Total population | |
---|---|
75,000 - 100,000 [1] 70,000 (estimate 2020) [2] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Beirut | |
Languages | |
Arabic and Kurmanji Kurdish | |
Religion | |
Islam | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Kurds |
Kurds in Lebanon are people born in or residing in Lebanon who are of full or partial Kurdish origin. Estimates on the number of Kurds in Lebanon prior to 1985 were around 60,000. [3] Today, there are tens of thousands of Kurds in Lebanon, mainly in Beirut [4] and hundreds of thousands of Lebanese who are of Kurdish origin but assimiliated with the locals and consider Arabic to be their mother tongue.
Most Kurds in Lebanon have come in recent decades, but the Kurdish community of Lebanon dates back to the 12th century, when Lebanon was ruled by the Kurdish Ayyubid dynasty. [5] The Ottomans also sent loyal Kurdish families to modern-day Syria and Lebanon, where they got administrative roles. [5] These Kurdish groups settled in and ruled many areas of Lebanon for a long period of time. [6] : 27
The first modern wave of Kurdish immigration to Lebanon was in the period of 1925-1950 when thousands of Kurds fled violence and poverty in Turkey. [7] The second wave of Kurds entered in the late 1950s and early 1960s, most of whom fled from political repression in Syria and Turkey. [5] During the early 1990s, the Lebanese government destroyed many squatter quarters in Beirut, where many Kurds lived, leading to the emigration of nearly one quarter of Lebanon's Kurdish population. [5]
During the Lebanese Civil War, Kurds fought for the Lebanese National Movement. [8]
As of 2012, around 40% of all Kurds in Lebanon do not have Lebanese citizenship. [5]
Kurdish people or Kurds are an Iranic ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northern Syria. There are exclaves of Kurds in Central Anatolia, Khorasan, and the Caucasus, as well as significant Kurdish diaspora communities in the cities of western Turkey and Western Europe. The Kurdish population is estimated to be between 30 and 45 million.
This is a demography of the population of Lebanon including population density, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
The Kurds are an Iranian ethnic group in the Middle East. They have historically inhabited the mountainous areas to the south of Lake Van and Lake Urmia, a geographical area collectively referred to as Kurdistan. Most Kurds speak Northern Kurdish Kurmanji Kurdish (Kurmanji) and Central Kurdish (Sorani).
The Jumblatt family, also transliterated as Joumblatt and Junblat) is a Sunni-Muslim that became dominant in Druze politics after 1960s with the weakening of the Arslan family based in the Chouf area of Mount Lebanon that began to ascend in the Druze politics following the end of the Shihabi Emirate. The current head of the family is veteran politician Walid Jumblatt, the son and successor of Kamal Jumblatt, one of the most influential figures in modern Lebanese politics. Other members of the family have contributed to cultural, economic and social life in Lebanon. Khaled Jumblatt, a distant cousin of Walid Jumblatt, held the position of minister of economy and was a prominent politician in Lebanon for many years until his death in 1993. Besides the Chouf, the family owns mansions and villas within the distinguished Clemenceau area of Beirut and in the northwest area of Sidon.
Al-Hasakah Governorate is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is located in the far north-east corner of Syria and distinguished by its fertile lands, plentiful water, natural environment, and more than one hundred archaeological sites. It was formerly known as Al-Jazira Province. Prior to the Syrian Civil War nearly half of Syria's oil was extracted from the region. It is the lower part of Upper Mesopotamia.
The Kurdish population of Syria is the country's largest ethnic minority, usually estimated at around 10% of the Syrian population and 5% of the Kurdish population.
The Kurdish population is estimated to be between 30 and 45 million. Most Kurdish people live in Kurdistan, which today is split between Iranian Kurdistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkish Kurdistan, and Syrian Kurdistan.
Kurdification is a cultural change in which people, territory, or language become Kurdish. This can happen both naturally or as a deliberate government policy.
Tell Abyad is a town in northern Syria. It is the administrative center of the Tell Abyad District within the Raqqa Governorate. Located along the Balikh River, it constitutes a divided city with the bordering city of Akçakale in Turkey.
Kurds in the United States refers to people born in or residing in the United States of Kurdish origin or those considered to be ethnic Kurds.
Kurdish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which asserts that Kurds are a nation and espouses the creation of an independent Kurdistan from Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
The Kurds in Armenia, also referred to as the Kurds of Rewan, form a major part of the historically significant Kurdish population in the post-Soviet space, and live mainly in the western parts of Armenia.
The Razkari Party is a Lebanese-Kurdish political group that was established on 3 April 1975 by Faysal Fakhru, due to disagreement with the policies of the Kurdish Democratic Party – Lebanon (KDP-L) under Jamil Mihhu. The three main points of disagreement that led to the formation of the Razkari Party were the KDP-L's failure to appeal to non-Kurmanji-speaking Kurds, its support for the Iraqi government's proposals in the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict, and accusations of nepotism within the party's leadership. The Razkari Party continued to exist following the end of the Lebanese Civil War, becoming the only political party to represent Lebanon's estimated 100,000 Kurds, and aligning itself with Hezbollah and the March 8 Alliance.
Al-Jazira Province was an administrative division in the State of Aleppo (1920–25), the State of Syria (1925–1930) and the first decades of the Mandatory Syrian Republic, during the French Mandate of Syria and the Lebanon. It encompassed more or less the present-day Al-Hasakah Governorate and part of the former Ottoman Zor Sanjak, created in 1857.
Syrians in Lebanon refers to the Syrian migrant workers and, more recently, to the Syrian refugees who fled to Lebanon during the Syrian Civil War. The relationship between Lebanon and Syria includes Maronite-requested aid during Lebanon's Civil War which led to a 29-year occupation of Lebanon by Syria ending in 2005. Following the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, refugees began entering Lebanon in 2011.
The Jazira Region, formerly Jazira Canton,, is the largest of the three original regions of the de facto Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). As part of the ongoing Rojava conflict, its democratic autonomy was officially declared on 21 January 2014. The region is in the Al-Hasakah Governorate of Syria.
Syrian Kurdistan is a region in northern Syria where Kurds form the majority. It is surrounding three noncontiguous enclaves along the Turkish and Iraqi borders: Afrin in the northwest, Kobani in the north, and Jazira in the northeast. Syrian Kurdistan is often called Western Kurdistan or Rojava, one of the four "Lesser Kurdistans" that comprise "Greater Kurdistan", alongside Iranian Kurdistan, Turkish Kurdistan, and Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Arab Belt was the Syrian Ba'athist government's project of Arabization of the north of the Al-Hasakah Governorate to change its ethnic composition of the population in favor of Arabs to the detriment of other ethnic groups, particularly Kurds.
A stateless person is, according to article 1 of the New York Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons of 28 September 1954, "any person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law".
Kurdish immigration into Syria has occurred since ancient times. Today Kurds form about 10% of Syria's population, numbering around 2 million. The majority of Kurds in Syria immigrated from Turkey to the French Mandate the 20th century to escape persecution. Most of these Kurds live in northeast Syria, with smaller communities scattered in various places across the country.