Mother and her son

Joke:6 Attending a wedding for the first time, a little girl whispered to her mother, "Why is the bride dressed in white?" "Because white is the color of happiness, and today is the happiest day of her life," her mother explained, keeping it simple. The child thought for a moment and said, "So why is the groom wearing black?" Joke:7 A woman came home just in time to find her husband in bed with another woman. With superhuman strength borne of fury, she dragged her husband down the stairs to the garage and put his penis in a vice. She then secured it tightly and removed the handle. Next she picked up a hacksaw. The husband terrified, screamed, "Stop! Stop! You're not going to cut it off are you?" The wife, with a gleam of revenge in her eye, said, "Nope. You are. I'm going to set the garage on fire."

Jalal Talabani

Profile: Jalal Talabani Born November 12, 1933 (1933-11-12) (age 73) Kelkan, Iraq Political party Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Religion Sunni Islam Jalal Talabani, widely referred to by Kurds as Mam (uncle) Jalal, is one of the longest serving figures in contemporary Iraqi Kurdish politics. A Baghdad University law graduate, he is considered to be a shrewd politician with an ability to switch alliances and influence friends and foes alike. Mr Talabani is the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two main parties controlling the Iraqi Kurdistan region. The party has traditionally drawn its support from among the urban population and radical elements in Kurdish society. Based in Sulaymaniyah, it controls the south-eastern part of Iraqi Kurdistan - with the rival Kurdistan Democratic Party, KDP, to the west and the central government to the south. The PUK commands a militia force of more than 20,000 men, which could play a role in realising the United States' aim of "regime change" in Iraq. Mr Talabani has been seeking US support for federal status for Kurds in any settlement of a post-Saddam Iraq. Early years Born in 1933, Jalal Talabani began his political career in the early 1950s as a founder member and leader of the KDP's Kurdistan Students Union. He rapidly moved up within the party ranks to become a senior member of the KDP. The seasoned fighter: Jalal Talabani in 1991 In 1961, he joined the Kurdish revolt against the government of Abd-al-Karim Qasim. After the coup that ousted Qasim he led the Kurdish delegation to talks with President Abd-al-Salam Arif's government in 1963. Subsequent differences with KDP leader Mustafa Barzani began to emerge and in 1975 he joined a KDP splinter group, the KDP-Political Bureau, led by his future father-in-law and the party ideologue Ibrahim Ahmad. In 1966, the group formed an alliance with the central government and took part in a military campaign against the KDP. The group was dissolved when the KDP and the government signed a peace agreement in March 1970. Rivalry Jalal Talabani and a number of others founded the PUK in 1975. A year later he began an armed campaign against the central government. The PUK suffered a severe setback when the Iraqi Government used chemical weapons against the Kurds in 1988, and Mr Talabani was forced to leave northern Iraq and seek refuge in Iran. The Talabani-Barzani or PUK-KDP rivalry has been a dominant factor in Iraqi Kurdish politics for the last three decades. Post Gulf War A new era in Mr Talabani's political life began in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War and the Kurdish uprising in the north against the Iraqi Government. The declaration by the Western alliance of a no-fly zone and a safe haven for Kurds marked the beginning of a short-lived honeymoon with the KDP. Elections were held in Iraqi Kurdistan and a PUK-KDP joint administration was established in 1992. The underlying tension between the two parties led to armed confrontation, dubbed the fratricide war, in 1994. After concerted efforts by the US and, to a lesser extent Britain, and numerous meetings between the two parties' delegations, Mr Talabani and KDP leader Massoud Barzani signed a peace agreement in Washington in 1998. The accord was further cemented on 4 October 2002 when the regional parliament reconvened in a session attended by both parties' MPs. In that session, Mr Talabani proposed that the parliament should pass a law prohibiting and criminalising inter-Kurdish fighting.

Masud Barzani

Profile: Massoud Barzani 1st President of Iraqi Kurdistan -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Born August 16, 1946 Mahabad, Iran Political party Kurdistan Democratic Party Religion Sunni Muslim Massoud Barzani: KDP leader (Picture by Hiwa Osman) The political leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Massoud Barzani, has been a central figure in more that 20 years of see-sawing war and peace in Iraqi Kurdistan. As leader of one of two main parties controlling Iraqi Kurdistan since 1991, he represents many of the traditional values of Kurdish society. His party commands more than 20,000 fighters and can mobilise a much bigger force. The KDP currently controls the northern and northwestern part of Iraqi Kurdistan along the border with Syria, Turkey and Iran. The other main Kurdish party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by Jalal Talabani, is predominant in the areas bordering Iran. Early times Massoud Barzani is seen as a cautious but pragmatic leader of his people. He is seen as taking a consensual approach to the leadership of his party. Massoud as a young man He was born in 1946, in the short-lived Kurdish Republic of Mahabad in Iran. The republic's army was led by his late father, Mustafa Barzani, a much-revered figure in the Kurdish national movement. Following the collapse of the republic, Mustafa Barzani fled to the Soviet Union. Massoud returned to Iraq and lived with his grandfather in Mosul, where he completed his primary education. Following the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958, Mustafa Barzani also returned to Iraq and the young Massoud moved to Baghdad. He ended his schooling in 1961 when Mustafa Barzani declared an armed rebellion against the Iraqi Government, after promises to grant national rights to Kurds were not fulfilled. Party leadership A decade later, Massoud was a member of the Kurdish delegation at the 1970 talks with the Baath government in Baghdad. The talks led to the 11 March agreement, under which the central government agreed to grant autonomy to the Kurds in parts of Iraqi Kurdistan within four years. Massoud's father, Mustafa Later the same year, he became a member of the KDP leadership, and assumed overall control of the party on his father's death in 1979. But the government in Baghdad remained a sworn enemy. Mr Barzani escaped an assassination attempt in Vienna in 1979 in which one of his aides was wounded. New era The 1991 Gulf war and the subsequent Kurdish uprising against the Iraqi Government heralded a new chapter in Mr Barzani's political life. The Western alliance declared the Kurdish region a safe haven and the central government withdrew all its administration from the region. The two main Kurdish parties stepped in to fill the vacuum. Massoud had to make the transition from being a leader responsible for a party waging a guerrilla war against Baghdad to becoming a statesman responsible for the civilian population in the areas of Iraqi Kurdistan outside Saddam Hussein's control. Chronic rivalry > An important factor shaping Barzani's political life has been the persistent in-fighting with his counterpart Jalal Talabani. There was a brief lull after 1987 when the KDP, PUK and six other parties formed the Iraqi Kurdistan Front. But tension between the two began to increase again after the 1992 regional elections in Iraqi Kurdistan. Both men ran for the presidency of the Iraqi Kurdistan region but neither received the necessary majority. Fighting reached its peak in 1996 Rivalry between the two parties came to a head when the PUK drove out the KDP from the hitherto jointly-administered provincial capital, Irbil, in late 1994. From his headquarters in Salah-al-Din, outside Irbil, Mr Barzani led a bitter war against the PUK forces in the period 1994-1998. In 1996, Mr Barzani invited the Iraqi government troops to help him capture Irbil from the PUK, while Mr Talabani sought logistical help from Iran. The result was the division of Iraqi Kurdistan into two regions, administered separately by the two parties. Peace deal After several meetings between the KDP and the PUK, sponsored by the US, both leaders signed a peace agreement in Washington in August 1998 in the presence of the then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The accord was further cemented on 4 October 2002, when the joint Kurdish parliament reconvened and both leaders apologised to the families of the victims of their internal war. BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.

Oclan

Who is Abdullah Ocalan? Ocalan: key moments of his life By Beat Witschi CNN Interactive (CNN) -- To the majority of the Turkish people, Abdullah Ocalan (pronounced URGE'ah-lohn) is a child murderer and terrorist whose violent campaign for Kurdish autonomy threatens the very foundation of modern-day multiethnic Turkey. But for many Kurds -- both in the impoverished southeast of Turkey and abroad -- Ocalan and his banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are battling Ankara's iron-fisted oppression of Kurdish culture, identity and political aspirations. So who is this man who has spent much of his life outside Turkey and now risks being executed for his terrorist/freedom fighter campaign? RELATED VIDEO CNN's Nic Robertson reports on Abdullah Ocalan Windows Media 28K 80K A number of biographical dates and developments have been reported repeatedly by Turkish, Kurdish and international media. Ocalan was born in 1948 in the village of Omerli in southeastern Turkey, close to the Syrian border. He became politically active during his university years in Ankara, where he studied political science but dropped out. By 1973 he had organized a Maoist group whose goal was a socialist revolution. He founded the PKK in 1978 as an extreme-left nationalist group that launched a war against the Turkish government in order to set up an independent Kurdish state along Marxist lines. Ocalan fled Turkey before the 1980 military coup and lived in exile, mostly in the Syrian capital Damascus and in the Lebanese plains under Syrian control, where he set up his PKK headquarters and training camps. Late last year, under intense pressure from Turkey, Syria closed the camps and expelled Ocalan, who started an odyssey through various nations in search of political asylum. In February, he was nabbed in Kenya after an undercover operation and spirited back to Turkey. Ocalan faces a possible death sentence on treason charges for leading a 15-year-old armed struggle by Kurdish rebels seeking self-rule in southeast Turkey Ocalan: his mission Ocalan, a heavily built man with a thick black mustache, propagates a Cold War brand of nationalism mixed with Marxist-Leninist doctrine that in many ways belongs to another era. "You must believe before everything else that the revolution must come, that there is no other choice," he is reported to have said in an address to a Kurdish youth rally last August. "You must say no to betrayal and denial. Even though I am 50 years old, I have never allowed myself to get old. I am going on with the struggle." But the man who is said to speak very little Kurdish has gradually dropped his demands for Kurdish independence, saying the violent conflict can end if Ankara grants the Kurds autonomy or cultural and linguistic rights. That retreat, some observers say, may well be linked to the Turkish military's success in destroying much of the PKK's power base both inside Turkey and across the border in northern Iraq. Turkish journalists who have interviewed Ocalan have come away with the impression of a "megalomaniac" and "sick" man who has no respect for or understanding of the "superior values of European civilization." "Everyone should take note of the way I live, what I do and what I don't do," a December edition of the Turkish Daily News quoted Ocalan as saying in one of his many speeches. "The way I eat, the way I think, my orders and even my inactivity should be carefully studied. There will be lessons to be learned from several generations because Apo (Ocalan) is a great teacher," he is quoted as saying. By many accounts from inside and outside Turkey, Ocalan is a dogmatic and tyrannical leader whose organization is involved in drug trafficking, robbery, extortion, arson, blackmail and money laundering. Some international human rights monitors have put him on a par with former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet or war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Many international Turkey watchers agree that Ocalan wiped out rival Kurdish movements as well as potential personal rivals with ruthless determination. According to the Turkish Daily News, Ocalan underlined his personal hunger for absolute power at the helm of the PKK in a party publication in 1991. "I establish a thousand relationships every day and destroy a thousand political, organizational, emotional and ideological relationships. No one is indispensable for me. Especially if there is anyone who eyes the chairmanship of the PKK. I will not hesitate to eradicate them. I will not hesitate in doing away with people," he is quoted as saying. Following Turkey's arrest of Ocalan, Kurdish supporters protested in several European cities to draw international attention to their cause And yet, for PKK members and many of their supporters, both inside and outside Turkey, Ocalan is a hero: a determined leader who has been struggling against the cultural, economic and political deprivations imposed on the Kurdish people by Ankara. "The name of Apo has been identified with the Kurdish people who have risen and are fighting for independence," a pro-Kurdish publication says of Ocalan, in line with many similar statements broadcast by the London-based Kurdish Med-TV station. In Ocalan's Words... "Turkey has to be democratized and the emergence of democracy is from the East (Anatolia). The East will render a great service to the democratic liberation of Turkey. In other words: our movement is the liberation movement of the Turkish people." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I used to be someone who would not even tread on an ant. But this is a war for honor and self-defense. A 100 percent elimination policy (by Ankara of the Kurds) has forced me to defense and it has become a glorious defense of a people." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Turkey will lose if it does not soften its hard policies of centralization and unity. I am not someone who would gloat over the collapse of Turkey. If they (the government) have trust in democracy, I am ready to join them as a fighter without arms."

Qamishlo Friends: Zarathushtra

Qamishlo Friends: Zarathushtra

Plight Kurdish in Syria

Plight of Kurds in Syria Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad has taken several positions during his career, only to take them back later. When Assad took power in the summer of 2000, Kurds hoped that he would be more modern and liberal than his authoritarian father. They hoped he would make changes in Syria's economic and political system and would recognize the benefit of an autonomous Kurdistan. But such hopes have been dashed. The younger Assad is just as disinterested in helping the Kurds as his father was. He has made public promises to return land and citizenship to Kurds, who were stripped of their citizenship and their land - taken from them due to the Arabization laws in Syria. These promises have yet to come to light. Time and again, he has manufactured a pretext to stall the implementation of changes to the Kurdish issues. He uses excuses that change cannot occur overnight, yet changes occurred overnight in the constitution that allowed him to become president at such an early age. Regrettably, Syria is stubbornly pursuing a military solution against the Kurds and has intensified repression, encouraged by an apparent international complacency. This will further aggravate tension and escalate violence in the region. A political solution, which satisfies the legitimate aspirations of the Kurdish people, can bring an end to the Kurdish conflict.

Who are the Kurd? (washingtonpost)

Who Are The Kurd? A largely Sunni Muslim people with their own language and culture, most Kurds live in the generally contiguous areas of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Syria – a mountainous region of southwest Asia generally known as Kurdistan ("Land of the Kurds"). Before World War I, traditional Kurdish life was nomadic, revolving around sheep and goat herding throughout the Mesopotamian plains and highlands of Turkey and Iran. The breakup of the Ottoman Empire after the war created a number of new nation-states, but not a separate Kurdistan. Kurds, no longer free to roam, were forced to abandon their seasonal migrations and traditional ways. During the early 20th century, Kurds began to consider the concept of nationalism, a notion introduced by the British amid the division of traditional Kurdistan among neighboring countries. The 1920 Treaty of Sevres, which created the modern states of Iraq, Syria and Kuwait, was to have included the possibility of a Kurdish state in the region. However, it was never implemented. After the overthrow of the Turkish monarchy by Kemal Ataturk, Turkey, Iran and Iraq each agreed not to recognize an independent Kurdish state. The Kurds received especially harsh treatment at the hands of the Turkish government, which tried to deprive them of Kurdish identity by designating them "Mountain Turks," outlawing their language and forbidding them to wear traditional Kurdish costumes in the cities. The government also encouraged the migration of Kurds to the cities to dilute the population in the uplands. Turkey continues its policy of not recognizing the Kurds as a minority group. In Iraq, Kurds have faced similar repression. After the Kurds supported Iran in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein retaliated, razing villages and attacking peasants with chemical weapons. The Kurds rebelled again after the Persian Gulf War only to be crushed again by Iraqi troops. About 2 million fled to Iran; 5 million currently live in Iraq. The United States has tried to create a safe haven for the Kurds within Iraq by imposing a "no-fly" zone north of the 36th parallel. Despite a common goal of independent statehood, the 20 million or so Kurds in the various countries are hardly unified. From 1994-98, two Iraqi Kurd factions – the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Massoud Barzani, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by Jalal Talabani – fought a bloody war for power over northern Iraq. In September 1998, the two sides agreed to a power-sharing arrangement. Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK, currently waging a guerrilla insurgency in southeastern Turkey, has rejected the Iraqi Kurds' decision to seek local self-government within a federal Iraq. The PKK believes any independent Kurdish state should be a homeland for all Kurds. Over the years, tensions have flared between the PKK, led by Abdullah Ocalan, and Barzani's KDP faction, which controls the Turkey-Iraq border. Barzani has criticized the PKK for establishing military bases inside Iraqi-Kurd territory to launch attacks into Turkey. Ocalan's recent capture by Turkish agents touched off heated and sometimes violent protests by thousands of Kurds living in Western Europe. It's impact on the Kurdish people and their quest for independence is yet to be seen. Background: The Kurds The Kurds have been subjugated by neighboring peoples for most of their history. In modern times, Kurds have tried to set up independent states in Iran, Iraq and Turkey, but their efforts have been crushed every time. The Kurdish People * 15 million to 20 million Kurds live in a mountainous area straddling the borders of Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. About 8 million live in southeastern Turkey. * The Kurds are a non-Arabic people who speak a language related to Persian. Most adhere to the Sunni Muslim faith. Turkey * 1920: After World War I, when the Ottoman Empire is carved up, the Kurds are promised independence by the Treaty of Sevres. * 1923: Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk rejects the treaty, and Turkish forces put down Kurdish uprisings in the 1920s and 1930s. The Kurdish struggle lies dormant for decades. * 1978: Abdullah Ocalan, one of seven children of a poor farming family, establishes the Kurdish Workers' Party, or PKK, which advocates independence. * 1979: Ocalan flees Turkey for Syria. * 1984: Ocalan's PKK begins armed struggle, recruiting thousands of young Kurds, who are driven by Turkish repression of their culture and language and by poverty. Turkish forces fight the PKK guerrillas, who also establish bases across the border in Iraq, for years. Conflict costs about 30,000 lives. * 1998: Ocalan, who has directed his guerrillas from Syria, is expelled by Damascus under pressure from Ankara. He begins his multi-nation odyssey until he is captured in Nairobi on Jan. 15, 1999 and taken to Turkey, where he may face the death penalty. Iran * 1946: Kurds succeed in establishing the republic of Mahabad, with Soviet backing. But a year later, the Iranian monarch crushes the embryonic state. * 1979: Turmoil of Iran's revolution allows Kurds to establish unofficial border area free of Iranian government control; Kurds do not hold it for long. Iraq * Kurds in northern Iraq -- under a British mandate -- revolt in 1919, 1923 and 1932, but are crushed. * Under Mustafa Barzani, they wage an intermittent struggle against Baghdad. * 1970: Baghdad grants Kurds language rights and self rule, but deal breaks down partly over oil revenues. * 1974: New clashes erupt; Iraqis force 130,000 Kurds into Iran. But Iran withdraws support for Kurds the following year. * 1988: Iraqis launch poison-gas attack, killing 5,000 Kurds in town of Halabja. * 1991: After Persian Gulf War, northern Iraq's Kurdish area comes under international protection. * 1999: Two rival Iraqi Kurdish factions, one led by Mustafa Barzani's son Massoud, the other by Jalal Talabani, broker a peace deal; goal is for Kurdish area to become part of a democratic Iraq. SOURCES: Reuters, World Almanac, staff reports © Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

Mani

Mani Mani was born in Babylonia on April 14, 216 soon after Caracalla overthrew Vologeses V and made his brother Artaban IV (r. 215-26) the last Parthian king. When Mani was twelve, he was told in a vision to withdraw from a baptizing sect associated with Elkhasai. This revelation coincided with Ardashir's overcoming the Parthians and reviving the Persian empire. Near his 24th birthday Mani was told by his higher self or angelic teacher to proclaim himself a prophet. Two years later Shapur I became the king of Persia. Mani's mission took him to Ctesiphon and then into western India for two years. There he wrote a book diplomatically praising Shapur. Hindus found his teaching of celibacy too strict; but in 243 he had more success in Khurasan, where he converted Governor Feroz, who told his brother, King Shapur, that Mani had no political ambitions but wanted to unify the people of the empire with this universal religion. After Mani spent a year in a cave making paintings, Shapur invited the prophet to his court in 245, and Mani requested and received royal letters to all the Persian governors telling them not to hinder his mission. For the next ten years Mani was able to spread his teachings throughout the Persian empire, establishing many churches and sending out disciples. Adda and Pateg carried the teachings of Mani to Egypt. When people made fun of an ugly saint, Mani pointed out that the soul is beautiful and is to be rescued from the material body. In 255 Zarathustrian magi led by Kartir persuaded Shapur to break with Mani and promote their religion in the empire, causing Mani to go into exile. In the next eighteen years the prophet returned to Khurasan and traveled in central Asia as far as western China, returning by way of Tibet and Kashmir. In 272 Shapur died and was succeeded by his son Hormizd I, governor of Khurasan, who supported the Manichaeans; but he died after reigning one year. His younger brother Bahram I loved pleasure and was cruel. He was persuaded by the magi to end toleration of heresies and foreign cults in order to promote the orthodox Sassanid religion. Mani tried to meet with the new king at his winter palace in Ctesiphon but failed to do so. Mani was said to have been related to the Parthian Arsacid dynasty, and his association with King Baat, possibly a Parthian Armenian, as he lectured to his disciples at Phargalia, may have led to Mani's arrest at Gondeshapur (Belapat). Mani was brought before an angry King Bahram and said he had done no harm but had helped the royal family by freeing their servants of demons and by healing them. The king accused Mani of supporting the defeated Parthian cause. Mani replied that God sent him to bring the perfect commandments of Christ that he received from God through an angel so that many souls might be saved and escape punishment. Bahram asked why God did not reveal this to him, the king. Mani replied that God commands and decides whom to teach. The angry king silenced the prophet and had him chained in order to please the magi. Mani said that he had been protected by Shapur and Hormizd, but Bahram sentenced him to death and scourging. Mani was chained heavily in prison for 26 days. There he consoled his disciples and appointed Sisin as his successor. Mani died in prison on February 26 in 274 or 277, described as the messenger of the Light withdrawing his soul from the body. Public distress at the news stimulated the king to order Mani's body fed to birds and his head placed on a gate. So began persecution of the Manichaeans in the Persian empire that would continue sporadically for centuries. Four years of persecution occurred before Sisin could organize the church. Many died as martyrs, and many fled to Khurasan or Turkestan. Some went west, and Pateg is said to have preached against the Old Testament in Rome by 280. Bahram II lost Ctesiphon and Seleucia to the Roman emperor Aurelius Carus in 282, while Amu traveled in central Asia and Adda put together scriptures in Africa. About five years later African proconsul Julian warned Diocletian that this strange religion's ideas on sex, war, agriculture, and civic duties endangered Roman society. By 290 Manichaeism was flourishing in the Fayyum district of Egypt, and the Syriac Psalms would soon be translated into Coptic. Terrible persecution broke out in the Persian empire in 291. Bahram II killed Sisin himself, and many Manichaeans were slaughtered. Innai became the leader and is reported to have healed the king by prayer, giving peace to the new religion for a while. In 296 Diocletian extended the Christian persecution to the Manichaeans, resulting in numerous martyrs in Egypt and North Africa. Although Persian king Narsi (r. 296-303) lost Mesopotamia and western provinces to Rome after he was defeated by Galerius, he left the Manichaeans in peace. In 303 Hormizd II executed Innai, and the next four Manichaean leaders were also killed. In the fourth century Manichaeism spread throughout the Roman empire. Two Christians, Archelaus in his Disputation with Manes and Alexander of Lycopolis in his "Of the Manichaeans," treated Manichaeism as a Christian heresy instead of a new religion, because Mani acknowledged Jesus as the Christ. In 372 Valentinian I prohibited all meetings, and Augustine adopted the faith for a decade until Christians urged Theodosius I to take away their civil rights in 381; the next year he decreed Manichaean elders put to death, and in 383 Theodosius banished all Manichaeans. Exile was again decreed by Valentinian II, and in Rome their property was confiscated in 389. Since Mani believed that other religions had deteriorated because their original founders did not write down their teachings, he wrote several books himself in the Aramaic language of Syriac and made sure that they were accurately copied. His first book, Shabuhragan, honored King Shapur I and assured him that he had no political ambitions. The Living Gospel was written and illustrated in the Turkestan cave and contains an account of the mission of Jesus. Mani began this book and his letters by referring to himself as the messenger of Jesus. The Treasure of Life describes how the soul comes from the pure Light and the body from the bad darkness. Although Manichaeism is similar and has been compared to Gnosticism, this book refutes the Marcionite doctrine of a third intermediary principle, and it gives cures for errors. The Book of Mysteries teaches that souls are purged and educated through reincarnation, and it aims to cut away false beliefs. The Pragmateia suggests what ought to be done. His other main works are The Book of Giants, Letters, and The Book of Psalms and Prayers. Although these books were faithfully copied and translated into many languages as the religion spread, the many persecutions eventually destroyed the books. As Manichaeism faded into Catharist movements in the 13th century, the religion disappeared. In the 20th century Coptic documents were found at al-Fayyum in Egypt, and texts were also found in Turfan and Dun-huang in China. The Chinese catechism noted a book illustrating the two great principles, which may have been based on Mani's paintings made for those who cannot read. The largest work found at al-Fayyum, the Kephalaia, contains the principal teachings of Mani described by disciples. These discoveries, though difficult to piece together because the texts were deteriorating, provide a more balanced view to the already known Christian works refuting Mani. Mani taught there are two sources that are unborn and eternal - God (Light) and matter (darkness). God as good has nothing in common with evil, because "a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit." Mani explained the universe as having three moments involving these two substances. In the past Spirit and matter were at first separate. Then Spirit entered into matter as souls incarnated into bodies, which is the present condition. Mani as a messenger of Light is helping souls become liberated from their bodies. The third moment is the future when the world will end as Spirit becomes purified again from matter. Somehow the king of darkness decided to enter the region of Light. God had no evil with which to punish, so Spirit entered into matter as souls went into bodies with the five faculties of intuition, thought, will, consideration, and reason. As souls mixed with matter they began to feel material and thus became trapped in bodies. When the Mother of Life, the First Man, and the Living Spirit prayed to the Great Father, that one sent a Messenger with the following twelve virtues: royalty, wisdom, victory, contentment, purity, truth, faith, patience, sincerity, kindness, justice, and Light. According to Mani, Jesus lifted up the first man Adam to taste the Tree of Life. Mani also taught the trinity of the Father (God of truth), the beloved Son (Christ), and the Holy Spirit (Mother of Life). The five dark rulers may express themselves as the tyranny of rulers, arrogance of officials, idolatrous errors, superstitious rites, and sorcery. Previous messengers of God include Zarathustra, Buddha, and Jesus. True messengers may be known by the following five characteristics: gentleness, austerity, beauty, wisdom, and transformation. Their mission is to teach and convert living beings in order to save them from their suffering. Mani planted good seeds of truth and strengthened his church, sending out envoys to many lands. He fought greed and lust in order to teach people wisdom and knowledge. The Psalms refer to the divine medicine that heals wounds, crushes evil while crowning godliness, purifies the Light from the darkness, and gives rest to the souls. The Great Father is Love who gives oneself for everything. Souls are divine; even though they have fallen into the world, they will return to God. Although the Manichaean community had a hierarchy of five levels including Mani's successor and twelve masters (teachers), 72 illuminates (overseers), elders (priests), the rest of the elect, and hearers, the main distinction was between the elect and the hearers. The elect have their hearts, hands, and mouths sealed by celibacy, non-injury, and abstinence from alcohol and meat. The elect eat only a little in the morning and one meal in the evening. In their strict poverty their only possession was one garment that was replaced once a year. The elect teach by grace, wisdom, and faith. The duties of the hearers are to fast, pray, and give charity. They are to fast and be celibate on Sundays, and hearers pray four times a day. Giving charity includes providing food for the elect, who do no injurious work such as farming, giving a relative to be one of the elect, and building a temple or dwelling place. The hearers could work in the fields and have one wife, but they were forbidden to fight in wars. The hearers confess to the elect, and the elect confess to one another The soul is from on high but is imprisoned in the body waiting to be liberated. Mani taught renouncing the world's possessions to find the peace of poverty. He advised wisely and skillfully strengthening oneself around the body's gates lest the sin of the body prevail and extinguish the Light. His religious methods include singing and chanting spiritual words, reading and studying, discriminating with wisdom and accepting pure commands, always being clean in actions of body, mouth, and mind, practicing kind deeds, being gentle and amiable, bearing humiliation, following good rules and habits, resting the mind in the place of liberation, and leaping for joy in standing firm in the right way. Mani warned against, lying, anger, and hurtful words that may come from speaking for the sake of killing a man, beasts, or trees. Kindness and sincerity are for saints a base for brightness and a wonderful gate which lets one see everywhere while walking a straight path. Like the Mahayana Buddhists, Mani promised such would be born in a Pure Land, where they would be free of penalties and could rejoice in calmness. The Light-mind of the Christ awakens those who sleep and gathers those who are scattered abroad. God sends the soul to the judge of the dead that appears as in a mirror. The Great Judge has no partiality but knows how to forgive those who have repented. No one can hide when that one searches out their actions and repays them according to their deserts. The saints go to the heaven of Light and are at peace. Unstained by ignorance, passion, and desire, they are not pressed into rebirth.

Zarathushtra

Zarathushtra

Zarathushtra is said to have lived 258 years before Alexander. Since Alexander had taken over the Persian empire by 330 BC when Darius III died, and as Zarathushtra was about forty years old when he converted King Vishtapa and lived to be 77, the approximate dates of his life are 628-551 BC. Other traditions hold that he was born long before that, and some scholars believe he lived between 1400 and 1200 BC. It is also possible that there could have been more than one Zarathushtra. Little is known about the life of Zarathushtra, who was called Zoroaster by the Greeks, but his influence on Iranian religion was very great. The name Zarathushtra has been translated as "he of the golden Light," and legend indicates that as a child he glowed with radiant light.

The Aryans, who settled in Iran and those who invaded India, shared a common religion originally, as indicated by a Mitannian treaty with Hittites from the 14th century BC which acknowledged the Vedic gods Mitra, Varuna, Indra, and the two Nasatyas. The names Mitra and Varuna were often linked together in the Hindu Vedas as a dual compound. The Iranian god Ahura shared the characteristics of the early Varuna, and Zarathushtra added the attribute of wisdom (Mazda) and declared that the one true God is Ahura Mazda. Apparently when the split occurred between the Hindus and the Iranians, they eventually demonized some of each other gods and spirits. The divinities the Hindus call devas became evil spirits or devils to the Iranians and Zarathushtra, while the Hindus called evil spirits asuras.

According to tradition Zarathushtra was born smiling or laughing as the third of five sons in the Spitama family in the pastoral Median town of Rhages near what is now Tehran; he was initiated into the priesthood at age fifteen. He left home on a spiritual quest when he was twenty and at thirty recognized the Wise Lord (Mazda Ahura) when Good Thought (Vohu Manah) came to him and asked him who he was. Zarathushtra declared that he was a foe to the Liar and a supporter of what is right. Zarathushtra criticized aggressive violators of order as followers of the Lie, and his teachings were opposed by the religious authorities. Zarathushtra was tempted to give up his new faith but continued on with great determination. For ten years he wandered around with very few followers.

Traveling east as he preached, Zarathushtra struggled for two years to convert a Chorasmian prince named Vishtapa. Opposed by greedy Karpan priests and critical of their corruption, intoxicated orgies, and animal sacrifices, Zarathushtra was put in prison until he was aided by Vishtapa's consort Hutaosa; then Vishtapa accepted the new faith and promoted it actively. The court of Vishtapa was drawn into the religion, Zarathushtra marrying a daughter of one of the nobles whose brother married Zarathushtra's daughter by his first wife. The new religion was promulgated so actively that two holy wars were fought in its defense, and in the second one Zarathushtra was killed at the age of 77 while attending a fire ceremony

The teachings of Zarathushtra were passed down through the ancient poetry of the Gathas. Zarathushtra declared that there is one God, the Wise Lord he called Ahura Mazda, transforming the polytheism of the Aryan religion into monotheism. This God he identified as the creator and governor of the universe through the Holy Spirit. The most important characteristic of God is Asha, which means truth or what is right (justice, law). This God is profoundly ethical, rewarding the thoughts, words, and actions of the good, and bringing recompense to those of the evil. All spirits and beings are free to choose between the good and evil. The twenty names Zarathushtra gave to God are I am, Giver of Herds, Strong One, Perfect Holiness, All-Good, Understanding, Having Understanding, Knowledge, Having Knowledge, Blessing, Causing Blessing, Lord, Most Beneficent, Not Harming, Unconquerable, Truthful, All-Seeing, Healing, Creator, and Wise (or Omniscient).

Zarathushtra taught that God has seven major attributes. Spenta Mainyu is the Holy Spirit through which everything is created. God communicated to Zarathushtra through the Vohu Manah or Good Mind. Asha Vahishta means best order or justice. The Khshathra Vairya, which obviously has the same etymology as the Kshatriya or ruling caste of India, means Absolute Power, Desirable Dominion, and the Ultimate Paradise to be established on Earth in the end time which came to be called the kingdom or sovereignty of heaven by Jesus. Yasna 41:2 states, "May we be granted thy good government (khshathra) for ever and ever, O Wise Lord. May a good governor, whether it be a man or a woman, rule over us in the two worlds."1 The two worlds refer to the spiritual and material worlds. Armaiti means Devotion and Piety and came to be associated with the sustaining nurturing of Mother Earth. Haurvatat is Wholeness, Health, and Perfection. The seventh attribute Ameretat is Immortality.

Because God allows free choice, some spirits, who were originally created by the one God, chose badly and became Druj or the spirit of Deceit that can lead people astray. All thoughts, words, and actions have their consequences for good or bad. The Yazata or Adorable Ones give rewards to the good. The Guardian Spirit of humanity is called Sraosha, who along with Mithra and Rashnu, judges the souls after death. Sraosha also has a sister called Ashi Vanguhi, which means Holy Blessing or Good Reward of Deeds. She also protects married life and guards the chastity of women, while abhorring the unfaithful wife. Mithra listens to appeals and represents contracts. He and Rashnu represent truth and light, and the sin of deceiving Mithra can even affect one's family.

For Zarathushtra fire was a symbol of the divine flame and pure truth that glows in the heart of every being. Xerxes, who found an ever-burning lamp in the temple of Athere Polias at Delos, spared the sanctuary out of respect for Zarathushtran fire worship. The Holy Spirit is the highest next to God, but it is opposed by the Evil Spirit and its offspring, the daevas, providing a constant challenge for humans to choose wisely. The human soul (urvan) and spirit (fravashi) use the faculties of knowing energy (khratu), wisdom and consideration (chisti), intelligence and perception (ushi), mind (manas), consciousness and memory (bodha), practical conscience (ahu), free will (kama), speech (vachas), and action (shyaothna) as well as the instrument of the living body (tanu). Above all these is daena, the gift of vision or revealed religion.

In addition to the strong mandates to tell the truth and be just, Zarathushtra also taught practical things like tilling the soil, raising grain, growing fruits, rooting out weeds, reclaiming wasteland, irrigating barren ground, and treating animals kindly, especially cows who serve farmers. He severely castigated the Turanian nomads, who after killing cattle as sacrifices went out on violent raids, destroying fields and produce.

After death the soul comes to the Bridge of the Separator, and all one's actions, words, and thoughts are evaluated in terms of good and evil. The good are able to cross the bridge into the heavenly world, but the bad fall down below. However, Gatha 49:11 makes it clear that Zarathushtra originally taught that such souls come back to Earth by reincarnation, though this concept was later dropped from the religion.

But among evil rulers, evil doers, evil speakers,among evil egos, evil thinkers, and followers of Untruth,Souls do come back by reason of dim insight;truly they are dwellers in the Abode of Untruth.2

This makes sense because Zarathushtra taught that eventually all souls will be purified and brought out of hell when the world enters a new cycle free of all evil and misery, ever young and rejoicing with all souls, enjoying ineffable bliss and glory. This is also referred to as the Resurrection (Ristakhez), another idea that greatly influenced Judeo-Christian religion. The essence of the teachings of Zarathushtra can ultimately be summed up in three words, "BE LIKE GOD."

Through missionaries the religion of Zarathushtra spread rapidly throughout the Persian empire. Darius I showed in his own proclamations that survived in inscriptions how much he was influenced by Zarathushtra's emphasis on truth and justice. At Behistun, Darius declared that Ahura Mazda helped him because he was not disloyal and did not follow the Lie. He did not do wrong but walked in justice. He wronged neither the weak nor the powerful. He was warned not to befriend those who do wrong but punish them. In the Naqshi-i Rustama inscription Darius praised Ahura Mazda, who created the Earth, sky, humans, human happiness, and who bestowed wisdom on him. He declared that the weak should not have wrong done to them by the powerful nor the reverse. He claimed that he controlled his anger by his thinking power. Darius also wrote that he rewards those who cooperate and punishes those who do harm according to the damage they have done.

husbunds and wifes

JOKE 1

Wife talking to her husband (who reads newspaper all day): I wish I were a newspaper so I'll be in your hands all day. Husband: I wish that too, so I could change you daily

JOKE 2

A little boy asked his father: Daddy, how much does it cost to get married? The father replied: I don 't know son. I 'm still paying!!

JOKE 3

At midnight father saw that his married son leaving home... He asks him: what are you doing? The son replied: Dad I am fed up with my life! My newly marriage is not going well, my wife and my mom keep fighting with each other! I have to pay bills for my in-laws, and I hate this life!!! I want to go far from here, I want to taste every joy of life, and I want to have every fun of life!!! Father said: Wait!!!!!!!! I am coming with you

JOKE 4

A woman goes to England to attend a 2-week company training session. Her husband drives her to the airport and wishes her to have a good trip. The wife answered: Thank you honey, what would you like me to bring for you? The husband laughed and said: An English girl!!! The woman kept quiet and left. Two weeks later he picked her up in the airport and asked: So honey, how was the trip? The wife: Very good, thank you. The husband: And, what happened to my present? The wife: Which present? The husband: What I asked for: the English girl? The wife: Oh, that! Well, I did what I could; now we have to wait a few months to see if it’s a girl!!!

JOKE 5

A couple goes to an art gallery. They find a picture of a naked woman with only her privates covered with leaves. The wife doesn 't like it and moves on, but the husband keeps looking. The wife asks, "What are you waiting for? " The husband replies, "autumn. "

note: this jokes are updated every 3 days.

Mustafa Barzani

Mustafa Barzani

Born

March 14, 1903Barzan, Iraqi Kurdistan

Died March 3, 1979[1]Washington, DC, USA Mustafa Barzani (Kurdish: مسته فا بارزانی) (March 14, 1903 – March 3, 1979)

was a Kurdish nationalist leader and President of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Legendary to many of his people, Barzani was one of the most inspired, tenacious and resilient Kurdish leaders with a commitment to the struggle for Kurdish interests. He led armed struggles against both the governments of Iran and IraqContern to Iraq.

Early life Barzani was born in 1903 in Barzan in northern Iraq (then Ottoman Empire), in the leading family of the region. Early career In 1931 and 1932, together with his older brother, Ahmed Barzani, he led the Kurdish struggle for independence. In 1935, with the suppression of the Kurdish fight, he was exiled to Sulaymaniyah, together with his brother. Barzani escaped from Sulaymaniyah in 1942, and started a new revolt against Baghdad, but it was once again unsuccessful. Mustafa escaped together with 1,000 of his followers and their families into Iran. The Republic of Mahabad In December 1945 the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad was declared by the Kurdistan Democratic Party in northwestern Iran, which was under Soviet military control. Mustafa Barzani became Minister of Defense and commander of the army. At approximately the same time the Republic declared its independence from Iran, a Kurdistan Democratic Party was founded in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, and Barzani was, in his absence, elected as its president. (This party is now known as the KDP, while the original Iranian party is known as the KDP-I.)

In May 1946 the Soviet troops were withdrawn from Iran, in accordance with the Yalta Agreement, and in December Mahabad was overrun by Iranian troops. The leaders of the Kurdish Republic were hanged in the main square of Mahabad, and many others were massacred. Mullah Mustafa moved with his people back to Iraq, but once again was forced to flee. With 500 of his pesh merga he fought his way through Turkey and Iran to Azerbaijan in the Soviet Union, where they were disarmed and interned in a prison camp. Exile in the Soviet Union In 1951 the pesh merga were allowed to settle in Baku. Many enrolled in schools and universities. Barzani himself went to Moscow, where he studied political science, and renewed his contacts with Kurdish exiles. Return to Iraq In 1958, following the republican coup, Barzani was invited to return to Iraq by prime minister Abdul Karim Qassim. Barzani went further than Qasim had intended, and suggested independence for the Kurdish regions in the north. This resulted in new clashes between the rulers of Baghdad and the Kurds. In 1961 prime minister Qasim began military actions against the Kurds. Barzani initiated contacts with Israel in 1963 and military cooperation began in 1965. Kurdish guerrillas or peshmerga were led in battle by officers from Israel’s military intelligence. Barzani's militia was highly effective in fighting the Iraqi army during the late 1960s killing thousands of Iraqi troops.

In March 1970 Baghdad and the Kurdish leaders reached an agreement, where Kurdish ethnicity and language were recognized and given a position on par with the Arabic. In the early 1970s, Barzani's son Ubaydallah defected from the Barzani tribe, and began working with the regime of Baghdad. Vice President Saddam Hussein, of the Baath Party, offered the Kurds an autonomy agreement, with all final decisions however, left to Baghdad .

In March 1974 Mustafa Barzani led his followers into renewed fighting with the Iraqi government, this time with the support of Shah Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran and the United States. In early 1975, at an OPEC conference in Algiers, an agreement was signed between the Shah and Saddam Hussein, which ceded important rights in the contested waterway Shatt al-Arab to Iran. In return all aid to the Iraqi Kurds was immediately cut off by Iran. This allowed Hussein to consolidate his power in Iraq and was a major setback for Israel's regional ambitions. Mustafa Barzani was forced to flee his homeland one final time. Death and legacy He went into exile in the United States, and died March 3, 1979 in Georgetown Hospital in Washington, DC. He was buried just west of Mahabad, in Iranian Kurdistan. In October, 1993, Barzani's remains were brought across the border from Iran to Iraqi Kurdistan, to be reburied in the land he fought for.

His son, Massoud Barzani, is the current leader of the KDP and was elected as the President of the Iraqi Kurdistan region by the Parliament of Iraqi Kurdistan in June 2005.

About Kurds

Kurds

The 25 million Kurds are the largest ethnicity in the world without a state of its own. Promised - but never granted- their own country after WWI, Kurds now live in parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan. They are almost universally despised for asserting their identity. The government of Turkey spends US$6 billion a year fighting its Kurdish separatists. Saddam Hussein's Iraq has tried to wipe out its four million Kurds altogether: Some 300,000 Kurdish civilians "disappeared" between 1983 and 1987. Then Iraq launched a religious war against them (complete with chemical weapons), razing 4,000 villages and killing another 100,000 Kurds. Many of those who survived are now starving, thanks to the UN's embargo against Iraq. Language In Iran Kurds are not allowed to use their Kurdish names. In Turkey, speaking Kurdish even in private was a crime until 1991. Turkey continues to deny that Kurds have a separate ethnic identity - the official storey is that Kurds are Turks who got lost in the mountains and forgot they were Turkish. Fashion Most men wear baggy trousers with matching jackets. Women wear long dresses over trousers, and jackets. The traditional Kurdish shoe is called a klash Pop Culture Kurdish music is central to daily life. Almost every human activity has its song, played on flutes, drums and the ut-ut (a kind of guitar). Sivan Perwar, the star of Kurdish pop, sells millions of tapes throughout former Kurdistan and abroad. Exiled from Turkey, Sivan now lives in Sweden. In 1980's Iraq, possession of his tapes could get you arrested. They're still banned in Turkey. (Text from Colors Magazine and Image by Ed Kashi/JB Pictures/Rapha) Land and Ecology The vast Kurdish homeland of about 230,000 square miles is about the areas of Germany and Britain combined, or roughly equal to France or Texas. Kurdistan consists basically of the mountainous areas of the central and northern Zagros, the eastern one-third of the Taurus and Pontus, and the northern half of the Amanus ranges. The symbiosis between the Kurds and their mountains has been so strong that they have become synonymous: Kurds home ends where the mountains end. Kurds as a distinct people have survived only when living in the mountains. The highest points in the land now are respectively Mt. Alvand of southern Kurdistan in Iran at 11,745 feet, Mt. Halgurd in central Kurdistan in Iraq at 12,249 feet, Mt. Munzur at 12,600 feet in western Kurdistan and Mt. Ararat at 16,946 feet in northern Kurdistan, both in Turkey. There are also two large Kurdish enclaves in central and north central Anatolia in Turkey and in the province of Khurasan in northeast Iran.The mean annual precipitation is 60-80 inches per year in the central regions and 20-40 inches on the descent to the lower elevations. Most precipitation is in form of snow, which can fall for six months of the year, becoming the resource for many great rivers, such as the Tigris and the Euphrates in an otherwise arid Middle East. The overall mean annual temperature is 55-65 degrees Fahrenheit, getting cooler as one ascends the central massifs. The land, once almost totally forested, has been massively cleared, especially in this century, with inevitable soil erosion and parched landscape. Contrary to the heavy damage sustained by the woodlands, the pasture lands remain in reasonably good condition and continue to be a productive to a nomadic herding economy alongside the basic agriculture. Despite its mountainous nature, Kurdistan has more arable land proportionately than most Middle Eastern countries. Expansive river valleys create a fertile lattice work in Kurdistan. This may well explain the fact that the very invention of agriculture took place primarily in Kurdistan around 12,000 years ago. The revolution accompanied speedy domestication of almost all basic cereals and livestocks in the region(with the notable exception of cows and rice). Race Kurds are now predominantly of Mediterranean racial stock, resembling southern Europeans and the Levantines in skin, general coloring and physiology. There is yet a persistent recurrence of two racial substrata: a darker aboriginal Palaeo-Caucasian element, and more localized occurrence of blondism of the Alpine type in the heartland of Kurdistan. The "Aryanization" of the aboriginal Palaeo- Caucasian Kurds, linguistically, culturally and racially, seems to have begun by the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, with the continuous immigration and settlement of Indio-European-speaking tribes, such as the Hittites, Mitannis, Haigs, Medes, Persian, Scythians and Alans. The process was more or less complete by the beginning of the Christian era, by which time the Kurds had absorbed enough Iranic blood and culture, particularly Median and Alan, to form the basis physical typology and culturalidentity. Language Kurds are speakers of Kurdish, a member of the northwestern subdivision of the Iranic branch of the Indo-Europian family of languages, which is akin to Persian, and by extension to other Europian languages. It is fundamentally different from Semetic Arabic and Altaic Turkish. Modern Kurdish divides into two major groups: 1) the Kurmanji group and, 2) the Dimili-Gurani group. These are supplemented by scores of sub-dialects as well. The most popular vernacular is that of Kurmanji(or Kirmancha), spoken by about three-quarters of the Kurds today. Kurmanji divided into North Kurmanji(also called Bahdinani, with around 15 million speakers, primarily in Turkey, Syria, and the former Soviet Union) and South Kurmanji(also called Sorani, with about 6 million speakers, primarily in Iraq and Iran). To the far north of Kurdistan along Kizil Irmak and Murat rivers in Turkey, Dimili (less accurately but more commonly known as Zaza) dialect is spoken by about 4 million Kurds. There are small pockets of this language spoken in various corners of Anatolia, northern Iraq, northern Iran and the Caucasus as well. In the far southern Kurdistan, both in Iraq and Iran, the Gurani dialect is spoken by about 3 million Kurds. Gurani along with its two major subdivisions: Laki and Awramani, merit special attention for its wealth of sacred and secular literature stretching over a millennium. In Iraq and Iran a modified version of the Perso-Arabic alphabet has been adapted to South Kurmani (Sorani). The Kurds of Turkey have recently embarked on an extensive campaign of publication in the North Kurmanji dialect of Kurmaji (Bahdinani) from their publishing houses in Europe. these employed a modified form of the Latin alphabet. The Kurds of the former Soviet Union first began writing Kurdish in the Armenian alphabet in the 1920s, followed by Latin in 1927, then Cyrillic in 1945, and now in both Cyrillic and Latin. Gurani dialects continue to employ the Persian alphabet without any change. Dimili now uses the same modified Latin alphabet as North Kurmanji for print. Religion Nearly three fifths of the Kurds, almost all Kurmanji-speakers, are today at least nominally Sunni Muslims of Shafiite rite. There are also some followers of mainstream Shiitem Islam among the Kurds, particularly in and around the cities of Kirmanshah, to Hamadan and Bijar in southern and eastern Kurdistan and the Khurasan. These Shite Kurds number around half a million. The overwhelming majority of Muslim Kurds are followers of one several mystic Sufi orders, most importantly the Bektashi order of the northwest Kurdistan, the Naqshbandi order in the west and north, Qadiri orders of east and central Kurdistan, and Nurbakhshi of the south. The rest of the Kurds are followers of several indigenous Kurdish faiths of great antiquit and originality, which are variations on and permutation of an ancient religion that can be reasonably but loosely labeled as Yardanism or the "Cult of Angels." The three surviving major divisions of this religion are Yezidism (in west and west-central Kurdistan, ca 2%of all Kurds), Yarsanism or the Ahl-i Haqq (in southern Kurdistan, ca 13% of all Kurds), and Alevism or Kizil Nash (in western Kurdistan and the Khurasan, ca 20%).Minor communities of Kurdish Jews, Christians and Baha'is are found in various croners of Kurdistan. the ancient Jewish community has progressively emigrated to Israel, while the Christian community is merging their identity with that of the Assyrians. History Being the native inhabitants of their land there are no "beginnings" for Kurdish history and people. Kurds and their history are the end products of thousands of years of continuous internal evolution and assimilation of new peoples and ideas introduced sporadically into their land. Genetically, Kurds are the descendants of all who ever came to settle in Kurdistan, and not any one of them. A people such as the Guti, Kurti. Mede, Mard, Carduchi, Gordyene, Adianbene, Zila and Khaldi signify not the ancestor of the Kurds but only an ancestor. Archaeological finds continue to document that some of mankind's earliest steps towards development of agricultural. domestication of many common farm animals(sheep, goats, hogs and dogs). record keeping (the token system), development of domestic technologies (weaving, fired pottery making and glazing), metallurgy and urbanization took place in Kurdistan, dating back between 12,000 and 8.000 years ago. The earliest evidence so far of a unified and distinct culture (and possibly, ethnicity) by people inhabiting the Kurdish mountains dates back to the Halaf culture of 8,000-7,400 years ago. This was followed by the spread of the Ubaidian culture, which was a foreign introduction from Mesopotamia. After about a millennium, its dominance was replaced by the Hurrian culture, which may or may not have been the Halafian people reasserting their dominance over their mountainous homeland. The Hurrian period lasted from 6,300 to about 2,600 years ago. Much more is known of the Hurrians. They spoke a language of the Northeast Caucasian family of languages (or Alarodian), kin to modern Chechen and Lezgian. The Hurrians spread far and wide, dominating much territory outside their Zagros-Taurus mountain base. Their settlement of was completed-all the way to the Aegean coasts. Like their Kurdish descendents, they however did not expand too far from the mountains. Their intrusions into the neighboring plains of Mesopotamia and the Iranian Plateau, therefore, were primarily military annexations with little population settlement. Their economy was surprisingly integrated and focused, along with their political bonds, mainly running parallel with the Zagros-Taurus mountains, rather than radiating out to the lowlands, as was the case during the preceding (foreign) Ubaid cultural period. The mountain-plain economic exchanges remained secondary in importance, judging by the archaeological remains of goods and their origin. The Hurrians-whose name survives now most prominently in the dialect and district of Hawraman/Awraman in Kurdistan-divided into many clans and subgroups, who set up city-states, kingdoms and empires known today after their respective clan names. These included the Gutis, Kurti, Khadi, Mards, Mushku, Manna, Hatti, Mittanni, Urartu, and the Kassites, to name just a few. All these were Hurrians, and together form the Hurrian phase of Kurdish history. By about 4.000 years ago, the first van-guard of the Indo-European-speaking peoples were trickling into Kurdistan in limited numbers and settling there. These formed the aristocracy of the Mittani, Kassite, and Hittite kingdoms, while the common people there remained solidly Hurrian. By about 3,000 years ago, the trickle had turned into a flood, and Hurrian Kurdistan was fast becoming Indo-European Kurdistan. Far from having been wiped out, the Hurrian legacy, despite its linguistic eclipse, remains the single most important element of the Kurdish culture until today. It forms the substructure for every aspects of Kurdish existence, from their native religion to their art, their social organization, women's status, and even the form of their militia warfare. Medes, Scythians and Sagarthians are just the better-known clans of the Indo-European-speaking Aryans who settled in Kurdistan. By about 2,600 years ago, the Medes had already set up an empire that included all Kurdistan and vast territories far beyond. Medeans were followed by scores of other kingdoms and city-statesQall dominated by Aryan aristocracies and a populace that was becoming Indo-European, Kurdish speakers if not so already. By the advent of the classical era in 300 BC. Kurds were already experiencing massive population movements that resulted in settlement and domination of many neighboring regions. Important Kurdish polities of this time were all by-products of these movements. The Zelan Kurdish clan of Commagene (Adyaman area), for example, spread to establish in addition to the Zelanid dynasty of Commagene, the Zelanid kingdom of Cappadocia and the Zelanid empire of PontusQall in Anatolia. These became Roman vassals by the end of the first century BC. In the east the Kurdish kingdoms of Gordyene, Cortea, Media, Kirm, and Adiabene had, by the first century B C, become confederate members of the Parthian Federation. While all larger Kurdish Kingdoms of the west gradually lost their existence to the Romans, in the east they survived into the 3rd century A D and the advent of the Sasanian Persian empire. The last major Kurdish dynasty, the Kayosids, fell in AD 380. Smaller Kurdish principalities (called the Kotyar, "mountain administrators") however, preserved their autonomous existence into the 7th century and the coming of Islam. Several socio-economic revolutions in the garb of religious movements emerged in Kurdistan at this time, many due to the exploitation by central governments, some due to natural disasters. These continued as underground movement into the Islamic era, bursting forth periodically to demand social reforms. The Mazdakite and Khurramite movements are best-known among these. The eclipse of the Sasanian and Byzantine power by the Muslim caliphate, and its own subsequent weakening, permitted the Kurdish principalities and "mountain administrators" to set up new, independent states. The Shaddadids of the Caucasus and Armenia, the Rawadids of Azerbaijan, the Marwandis of eastern Anatolia; the Hasanwayhids, Fadhilwayhids, and Ayyarids of the central Zagros and the Shabankara of Fars and Kirman are some of the medieval Kurdish dynasties. The Ayyubids stand out from these by the vastness of their domain. From their capital at Cairo they ruled territories of eastern Libya, Egypt, Yemen, western Arabia, Syria, the Holy Lands, Armenia and much of Kurdistan. As the custodians of Islam's holy cities of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, the Ayyubids were instrumental in the defeat and expulsion of the Crusaders from the Holy Land. With the 12th and 13th centuries the Turkic nomads arrived in the area who in time politically dominated vast segments of the Middle East. Most independent Kurdish states succumbed to various Turkic kingdoms and empires. Kurdish principalities, however, survived and continued with their autonomous existence until the 17th century. Intermittently, these would rule independently when local empires weakened or collapsed. The advent of the Safavid and Ottoman empires in the area and their division of Kurdistan into two uneven imperial dependencies was on a par with the practice of the preceding few centuries. Their introduction of artillery and scorched-earth policy into Kurdistan was a new, and devastating development. In the course of the 16th to 18th centuries, vast portions of Kurdistan were systematically devastated and large numbers of Kurds were deported to far corners of the Safavid and Ottoman empires. The magnitude of death and destruction wrought on Kurdistan unified its people in their call to rid the land of these foreign vandals. The lasting mutual suffering awakened in Kurds a community feeling a nationalism, that called for a unified Kurdish state and fostering of Kurdish culture and language. Thus the historian Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi wrote the first pan-Kurdish history the Sharafnama in 1597, as Ahmad Khani composed the national epic of Mem-o-Zin in 1695, which called for a Kurdish state to fend for its people. Kurdish nationalism was born. For one last time a large Kurdish kingdom-the Zand, wa s born in 1750. Like the medieval Ayyubids, however, the Zands set up their capital and kingdom outside Kurdistan, and pursued no policies aimed at unification of the Kurdish nation. By 1867, the very last autonomous Kurdish principalities were being systematically eradicated by the Ottoman and Persian governments that ruled Kurdistan. They now ruled directly, via governors, all Kurdish provinces. The situation further deteriorated after the end of the WWI and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty of Sevres (signed August 10, 1921) anticipated an independent Kurdish state to cover large portions of the former Ottoman Kurdistan. Unimpressed by the Kurds' many bloody uprisings for independence, France and Britain divided up Ottoman Kurdistan between Turkey, Syria and Iraq. The Treaty of Lausanne (signed June 24, 1923) formalized this division. Kurds of Persia/Iran, meanwhile, were kept where they were by Teheran. Drawing of well-guarded state boundaries dividing Kurdistan has, since 1921, afflicted Kurdish society with such a degree of fragmentation, that its impact is tearing apart the Kurds' unity as a nation. The 1920s saw the setting up of Kurdish Autonomous Province (the "Red Kurdistan") in Soviet Azerbaijan. It was disbanded in 1929. In 1945, Kurds set up a Kurdish republic at Mahabad in the Soviet, occupied zone in Iran. It lasted one year, until it was reoccupied by the Iranian army. Since 1970s, the Iraqi Kurds have enjoyed an official autonomous status in a portion of that state's Kurdistan. By the end of 1991, they had become all but independent from Iraq. By 1995, however, the Kurdish government in Arbil was at the verge of political suicide due to the outbreak of factional fighting between various Kurdish warlords. Since 1987 the Kurds in Turkey by themselves constituting a majority of all Kurds in Turkey have waged a war of national liberation against Ankara's 70 years of heavy handed suppression of any vestige of the Kurdish identity and its rich and ancient culture. The massive uprising had by 1995 propelled Turkey into a state of civil war. The burgeoning and youthful Kurdish population in Turkey, is now demanding absolute equality with the Turkish component in that state, and failing that, full independence. In the Caucasus, the fledgling Armenian Republic, in the course of 1992-94 wiped out the entire Kurdish community of the former "Red Kurdistan." Having ethnically "cleansed" it, Armenia has effectively annexed Red Kurdistan's territory that forms the land bridge between the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia proper. Geopolitics Since the end of World War I, Kurdistan has been administered by five sovereign states, with the largest portions of the land being respectively in Turkey (43%) , Iran (31%), Iraq (18%), Syria (6%) and the former Soviet Union (2%). The Iranian Kurds have lived under that state's jurisdiction since 1514 and the Battle of Chaldiran. The other three quarters of the Kurds lived in the Ottoman Empire from that date until its break-up following WWI. The French Mandate Syria received a piece, and the British incorporated central Kurdistan or the Mosul Vilayet" and its oil fields at Kirkuk into their recently created Mandate of Iraq. Northern and western Kurdistan were to be given choice of independence by the Treaty of Sevres(August 10, 1920) which dismantled the defunct Ottoman Empire, but instead they were awarded to the newly established Republic of Turkey under the term of the Treaty of Lausanne (June 24, 1923). The Russian/Soviet Kurds had passed into their sphere in the course of the 19th century when territories were ceded by Persia/Iran. The Kurds remained the only ethnic group in the world with indigenous representatives in three world geopolitical blocs: the Arab World (in Iraq and Syria), NATO (in Turkey), the South Asian-Central Asian bloc (in Iran and Turkmenistan), and until recently the Soviet bloc (in the Caucasus, now Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia). As a matter fact, until the end of the Cold War, Kurds along with the Germans were the only people in the world with their home territories used as a front line of fire by both NATO and the Warsaw Pact forces. Society The most important single features of Kurdistan society since the end of medieval times has been its strong tribal organization, with independence or autonomy being the political status of the land. The society's process of developing the next stage of societal convergence-and the creation of a political culture of interest in a pan-Kurdish polity-was well under way in Kurdistan when it was decisively aborted with the parcelling out of the country at the end of the First World War. Tribal confederacies thus remain the highest form of social organization, while the political process and the elite remain to large degree tribal. Today, in the absence of a national Kurdish state and government, tribes serve as the highest native source of authority in which people place their allegiance Population Kurdish lands, rich in natural resources, have always sustained and promoted a large population. While registering modest gains since the late 19th century, but particularly in the first decade of the 20th, Kurds vlost demographic ground relative to neighboring ethnic groups. This was due as much to their less developed economy and health care system as it was to direct massacres, deportations, famines, etc. The total number of Kurds actually decreased in this period, while every other major ethnic group in the area boomed. Since the middle of the 1960s this negative demographic trend has reversed, and Kurds are steadily regaining the demographic position of importance that they traditionally held, representing 15% of the over-all population of the Middle East in Asia-a phenomenon common since at least the 4th millennium BC. Today Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East, after the Arabs, Persians and Turks. Their largest concentrations are now respectively in Turkey (approx. 52% of all Kurds), Iran(25.5%), Iraq (16%), Syria (5%) and the CIS (1.5%). Barring a catastrophe, Kurds will become the third most populous ethnic group in the Middle East by the year 2000, displacing the Turks. Furthermore, if present demographic trends hold, as they are likely to, in about fifty years Kurds will also replace the Turks as the majority ethnic group in Turkey itself. There is now one Kurdish city with a population of nearly a million (Kirminshah) , three with over half a million (Diyarbekir, Kirkuk, Qamishlo), five between a quarter and half a million (Antep, Arbil, Hamadan, Malatya, Sulaymania), and quarter of a million people (Adiyaman, Dersim[Tunceli], Dohuk, Elazig[Kharput], Haymana, Khanaqin, Mardin, Qochan, Sanandaj, Shahabad, Siirt and Urfa). (Text and pictures from BAHRI OZTURK

Who are kurds?

Kurds (kûrds, k rds) , a non-Arab Middle Eastern minority population that inhabits the region known as Kurdistan, an extensive plateau and mountain area in SW Asia (c.74,000 sq mi/191,660 sq km), including parts of E Turkey, NE Iraq, and NW Iran and smaller sections of NE Syria and Armenia. The region lies astride the Zagros Mts. (Iran) and the eastern extension of the Taurus Mts. (Turkey) and extends in the south across the Mesopotamian plain and includes the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. 1 As of the late 1990s, there were estimated to be more than 20 million Kurds, about half of them in Turkey, where, making up more than 20% of the population, they dwell near the Iranian frontier around Lake Van, as well as in the vicinity of Diyarbakir and Erzurum. The Kurds in Iran, who constitute some 10% of its people, live principally in Azerbaijan and Khorasan, with some in Fars. The Iraqi Kurds, about 23% of its population, live mostly in the vicinity of Dahuk (Dohuk), Mosul, Erbil, Kirkuk, and Sulaimaniyah. 2 Ethnically close to the Iranians, the Kurds were traditionally nomadic herders but are now mostly seminomadic or sedentary. The majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslims. Kurdish dialects belong to the northwestern branch of the Iranian languages. The Kurds have traditionally resisted subjugation by other nations. Despite their lack of political unity throughout history, the Kurds, as individuals and in small groups, have had a lasting impact on developments in SW Asia. Saladin, who gained fame during the Crusades, is perhaps the most famous of all Kurds. 3 History Commonly identified with the ancient Corduene, which was inhabited by the Carduchi (mentioned in Xenophon), the Kurds were conquered by the Arabs in the 7th cent. The region was held by the Seljuk Turks in the 11th cent., by the Mongols from the 13th to 15th cent., and then by the Safavid and Ottoman Empires. Having been decimated by the Turks in the years between 1915 and 1918 and having struggled bitterly to free themselves from Ottoman rule, the Kurds were encouraged by the Turkish defeat in World War I and by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s plea for self-determination for non-Turkish nationalities in the empire. The Kurds brought their claims for independence to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. 4 The Treaty of Sèvres (1920), which liquidated the Ottoman Empire, provided for the creation of an autonomous Kurdish state. Because of Turkey’s military revival under Kemal Atatürk, however, the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), which superseded Sèvres, failed to mention the creation of a Kurdish nation. Revolts by the Kurds of Turkey in 1925 and 1930 were forcibly quelled. Later (1937–38) aerial bombardment, poison gas, and artillery shelling of Kurdish strongholds by the government resulted in the slaughter of many thousands of Turkey’s Kurds. The Kurds in Iran also rebelled during the 1920s, and at the end of World War II a Soviet-backed Kurdish “republic” existed briefly. 5 With the overthrow of the Iraqi monarchy in 1958, the Kurds hoped for greater administration and development projects, which the new Ba’athist government failed to grant. Agitation among Iraq’s Kurds for a unified and autonomous Kurdistan led in the 1960s to prolonged warfare between Iraqi troops and the Kurds under Mustafa al-Barzani. In 1970, Iraq finally promised local self-rule to the Kurds, with the city of Erbil as the capital of the Kurdish area. The Kurds refused to accept the terms of the agreement, however, contending that the president of Iraq would retain real authority and demanding that Kirkuk, an important oil center, be included in the autonomous Kurdish region. 6 In 1974 the Iraqi government sought to impose its plan for limited autonomy in Kurdistan. It was rejected by the Kurds, and heavy fighting erupted. After the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran (1979), the government there launched a murderous campaign against its Kurdish inhabitants as well as a program to assassinate Kurdish leaders. Iraqi attacks on the Kurds continued throughout the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88), culminating (1988) in poison gas attacks on Kurdish villages to quash resistance and in the rounding up and execution of male Kurds, all of which resulted in the killing of some 200,000 in that year alone. 7 With the end of the Persian Gulf War (1991), yet another Kurdish uprising against Iraqi rule was crushed by Iraqi forces; nearly 500,000 Kurds fled to the Iraq-Turkey border, and more than one million fled to Iran. Thousands of Kurds subsequently returned to their homes under UN protection. In 1992 the Kurds established an “autonomous region” in N Iraq and held a general election. However, the Kurds were split into two opposed groups, the Kurdistan Democratic party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which engaged in sporadic warfare. 8 In 1999 the two groups agreed to end hostilities; control of the region is divided between them. Kurdish forces aided the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, joining with U.S. and British forces to seize the traditionally Kurdish cities of Kirkuk and Mosul. Turkish fears of any attempt by Iraqi Kurds to proclaim their independence from Iraq—and thus revive the longstanding hopes of Turkish Kurds for independence (see below)—led Turkey to threaten to intervene in N Iraq. Although Kurds were given a limited veto over constitutional changes in the subsequent interim Iraqi constitution (2004), many Iraqi Shiites found this unacceptable. Kurdish leaders were wary, as a result, of political developments as the United States ceded sovereignty to a new Iraqi government. 9 In Turkey, where the government has long attempted to suppress Kurdish culture, fighting erupted in the mid-1980s, mainly in SE Turkey, between government forces and guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which was established in 1984. The PKK has also engaged in terrorist attacks. In 1992 the Turkish government again mounted a concerted attack on its Kurdish minority, killing more than 20,000 and creating about two million refugees. In 1995, Turkey waged a military campaign against PKK base camps in northern Iraq, and in 1999 it captured the guerrillas’ leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who was subsequently condemned to death. Some 23,000–30,000 people are thought to have died in the 15-year war. The legal People’s Democracy party is now the principal civilian voice of Kurdish nationalism in Turkey. The PKK announced in Feb., 2000, that they would end their attacks, but the arrest the same month of the Kurdish mayors of Diyarbakir and other towns on charges of aiding the rebels threatened to revive the unrest. Reforms passed in 2002 and 2003 to facilitate Turkish entrance in the European Union included ending bans on private education in Kurdish and on giving children Kurdish names; also, emergency rule in SE Turkey was ended. However, in 2004, following Turkish actions against it, the PKK—renamed Kongra-Gel (the Kurdistan People’s Congress—announced that it would end the cease-fire. There were also clashes between the Kurds of Turkey and Iraq in the 1990s and Kurdish unrest in Syria in 2004. 10