settle there.3 By the classical era in 300 b.c. the Kurds .
were already experiencing massive population movements that .
resulted in settlement and domination of many surrounding .
regions.5 Although they did at times rule over the land .
outside the mountains, for the most part, the Kurds home .
ended where the mountains ended. The Kurds as a distinct .
people have only survived in the mountains.6 The .
relationship between the Kurds and the mountains is so .
strong that they have become synomonis.7 These mountains .
are also the axis for five major countries, which include .
Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and the former Soviet Union. .
Since the end of World War I, Kurdistan has been divided .
into these five sovereign states, in which a significant .
population of Kurds inhabit (see below). .
8 .
Notice that the total number of Kurds in all countries is .
larger than that of Iraq but smaller than Iran. Barring a .
catastrophe, Kurds will become the third most populous .
ethnic group in the Middle East by the year 2000, .
furthermore, if present demographics trends hold, the Kurds .
will replace the Turks as the majority ethnic group in .
Turkey itself.9 The Kurds remain the only ethnic group in .
the world with indigenous representatives in three world .
geographic blocs: the Arab World (in Iraq and Syria), NATO .
(in Turkey), the South Asian - Central Asian bloc (in Iran .
an Turkmenistan), and until recently the Soviet bloc (in the .
Caucasus, now Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia).10 .
The most important features of Kurdistan society since .
the end of medieval times has been it's strong tribal .
organization, with independence or autonomy being the .
political status of the land. Kurdish society was well .
underway of developing a political culture but this was .
disbanded by the redistribution of their county at the end .
of the first World War. But strong Tribal confederacies .
still remained as a form of social organization and .
authority in which people put their allegiance.
