Final answer:
The Kurds are an ethnicity spread across Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, and they are considered a stateless nation due to historical and political circumstances, including denied petitions for statehood, suppressed nationalist movements, and inconsistent international support.
Step-by-step explanation:
The geographic distribution of the Kurds spans across four primary countries in the Middle East: Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. The Kurds are an ethnicity known for their distinct language, culture, and identity that is separate from the nations they reside in. Hypothesizing on how the Kurds became a stateless nation entails understanding the broader historical context of the region. This includes the impact of colonial decisions which involved drawing borders without fully considering the distribution of ethnic groups, the emergence of nationalist movements, and the repeated denial of their claims for statehood by surrounding nation-states and international bodies.
The largest concentration of Kurds, approximately 14 million, resides in Turkey. In Iran, there are about 8 million Kurds, while Iraq has about 7 million, and smaller populations exist in Syria and neighboring countries. The Kurds have lobbied for a nation-state called Kurdistan, to no avail. Factors that have contributed to their status as a stateless nation include denial of their petition by the UN in 1945, and suppression of their nationalist movements by the countries they live in. The strategic interests of powerful nations like the United States have also resulted in inconsistent support for Kurdish autonomy.