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Screen Shot: Hyper Lander 2 Classic
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· The 40 million Kurds are the largest ethnicity in the world without a state of its own. Promised - but never granted- their own country after WWI, Kurds now live in parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan. They are almost universally despised for asserting their identity. The government of Turkey spends US billion a year fighting its Kurdish separatists. Saddam Hussein's Iraq has tried to wipe out its four million Kurds altogether: Some 300,000 Kurdish civilians "disappeared" between 1983 and 1987. Then Iraq launched a religious war against them (complete with chemical weapons), razing 4,000 villages and killing another 100,000 Kurds. Many of those who survived are now starving, thanks to the UN's embargo against Iraq.
· Language
In Iran Kurds are not allowed to use their Kurdish names. In Turkey, speaking Kurdish even in private was a crime until 1991. Turkey continues to deny that Kurds have a separate ethnic identity - the official storey is that Kurds are Turks who got lost in the mountains and forgot they were Turkish.
· Pop Culture
Kurdish music is central to daily life. Almost every human activity has its song, played on flutes, drums and the ut-ut (a kind of guitar). Naser Razazi & Sivan Perwarthe star of Kurdish pop, sells millions of tapes throughout former Kurdistan and abroad. Exiled from Turkey, Sivan now lives in Sweden. In 1980's Iraq, possession of his tapes could get you arrested. They're still banned in Turkey. (Text from Colors Magazine and Image by Ed Kashi/JB Pictures/Rapha)
· Land and Ecology
The vast Kurdish homeland of about 230,000 square miles(75,000 msk) is about the areas of Germany and Britain combined, or roughly equal to France or Texas. Kurdistan consists basically of the mountainous areas of the central and northern Zagros, the eastern one-third of the Taurus and Pontus, and the northern half of the Amanus ranges. The symbiosis between the Kurds and their mountains has been so strong that they have become synonymous: Kurds home ends where the mountains end. Kurds as a distinct people have survived only when living in the mountains. The highest points in the land now are respectively Mt. Alvand of southern Kurdistan in Iran at 11,745 feet, Mt. Halgurd in central Kurdistan in Iraq at 12,249 feet, Mt. Munzur at 12,600 feet in western Kurdistan and Mt. Ararat at 16,946 feet in northern Kurdistan, both in Turkey.
There are also two large Kurdish enclaves in central and north central Anatolia in Turkey and in the province of Khurasan in northeast Iran.The mean annual precipitation is 60-80 inches per year in the central regions and 20-40 inches on the descent to the lower elevations. Most precipitation is in form of snow, which can fall for six months of the year, becoming the resource for many great rivers, such as the Tigris and the Euphrates in an otherwise arid Middle East. The overall mean annual temperature is 55-65 degrees Fahrenheit, getting cooler as one ascends the central massifs.
The land, once almost totally forested, has been massively cleared, especially in this century, with inevitable soil erosion and parched landscape. Contrary to the heavy damage sustained by the woodlands, the pasture lands remain in reasonably good condition and continue to be a productive to a nomadic herding economy alongside the basic agriculture.
Despite its mountainous nature, Kurdistan has more arable land proportionately than most Middle Eastern countries. Expansive river valleys create a fertile lattice work in Kurdistan. This may well explain the fact that the very invention of agriculture took place primarily in Kurdistan around 12,000 years ago. The revolution accompanied speedy domestication of almost all basic cereals and livestocks in the region(with the notable exception of cows and rice).
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Screen Shot: Project BOB
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Language
Kurds are speakers of Kurdish, a member of the northwestern subdivision of the Iranic branch of the Indo-Europian family of languages, which is akin to Persian, and by extension to other Europian languages. It is fundamentally different from Semetic Arabic and Altaic Turkish. Modern Kurdish divides into two major groups: 1) the Kurmanji group and, 2) the Dimili-Gurani group. These are supplemented by scores of sub-dialects as well. The most popular vernacular is that of Kurmanji(or Kirmancha), spoken by about three-quarters of the Kurds today. Kurmanji divided into North Kurmanji(also called Bahdinani, with around 15 million speakers, primarily in Turkey, Syria, and the former Soviet Union) and South Kurmanji(also called Sorani, with about 12 million speakers, primarily in Iraq and Iran).
To the far north of Kurdistan along Kizil Irmak and Murat rivers in Turkey, Dimili (less accurately but more commonly known as Zaza) dialect is spoken by about 4 million Kurds. There are small pockets of this language spoken in various corners of Anatolia, northern Iraq, northern Iran and the Caucasus as well.
In the far southern Kurdistan, both in Iraq and Iran, the Gurani dialect is spoken by about 3 million Kurds. Gurani along with its two major subdivisions: Lur , Laki and Awramani, merit special attention for its wealth of sacred and secular literature stretching over a millennium.
In Iraq and Iran a modified version of the Perso-Arabic alphabet has been adapted to South Kurmanji (Sorani). The Kurds of Turkey have recently embarked on an extensive campaign of publication in the North Kurmanji dialect of Kurmaji (Bahdinani) from their publishing houses in Europe. these employed a modified form of the Latin alphabet. The Kurds of the former Soviet Union first began writing Kurdish in the Armenian alphabet in the 1920s, followed by Latin in 1927, then Cyrillic in 1945, and now in both Cyrillic and Latin. Gurani dialects continue to employ the Persian alphabet without any change. Dimili now uses the same modified Latin alphabet as North Kurmanji for print.
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Screen Shot: Hyper Lander 2 Classic
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· Language
Kurds are speakers of Kurdish, a member of the northwestern subdivision of the Iranic branch of the Indo-Europian family of languages, which is akin to Persian, and by extension to other Europian languages. It is fundamentally different from Semetic Arabic and Altaic Turkish. Modern Kurdish divides into two major groups: 1) the Kurmanji group and, 2) the Dimili-Gurani group. These are supplemented by scores of sub-dialects as well. The most popular vernacular is that of Kurmanji(or Kirmancha), spoken by about three-quarters of the Kurds today. Kurmanji divided into North Kurmanji(also called Bahdinani, with around 15 million speakers, primarily in Turkey, Syria, and the former Soviet Union) and South Kurmanji(also called Sorani, with about 12 million speakers, primarily in Iraq and Iran).
To the far north of Kurdistan along Kizil Irmak and Murat rivers in Turkey, Dimili (less accurately but more commonly known as Zaza) dialect is spoken by about 4 million Kurds. There are small pockets of this language spoken in various corners of Anatolia, northern Iraq, northern Iran and the Caucasus as well.
In the far southern Kurdistan, both in Iraq and Iran, the Gurani dialect is spoken by about 3 million Kurds. Gurani along with its two major subdivisions: Lur , Laki and Awramani, merit special attention for its wealth of sacred and secular literature stretching over a millennium.
In Iraq and Iran a modified version of the Perso-Arabic alphabet has been adapted to South Kurmanji (Sorani). The Kurds of Turkey have recently embarked on an extensive campaign of publication in the North Kurmanji dialect of Kurmaji (Bahdinani) from their publishing houses in Europe. these employed a modified form of the Latin alphabet. The Kurds of the former Soviet Union first began writing Kurdish in the Armenian alphabet in the 1920s, followed by Latin in 1927, then Cyrillic in 1945, and now in both Cyrillic and Latin. Gurani dialects continue to employ the Persian alphabet without any change. Dimili now uses the same modified Latin alphabet as North Kurmanji for print.
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Screen Shot: Project BOB
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· Population
Kurdish lands, rich in natural resources, have always sustained and promoted a large population. While registering modest gains since the late 19th century, but particularly in the first decade of the 20th, Kurds vlost demographic ground relative to neighboring ethnic groups. This was due as much to their less developed economy and health care system as it was to direct massacres, deportations, famines, etc. The total number of Kurds actually decreased in this period, while every other major ethnic group in the area boomed. Since the middle of the 1960s this negative demographic trend has reversed, and Kurds are steadily regaining the demographic position of importance that they traditionally held, representing 15% of the over-all population of the Middle East in Asia-a phenomenon common since at least the 4th millennium BC.
Today Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East, after the Arabs, Persians and Turks. Their largest concentrations are now respectively in Turkey (approx. 52% of all Kurds), Iran(25.5%), Iraq (16%), Syria (5%) and the CIS (1.5%). Barring a catastrophe, Kurds will become the third most populous ethnic group in the Middle East by the year 2000, displacing the Turks. Furthermore, if present demographic trends hold, as they are likely to, in about fifty years Kurds will also replace the Turks as the majority ethnic group in Turkey itself.
There is now one Kurdish city with a population of nearly a million (Kirminshah) , two with over half a million (Diyarbekir, Kirkuk,Sanandaj), five between a quarter and half a million (Antep, Arbil, Hamadan, Malatya, Sulaymania), and quarter of a million people (Adiyaman, Dersim[Tunceli], Dohuk, Elazig[Kharput], Haymana, Khanaqin, Mardin Qamishli, Qochan, Shahabad, Siirt and Urfa,Pawa,Nodesha).and Luristan Khoram abad.
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Screen Shot: Hyper Lander 2 Classic
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This is a screen near the end of the game Hyper Lander 2. I got hear after I rescued the science team from the collapsing caverns on the moon trapped and orbitting with the rings.
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Screen Shot: Project BOB
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This is the water room from the game Project BOB. It's a fun board.
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Screen Shot: Hyper Lander 2 Classic
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Hyper Lander 2 has a bunch of secret screens which can only be reached by using game codes. (This one requires "GHOST" which lets you fly through walls.) It's kind of like some of the earlier games where programmers would leave their names in hidden areas, but this is a little cooler, it's got really cool information in different places.
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Screen Shot: Project BOB
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This is the lava room from the game Project BOB. Can you guess why?
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Screen Shot: Hyper Lander 2 Classic
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This is one of the screens in the Introduction sequence in Hyper Lander 2. It shows the rescue vehicle that you fly through the game, and some of the features it has, like Ionic pulse thrusters, titanium landing talons, and a phase shield run by the latest A/I RISC chips.
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Screen Shot: Project BOB
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This is the wooden room from the game Project BOB. I call it the wooden room because all of the floors appear to be wooden. It's a challenging board.
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