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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 Kurdish people have different religions depending on their ethnic connections and the country in which they live. The most common religion among Kurds is Sunni Islam, practiced by 98% of Kurds living in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurds of Turkey are 30% Alevi out of a population of approximately 15–22 million Kurds and 68% follow Sunni Islam. [12]
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.
Currently, it is illegal to use the Kurdish language as an instruction language in private and public schools, yet there are schools who defy this ban. [15] [16] [17] The Turkish Government has repeatedly blamed the ones who demanded more Kurdish cultural and educational freedom of terrorism or support for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). [18]
Kurdish culture is a legacy from the various ancient peoples who shaped modern Kurds and their society. As most other Middle Eastern populations, a high degree of mutual influences between the Kurds and their neighbouring peoples are apparent. Therefore, in Kurdish culture elements of various other cultures are to be seen.
Kurdification is a cultural change in which people, territory, or language gradually become Kurdish. [1] Historically, Kurdification has happened naturally, as in Turkish Kurdistan, or as a deliberate government policy (as in Iraqi Kurdistan after 2003 invasion of Iraq).
The first Kurdish cultural and political associations were established in Istanbul. [12] During the reign of Abdulhamid II (r. 1876–1909) the Kurds began producing literature on the condition of the Kurds in Istanbul. [13] In 1918, Kurdish intellectuals established the Association for the Rise of the Kurds in Istanbul. [14]
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.