Utilising the chaos in Syria in the wake of Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, Turkey has mobilised its military along with militias it sponsors along the border with Kurdish-held Syrian territories in what appears to be a preparation for an imminent invasion, according to a report
This is outright misinformation. Kurds are specifically mentioned in history classes as in “ethnic groups that lives in various regional areas of Turkey”, I recall this from my college times, roughly 2016.
There is nowhere close to a genocide against Kurds considering the amount of Kurds that live there; however Turkey has every right to stop a extremist rebellion idea that would make it lose territory and distrupt the unity between its citizens.
“Since the conflict began, more than 40,000 people have died, most of whom were Kurdish civilians.[”
“Turkey has depopulated and burned down thousands of Kurdish villages and massacred Kurdish civilians in an attempt to root out PKK militants.”
“The initial reason given by the PKK for this was the oppression of Kurds in Turkey.[81][82] At the time, the use of Kurdish language, dress, folklore, and names were banned in Kurdish-inhabited areas.[83] In an attempt to deny their existence, the Turkish government categorized Kurds as “Mountain Turks” during the 1930s and 1940s.[83][84][85] The words “Kurds”, “Kurdistan”, or “Kurdish” were officially banned by the Turkish government.[86] Following the military coup of 1980, the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life until 1991.[87] Many who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were arrested and imprisoned”
So you deny the existence of those newer school books? Do you deny that the Kurdish language was outlawed for a very long time which constitutes genocide on its own, do you deny the various forced relocations and massacres the Turkish army committed against Kurds before the PKK was even founded? Decades before?
You might have heard the term “Kurd”, yes, but chances are you also learned stuff like “Kurdish is a Turkish dialect” (Kurdish is not even part of the same language family), “Mountain Turk”, “Atatürk did nothing wrong”, etc.
Kurdish language is still outlawed in official mediums, similar to all languages except Turkish and English. While this does not ban individuals speaking it (as in, an syrian can speak arabian within their circle; or a kurd can speak kurdish), this does ban its usage on billboards, signs and any government related documentation. That’s pretty much how this goes in rest of the countries.
Kurdish wasn’t mentioned under language families, but the language family behind Turkish (Ural-Altaic) is diven more deeply into compared to other families (which are given less examples of), and dialects of Turkish are explicitly stated, so it’s a logical conclusion they’re not a part of it.
Ataturk did nothing wrong. Turkey’s foundation times had seen quite a lot of revolt attempts and conflicts were unavoidable to stop them.
“Since the conflict began, more than 40,000 people have died, most of whom were Kurdish civilians.[”
“Turkey has depopulated and burned down thousands of Kurdish villages and massacred Kurdish civilians in an attempt to root out PKK militants.”
“The initial reason given by the PKK for this was the oppression of Kurds in Turkey.[81][82] At the time, the use of Kurdish language, dress, folklore, and names were banned in Kurdish-inhabited areas.[83] In an attempt to deny their existence, the Turkish government categorized Kurds as “Mountain Turks” during the 1930s and 1940s.[83][84][85] The words “Kurds”, “Kurdistan”, or “Kurdish” were officially banned by the Turkish government.[86] Following the military coup of 1980, the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life until 1991.[87] Many who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were arrested and imprisoned”
Sure conflict becomes unavoidable if you’re brutally repressing your minorities. The minorities don’t tend to like that. The whole idea to found Turkey as a nation state while simultaneously claiming non-Turkish inhabited territories was bound to lead to conflict, and yes that’s all Atatürk. Small minorities can be incorporated in such a project, kinda like mascots, larger ones? Forget it. They must go, or the project must go. Turkey opted for the former.
How about his (adopted) daughter, personally bombing civilians? Tens of thousands massacred, and you stand here and say “nothing wrong”? Nothing, whatsoever? Not even a tiny bit?
Not even a tiny bit. Ataturk’s ideals are based on national unity regardless of what ancestry you’re from, which I sympathise with. Instability on a country’s leadership creates conflict; as we saw on Syria.
Population count in Dersim makes the claim “tens of thosands massacred” impossible, as 1935 population count was 101,099 and 1940 population count 94,636. If we add in the people fleeing the region; the estimated death count there is supposed to be near 2500 within the whole ordeal.
Considering Turkish aviation technology around that era, it’s tough to imagine Turkey having the means to kill tens of thousands of people with a single aircraft operation. For comparison, Bombing of Dresden in 1945 was made with 2000 military aircraft at the top of their technology has killed 25.000 people. How realistic is it for one pilot to kill tens of thousands of people?
“Since the conflict began, more than 40,000 people have died, most of whom were Kurdish civilians.[”
“Turkey has depopulated and burned down thousands of Kurdish villages and massacred Kurdish civilians in an attempt to root out PKK militants.”
“The initial reason given by the PKK for this was the oppression of Kurds in Turkey.[81][82] At the time, the use of Kurdish language, dress, folklore, and names were banned in Kurdish-inhabited areas.[83] In an attempt to deny their existence, the Turkish government categorized Kurds as “Mountain Turks” during the 1930s and 1940s.[83][84][85] The words “Kurds”, “Kurdistan”, or “Kurdish” were officially banned by the Turkish government.[86] Following the military coup of 1980, the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life until 1991.[87] Many who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were arrested and imprisoned”
Turkish documents, and Erdogan himself, admit 13806 dead and 11683 displaced. And no it wasn’t all a single aircraft operation, it’s just that his daughter was a pilot and personally dropped bombs. Not that she, personally, killed all the Kurds that died.