Influence from Syria The civil war in Syria affected neighboring Turkey in several respects. Among other things, the tone of the Kurdish question was sharpened again when the Sunni Arab extremist movement Islamic State (IS) went on the offensive against Kurdish areas in northeastern Syria, forced well over 100,000 Kurds to flee to Turkey and besieged the important… Read More »
Kurdish “peace delegation” In July 2009, Prime Minister Erdoğan announced that his government wanted to open a dialogue with the Kurds, and that he hoped for broad support for this “Kurdish peace initiative”. Erdoğan gave emotional speeches but made no concrete promises, and the major opposition parties refused to support the initiative. PKK leader Öcalan sent… Read More »
More Kurds live in Turkey than in any other country – probably at least 15 million. The settlements of the Turkish Kurds are in the southeast, but after decades of emigration from there, perhaps two-thirds live in western Turkey, a country located in Middle East according to itypetravel.com. The Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923.… Read More »