Turkey's Kurdish minority in a quandary - 14 Oct 07

The Turkish parliament is expected this week to approve a request from the prime minister to send soldiers into northern Iraq, to fight Kurdish PKK guerrillas. Many Turkish people would support such an action, but Turkey's Kurdish minority finds itself caught in the middle. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds fled from the south-east during fighting in the 1990s. Barnaby Phillips has been to a Kurdish neighbourhood in Istanbul, to see what people now feel about the rising tensions. Turkey's economy is humming these days- in Istanbul's textile factories, its often young Kurdish men doing the work.Nezir runs this place - he comes from Sirnak, on the Iraqi border - he's given jobs to all his cousins and friends -- a tight community, in what can be an unwelcoming city.

"I wish that my home in Sirnak was known for its beauty and history- and not for terrorist attacks. People hear every day about soldiers being killed there - so when I tell people in Istanbul that I am from Sirnak, they can be suspicious." Nezir is well-known on these streets. He has a tragic story - his father and grandfather were killed by PKK fighters after the Turkish army made them work as guards - this community's history is steeped in violence. Nezir took us to meet another Kurdish family.the army destroyed their village years ago, forcing them to come here - they watch a Kurdish station, broadcast from Europe - here showing PKK fighters- but they dread more violence - just talking about it made this man too afraid to show his face.

"I don't think a military operation will solve the problem. Instead they should try to win back the people there. But if they just put our people in jail with no evidence, then we lose our trust in the state. With dialogue, we can solve the problem in one year that we haven't yet solved in 25 years." In this mainly Kurdish neighbourhood people find themselves in a very difficult situation ... they feel their language and culture are discriminated against, but they want to live in peace with other Turkish people. And they fear that if there is a return to full-scale war, they will be amongst the losers. For Istanbul's Kurds, the holiday weekend at least brought the chance to relax. But everyone here knows there may be difficult days ahead- days of doubt and worry.

Barnaby Phillips, Al Jazeera Istanbul

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News & Politics

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[sincapph]

fuck pkk

[pungent21]

Having easy and quick residence permit or citizenship from EU countries is another reason of Kurdish people's allegations.I swear of my life one of my Kurdish friend confess that. Altough too many lies they say about Turks and Turkey, like how bad they are treated, as soon as they get their EU passports their first visiting place is TURKEY.So I'm asking you.Is NOT this called hypocrisy or traitorism ???

[pungent21]

Also the reason Turkish people have prejudice about Kurds is, unfortunately some of them are unreliable and hypocrite and you are not able to see their real face.They could act like normal citizens but can be turn into dangerous terrorists.As a result of this character Turks always have to be careful association with Kurds.Having said that there are also so many good Kurds and believe me we do NOT have any problem with them at all.Please do not confuse normal Kurdish citizens with Pkk animals.

[pungent21]

There is no discrimination against normal Kurds in Turkey, they live their daily life just any Turk does and they can be seen every part of life or sectors.We had even Kurdish president, PM, lots of MPs, so many rich buss. men and artists etc.The problem is terrorist Pkk, their supporters and secret sympathisers.They do all kind of false propagating and partisan news to show themselves poor but all their interest is dividing Turkish land seperate so their Zionist-Imperialist master could rule.

[PkkFreedomFighter2]

fuck turkey mongol terorist

free kurdistan

[noWatimsayin1]

@JanissaryMTF hahaha omg you just claimed Salahadin as a Turk, even Arabs know he was a Kurd. Please stfu, what you say makes no sense at all. I'm done replying to you, you keep getting dumber and dumber. You cliam there are no Kurds, but you keep using it to describe people that live in Kurdistan. Atleast we have gotten this far with you retarded Turks like you. Peace. Salahadin the Turk hahaha

[JanissaryMTF]

@noWatimsayin1 You looked up a shit you brainless subhuman shit.

So you dont know anything about yourselves.There is no historian in the wolrd who can tell the world who kurds are.Because kurds are not a nation.So they dont have an own language,culture,identity and bckgorund.But still kurds can not deny their ties to gypsies.Because there are gypsy kurdish tribes.

[JanissaryMTF]

@noWatimsayin1 Apart from Salahaddin the turk we have countless other turk warriors who changed the line of history and ruled not little lands but continents.

Turks ruled africa,balkan(half europe),sibiria,central asia,india,middle east,anatolia...

What have kurds done? Nothing at all.It is another question if kurds even exist.

There is no script, no evidence that describes kurds as an own special nation.It is only a mix of unfatihfull,betraying,unsucces­sfull,honorless,thieving scumbags.

[JanissaryMTF]

@noWatimsayin1 Turks are living from europe to china.What the fuck has saladdin got to do with turks in china,sibiria,central asia,anatolia? Saladdin was a commander who gathered turkish soldiers with along with arab tribes and defeated the crusaders.You poor fucking uptight kurdofucks today try to claim that saladdin was the saviour of islam.You try to make him to a god.But he was turk and a good comander who controled an army consisting mostly of turks.

[JanissaryMTF]

@noWatimsayin1 The reason why you worship salahaddin is because you claim that he was kurd.But he was not.He didnt even speak "kurdish".Moreover there are arabic contemporary historians like el bideye venniheye who noticed that salahaddin was a turk prince, grown up in turkish culture.Moreover salahaddin did not resque islam but he was only the leader of the army in palestine.Even this army was 60% concisting of turks.And Saladdin adopted the turkish seljuk eagle for his empires flag.How come?