The world’s eyes are again on the Kurds, the second-largest ethnic community in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria, as well as the third-largest in Iran, and numbering about 24 million in total. From 1920 to 1923, an independent Kurdistan existed, but its people have since been divided among Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Turkey, and have been left struggling for self-determination.
Turkey’s creation was partly based on denial of the Kurd identity. According to Turkish journalist Uzay Bulut, “After (Turkey) was founded in 1923 … the Kurdish language ... everything related to (their) existence was denied ... Kurdistan within Turkey’s borders became a sub-colony without borders or a name. Kurds have been exposed to ... massacres and extrajudicial murders for more than 90 years … many Kurds have been assimilated, but others (most notably those in the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)) have resisted and demanded their national rights.”
