Spread across a region of the Middle East with no border of their own, the Kurdish people are spread across the Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. While there is no official Kurdistan, 20,000 Kurds call Nashville home. The first Kurds arrived in Nashville in the 1980s followed by subsequent waves in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Salahadeen Center, the first Kurdish mosque in the U.S., was established in 1998.
Nashville hosts the largest Kurdish population in the United States. Little Kurdistan in Nashville is located near Elysian Fields, where one my find shops, cafes, and mosques representing the Kurdish community.
Many Kurds in Tennessee have come as refugees and escaped genocide, persecution, and marginalization. Many Kurds fleeing Iraq were civic leaders, and the area is home to a number of markets, bakeries, and cafes and other Kurdish owned businesses. Kurds in Tennessee represent a dynamic ethnic community in Southeast Nashville.
Nashville represents a dynamic Kurdish Muslim community. For cross-cultural workers, Nashville represents an opportunity for building relationships and living on mission in the city.
I live in near Little Kurdistan, have many close Kurdish friends, and through them, continue to regularly meet new arrivals. Though estimates in your article are 20,000, there is no way to account for those who are here who have not officially identified themselves as Kurdish. That may be in part due to official forms (for work or driver’s license or other applications) often do not include Kurdistan as an option for nationality since Kurdistan is not a recognized country. Many have come through the US southern border. Once released from detention camps by ICE, many of my Kurdish friends drive south for them and bring them to Nashville to begin their new life here. 20,000 may be a good starting point. However, there may be many more.
I worked with a Kurdish mechanical engineer while embedded with the US State Dept . He and his family express strong interested in moving to and becoming US Citizens. Can you give me a contact there in the Kurdish comminuty that can help him in his family endeavor to become Americans?
His accomplishments include building the largest hospital in Erbil and he’s current an employee of the US State Dept at the new consulate complex during construction (NCC) and operational maintenance. Both of his kids graduated from an english high school and all but his wife are fluent read, writing and speaking english. His wife is a Kurdish attorney. Thanks, Scott P. Stilwell.