The Largest Ethnic Minority in Turkey
The Largest Ethnic Minority in Turkey
The height of the Ottoman Empire spanned between three continents controlling much of Southeastern Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The fall of the Ottoman Empire can be attributed to the failure of its economic structure, with the size of the empire creating difficulties integrating its diverse regions economically. The Treaty of Sèvres was the peace treaty between the Ottoman Empire and Allies at the end of World War I which divided the empire in to different spheres of influences. Modern day Turkey, the central area of the former Ottoman Empire, is an ethnic mosaic, made of Alevis, Jews, Armenians, Christian Arabs, Greek and Bulgarian immigrants, Cossacks, Circassians, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Sunni Turkmens, Cretans, Azeris, Georgians, Alevi Kurds and Sunni Kurds, Kyrgizs, Albanians and Bosnians, Roms, Yazidis, Germans settled in the East (“the kartofeln”, the potatoes) and Poles settled near Istanbul in the village called Polonezköy (“the Polish village”) (1). The largest minority in Turkey have been the Kurds. My interest in this ethnic group is because one of my close friends is a Kurd from Iraq and of course who can forget our favorite waiter in Istanbul, Turkey Hamdin Genc. I know that the Kurds are known for their constant struggle to attain an independent nation of their own but my focus will be on their history and role in Turkey as the country applies to join the European Union.
We may not have recognized or been able to distinguish exactly who are the Kurds during our interim trip but they are a considerable amount of this ethnic group in Turkey. Luckily, our group did not go to Taksim square a couple days before our trip to Asia Minor because as the news reported there was a violent demonstration of Kurds. The Kurds or Kurdish people are an Iranic people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a mountainous region known as Kurdistan ("Land of the Kurds") which includes neighboring parts of Iran, Iraq,
The height of the Ottoman Empire spanned between three continents controlling much of Southeastern Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The fall of the Ottoman Empire can be attributed to the failure of its economic structure, with the size of the empire creating difficulties integrating its diverse regions economically. The Treaty of Sèvres was the peace treaty between the Ottoman Empire and Allies at the end of World War I which divided the empire in to different spheres of influences. Modern day Turkey, the central area of the former Ottoman Empire, is an ethnic mosaic, made of Alevis, Jews, Armenians, Christian Arabs, Greek and Bulgarian immigrants, Cossacks, Circassians, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Sunni Turkmens, Cretans, Azeris, Georgians, Alevi Kurds and Sunni Kurds, Kyrgizs, Albanians and Bosnians, Roms, Yazidis, Germans settled in the East (“the kartofeln”, the potatoes) and Poles settled near Istanbul in the village called Polonezköy (“the Polish village”) (1). The largest minority in Turkey have been the Kurds. My interest in this ethnic group is because one of my close friends is a Kurd from Iraq and of course who can forget our favorite waiter in Istanbul, Turkey Hamdin Genc. I know that the Kurds are known for their constant struggle to attain an independent nation of their own but my focus will be on their history and role in Turkey as the country applies to join the European Union.
We may not have recognized or been able to distinguish exactly who are the Kurds during our interim trip but they are a considerable amount of this ethnic group in Turkey. Luckily, our group did not go to Taksim square a couple days before our trip to Asia Minor because as the news reported there was a violent demonstration of Kurds. The Kurds or Kurdish people are an Iranic people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a mountainous region known as Kurdistan ("Land of the Kurds") which includes neighboring parts of Iran, Iraq,