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Essay on Kurdistan

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Kurdistan is a region that has existed in turmoil and is the “never was” country. The Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group of the Middle East, numbering between 20 and 25 million. Approximately 15 million live in the regions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, an area they called Kurdistan, yet they do not have a country of their own. Formal attempts to establish such a state were crushed by the larger and more powerful countries in the region after both world wars. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed after World War I, the Kurds were promised their own independent nation under the Treaty of Sevres. In 1923 however, the treaty was broken allowing Turkey to maintain its status and not allowing the Kurdish people to have a nation to call …show more content…

Apo claims his main goal is the creation of a country for the world's 20 to 25 million Kurds, more than half of whom live in Turkey, the rest in Iraq, Iran and other neighboring countries. Roughly, a million are in Europe, in exile or as migrants, the bulk of whom are in Germany. He stated also that he wanted to put an end to Turkish colonialism and all forms of imperialist domination over Kurdistan.
Turkey has been a key player against the PKK. Geography, politics and history have conspired to render 30 million Kurds the largest stateless people in the Middle East. The Government of Turkey has long denied the Kurdish population, located largely in the southeast, basic political, cultural, and linguistic rights. The government of Turkey has in turn waged an intense campaign to suppress PKK terrorism, targeting active PKK units as well as persons they believe support or sympathize with the PKK. As part of its fight against the PKK, the Government forcibly displaced noncombatants, failed to resolve extra judicial killings, tortured civilians, and abridged freedom of expression. The Turkish government has also managed to burn over 4,000 villages forcing Kurds to flee from their homeland. Finally, the Turkish government estimates that the conflict with the PKK has exacted a high financial drain on the

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