Russian Transcaucasus, to a banquet with the leaders of the Kurdish and Turkish tribes in Tiflis. Returning to his community with a gift from Vorontsov, the leader made a feast and invited Abovyan to attend.
Red Kurdistan
After the Sovietization of the Caucasus, the Soviet authorities began to determine national borders in accordance with politics. In 1923, the Kurds of Azerbaijan, sandwiched between Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, received from Baku their own region with a center in Lachin. Officially known as Kurdistan County, it was not formally autonomous, and the government of Soviet Azerbaijan did little to promote culture.
According to the 1926 census, there were about 70 thousand Kurds in Russia, although most of them spoke Azerbaijani and Tatar as their native language. The county was abolished in 1929, along with other Azerbaijani territories, but was partially restored in 1930 as the Kurdistan District before being divided into districts. In the following decades, the Kurds of this region were assimilated into the Azerbaijani population, while other communities were deported to Central Asia, under Stalin in 1937.
The first Kurdish film
“Dawn” (1926) was shot in the Soviet Union by the Armenian film studio “Armenkino”. The picture is about a young Kurdish Yezidi girl and her love for Shepherd Saido on the eve of the Russian revolution. Unfortunately for Zara, they have to fight for their love against the lecherous beck (the local nobility), the corrupt tsarist Russian bureaucracy and the social patriarchy. The director of the film is Amo Bek-Nazaryan, who worked in the era of the Soviet New Economic Policy (NEP), in which such an avant-garde director as Sergey Eisenstein grew up. Bek-Nazaryan was praised by the battleship Potemkin (1925), released a year earlier.
Bek-Nazaryan leveled at Eisenstein. He saw how Sergei used in one of his films not only actors, but also people who had not previously been associated with the theater or cinema, but whose images corresponded to his artistic vision. Therefore, in the "Dawn" Bek-Nazaryan did the same. The film remains a classic of Kurdish cinema.
Mahabad Republic
In 1941, wartime allies of Great Britain and the Soviet Union invaded Iran to provide critical supply lines. The leader Reza Shah, who had sympathy for the Axis powers, was overthrown, and his son, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, was placed on the throne. Iran remained occupied throughout the war: the USSR occupied the northern half of the country, and Britain occupied the southern half.
At the end of the battle, Moscow refused to leave its zone of influence and began sponsoring breakaway republics in Iranian Azerbaijan and Kurdistan. The latter was founded by Mahabad in 1946. Qazi Mohammed was its president, and Mustafa Barzani, the leader of the Kurdish rebels from Iraq, was her minister of war. The euphoria of this republic was short-lived. Stalin refused to support after Moscow received oil concessions from the West. Subsequently, the Republic of Mahabad was defeated by Tehran.
Kurdish rebel in exile
After Tehran captured Mahabad, Mustafa Barzani and his followers fled north, across the Aras River, to the Soviet Transcaucasus in June 1947. There they studied, and Barzani freely learned Russian. Originally adopted by Soviet Azerbaijan, the leader had disagreements with Jafar Bagirov, a close ally of Lavrentiy Beria, who was trying to control the minister and his followers. They were transferred by Moscow to Soviet Uzbekistan in 1948. However, the group did not escape Bagirov's wrath and was scattered throughout the Soviet Union.
Having reunited in 1951, their situation improved significantly after the death of Stalin and Beria in 1953. Barzani met with Nikita Khrushchev, who was reportedly impressed by the Kurdish leader, and sent him to the Frunze Military Academy. Appreciating Moscow’s help, Barzani returned to Iraq in 1958. The capital still maintains good relations with the leader’s family, including the son of Masoud, the former president of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Kurdish culture in the Soviet Union
The USSR played a vital role in preserving the people. In pursuit of mass literacy, Kurds and Yezidis in Soviet Armenia learned their language in three alphabets: first Armenian, then Latin, and finally Cyrillic. Armenia has become a major center for publications in this language, including the newspaper “Riya Tase” (“New Way”) and several children's books. The first Kurdish novel written by Soviet-Yezidi writer Ereb Shamilov was published in Yerevan in 1935.
Radio broadcasts in this language began in 1955 and had a great influence on the ethnic group outside the USSR. Kurds in neighboring countries, especially in Turkey, received Soviet broadcasts and were glad to hear their native language, which was brutally suppressed in other places. Broadcasts were crucial for the development of ethnic identity, and the socialist message of the Soviet Union resonated strongly with many Kurds. The Diaspora also proudly served the USSR in World War II.
Kurds and Yezidis in the post-Soviet states
After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the ethnic component of the region was divided between the new independent countries of Eurasia. Today, Kurds in Russia are Muslim and are mainly concentrated in the North Caucasus, especially in the Krasnodar Territory. In Georgia, they are concentrated in Tbilisi. And in post-Soviet Central Asia there is also a significant part of the Kurdish population.
Yazids constitute the largest ethnic minority in Armenia and are located in different provinces, in particular, in Armavir, Aragatsotn and Ararat. Many fought with the Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Separated by identity, some post-Soviet Yezidis see themselves as a subgroup of Kurds, while others see their people as a separate ethnic group. Currently, the largest Yezidi temple in the world is being built in Armenia. This people also has a representative office in Georgia, the parliaments of countries adopted refugees fleeing the persecution of ISIL.
Syrian Kurds and Russia v. ISIS
After Turkey shot down the Sukhoi-24 aircraft over the Turkish-Syrian border, Moscow strengthened its relations with representatives of these communities in Iraq, Syria and Turkey. She maintained these ties even when relations with Ankara improved. The allies of both Washington and Moscow, the Syrian Kurds were able to unite the two powers against ISIS.
However, when the Civil War in Syria comes to an end, new questions arose regarding the post-war world. Damascus announced its readiness to transfer power to the Syrian Kurds through political autonomy. However, they preferred a federal system for Syria based on direct democratic representation. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed support for convening an All-Syrian Peace Congress with all ethnic and religious groups.
Russia and the referendum on independence
On September 25, 2017, Iraqi Kurds held a meeting on political sovereignty from Baghdad, which was supported by 92.3% of the population. The result provoked an angry response from the central government with the assistance of Turkey and Iran. Tensions ended with Baghdad’s seizure of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. At that moment, many wealthy Kurds of Russia who had business in that area were in an unstable position.
Moscow was restrained in its reaction to the referendum. Although she respected the national aspirations of the Kurds, she also encouraged dialogue between Erbil and Baghdad. It is noteworthy that Russia was the only major power that did not call on the Iraqi diaspora to cancel the referendum. In addition to Moscow’s historical ties with the Barzani clan, she is the main sponsor of Kurdish gas and oil deals. Russia emphasized that energy cooperation remains unchanged. On October 18, Rosneft signed an agreement with Iraqi Kurdistan, reaffirming its commitment to the region.
Self designation today
Most Kurds, according to various sources from 10 to 12 million, live in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. The peoples of the Caucasus and Central Asia were cut off for a considerable period of time, and their development in Russia and then in the Soviet Union was somewhat different. In this light, the answer to the question of where the Kurds live in Russia is rather difficult to give; they can be considered an independent ethnic group. It is also worth mentioning that such a name is officially used only in the former USSR countries, in Turkey they are called Turkish highlanders, and in Iran - Persian.
Interestingly, the Kurds in Russia, where else live? In Transcaucasia they live in enclaves, among the main population. In Armenia, in the Aparan, Talinsky and Echmiadzin regions and in settlements in eight other regions. In Azerbaijan, mainly in the west, in the regions of Lyaki, Kelbajar, Kubatly and Zangelan. In Georgia, Kurds settled in cities and in the eastern part. Some live in the republics of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. Their oldest habitat is in southern Turkmenistan along the Iranian border, many of them also live in Ashgabat, in the city and in the Mary district. Thus, Kurds live in Russia anywhere.
Way of being
Nomadic or semi-nomadic life was the norm until the establishment of Soviet power in 1920. Each tribe had its own pasture paths: in the spring to the mountains, in the fall again down. The famous Kurds of Russia, in those days, were excellent shepherds.
Land was cultivated in the valleys and plains. Sometimes some Kurds abandoned their nomadic life and settled in the villages as farmers. Usually the pastures belonged to the state, and people had to pay rent. Often the land was in long-term private employment, for example, in the hands of Russian generals, who also took the land tax. The archaic tribal system and way of life were the longest preserved by the nomads, who ardently supported the old customs. The Yezidis were especially conservative. Nomadic shepherds for a long time kept the Kurdish tent in a black cover. In winter and in permanent settlements, farmers lived, like other ethnic groups, in traditional dugouts or even in caves dug in the slopes of the mountains. A little later low clay and stone houses were built, in which the premises were under the same roof with a barn and stable. It was common for Kurds not to have a walled yard. They also did not have gardens, since the Yezidi faith forbade the cultivation of vegetables.
Kurds now live in settlements. Some distinguishing features still remain. In the Ararat Valley, Kurdish houses differ from the buildings of local residents by the absence of a terrace and a wine press. An unusual feature of modern women is their exceptional attachment to the national costume in the Caucasus, as well as in Central Asia. The clothes of Muslims and Yezidis are slightly different. Kurdish women love bright contrasting colors, while a white shirt is a trademark of the Yezidis. Men abandoned traditional clothing in the middle of the 20th century. And also faith among the Kurds in Russia influences traditions. It’s difficult to say what kind of people they have, since a lot depends on the territory of residence.
Insulation
Status varies by location. The nationalist movement is the strongest in Russia, where the Kurds have always been protected.
Diaspora issues were also relevant in Georgia; and cultural events aimed at ending the isolation of the Yezidis. In 1926, a cultural and educational society was opened in Batumi. In Azerbaijan, nationalists managed to create Kurdistan in 1920, and in 1930 it spanned five pastures.
Today, relations between the Kurds and Russia remain friendly.