 There is an interesting Wikipedia page titled, Stateless Nations. The page is about various ethnic groups that do not have a nation of their own. And these ethnic groups live as a minority in various other nations. But why are they called stateless? They are called stateless because even though they process all the necessary conditions to exist as a separate nation due to various geopolitical reasons they exist as a minority in various other nations. If you scroll through the Wikipedia page you will find a list. And the first name in the list is Kurd and their homeland of Kurdistan. And Kurdistan is often called as the largest nation in the world with no independent state. In our discussion today we will focus on the ethnic group of Kurds. Who are the Kurds? The Kurds are one of the indigenous people of the Mesopotamian lands and the highlands in the south-eastern Turkey, north-eastern Syria, northern Iraq, north-western Iran and south-western Armenia. Know that the majority of the Kurds are Sunni Muslims. And there are some Kurds who follow other religious beliefs also. The Kurds form a distinctive community. Even though they have no standard dialect, they are united through race, culture and language. Now we will see the problems faced by the Kurds. In the early 28th century many Kurds began to raise their voice for the creation of their own homeland, which was generally referred to as Kurdistan. But their voice for the creation of the country of Kurdistan was never addressed. To understand this we have to go back in time. We have to go back till the World War 1. In World War 1 the Ottoman Empire was defeated by the western allies which comprised of France, Britain, Russia and the United States. During the World War 1 the Kurds helped the western allies. So the victorious western allies made an provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920s Treaty of Severus. The Treaty of Severus was signed between the allies of the World War 1 and the Ottoman Empire. In that only the provision of the Kurdish state was made. But such hopes of the Kurdish state was destroyed three years later. In 1923 the Treaty of Lausanne was signed. This Treaty of Lausanne set the boundaries of modern Turkey and this treaty had no provisions about the Kurdish state. So this left the Kurds only with the minority status in the respective countries like Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. So from that time onwards the Kurds have been continuously straining to set up an independent state. This is the basic about the Kurds, the issue faced by them and the country of Kurdistan. Now coming to the issue between the Iran and Kurds. The Kurds are presently inhabited in western Iran region and this region shares border with parts of Iraq and Turkey and in Iraq and Turkey also Kurds are present. As we saw earlier majority of the Kurds are Sunni Muslims and we know that Iran is dominated by Shia Muslims. So naturally the different in ideology resulted in conflict. The Kurdish separatism in Iran or the Kurdish Iranian conflict is an ongoing long running separatist dispute between the Kurdish opposition in western Iran and the government of Iran. The Kurdish separatist movement in Iran first started with the establishment of the Republic of Mahabad during the 1946 Iranian crisis. The Republic of Mahabad or the Republic of Kurdistan was a short lived Kurdish self governing under organized state in the present day Iran which stretched over Iran's border with Turkey and Iraq. The Republic of Mahabad was established with the help of Soviet Union but the Republic only lasted for one year. Due to the pressure from western powers the Soviet Union pulled out from Iran. So the Iranian government took back the control of the region and this fueled the continuous agitation by the Kurds for a separate state. Then during the 1969 revolution there was open conflict between the Shia revolutionaries of Iran and the Sunni Muslims of the Kurdish party of Iranian Kurdistan and the fight for independence is an ongoing process. So the present conflict between Iran and the Kurdish people is due to this long history of conflict between the Sunni Muslims of Kurds and the Shia Muslims of Iran. See this is an ongoing process which will be addressed only if a state of Kurdistan is created in which the Kurdish people are in majority. To know more about interesting facts like this listen to the daily news analysis by Shankar Ayes Academy and also subscribe to Shankar Ayes Academy's YouTube channel. Thank you for listening.