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Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan (Kurdish: Bakurê Kurdistanê) is the southeastern part of Turkey [1] where Kurds form the predominant ethnic group. The Kurdish Institute of Paris estimates that there are 20 million Kurds living in Turkey, the majority of them in the southeast.
Kurdish ethnic revival appeared in the 1970s when Turkey was racked with left-right clashes and the Marxist PKK was formed demanding a Kurdish state. [58] PKK declared its objective as the liberation of all parts of Kurdistan from colonial oppression and establishment of an independent, united, socialist Kurdish state.
The Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Turkey.According to various estimates, they compose between 15% and 20% of the population of Turkey. [4] [5] [6] 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 Turkish Kurdistan.
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, who took more than 80 Turkish persons captive in Mosul during their offensive, is an enemy of Turkey, making Kurdistan useful for Turkey as a buffer state. On 28 June 2014 Hüseyin Çelik , a spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), made comments to the Financial Times indicating ...
The first modern Kurdish nationalist movement emerged in 1880 with an uprising led by a Kurdish landowner and head of the powerful Shemdinan family, Sheik Ubeydullah, who demanded political autonomy or outright independence for Kurds as well as the recognition of a Kurdistan state without interference from Turkish or Persian authorities. [158]
In 1923, the Turkish National Movement was victorious and the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, replacing the Treaty of Sèvres and recognising the independence of the Republic of Turkey. Despite the promises made to Kurds, the Turkish state denied the existence of Kurds and began trying to erase their identity. [45]
The Republic of Turkey has an official policy in place that denies the existence of the Kurds as a distinct ethnicity. The Kurds, who are a people that speak various dialects of Northwestern Iranic languages, have historically constituted the demographic majority in southeastern Turkey (or "Turkish Kurdistan") and their independent national aspirations have stood at the forefront of the long ...
About half of all Kurds live in Turkey. According to the CIA Factbook they account for 18 percent of the Turkish population. [92] They are predominantly distributed in the southeastern corner of the country. [93] The best available estimate of the number of persons in Turkey speaking the Kurdish language is about five million (1980).