“I OFTEN tell Jehovah in prayer how grateful I am that I was able to hear about him in my mother tongue,” says Gulizar.

Gulizar associated with Jehovah’s Witnesses for eight years, but she was baptized only after attending meetings in her mother tongue, Kurdish. She is one of the many Kurds who have responded to the truth in Georgia in recent years. But who are the Kurds?

Kurdish people have inhabited the Middle East for centuries. Some scholars think that they are descendants of the  ancient Medes mentioned in the Bible. (2 Ki. 18:11; Acts 2:9) Their language belongs to the Iranian group of languages.

Today, millions of Kurds live in various countries, including Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. There are about 20,000 Kurds in Georgia. Generally, they are God-fearing and have high respect for spiritual matters.

There are now 500 Kurdish publishers in Georgia, and three Kurdish-language congregations. In 2014, to the great joy of all, the first regional convention in Kurdish was held in Tbilisi, hosting delegates from Armenia, Germany, Turkey, and Ukraine.