Kurdish Delegation Briefing Packet  

The Kurds comprise approximately 20 percent of the Iraqi population. They are heavily concentrated in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq where they constitute the majority. While most Kurds adhere to Sunni Islam, they differ from both the Sunni and Shi’a Arabs in ethnicity, constituting the largest non-Arab minority in Iraq. The Kurds also speak a different language than the Iraqi Arabs. Kurdish is an Indo-European language and does not originate from the Semitic or Turkic language groups.10 Historically, these differences caused almost constant tension between the Kurds and the Arab-dominated central Iraqi government.

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