ABSTRACT
The problem of the Kurdish nation is complicated by the fact that the 25 million or so Kurdish people are divided between Turkey, Iran and Iraq, with a smaller number in Syria. The Turkish government pointed out that Kurds living in a modern setting such as Ankara or Istanbul were, in many ways, indistinguishable from Turks and that many Kurds occupied positions of trust in the Kemalist state. Turkey massed a large force of troops on and beyond the border of Iraq to oppose any independent Kurdish state. The Kurdish population in Iran is relatively small, about six million out of a total Iranian population of 65 million. The Kurdish language in Turkey is written in Latin characters, as decreed by Kemal Ataturk for all languages in Turkey, while Kurdi has its own alphabet. Kurdi is in a sense the official form of the Kurdish language.
