Nadene Goldfoot
Dedicated to Herb Hochfeld
Kurdistan was a mountainous region going through Turkey, Iran and Iraq.
Various groups, among them the Guti, Hurrians, Mannai (Mannaeans), and Armenians, lived in this region in antiquity. The original Mannaean homeland was situated east and south of the Lake Urmia, roughly centered around modern-day Mahabad. The region came under Persian rule during the reign of Cyrus the Great and Darius I.Only the Armenians have continued to exist, almost exterminated recently by WWI in the 1915 genocide of Armenia. Armenia is a nation, and former Soviet republic, in the mountainous Caucasus region between Asia and Europe. My mother remembers having an Armenian doctor. We have Armenian Christians living in Jerusalem since the 5th century CE. There is also an Armenian quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem.
According to tradition, the first Jewish settlers went to Kurdistan as early as in the time of Ezra in the 5th century BCE after the Babylonians had destroyed the Temple and captured the Jews of Judah.
The Babylonians had taken them away in 597 BCE and return in 538 BCE because Cyrus the Great AKA Cyrus II, King of Persia, said so, and then they were allowed to rebuild the Temple and live there. Ezra was the leader of the returnees. The Jewish exiles considered Cyrus as a Divine agent. They had been living in exile for about 60 years.
King Darius reigned from 522 to 486 BCE. He had inherited the throne of Cyrus. At the beginning of his reign he permitted Zerubbabel and the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem to resume the reconstruction of the Temple. It is thought that Darius was the son of Queen Esther. Zerubbabel was born in 480 BCE and was the grandson of King Jehoiachin (598-597 BCE reign) of Judah. There was only one more king after him and that was Zedekiah from 597 to 586 BCE. Zerubbabel was one of the first returnees to Judah from Babylon with the assent of King Cyrus.
The early beginnings of Jewish immigration to Kurdistan are attested by the Aramaic dialect spoken by Kurdish Jews up to modern times; it is close to the language of the Babylonian Talmud and the speech of the Nestorian Christians in Kurdistan.
Toward the end of the 19th century, such as 1899, the Jewish community was estimated to be 12,000 to 18,000 people. They were scattered in many villages and towns and living mainly as merchants, peddlers and craftsmen.
During the 20th century, the population increased, amounting in Persian Kurdistan to number 12,000 to 14,000.
After 1948 when Israel was created May 14, 1948, the great majority of Kurdish Jews from all areas emigrated to Israel and living in or near Jerusalem, the most favored city of all.
Some Kurdish nationalist organizations seek to create an independent nation state once again consisting of some or all of these areas with a Kurdish majority, while others campaign for greater autonomy within the existing national boundaries. The natives of Kurdistan excluding the Jews are now Muslims. They happen to be the closest relatives of Jews, with DNA that is most similar.
The Times of Israel reported on September 30, 2013: "Today, there are almost 200,000 Kurdish Jews in Israel, about half of whom live in Jerusalem. There are also over 30 agricultural villages throughout the country that were founded by Kurdish Jews. Today, the large majority of the Jews of "Kurdistan" and their descendants live in Israel.
"The people closest to the Jews from a genetic point of view may be the Kurds, according to results of a new study at the Hebrew University."Professor Ariella Oppenheim and Dr. Marina Feirman, who carried out the research at the Hebrew University, said they were surprised to find a closer genetic connection between the Jews and the populations of the fertile crescent than between the Jews and their Arab neighbors. Oppenheim pointed out that previous research of DNA of Jews, including her own work, had revealed great genetic similarity between Jews and Arabs, particularly Palestinians from Israel and the territories.
Iraqi Kurdistan first gained autonomous status in a 1970 agreement with the Iraqi government, and its status was re-confirmed as an autonomous entity within the federal Iraqi republic in 2005. There is a province by the name of Kurdistan in Iran, but it is not self-ruled. Kurds fighting in the Syrian Civil War were able to take control of large sections of northern Syria as government forces, loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, withdrew to fight elsewhere. Having established their own government, they called for autonomy in a federal Syria after the war
A 2010 US report, written before the instability in Syria and Iraq that exists as of 2014, attested that "Kurdistan may exist by 2030. The weakening of the Iraqi state following the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has also presented an opportunity for independence for Iraqi Kurdistan, augmented by Turkey's move towards acceptance of such a state although it opposes moves toward Kurdish autonomy in Turkey and Syria.
Turkey had been shelling both ISiS and the Kurds who were fighting ISIS. It happens that Turkey doesn't want to lose any of the land the Kurds are living on, which Turkey feels is part of their country. "The YPG are widely regarded as one of the most effective forces in the fight against IS and attacks on them have prompted calls from the UN, US and EU for Turkey to show restraint."
FIGHTING AL-NUSRA: also described as al-Qaeda in Syria or al-Qaeda in the Levant, was a Salafist jihadist organization fighting against Syrian government forces in the Syrian Civil War. Its aim was to establish an Islamic state in the country or ISIS.
Dedicated to Herb Hochfeld
Various groups, among them the Guti, Hurrians, Mannai (Mannaeans), and Armenians, lived in this region in antiquity. The original Mannaean homeland was situated east and south of the Lake Urmia, roughly centered around modern-day Mahabad. The region came under Persian rule during the reign of Cyrus the Great and Darius I.Only the Armenians have continued to exist, almost exterminated recently by WWI in the 1915 genocide of Armenia. Armenia is a nation, and former Soviet republic, in the mountainous Caucasus region between Asia and Europe. My mother remembers having an Armenian doctor. We have Armenian Christians living in Jerusalem since the 5th century CE. There is also an Armenian quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem.
According to tradition, the first Jewish settlers went to Kurdistan as early as in the time of Ezra in the 5th century BCE after the Babylonians had destroyed the Temple and captured the Jews of Judah.
The Babylonians had taken them away in 597 BCE and return in 538 BCE because Cyrus the Great AKA Cyrus II, King of Persia, said so, and then they were allowed to rebuild the Temple and live there. Ezra was the leader of the returnees. The Jewish exiles considered Cyrus as a Divine agent. They had been living in exile for about 60 years.
King Darius reigned from 522 to 486 BCE. He had inherited the throne of Cyrus. At the beginning of his reign he permitted Zerubbabel and the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem to resume the reconstruction of the Temple. It is thought that Darius was the son of Queen Esther. Zerubbabel was born in 480 BCE and was the grandson of King Jehoiachin (598-597 BCE reign) of Judah. There was only one more king after him and that was Zedekiah from 597 to 586 BCE. Zerubbabel was one of the first returnees to Judah from Babylon with the assent of King Cyrus.
The early beginnings of Jewish immigration to Kurdistan are attested by the Aramaic dialect spoken by Kurdish Jews up to modern times; it is close to the language of the Babylonian Talmud and the speech of the Nestorian Christians in Kurdistan.
Toward the end of the 19th century, such as 1899, the Jewish community was estimated to be 12,000 to 18,000 people. They were scattered in many villages and towns and living mainly as merchants, peddlers and craftsmen.
During the 20th century, the population increased, amounting in Persian Kurdistan to number 12,000 to 14,000.
After 1948 when Israel was created May 14, 1948, the great majority of Kurdish Jews from all areas emigrated to Israel and living in or near Jerusalem, the most favored city of all.
 |
| Kurdish Jews supporting an independent nation of Kurdistan |
Some Kurdish nationalist organizations seek to create an independent nation state once again consisting of some or all of these areas with a Kurdish majority, while others campaign for greater autonomy within the existing national boundaries. The natives of Kurdistan excluding the Jews are now Muslims. They happen to be the closest relatives of Jews, with DNA that is most similar.
The Times of Israel reported on September 30, 2013: "Today, there are almost 200,000 Kurdish Jews in Israel, about half of whom live in Jerusalem. There are also over 30 agricultural villages throughout the country that were founded by Kurdish Jews. Today, the large majority of the Jews of "Kurdistan" and their descendants live in Israel.
"The people closest to the Jews from a genetic point of view may be the Kurds, according to results of a new study at the Hebrew University."Professor Ariella Oppenheim and Dr. Marina Feirman, who carried out the research at the Hebrew University, said they were surprised to find a closer genetic connection between the Jews and the populations of the fertile crescent than between the Jews and their Arab neighbors. Oppenheim pointed out that previous research of DNA of Jews, including her own work, had revealed great genetic similarity between Jews and Arabs, particularly Palestinians from Israel and the territories.
The study's findings are published in the current issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics.
The researchers used the DNA of 1,847 Jewish men of Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Kurdish descent; Muslims and Christians of Kurdish, Turkish and Armenian descent; various Arab populations; and Russians, Poles and residents of Belarus.
Iraqi Kurdistan first gained autonomous status in a 1970 agreement with the Iraqi government, and its status was re-confirmed as an autonomous entity within the federal Iraqi republic in 2005. There is a province by the name of Kurdistan in Iran, but it is not self-ruled. Kurds fighting in the Syrian Civil War were able to take control of large sections of northern Syria as government forces, loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, withdrew to fight elsewhere. Having established their own government, they called for autonomy in a federal Syria after the war
A 2010 US report, written before the instability in Syria and Iraq that exists as of 2014, attested that "Kurdistan may exist by 2030. The weakening of the Iraqi state following the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has also presented an opportunity for independence for Iraqi Kurdistan, augmented by Turkey's move towards acceptance of such a state although it opposes moves toward Kurdish autonomy in Turkey and Syria.
 |
| The Syrian Kurdish fighters are known for the involvement of women in battles such as Manbij. |
Turkey had been shelling both ISiS and the Kurds who were fighting ISIS. It happens that Turkey doesn't want to lose any of the land the Kurds are living on, which Turkey feels is part of their country. "The YPG are widely regarded as one of the most effective forces in the fight against IS and attacks on them have prompted calls from the UN, US and EU for Turkey to show restraint."
FIGHTING AL-NUSRA: also described as al-Qaeda in Syria or al-Qaeda in the Levant, was a Salafist jihadist organization fighting against Syrian government forces in the Syrian Civil War. Its aim was to establish an Islamic state in the country or ISIS.
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, who took more than 80 Turkish persons captive in Mosul during their offensive, is an enemy of Turkey, making Kurdistan useful for Turkey as a buffer state. On 2014-06-28 Hüseyin Çelik, a spokesman for the ruling AK party, made comments to the Financial Times indicating Turkey's readiness to accept an independent Kurdistan in northern Iraq. Various sources have reported that Al-Nusra has issued a fatwā calling for Kurdish women and children in Syria to be killed, and the fighting in Syria has led tens of thousands of refugees to flee to Iraq's Kurdistan region. As of 2015, Turkey is actively supporting the Al-Nusra, but as of January 2017, Turkey's foreign ministry has said that Al-Nusra is a terrorist group and has acted accordingly.
President Trump erred when he paved the way for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey to invade Syria. By doing so he abandoned America's Kurdish partners in the Syrian Democratic Forces, who had eliminated the Islamic State's caliphate in March, after 5 years of hard warfare. The SDF lost 11 thousand soldiers; The US lost 6 thousand.
The Kurds are the world's largest ethnic group without their own state, and the Turkish president sees them only as terrorists. He has a Turkish separatist campaign going on in Turkey.
Resource:
"One of Israel’s best-known politicians reiterated his call on Friday for the Knesset to pass a law recognizing the genocide of the Armenian people more than a century ago.
Yair Lapid — a former cabinet minister who now leads the opposition Yesh Atid party — said on Twitter that recognizing the slaughter of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Turkey was “our moral responsibility as the Jewish state.” Maybe they should recognize in some way the Kurd's loss in fighting ISIS as well.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia: Kurdistan
https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/04/24/recognition-of-armenian-genocide-is-moral-responsibility-of-jewish-state-says-top-israeli-politician/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdish_Jews_in_Israel https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/04/24/recognition-of-armenian-genocide-is-moral-responsibility-of-jewish-state-says-top-israeli-politician/
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