The Middle East is full of complex social problems. I am not a politician, activist or sociologist. I am just a man who wants to be a good friend to my Kurdish and Turkish neighbors. Many Kurds are desperately trying to establish their identity in the eyes of the world.  Kurds are distinct from Turks and Arabs. The existing nations that they call home each wish they would simply assimilate into the culture of that nation.  Those who have refused to assimilate have a culture that sets them apart from the others in language and tradition.  There is fault on both sides and a long history of conflict, torture and terrorism.  Even now in Turkey many Turks refuse to acknowledge the Kurds and simply call them “mountain Turks”.

The Kurds, considered by many to be the most oppressed people in history, often refer to themselves as those who “have no friends but the mountains.” They are the largest people group in the world without a homeland and have endured centuries of conquest and suppression.

Most of us are familiar with the Kurds because of recent world events, but their history begins in Biblical times.  Their ancestors, the Medes, are found in many Old Testament stories. The Garden of Eden may have been situated in the land now known as “Kurdistan.”  Many biblical figures lived and died in this land including Noah, Esther, Jonah, Habakkuk and Daniel. Many of the cities and regions represented on the day of Pentecost are located in the Kurds homeland, Kurdistan.