Kurdish rights developed through different treaties, laws and political institutions in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. These dated milestones distinguish autonomy from independence, language guarantees from their implementation, and citizenship from regional self-government.

Scanned treaty page headed Kurdistan, with Articles 62, 63 and 64 above the beginning of the Smyrna section
Page 21 of the Treaty of Sèvres, British Treaty Series No. 11 (1920), from the UK Foreign Office scan. Articles 62–64 proposed conditional arrangements; the treaty never entered into force. Historical public-domain Crown publication. [1][2] UK Foreign Office · British Treaty Series 11 (1920), p. 21 · Public Domain.

Rights are not a single historical outcome

Permission to publish a language, access to citizenship, elected regional institutions and an independent state are different political arrangements. Their histories cannot be reduced to a single promise fulfilled or betrayed everywhere. Iraq’s constitutional recognition of an existing federal region and Syria’s later citizenship measures illustrate different kinds of change. [6][8] The chronology below concerns named texts and institutions; it does not assume that a legal announcement immediately changed everyone’s experience.

Sèvres, 1920: conditional autonomy and independence

Articles 62–64 envisaged local autonomy in specified predominantly Kurdish areas and a further route towards independence, conditional on a request demonstrating majority support and a favourable League of Nations decision. They did not automatically create a Kurdish state covering every Kurdish-inhabited territory. [1] In an official parliamentary answer in 1983, Douglas Hurd confirmed that Sèvres never entered into force. [2] The distinction matters when describing the treaty’s political importance and its legal effect.

Lausanne, 1923: read the provisions separately

Article 39 protected the use of any language by Turkish nationals in private intercourse, commerce, religion, the press, publications and public meetings, and addressed oral language use before courts. Articles 40–41 separately concerned institutions and education for non-Muslim minorities. [3] Those clauses should not be treated as identical: the language provision’s wording was broader than a guarantee limited to one religious category. Nor did these provisions establish Kurdish territorial autonomy. The text alone does not establish how every guarantee was implemented.

Iran: language and equality in the constitutional text

In Iran’s 1979 Constitution as revised in 1989, Article 15 made Persian the official language while permitting regional and tribal languages in press and mass media and the teaching of their literature alongside Persian. Article 19 stated equality regardless of ethnic group, tribe, colour, race or language. [4] Teaching a language’s literature, recognising it as a national official language and using it as the medium for all subjects are distinct policies. The constitutional wording should not be expanded into claims it does not contain.

Iraq: institutions in 1992, recognition in 2005

The KRG’s institutional history dates the first regional election to 19 May 1992 and links it to the formation of the Kurdistan National Assembly and regional government. [5] The 2005 Constitution therefore did not create the KRG from nothing: Article 117 recognised Kurdistan and its existing authorities as a federal region. Article 4 designated Arabic and Kurdish as Iraq’s two official languages; Article 121 set out regional powers within the constitutional framework. [6] Federal recognition, language status and independence are different matters.

Syria: the 1962 census and the partial remedy of 2011

Human Rights Watch’s 2009 investigation describes a one-day census in Hasakah in 1962 that stripped about 120,000 Kurds of citizenship, with consequences for employment and services. Its estimate of 300,000 stateless people referred to 2009, not the number initially deprived or a present-day count. [7] EUAA’s July 2026 review explains that Decree 49 of April 2011 addressed registered ajanib, while leaving maktoumeen outside its scope. [8] These classifications shaped access to rights rather than merely recording cultural identity.

Syria in 2026: a decree and the question of implementation

SANA’s 17 January 2026 account of Decree 13 reported recognition of Kurdish as a national language, provision for teaching it in specified areas, citizenship for Kurdish-origin residents including the previously unregistered, and Nowruz as a nationwide paid holiday. [9] EUAA’s July review distinguishes those measures from constitutional recognition and records an application process still under way after February implementing procedures. [8] These dated reports document a change in policy, not proof that every eligible person had already received documents or that all political rights disputes had ended.

Sources and further reading

  1. Treaty of Sèvres, British Treaty Series No. 11 (1920), printed p. 21, Articles 62–64; original Foreign Office scan.
  2. UK Parliament, Hansard, “Treaty of Sevres”, 18 February 1983; Douglas Hurd’s answer that the treaty never entered into force.
  3. Treaty of Lausanne, Part I, Articles 39–41; English text published by Türkiye’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  4. Constitution of Iran, 1979 as revised in 1989, Articles 15 and 19; English text reproduced by the Constitute Project.
  5. Kurdistan Regional Government Representation in the United States, “Kurdistan Parliament”, historical section on the 19 May 1992 election, assembly and regional government.
  6. Constitution of Iraq, 2005, UNAMI English translation marked unofficial, Articles 4, 117 and 121; Refworld reproduction.
  7. Human Rights Watch, Group Denial: Repression of Kurdish Political and Cultural Rights in Syria, 26 November 2009, historical marginalisation section.
  8. European Union Agency for Asylum, Syria: Country Focus, July 2026, section 2.7.1, “Kurds”; language measures and statelessness, 2011 and 2026 decrees and implementation.
  9. Syrian Arab News Agency, “From marginalization to citizenship: Syria’s historic decree for Kurds”, 17 January 2026; official account of Decree 13’s announced provisions, distinguished here from independent verification of implementation.