The Kurds

With 25 million members, the Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without their own state. The Kurds have lived for thousands of years in a geographic area that is now part of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and the former Soviet Union, sharing a similar language, religion and culture with these ethnic and national groups (Omestad, Kaplan, & Lovgren, 1999). Today, the 15 million or more Kurds living in Turkey constitute about 25 percent of that country's population; more significantly, however, the Kurds in Turkey, Iran and Iraq, have constituted a source of internal tension and have been a target for genocidal hostilities. For Turkey, the presence of a substantial population of Kurds with nationalist and separatist aspirations has fostered domestic dissent and international criticism.

After World War I, Kurds in Turkey and elsewhere in the region hoped to create a homeland from the disintegrated Ottoman Empire; however, the birth of the Turkish Republic in 1923 and the rule of Mustafa Kemal ("Ataturk") imposed a single identity on the multicultural population of Turkmans, Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds and others (Omestad, et al, 1999a). These groups were forcibly assimilated and everyone became a Turk, though for 25 years there were dozens of Kurdish uprisings. All were crushed, but antagonisms between Kurds and Turks continued; a Marxist-led group, the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, began an armed struggle against the government in 1984 that has continued to the pr

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as been targeted for oppressive, discriminatory, and even violent treatment by a majority government. Esim (1999) describes the Turkish government's efforts to end the Kurdish uprising and rebellion as having involved the evacuation of over 4,000 Kurdish villages since 1992 and the resulting impoverishment of literally thousands of Kurds. Estimates of the number of people displaced range from 2.5 to 5.0 million. To date, says Esim (1999), Turkey's government has been supported by her NATO allies and the United States (a major supporter of the Turkish state and government, which has also armed Turkey for several decades). However, as the violence continues and the Kurds begin to make a case for their situation in the world press, NATO and, to a lesser degree, the United States, are both being forced to rethink their positions. This is particularly important in light of Turkey's bid to become a full member of the European Union (EU), which Turkey sees as vital to its long-range economic growth and development. Malik (1998) reported that many Europeans, influenced perhaps by events in the Balkans, have become increasingly concerned about the Turkish Kurdish question. Austria, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Russia have each h

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