'We have always been hated," bewails a young Kurd to his friend. Even today, the Kurds of the Middle East are victims of political repression, imprisonment, and military campaigns. For political reasons, the governments of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and the USSR seek to minimize Kurdish strength and annihilate memories of Kurdish language and culture.

Although they have no nation-state of their won, the Kurdish population is .greater than Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and many other Middle Eastern countries. No absolutely reliable statistics are available, but there ate at least 9 million and perhaps as many as 20 million Kurds.

The largest number of Kurds live in Turkey* (comprising 13.20% of the population) where it is illegal to publish anything in Kurdish. As late as the 1970s Amnesty International documented a widespread use of torture by the Turkish government against the Kurds. In 1971 the Turkish Prime Minister denied even the existence of a Kurd language!

Only the New Testament has been translated into only one dialect of Kurdish. Work has been done in Southern Kurdish, but no work has begun on the northern Kurdish language. Only a few scattered attempts are being made to reach the Kurds for Christ.

Pray for a door to open for Christians to live and witness among Kurds in closed countries. Pray for witness to Kurds in West Germany and Middle Eastern countries where missionaries can enter. Pray that more Bible translation work can be initiated in the Kurdish languages.

With our attention focused on the Middle East these days, we should not forget that the confilict there is also affecting the minority peoples in the countries involved. One of these groups is the Kurds. Their homeland, Kurdistan, extends over parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran and the USSR. They are the largest ethnic group in the world without a country of their own. Their are differences o dialects and customs among the Kurds, but in each of the lands where they live they have suffered discrimination and persecution; the most severe instance is the use of chemical warfare agianst them in Iraq.

Many Kurds have left their homeland, and a large number of them are now living in Germany where the government is helping them relocate. Since the countries they come from are not open to missionaries, perhaps this is the Lord's way of bringing them to where they can hear the Gospel. Only a few of the Kurd dialects are recorded. Pray that recording opportunities will open up, especially among these Kurds that are relocating. Although traditionally Islamic, they have become disillusioned by the treatment they have received from fellow Moslems, and this has given them an openness to the Gospel. Pray that they will hear and receive this message whether in their homeland or abroad.

'The Kurds have no friends.- This resounding cry depicts the Kurdish mindset. As a chess pawn has no 'friends' and sacrifices to serve the King, so the friendless Kurds continue to serve as pawns to larger political interests.

Most readers know the great heartaches the Iraqis caused their Kurdish countrymen before and after the Persian Gulf War. The Kurdish refugee camps in northern Iraq continue to serve as a reminder, but that does not tell the story of the prison torture cells in Diyarbakir, the capital of Turkish Kurdistan, and the colonial mandates after World War I. These mandates outlined in the Treaty of Sevres promised the Kurds a land of their own. Yet the Kurds remain a people without a country.

WHO ARE THE KURDS?
Since the Greeks attacked the area in 401 B.C., soldiers and others have portrayed the Kurds as tough and proud bandits. In the early 1900s, British military attaches described the typical Kurdish man as a heavily armed reckless horseback rider from the mountains, dressed in colorful flowing robes. When forced to choose between a colorful sash and food, it is said the Kurd will spend his last "dollar" on the sash. The women exercise more freedom than their .Muslim sisters in other lands. Dressed modestly, they do not wear the veil over their face.

Physically, the Kurds remain unmixed with the invading nations, resulting in perhaps the most handsome people in the Middle East. The many invaders left their marks on other indigenous people, while the mountains protected the Kurdish bloodlines from these raping and pillaging armies.

Today, the Kurdish lifestyle varies greatly, ranging from city dweller, rural villager and peasant to nomad and semi-nomad. The many Kurds living in the mountain villages raise sheep and farm. This pastoral and farming lifestyle hinders formal education. Official Iranian estimates in 1975 show 70 percent of all Kurds and 80 percent of the women are illiterate.

WHERE DO THEY LIVE?
The map portrays what scholars call Kurdistan, the 'nation" of the Kurds-. (See map on page 2, March, '94 GPD.) Turkey, Iran, Iraq, the former Soviet Union and Syria contain portions of Kurdistan and the largest Kurdish population. Kurd refugees poured into Germany and other nations as well.

Possibly 25 million Kurds live scattered worldwide. It is difficult to number the Kurdish population. The Turkish government estimates 8 million " mountain Turks" live there, while the Kurdish nationalists estimate the number at 12 million. For the sake of-unity, the Turkish government legislates there are only Turks in Turkey. One member of Turkey's parliament was sentenced to two years of hard labor after declaring he was a Kurd. The Turkish government is not unique in its desire to reclassify the Kurds. The estimated 800,000 Syrian Kurds are officially recognized as Arabs though they stem from the nonArabic Persians. Yet the government has moved real Arabs into the Kurdish traditional homeland. You will read the details on day 3, March '94 GPD.

Prior to the Persian Gulf War, ten percent of the 3.2 million Iraqi Kurds lived in Baghdad, though most lived in their autonomous region bordered on the north by Turkey and on the northeast by Iran. Since the war, nearly two million official recognition of the Kurds and freedom for the Kurdish press. Starting in 1961, the Iraqi army consistently has battled the Kurds. When the Iran-Iraq War began in 1980, some Kurd forces fought with the Iraqis hoping to keep the Iraq-supplied weapons after the war. Siding with the enemy is not anathema to them. The Kurds historically sell their killing abilities to the highest bidder.

A Kurdish leader, Massoud Barzani, admits violence form differing parties will not give the Kurds their own homeland. Perhaps they need to put their priorities elsewhere. As Christians, we know that this friendless people needs to pursue a relationship with the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, with the same diligence with which they now seek a kingdom of their own on earth. Then they would finally have a friend in Jesus. Meanwhile, will you be a friend of the Kurds by praying for them every day this month? *Note: See: c: \Mid. Eas \Turkey\ Kurds; c: \Mid. Eas\Iran\Kurds; c:\Mid.Eas\Iraq\Kurds; c:\Mid.eas\Syria\Kurds

Thick black smoke billowed skyward as the f ire crackled and hissed. From a distance sirens screamed as ambulances and fire-trucks rushed to the burning bus. Among the passengers killed in the accident were the parents of a pretty eight-year old girl named Melek. She herself escaped physical injury, but because none of her relatives could be found, she was placed in a girls' orphanage in a large city in this Middle Eastern country.

That was eleven years ago. Now, at nineteen, Melek, lovely in face and form, has to leave the orphanage. For most girls nineteen is an exciting age. most have prospects of marriage and look forward to having homes of their own. But few families will accept Melek as a bride for their sons since in her country orphans are considered social outcasts. As a result, for survival, many orphan girls turn to. stealing or prostitution.

'What can I do?" Melek pondered day and night. "I don't want to become a prostitute. I want a good job. I She f found one f or a short while in a stationary shop, but quit when her boss demanded sexual favors. She searched in vain for some other way to support herself honorably, but could find none. Finally, following weeks of hunger and desperation, she gave in to the advances a girl of her beauty faces when not accompanied by another women or family member.

"This is the fate Allah has written on your forehead," a Muslim religious leader told her when she turned to him for help before resigning herself to a life of prostitution. How gladly she would escape if only a way would open up.

Heavenly Father, lead someone to Melek and other young women like her.