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Where is Kurdish spoken?
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The Kurdish language is a West Iranian language primarily spoken in a loosely defined geographic region known as Kurdistan ("Land of the Kurds"). This region spans contiguous areas across several countries, including:12
- Turkey: Specifically the Taurus Mountains of southeastern Anatolia.32
- Iran: Particularly the Zagros Mountains of the west and the KordestÄn province, with a noncontiguous population in the northeastern KhorÄsÄn region.2
- Iraq: Northern regions, including an autonomous federal area.24
- Syria: Northeastern portions.32
- Armenia: Western areas.32
Additionally, Kurdish is spoken in the Caucasus and by diasporic communities located in Europe and countries of the former Soviet Union. Because of varying criteria regarding ethnicity and language, exact population statistics for speakers remain difficult to determine.15