National and ethnic minorities

Turks are reluctant to recognize any national minorities within their state borders. Even before World War II, a special settlement program was carried out, which Stalin vividly repeated in relation to many peoples inhabiting the Soviet Union. And so Armenians settled in northern Turkey and Istanbul, to distract them from Armenia, in turn, the Kurds began to be resettled in the western part of Asia Minor, Arabs and Georgians could not settle in border areas, and instead they were suggested Central Anatolia. The number of Kurów, however, turned out to be too large, so that the resettlement action could be carried out and they were finally left alone.

Another interesting regulation was the act, that in no place, outside of Istanbul, a national minority cannot exceed anything 10% the entire population. This law, however, was not very strictly adhered to from the beginning, and nowadays it just seems funny.

Kurds

The genesis of the problem of Kurds in contemporary Turkey is similar in its essential outline to the history of the Armenians. Besides, the two nations did not live in harmony with each other in Eastern Anatolia, and this hostility had been fueled since the end of the 19th century. both by the Turks, and the Russians. Pacification of the Armenians by the Kurds, on behalf of the authorities in Istanbul, which took place during the First World War, the gulf between the two nations deepened. Kurdish national uprisings provoked by Kemalist reforms (mostly religious, restricting the power of Kurdish spiritual leaders) started in the years 20. i 30. last century. These uprisings were the result of newly educated Kurdish nationalism, a term not previously known in character to nomadic tribes. Their direct result was the mass deportation of the Kurdish population from their home areas.

Is estimated, that there are approx. 10 million Kurds, and Turkey throughout the 20th century. she did not want to recognize them as a national minority, arguing, that they belong to the Turkish language group, so they would be more or less such a peculiarity, like for example. our highlanders (Besides, the Kurds in Turkey live in mountain areas and are called by the government the mountain Turks). In fact, Kurdish is very different from Turkish (belongs to the group of Indo-European languages) and has its own literature, whose origins date back to the 11th century. After World War II, the Kurds even managed to create their own republic in Azerbaijan, but it was quickly dismantled by the Iranian army. Iran, Irak, Syria and Turkey, that is, the country with the highest percentage of the Kurdish minority, they collaborated many times to destroy Kurdish national consciousness and suppress numerous uprisings.

Throughout the twentieth century. The Kurds sought separation, and their failures in this field and the brutal behavior of the Turkish authorities, expressed in repression and stubborn denying the existence of Kurds, led them to adopt extreme positions. W 1978 r. the Kurdistan Workers' Party was established (PKK) proclaiming the need for armed struggle and terrorism. Marxism had a great influence on its program, which allowed the Turks to talk about Moscow agents. Units trained in Lebanon and Syria have killed hundreds of people in Turkey, attacking mainly Turkish officials and Kurds favoring the government in Ankara. It was the turn of the Turks, who massively pacified Kurdish villages, accusing them of helping leftist guerrillas, sometimes completely unfounded. Torture was used to extract confessions, and the growing hatred for such activities outweighed the scales of sympathy for the PKK. Kurdish guerrillas started training terrorists to carry out attacks in large urban centers, which started around the middle of the years 80. and continued uninterruptedly until the end of the years 90. Meanwhile, in 1988 r. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against Kurds, and Turkey accepted tens of thousands of refugees. So it promised to improve relations.

More refugees found themselves in Turkey as a result of the Gulf War. President Ózal even advocated the creation of a Kurdish autonomous region from parts of Turkey and Iraq, which led to a decline in the popularity of the PKK. The Kurdish People's Labor Party had already been established in parliament (HEP) and a magazine in Kurdish began to be published. Unfortunately, Ózal withdrew from his declarations, and his successor Demirel did not have the courage, to solve this problem once and for all. Pacification operations and terrorist acts began anew, but the situation calmed down, when Turkish politicians realized, that the country could join the European Union, brutal proceedings against national minorities must be abandoned. After a year 1998 both the repression of Kurds has been significantly calmed down, and the terrorist activity of the PKK. However, military patrols from eastern Anatolia were not withdrawn, what you can find out, walking along the streets of local cities, and even by train. The Kurds still have representatives in parliament, this time in the form of the People's Democratic Party (HADEP). W 1999 r. Allah Ócalan, the leader of the PKK, who was hiding in Nairobi, was captured by the secret services. Brought to Turkey, was sentenced to death, which, however, has not yet been executed as a result of international protests. The European Court of Human Rights has been examining the case of Ocalan for several years, who showed remorse, which resulted in the PKK's resignation from armed struggle.