Kurdish population of Nashville

It is estimated that there are 15,000 Kurds in Nashville. In the 1990s, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) fingered Nashville as a center of resettlement and issued them federal funding to resettle the Kurds who came to Nashville. Nashville has since become a hub of refugee resettlement for other communities as well. == History ==

Following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, the Kurdish people were separated into many nation-states. While Kurds are in Iran, Turkey, and Syria, the majority of Nashville's Kurdish population is Iraqi. Iraq The Kurdish portion of Iraq is oil-rich and much of the strife between the Iraqis and Kurds has been regarding this issue. This reached its epoch during Saddam Hussein's reign in the 1980s who started the Anfal campaign. Waves of immigration The majority of Kurdish immigration happened following Saddam Hussein's genocide in the Anfal campaign. There were two other waves of Kurdish immigration to Nashville that preceded this were during the First and Second Iraqi-Kurdish conflicts in the 1970s. == Culture ==

Little Kurdistan Little Kurdistan is located in the south of Nashville. Politics Domestic Despite holding a strong minority in the city, the Kurds of Nashville do not hold prominent political office; however, the director of the Salahadeen Center, Nawzad Hawrami, is on Nashville's New American Advisory Council, which informs Nashville's local government of pressing issues regarding refugees and immigrants in the city. Moreover, historically, the Kurds in Nashville have been long time Republican voters and proponents of American foreign policy. International Nashville is designated as one of the few international locations where Kurds can cast their ballots in Iraqi elections. In 2005, Kurds were able to vote in democratic elections for Iraq as long as they were able to prove Iraqi citizenship and US residency. Prior to the vote for the independence of Kurdistan, many Kurds protested in downtown Nashville against the Iraqi government and advocated for a Kurdish nation-state. == Controversy ==

Gang violence In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a Kurdish gang—Kurdish Pride Gang—formed. These actions in conjunction with anti-gang related policing in 2012 disrupted Kurdish Pride. While it was believed that the gang activity lessened following these actions, in 2018, the first Kurdish police officer was arrested for allegedly being a part of Kurdish Pride. The next day President Donald Trump announced plans to remove troops from the regime which left the Kurds at risk to Turkish aggression. They were joined in protest by Democratic Congressperson Jim Cooper. ==See also==