Beirut - (AFP) - The Kurds are a minority whose number ranges between 25 and 35 million. They are distributed mainly in four countries: Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Turkey is currently targeting Kurdish fighters in their strongholds in northern Iraq and Syria with a series of air strikes and artillery bombardment, accusing Kurdish groups of being responsible for detonating an improvised explosive device on November 13 in Istanbul.

In addition, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to launch a ground operation in northern Syria.

Iran is also bombing the Iranian Kurdish opposition in northern Iraq, accusing its formations of supporting the demonstrations that have erupted in the Islamic Republic since the death of the Iranian Kurdish young woman, Mahsa Amini, in mid-September.

The Kurds are of Indo-European descent, descended from the Medes of ancient Persia who founded an empire in the seventh century BC.

The majority of the Kurds are Sunnis, and among them are non-Muslim minorities (Christians, Yazidis, and others), and their political formations are mostly secular, and they spread over about half a million square kilometers. Their total number ranges between 25 and 35 million. The largest number of them live in Turkey, where they represent about 20 percent of the population. The Kurds in Iraq make up between 15 and 20 percent of the population, in Syria 15 percent and in Iran about ten percent.

Over the years, the Kurds preserved their dialects, traditions, and clan social pattern to a large extent.

Large groups of Kurds also live in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Lebanon, as well as in Europe, especially in Germany.

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I paved the way for the establishment of a Kurdish state, according to the Treaty of Sevres in 1920, in eastern Anatolia and in the province of Mosul.

But after the victory of Mustafa Kemal in Turkey, the Allies retracted their decision, and in 1923 the Treaty of Lausanne established the control of Turkey, Iran, Great Britain (in Iraq) and France (in Syria) over the Kurdish population.

In Syria, the Kurdish militia of the People's Protection Units (YPG) has been one of the main forces fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) since 2014, with air support from the US-led international coalition.

In early 2015, Kurdish forces backed by the coalition expelled the extremist group from Kobani, near the Turkish border.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, made up of 25,000 Kurds and 5,000 Arabs, was formed in October 2015 and is controlled by the People's Protection Units (YPG) and receives significant assistance from Washington.

The Syrian Democratic Forces defeated the Islamic State from its stronghold in Raqqa, and then took control of its last stronghold in Syria, in Al-Baghouz, in March 2019.

And in Iraq, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters also took part in the fight against the extremists.

In view of the Kurds' demand for the establishment of a unified Kurdistan, the authorities in their countries of residence consider them a constant threat to their territorial integrity.

- In Syria, the Kurds, who have been subjected to regime oppression for decades, have committed themselves to "neutrality" towards the regime and the opposition with the outbreak of the conflict in 2011.

In 2016, they announced the establishment of a large "federal region" in northern Syria consisting of three regions, which fueled the enmity of the opposition forces and neighboring Turkey towards them.

- In Turkey, the conflict resumed between the Kurdistan Workers' Party (categorized as a "terrorist" organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union) and the central authority in the summer of 2015, which torpedoed the peace negotiations that began in late 2012. The conflict has left more than 40,000 dead since its outbreak in the year 1984.

Ankara launched three major military operations in Syria: in 2016 and early 2018 to drive away Islamic State militants and the People's Protection Units (YPG) from its borders, and then in 2019 against Kurdish forces in the northeast.

- In Iraq, the Kurds were subjected to persecution under the regime of Saddam Hussein before their uprising in 1991, after the defeat of Iraq in Kuwait, and they gained a de facto form of self-rule, which was enshrined in the Iraqi constitution issued in 2005, which established a federal state that includes the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

In 2017, the Kurds voted for secession, contrary to the vision of Baghdad and the international community. In response, the central authority sent its armored vehicles to take control of the disputed areas.

In Iran, following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the authorities severely suppressed a Kurdish uprising. Since then, the authorities have confronted Kurdish activists who say they use bases in Iraqi Kurdistan to launch attacks in Iran.