Kurds at a celebration rally
Kurds are an ethnic group in Western Asia that primarily live in the Kurdistan geographical region, which comprises southern and eastern Turkey, northern Syria, northern Iraq, and northwestern Iran. They are closely ethnically-related to Iranians, as they are part of the Iranian peoples. Today, there are around 32,000,000 Kurds worldwide, with 16,000,000 living in Turkey (25% of the population), 8,000,000 in Iran (10%), 6,500,000 in Iraq (23%), and 2,500,000 in Syria (15%). A vast majority of Kurds practice Sunni Islam since the rise of the religion in the 7th century, but in the 8th and 9th centuries many Kurds were Miaphysite Christians or Zoroastrians before being forced to convert.