Thursday, May 1, 2014

History of the Kurds in Turkey

Kurd map/washingtonpost.com staff


     The Kurds are very interesting people. From reseaching, they have been around as long as 3,000 years ago, maybe even longer. There are about 13 million Kurds who live in Turkey. Those 13 million Kurds in Turkey, represent about 55% of the Kurdish population. These people don`t just live in Turkey though, although that is where we will be focusing our attention. The Kurds live in places in Southwest Asia such as Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, and Lebanon. The mountainious region where they live is called Kurdistan, which is comprised of all the places I just recited. Altogether, there are around 25 million Kurdish people in the world. Until recently, they have always been Tribal people, always living in the mountains near the rivers.
     The Kurds are normally considered "outcasts" or "isolated" if you will. They follow the teachings of Islam for the most part. They are Suni- Muslim and they speak their own language. Most of them also come from an indo-European decent.They had a lot of problems with the government. Their language was illegal until 1991. They weren`t even allowed to wear their type of clothing in the cities, it was completely banned. Even today, Turkey refuses to see the Kurdish people as a minority group.