Herki

The Herkis are divided in three sub-tribes: Menda, Sida and Serhati. The Herki dialect belongs to the Kurmanji dialect.[2]

The Herkis lived mostly a nomadic life with their herds; however, this changed a lot after 1920 and the Treaty of Sèvres. The new hand-drawn borders of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey hindered Kurdish tribes to continue their way of life.[3]The Turkish Gendarmerie was famous for its brutality against nomads and their herds. This led to many Kurdish tribes besides the Herkis leaving their nomadic lifestyle and settled in villages which they had before only used during the winter. The nomadic and free lifestyle they had, was taken from them.

The new borders soon had a major impact on every aspect of the Kurdish life. For Herkis and many other Kurds that meant that areas which had belonged to them and their herds were taken from them, and they could not move freely like their forefathers had done for a century. They had to decide in which country to settle, which is the reason why Herkis and many other Kurdish tribes can be found dispersed in Iran, Iraq and Turkey, but still be of the same tribe.

In 1989 they counted some 20,000 people, living between Urmia and Rawanduz, one if the largest remaining groups of pastoral herders. On their regular movement they brought salt from Iran to Iraq and carried wheat and barley back to Iran.[4]

Today, the Herkis live in Iranian Kurdistan around and in Urmia city, mainly in Mergever, Tergever, Dasht, Dashtabel, Roza and Berandez, in Iraqi Kurdistan from Mosul to Hewler, the capital of the Kurdistan Autonomous Region and the seat of the Kurdistan Regional Government, and in Turkish Kurdistan around Lake Van and in the Semdinan and Ağrı areas.