The term ''Anti-Kurdism'' refers to hostility towards or prejudice against Kurds, which can range from individual hatred by ordinary people to institutionalized, violent persecution or discrimination. In other words anti-Kurdism is a social and political disease in Middle east, especially in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria, but not limited to these.
The prejudice or hostility is usually characterized by a combination of political, economical, religious, racial, cultural and ethnic biases. Antikurdism may be manifested in many ways, ranging from individual expressions of hatred and discrimination against individual Kurds to organized violent attacks by mobs or even state police or military attacks on entire Kurdish communities. Historic instances of persecution include the Iranian massacre of thousands of Kurds around Urmia and deporting the survivors to northern Khorasan in 1609-1610 and the Dersim massacre in 1930s by the Turkish government.
Several varieties of antikurdism can be distinguished:
Political antikurdism; giving as example prohibition or closing down all Kurdish political parties who represent Kurds to achieve their basic rights.
Economic antikurdism; A clear example is that Kurdistan is the most impoverished and undeveloped area in all of the four countries occupying it.
Theological or Religious antikurdism; harassing Kurds for being Shafiite Sunni Muslims.
Cultural antikurdism; marginalizing or even banning Kurdish literature and history to be taught, or even banning use of Kurdish language.
Nationalistic antikurdism; accusing Kurds for being proxies of enemies of the country to weaken the country; for instance Qarne and Qalatan massacres in Iran (in eastern Kurdistan) in early 1980s, or the most infamous anfal campaign in Iraq (in southern Kurdistan) which took lives of 182000 innocent Kurds.
Racial or Ethnical antikurdism, insulting Kurds just for being simply Kurds; an example is Khoja Saddadin (1537-1599) the Turkish Mufti of the Ottoman Turks who wrote in his book ‘Taj ül-Tawarikh’ (The Crown of Histories): “It has been decreed by God that the Kurds cannot found a state because, once upon a time, a very ugly and frightening man visited the prophet Mohammed. The prophet was scared, and asked the man from whence he came. The guest answered in a friendly and respectful manner that he was a Kurd. The prophet lifted his head to the sky and said, ‘Thou, God, must not allow the Kurds to unify; their unification would cause the destruction of the world”.
