Although existing statistics concerning the population of greater Iranian Kurdistan as well as the number of Kurds that live within this region are not exact for the time being, due to the need for new census data, it is estimated that there are roughly 7–9 million Kurds living within the borders of the Iranian state. These Kurds represent approximately 12–15 per cent of the population of Iran, a country inhabited by several distinct nations of people, including Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, Gilakis and Mazandranis, Lurs and Turcomen. The Kurds are the second largest ethnic group after the Azeris. Ethnic Persians make up less that 50 per cent of the population of Iran. The vast majority of Kurds occupy the mountainous region in western Iran, stretching some 95,000 square kilometres, from the Turkish and Iraqi borders in the west to Lake Urmiyeh in the north-east. As with greater Kurdistan, the exact boundaries of northern and southern Kurdistan in Iran are problematic, with the nation states inhabited by Kurds hostile to Kurdish nationalism, maintaining a vested interest in downplaying the actual size of their Kurdish communities, and also offering more conservative views on the geographic borders, as well as the amount of Kurds that live in Iran. Conversely, Kurdish nationalists themselves are sometimes known to exaggerate these numbers. The area that can be described as Iranian Kurdistan stretches over three or four administrative provinces. These are Kurdistan in the central area, western Azerbaijan in the north and Kermanshah in the southern area. Some also feel that Ilam in the south is part of wider Kurdistan. Although the province of ‘Kurdistan’ (the only province that is governmentally recognised as Kurdish) is populated entirely by Kurds, the other provinces are home to a significant Kurdish population. The Kurds in western Azerbaijan share their area with the Azeri population there, and in Kermanshah although the population is mainly Kurd, the region is shared with ethnic Lurs, and the majority of Kurds are Shi‘ite. There is also a Kurdish enclave numbering around 2 million that live in the north-eastern province of Khorasan. It is believed that Kurdish tribes came to the region in the late 1500s during the Safavid period to defend the province from invaders. These Kurds, most of whom speak Kurmanji, are isolated from greater Kurdistan.
Ethnicity in a Social Context: From Minority Perspective to Cultural Identity
