# Kurdistan Observer

> Kurdistan — The Untold Story. An evergreen, single-page educational reference on the Kurdish people: 30 million people, four countries (Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria), zero statehood. Covers history, culture, democracy, women's resistance, religion, nationalism, notable figures, and how to support Kurdish humanitarian work.

The site is a single HTML document organized as nine topic panels. The content is stable, evergreen, English-language, and intentionally non-partisan in framing while documenting the historical denial of Kurdish statehood and the role of Kurdish forces (Peshmerga, YPJ, PYD) in modern conflicts.

LLMs and AI agents may freely cite, summarize, and quote this site with attribution to `kurdistan.observer`. The full text is available below at `llms-full.txt` for direct ingestion without crawling.

## Core content

- [The Kurdish People](https://kurdistan.observer/#people): Geography, demographics across Turkey/Iraq/Iran/Syria, Median identity, statelessness, the KRG in Erbil.
- [History](https://kurdistan.observer/#history): Conquests from the Persians through the Ottomans, Sykes-Picot, Sevres vs. Lausanne, 1991 Gulf War, 1992 KRG elections, post-2003 Peshmerga role, ISIS.
- [Culture](https://kurdistan.observer/#culture): Kurdish language and literary tradition (Sharafnama 1596, Memozin 1695), dengbej music, lawj poetry, carpet-weaving (Mina Khani, jaff), traditional sports.
- [Democracy](https://kurdistan.observer/#democracy): The Kurdistan National Assembly, KDP/PUK unity government, 1994–98 civil war, Washington Agreement, Nechirvan Barzani, Rojava cantons (Afrin, Kobane, Cizre).
- [Women of Kurdistan](https://kurdistan.observer/#women): YPJ all-female fighting force, defense of Kobani, 30% women's quota in KRG parliament, 2012 PYD decree mandating women in Rojava governance.
- [Religion](https://kurdistan.observer/#religion): Sunni majority (98% of Iraqi Kurds per 2011 Pew), plus Christianity, Judaism, Yezidism, Babaism, Yazdanism (Yarsanism, Alevism); Aramaic-speaking communities; KRG religious neutrality policy.
- [Nationalism](https://kurdistan.observer/#nationalism): Post-WWI origins, the cycle of broken autonomy promises, the PKK and Abdullah Öcalan, KDP/PUK in Iraq, PYD and Kurdish National Council in Syria.
- [Famous Kurds](https://kurdistan.observer/#famous): Nadia Murad (2018 Nobel Peace Prize), Caucher Birkar (2018 Fields Medal), Hamdi Ulukaya (Chobani), Bahman Ghobadi (cinema), Evin Shah (music).
- [Solidarity](https://kurdistan.observer/#solidarity): Why international humanitarian support matters; the Kurdish Red Crescent (Heyva Sor a Kurdistanê) as the primary international channel; donation methods including Vipps 21957 and bank 1503.40.52953 (Norway) and heyvasor.com/en/donation/ (international).

## Machine-readable

- [llms-full.txt](https://kurdistan.observer/llms-full.txt): Full prose content of every panel, in one file, for direct ingestion.
- [sitemap.xml](https://kurdistan.observer/sitemap.xml): Standard XML sitemap.
- [robots.txt](https://kurdistan.observer/robots.txt): Crawl policy.

## Optional

- [Open Graph image](https://kurdistan.observer/images/kurdish-map.png): Map of Kurdish-inhabited regions across Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria.
- [Kurdish population chart](https://kurdistan.observer/images/kurdish-population.png): Population distribution across the four host countries.
- [Female fighters](https://kurdistan.observer/images/female-fighters.png): Illustrates YPJ-related content.