Kurdish history starts around 10,000 BC. Kurds moved from Scandinavia to areas of Caucasia and around the region of Mount Ararat during the great migration. Two categories of Kurds travelled within the area still known informally as ‘Kurdistan’. One of them was the group of Gutis, who migrated from Ararat to the areas around the Caspian Sea and from there travelled further down to the Arabian Sea and Red Sea areas. The other was the group of the Kurtis, who migrated from Mount Ararat to the Mediterranean Sea passing through the areas around the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. From there, the Kurtis moved on to Aleppo and then to Mosul and crossed the Gutis in and around the Arabian and Red Sea areas. Together they formed the Kurdish people.[8]
For thousands of years, the Kurdish people have been free from occupation and governed their own territories. Many states, kingdoms and empires, including the Medes, Kassites, Kattiyum, Kardonya, Mitani and Ayubis, were created throughout the years. Around these centuries two of the world’s largest four states belonged to the Kurds. Kardonya and Mitani together with Egypt and Hittite were the largest states of the world at that time. The Kurds were living peacefully together and practiced various religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest religions which accept one God and is still practiced by the Yazidis. There are various sub-dialects of the Kurdish language, spoken by various Kurdish tribes and communities. The peaceful cohabitation of all Kurds was first disrupted in 640 AD by an invasion in the name of Islam, orchestrated by Khalif/Caliph Omer. This led to a division along religious lines, but the Kurds managed to hold on to their territory. In 1514, the Kurdish Kings and the Ottoman Turks reached an alliance, which significantly undermined Kurdish sovereignty for the first time in history. This alliance allowed the Kings in the eastern parts of Kurdish territory, including parts of Dersim, which has a long tradition of Kurdish independent rule, to continue to reign autonomously. Other parts of Kurdish territory came under the direct rule of the Ottoman Empire. By 1639 a large majority of the Kurdish people had come under Ottoman rule, but the Kings in the east hang onto their autonomy until the second third of the 19th century, when the central state imposed its direct central rule in these autonomous areas as well. In doing so, it nonetheless relied on the co-option of local Kurdish lords. The central parts of Dersim retained its autonomy until the 1930s and resisted both co-option and direct rule until then.[9]