Kurdish Folk Group from Almaty in Kazakhstan, Wearing a mixture of Kurdish and Central Asian Folk Attire
The Kurds of Azerbaijan are a small ethnic minority, many of whom have lived in the South Caucasus for centuries, particularly in areas near Lachin and Kelbajar. Historically Sunni Muslims and speakers of Kurmanji Kurdish, they often lived alongside Azeris and Armenians. In the 1930s and again in the late 1940s, during Stalin’s population transfers, thousands of Kurds from Azerbaijan and Armenia were deported to Central Asia (mainly to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan), under suspicion of anti-revolutionary organization. Many of their descendants still live in Kazakhstan today, maintaining elements of Kurdish identity while also assimilating into local cultures, and speaking Russian as their native language.
