From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kurds in Turkey
Kurds in Turkey
• Simko Shikak
• Kingdom of Kurdistan
• Republic of Ararat
• Republic of Mahabad
• KRG
• Iranian Kurdistan
• Turkish Kurdistan
• Kurds in Turkey
• Kurds in Syria
Culture
• Kurdish language
• Kurdish Literature
• Kurdish Music
• Kurdish Dance
• Historical sites
Ethnic Kurds compose a significant portion of the pop-
ulation in Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye’deki Kürtler, Kurdish:
Kurdên li Tirkiye). Unlike the Turks, the Kurds speak an
Indo-European language. There are Kurds living all over
Turkey, but most live to the east and southeast of the
country, from where they originate.
In the 1930s, Turkish government policy aimed to
forcibly assimilate and Turkify local Kurds. Today’s pres-
ence of Kurds is a testimony that many have resisted
these measures. Since 1984, Kurdish resistance move-
ments included both peaceful political activities for basic
Kurdish man on horseback, Lake Van, 1973 civil rights for Kurds within Turkey, and violent armed
rebellion for a separate Kurdish state.[1] But, according
This article is part of the to a Turkish opinion poll, 59% of self-identified Kurds in
Kurdish history and Culture series Turkey think that Kurds in Turkey do not seek a sepa-
Ancient history rate state (while 71.3% of self-identified Turks think they
do).[2]
• Corduene
• Kayusid
Medieval history
History
•
•
Shahrazur
Shaddadid
Under the Ottoman Empire
• Rawadid Further information: History of the Kurdish people
• Hasanwayhid According to Shaller and Zimmerer in the Journal of
• Annazid Genocide Research, the leadership of Young Turks
• Marwanid
planned to eliminate Kurdish identity by deporting Kurds
• Hadhabani
• Hazaraspid from their ancestral land and displacing them in small
• Ayyubid groups.[3] In this era, the Kurds suffered from deporta-
• Badlis tions and death marches and forced Turkification.[3] The
• Ardalan Young Turks partially implemented these plans in WWI
• Badinan
and 700,000 Kurds were forcibly removed where approx-
• Soran
• Mukriyan imately 350,000 of these displaces Kurds perished.[3] Th-
• Baban ese Kurds were forced by the Young Turks to go on death
march resembling the Armenian marches[3] which was
Modern history
part of a plan to eliminate Kurdish identity.[3]
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kurds in Turkey
Under the Republic of Turkey return of the inhabitants. An estimated 3,000 Kurdish vil-
lages in Turkey were virtually wiped from the map, rep-
Main articles: Dersim Massacre and Kurdish rebellions
resenting the displacement of more than 378,000 peo-
After the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, which
ple.[13]
ended the caliphates and sultanate in Turkey, there have
The epitome of this conflict was during the 1990s,
been several Kurdish rebellions since the 1920s: Koçkiri
when the National Security Council sanctioned a covert
Rebellion[citation needed], Sheikh Said Rebellion, Dersim Re-
war using the special forces, village guards, mafia, and
bellion[citation needed], Ararat rebellion.
contract killers[citation needed]. The conflict soon wheeled
In 1937–1938, approximately 50,000–70,000 Alevi
out of control, resulting in the Susurluk scandal. The con-
Kurds[6][7][8] were killed and thousands were taken into
flict tapered off after the capturing of the PKK’s leader,
exile. A key component of the turkification process was
Abdullah Öcalan.
the policy of massive population resettlement. Referring
In 2010, after PKK rebels killed five Turkish soldiers in
to the main policy document in this context, the 1934 law
a series of incidents in eastern and southeastern Turkey,
on resettlement, a policy targeting the region of Dersim
several locations in Northern Iraq were attacked by the
as one of its first test cases, with disastrous consequences
Turkish Air Force .[14] The tense condition has continued
for the local population.[9] The Dersim ethnocide[6] is of-
on the border since 2007, by both sides responding to
ten confused with the Dersim Rebellion that took place
each others every offensive move, mostly initiated by at-
during these events. Today, not much is left of Derim’s
tacks from the PKK to the Turkish military bases on the
distinctive culture and the majority of its people live in
border, reported by witnesses in the border villages. [15]
the diaspora.[6]
Following Turkey’s electoral board decision to bar
After the 1960 coup, the State Planning Organization
prominent Kurdish candidates from standing in upcom-
(Turkish: Devlet Planlama Teşkilatı, DPT) was established
ing elections,[16] violent Kurdish protests erupted in
under the Prime Ministry to solve the problem of Kurdish
April 19, 2011, resulting in at least one mortal casual-
separatism and underdevelopment. In 1961, the DPT pre-
ty.[17]
pared a report titled "The principles of the state’s de-
velopment plan for the east and southeast" (Turkish:
Devletin Doğu ve Güneydoğu‘da uygulayacağı kalkınma pro- Culture
gramının esasları), shortened to "Eastern Report". It pro-
Main article: Kurdish culture
posed to defuse separatism by encouraging ethnic mixing
through migration (to and from the Southeast). This was
not unlike the policies pursued by the Committee of
Union and Progress under the Ottoman Empire. The Min-
ister of Labor of the time, a 35-year-old Bülent Ecevit, was
critical of the report.[10]
During the 1970s, the separatist movement coalesced
into the Marxist-Leninist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
which is listed as a terrorist organization internationally
by a number of states and organizations, including the
United States, United Nations, NATO and the European
Union. From 1984 to 1999, the Turkish military was em-
broiled in a conflict with the PKK. The village guard sys-
tem was set up and armed by the Turkish state around Kurdish dancers from Turkish Kurdistan,
1984 to combat the PKK. The militia comprises local
Kurds and it has around 58,000 members. Some of the vil- Music
lage guards are fiercely loyal to the Turkish state, leading Between 1982 and 1991 the performance or recording of
to infighting among Kurdish militants.[11] songs in the Kurdish language was banned in Turkey, af-
Much of the countryside in the southeast was depop- fecting singers such as Şivan Perwer and İbrahim Tatlıs-
ulated, with Kurdish civilians moving to local defensible es. However a black market has long existed in Turkey,
centers such as Diyarbakır, Van, and Şırnak, as well as to and pirate radio stations and underground recordings
the cities of western Turkey and even to western Europe. have always been available. Although there is no ban
The causes of the depopulation included PKK atrocities on performing Kurdish language music, it is effectively
against Kurdish clans they could not control, the poverty prevented from being broadcast on radio or television
of the southeast, and the Turkish state’s military oper- through censorship.[18]
ations.[12] Human Rights Watch has documented many Some of the foremost figures in Kurdish classical mu-
instances where the Turkish military forcibly evacuated sic of the past century from Anatolia include Mihemed
villages, destroying houses and equipment to prevent the ’Arif Cizrawî (1912–1986), Hesen Cizrawî, Şeroyê Biro,
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kurds in Turkey
’Evdalê Zeynikê, Si’îd Axayê Cizîrî and the female singers there are as many as 20 million Kurds in Turkey.[25] These
Miryem Xanê and Eyşe Şan. figures are for the number of persons who identify as
Şivan Perwer is a composer, vocalist and tembûr Kurds, not the number who speak a Kurdish language.[26]
player. He concentrates mainly on political and national- Estimates based on native languages place the Kurdish
istic music - of which he is considered the founder in Kur- population at 6% to 23%; Ibrahim Sirkeci claims the clos-
dish music - as well as classical and folk music. est figure should be above 17.8%, taking into account
Another important Kurdish musician from Turkey is political context and so the potential bias in responses
Nizamettin Arıç (Feqiyê Teyra). He began with singing in recorded in surveys and censuses.[27] Also the population
Turkish, and made his directorial debut and also stars in growth rate of Kurds in 1970s was given as 3.27%.[28]
Klamek ji bo Beko (A Song for Beko), one of the first films Today, Kurdish populations remain highest in the
in Kurdish. Arıç rejected musical stardom at the cost of traditionally Kurdish-majority regions of southeastern
debasing his language and culture. As a result of singing Turkey, corresponding with Turkish Kurdistan, as well
in Kurdish, he was imprisoned, and then obliged to flee as the more developed and industrialised northwestern
to Syria and eventually to Germany.[19][20] provinces due to significant migration in the late 1980s.
There are also Kurds in the Central Anatolia Region, con-
Literature centrated to the west of Lake Tuz (Haymana, Cihanbeyli,
There is no existing evidence of Kurdish literature of Kulu, Yunak) and also scattered in districts like Alaca,
pre-Islamic period. Some sources consider Ali Hariri Çiçekdağı, Yerköy, Emirdağ, and Zile, as well as in signifi-
(1425–1495) as the first well-known poet who wrote in cant to high numbers of the northeast, most importantly
Kurdish. He was from the Hakkari region.[21] the large presence in Kars and surrounding provinces of
Since the 1970s, there has been a massive effort on the South Caucasus wherein many Kurdish villages scat-
the part of Kurds in Turkey to write and to create literary ter across the borders into Armenia and Georgia. Accord-
works in Kurdish. The amount of printed material during ing to a March 2007 survey, Kurds and Zazas together
the last three decades has increased enormously. Many comprise an estimated 13.4% of the adult population, and
of these activities were centered in Europe particularly 15.68% of the whole population.[22]
Sweden and Germany which have large concentrations of
Kurdish immigrants. There are several Kurdish publish- Racism and Intolerance
ers in Sweden, partly supported by the Swedish Govern-
ment. More than two hundred Kurdish titles have ap- The European Commission Against Racism and Intoler-
peared in the 1990s. ance (ECRI) reports that (as of April 2010): "The public
Well-known contemporary Kurdish writers from use by officials of the Kurdish language lays them open
Turkey include Mehmed Uzun, Mehmed Emin Bozarslan, to prosecution, and public defence by individuals of Kur-
Mahmud Baksi, Hesenê Metê and Rojen Barnas. dish or minority interests also frequently leads to prose-
cutions under the Criminal Code."[29]
Film
Yılmaz Güney was a famous film director, scenarist, nov- See also
elist and actor. He directed and starred in the film Umut • Minorities in Turkey
(1970) (Turkish for "Hope"), and his most famous movie • List of Kurdish people
is 1982 film Yol (Turkish for "The Road" or "The Way"), • Syrian Kurds
which won Palme d’Or in Cannes Film Festival in 1982.
Some other films by Kurdish people in Turkey are He-
jar (aka Big Man, Little Love) by Handan İpekçi and Klamek References
ji bo Beko by Nizamettin Arıç. [1] "Kurdistan-Turkey". GlobalSecurity.org. 2007-03-22.
Yılmaz Erdoğan is another famous film director, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/
screenwriter, poet and actor from Turkey of Kurdish eth- war/kurdistan-turkey.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-28.
nicity. [2] "In your opinion, do the Kurds want to have a
separate state?" (PDF). Public Perception of the
Demographics Kurdish Question (Poll report). Turkey: Foundation
for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA)
Further information: Demographics of the Kurdish peo- and Pollmark. 2009. p. 63. ISBN 978-605-4023-06-6.
ple http://www.setav.org/Ups/dosya/8504.pdf.
Most Kurds live in Turkey, where their numbers are es- [3] ^ Schaller, Dominik J. and Zimmerer, Jürgen ’Late
timated somewhere between 11,400,000[22] and Ottoman genocides: the dissolution of the Ottoman
14,000,000[23] people.[24] Both figures include Zaza peo- Empire and Young Turkish population and
ple as Kurds.[22] However Kurdish nationalists claim extermination policies—introduction’, Journal of
3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kurds in Turkey
Genocide Research, 10:1, 7 – 14. Online access: [1] [9] Genocide - George J Andreopoulos page 11
(Accessed March 2011). Excerpt 1:"It is, however, [10] Dündar, Can; Akar, Rıdvan (2008-01-22). "Kürtlerle
important to acknowledge that the Young Turkish Karadenizliler yer değiştirsinler!" (in Turkish).
leaders aimed at eliminating Kurdish identity by Milliyet. http://www.milliyet.com.tr/2008/01/22/
deporting them from their ancestral land and by guncel/agun.html. Retrieved 2009-01-04.
dispersing them in small groups. The Young Turks [11] Beattie, Meriel (2006-08-04). "Local guards divide
partially implemented these plans during World Turkish Kurds". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/
War I: up to 700,000 Kurds were forcibly removed; 2/hi/europe/5246068.stm. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
half of the displaced perished." Excerpt 2:"Even [12] Radu, Michael (2001). "The Rise and Fall of the
more importantly, as shown above, Kurds fell PKK". Orbis (Philadelphia: Foreign Policy Research
victim to a similar treatment at the hands of the Institute) 45 (1): 47–63. doi:10.1016/
Young Turks as the Armenians and other Christian S0030-4387(00)00057-0. OCLC 93642482.
groups.". Excerpt 3: "As we can see from Knzler’s [13] "Still critical". Human Rights Watch. March 2005. p.
statement, Kurds had to endure a very similar fate 3. http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/turkey0305/
to that of the Armenians. Forcing them on death 3.htm#_Toc97005223. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
marches during the winter closely resembles the [14] Kurdish rebels call an end to the cease fire early in
Armenian’s marches, with a very similar outcome. June 2010. The air attack was reported 4 days later
The overall aim of the Young Turkish policy in a news article released immediately after the
towards the Kurds was—according to attack
Knzler—genocidal: “It was the Young Turks’ [15] A video clip from late 2007 showing Kurdish
intention not to let these Kurdish elements go back villagers in the Iraqi border, caught in the fire line
to their ancestral homeland. Instead, they should between the Kurdish rebels and the Turkish Army
little by little be completely absorbed in Turkdom across the border.
[… im Trkentume aufgehen]." [16] http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/
[4] Martin van Bruinessen, "Zaza, Alevi and Dersimi as mob_n.php?n=ysk-puts-ankara-in-turmoil-exit-
Deliberately Embraced Ethnic Identities" in ’"Aslını strategy-sought-2011-04-19
İnkar Eden Haramzadedir!" The Debate on the [17] "One killed in Kurdish protests in Turkey:
Ethnic Identity of The Kurdish Alevis’ in Krisztina politician". FRANCE 24. http://www.france24.com/
Kehl-Bodrogi, Barbara Kellner-Heinkele, Anke en/20110420-one-killed-kurdish-protests-turkey-
Otter-Beaujean, Syncretistic Religious Communities in politician. Retrieved 2011-04-22.
the Near East: Collected Papers of the International [18] Yurdatapan, Şanar. 2004. "Turkey: Censorship past
Symposium "Alevism in Turkey and Comparable and present." In Shoot the singer! Music censorship
Sycretistic Religious Communities in the Near East in the today, edited by Marie Korpe. London: Zed Books.
Past and Present" Berlin, 14-17 April 1995, BRILL, 1997, ISBN 978-1-84277-505-9.
ISBN 9789004108615, p. 13. [19] "Chingiz Sadykhov". Creative Work Fund.
[5] Martin van Bruinessen, "Zaza, Alevi and Dersimi as 2005-10-02. http://www.creativeworkfund.org/
Deliberately Embraced Ethnic Identities" in ’"Aslını modern/bios/chingiz_sadikhov.html. Retrieved
İnkar Eden Haramzadedir!" The Debate on the 2008-08-23.
Ethnic Identity of The Kurdish Alevis’, p. 14. [20] 1997 human rights watch international film festival
[6] ^ Bruinessen, Martin van (1994). "Genocide in [21] Institut Kurde de Paris
Kurdistan? The Suppression of the Dersim [22] ^ "Türkiye nüfusunun ne kadarı Kürt" (in Turkish).
Rebellion in Turkey (1937-38) and the Chemical Kurdistan Post. 2007-03-22. http://www.kurdistan-
War Against the Iraqi Kurds (1988)". In post.com/News-file-article-sid-16062.html.
Andreopoulos, George J. Genocide: Conceptual and Retrieved 2007-11-03.
Historical Dimensions. Philadelphia: University of The Konda Poll gives a figure of about 11.4 million
Pennsylvania Press. pp. 141–170. (in Turkish)
http://www.let.uu.nl/~martin.vanbruinessen/ Describes methodology and results of Konda poll
personal/publications/ (Turkish)
Bruinessen_Genocide_in_Kurdistan.pdf. [23] The CIA Factbook gives a figure of about 14 million
[7] David McDowall, A modern history of the Kurds, [24] A report commissioned by the National Security
I.B.Tauris, Mayıs 2004, s.209 Council (Turkey) in 2000 puts the number at
[8] "Alevi-CHP rift continues to grow after Öymen 12,600,000 people:
remarks". Today’s Zaman. 24 November 2009. [1] "Türkiye’deki Kürtlerin sayısı!" (in Turkish).
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/ Milliyet. 2008-06-06.
news-193807-alevi-chp-rift-continues-to-grow- http://www.milliyet.com.tr/
after-oymen-remarks.html.
4
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kurds in Turkey
Default.aspx?aType=SonDakika&ArticleID=873452. pp. 117–118. ISBN 978-0-7734-5739-3.
Retrieved 2008-06-29. http://www.mellenpress.com/
[2] Atar, Tolga (2008-06-06). "MGK’nın sır raporu mellenpress.cfm?bookid=6794&pc=9. Retrieved
ortaya çıktı!" (in Turkish). Bugun (Koza İpek 2006-08-11.
Gazetecilik ve Yayıncılık A.Ş.). [28] G. Chaliand, A.R. Ghassemlou, M. Pallis, A People
http://www.bugun.com.tr/ Without A Country, 256 pp., Zed Books, 1992, ISBN
haber_detay.asp?haberID=27772. Retrieved 978-1-85649-194-5, p.39
2008-10-24. [29] "ECRI report on Turkey (4th cycle)". ECRI report on
[3] Atar, Tolga (2008-06-07). "Sır rapor şoku" (in Turkey (4th cycle). http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/
Turkish). Bugun (Koza İpek Gazetecilik ve monitoring/ecri/Country-by-country/Turkey/
Yayıncılık A.Ş.). http://www.bugun.com.tr/ TUR-CBC-IV-2011-005-ENG.pdf.
haber_detay.asp?haberID=27895. Retrieved
2008-10-24.
[25] Kurdish PKK chief Murat Karayilan says will spread
External links
to Turkish cities if we were attacked by Turkey • Human Rights Abuses Against the Kurdish Minority a
[26] Ethnologue census of languages in Asian portion of report by Amnesty International
Turkey • Turkey’s "Kurdish Problem": Is the End in Sight?
[27] Sirkeci, Ibrahim (2006). The Environment of Insecurity • US Journalist Deported from Turkey After Reporting
in Turkey and the Emigration of Turkish Kurds to on Plight of Kurds - video report by Democracy Now!
Germany. New York: Edwin Mellen Press.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kurds_in_Turkey&oldid=461879383"
Categories:
• History of the Kurdish people
• Ethnic groups in Turkey
• Kurdish diaspora
• Ethnic minorities
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