Dispersed across Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran, the Kurds have been the largest stateless minority in the Middle East since the re-shaping of borders after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1923. In the past 80 years, in all parts of Kurdistan various attempts have been made to demand increased cultural and linguistic rights, autonomy and the creation of an independent Kurdish state. In 2014, Syrian Kurds established control over a large portion of Syria with the help of US troops which intervened in the war to help defeat ISIS.