Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Texas Fossil

Per Wiki:

Kurds in Turkey are the largest ethnic minority in the country. According to various estimates, they compose between 15% and 20% of the population of Turkey.[4][5][6] Unlike the Turkish people, the Kurds speak an Indo-European language. There are Kurds living in various provinces of Turkey, but they are primarily concentrated in the east and southeast of the country, within the region viewed by Kurds as Northern Kurdistan.

Massacres, such as the Dersim rebellion and the Zilan massacre, have periodically occurred against the Kurds since the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. The Turkish government categorized Kurds as “Mountain Turks” until 1991,[7][8][9] and the words “Kurds”, “Kurdistan”, or “Kurdish” were officially banned by the Turkish government.[10] Following the military coup of 1980, the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life.[11] Many people who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were arrested and imprisoned.[12] In Turkey, it is illegal to use Kurdish as a language of instruction in both public and private schools. The Kurdish language is only allowed as a subject in some schools.[13]

Since the 1980s, Kurdish movements have included both peaceful political activities for basic civil rights for Kurds in Turkey as well as armed rebellion and guerrilla warfare, including military attacks aimed mainly at Turkish military bases, demanding first a separate Kurdish state and later self-determination for the Kurds.[14] According to a Turkish opinion poll, 59% of self-identified Kurds in Turkey think that Kurds in Turkey do not seek a separate state (while 71.3% of self-identified Turks think they do).[15]

During the Kurdish-Turkish conflict, food embargoes were placed on Kurdish villages and towns.[16][17] There were many instances of Kurds being forcibly expelled from their villages by Turkish security forces.[18] Many villages were reportedly set on fire or destroyed.[18][19] Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, political parties that represented Kurdish interests were banned.[10] In 2013, a ceasefire effectively ended the violence until June 2015, when hostilities renewed between the PKK and the Turkish government over Turkey’s involvement in the Syrian Civil War. Violence was widely reported against ordinary Kurdish citizens and the headquarters and branches of the pro-Kurdish rights Peoples’ Democratic Party were attacked by mobs.


12 posted on 09/27/2017 6:49:04 AM PDT by tired&retired (Blessings)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies ]


To: tired&retired

And, Per Wiki:

The number of Kurds living in Southwest Asia is estimated at close to 30 million, with another one or two million living in diaspora.

Kurds comprise anywhere from 18% to 20% of the population in Turkey,[1] possibly as high as 25%;[39] 15 to 20% in Iraq;[1] 10% in Iran;[1] and 9% in Syria.[1][40] Kurds form regional majorities in all four of these countries, viz. in Turkish Kurdistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Iranian Kurdistan and Syrian Kurdistan. The Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in West Asia after the Arabs, Persians, and Turks.

The total number of Kurds in 1991 was placed at 22.5 million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 18% in Iraq, 24% in Iran, and 4% in Syria.[41]

Recent emigration accounts for a population of close to 1.5 million in Western countries, about half of them in Germany.


13 posted on 09/27/2017 6:51:54 AM PDT by tired&retired (Blessings)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies ]

To: tired&retired

Persecution of Kurds within the region is much older than modern Turkey.

The Ottoman Empire also pacticed massacres and genocides on many minorities. Armenians, Kurds, Alevi, Greek, Ezidi’s and others.

Turkey from beginning of modern Turkey claimed falsely to be a secular state. But reality is they persecute all except “Turks” and those who support them.

There has never been freedom of Speech and Press in the history of the region, going back to the beginning of the Ottoman empire.

There are no journalists left in Turkey, only Propagandists. All the journalists have been arrested, killed, or are in foreign countries.


14 posted on 09/27/2017 7:30:54 AM PDT by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson