Refugee: This girl, a Syrian Kurd, was forced to flee with her family to a refugee camp in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Erbil after her home was bombed
Pitiless: The raging conflict in Syria has spared no one, young or old, and as a result, vast numbers have been forced to make the perilous journey into Iraq
DESCENDANTS OF THE DJINNI: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE KURDISH PEOPLE
The 30 million strong population of ethnic Kurds originated in Iran and now live mainly in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, although a significant diaspora is also to be found in Armenia, Georgia, Israel, Azerbaijan, Russia and Lebanon.
An ancient people, the first mention of the Kurds came in 3000 BC, when a Sumerian tablet spoke of the land of 'Kar-da' and referred to the 'Kur' [mountain] people.
There are also numerous legends associated with the origins of the Kurds, including one which claims they are the descendants of King Solomon’s angelic servants or Djinn, who were sent to Europe to find 500 beautiful maidens for the king's harem.
But by the time the Djinn returned, the king had died and the servants settled in the mountains, married the women themselves and founded the Kurdish people.
By the early mediaeval period, the Kurdish clans ruled mini-kingdoms across the Middle East before coming under the rule of the Ottoman sultans of Istanbul.
Although the Kurds had lived peacefully for much of the Ottoman period, the 19th century brought the birth of the Kurdish nationalist movement which first reared its head as a political entity in 1880 under Sheik Ubeydullah.
The uprising was suppressed but nationalism was not forgotten. In the years after the World Wars and the end of the Ottoman Empire, repeated rebellions in Turkish Kurdistan led to the imposition of martial law while in Iraq, Kurdish nationalism was met with the tanks and bombs of the ruling Ba'ath party.
By the 1970s, the PKK or Kurdish Worker's Party, had become entrenched in eastern Turkey, fighting running battles with Turkish armed forces and considered a terrorist organisation by the UN and many Western nations.
But it was in 1980s Iraq where the Kurds would meet their deadliest enemy - the chemical weapons of Saddam Hussein which killed more than 5,000 people in a 1988 attack on the town of Hallabja.
Today, the Kurds are still spread far and wide but the peace process in Turkey is beginning to improve the lot of those living between the Turkish army and the PKK.
In Iraq meanwhile, the autonomous region of Kurdistan in the north has provided a haven for local Iraqi Kurds and those fleeing from the conflict in neighbouring Syria.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2462971/Haunting-portraits-Kurdish-refugees-offer-striking-insight-lives-refugees-forced-Syrian-homes-civil-war.html#ixzz2iBnwRvdp
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