The Kurds of Turkey

My impression is that the Kurds are disliked and disrespected in Turkey. I was told (by an extremely limited sample) that the Kurds were lazy and dirty. There was no objection to allowing them their own country, but the argument was that it wasn't enough for them, they wanted more. These CHP supporters also felt that AKP Prime Minister Erdogan had handled the situation with the Kurds badly, being to conciliatory. They believed the  Kurds were not as they are portrayed in the West.

The sympathetic view of the Kurds from these same CHP supporters was that they aren't given the same opportunity as other Turks, which is responsible for their bad qualities.

On the bus from Istanbul to Ankara, which was headed to the eastern city of Van, a man told me that this was a "Kurdish" bus. He complained about the smell of the bus on multiple occasions. To me, it smelled like any other bus in the world after and eight hour ride... terrible.

This month, while I was in Ankara, violence hit the southeastern portion of the country as about a dozen Kurdish rebels and two Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes. it wasn't an important news event in Turkey. It wasn't even the lead story on the news that day.

The issue with the Kurds gets directly to the heart of what it means to be a Turkish citizen. Can people who aren't ethnic Turks or are non-Muslims be enjoy legal, social, and economic equality as full citizens? It's been an issue that has persisted since the founding of modern Turkey. The inability of the state to allow minority to coexist has resulted not only in the violence from and against Kurds over the past 30 years, but also in the genocide of the Armenians and in other violence against minorities.

Yet, there is a desire among the Turks that I encountered to be perceived as tolerant of minorities. People are free to be who they are, or so the line goes. But the reality is far more complicated.

The modern war against the Kurds started int he 1980s as many Kurds were tortured in Diyarbakir prison. The war-torn southeastern region and the dearth of opportunity pushed many Kurds into the rebel PKK camp. While PKK violence saps sympathy towards the Kurdish plight int he minds of many ethnic Turks, the violence stems from desperation. Regardless of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan's attempts to improve the situation, and any legal efforts to recognize the Kurds as equal citizens, they are in reality not. The Kurds are viewed with suspicion and contempt in the eyes of many ethnic Turks.

Only a combination of state-driven economic development in southeastern Turkey and a Kurdish civil rights movement will change the minds of those ethnic Turks who harbor prejudices towards the Kurdish people.

The Price of Turkey

In Turkey, books and gas are extremely expensive. That results in limited information for the Turkish people. Books, especially foreign language books, fall outside the price range of the average citizen. They are more expensive than in the United States even though Turkey's GDP per capita is significantly lower than the U.S.'s.

Relatedly, Turkish news focuses only on news in Turkey. There is very little foreign news. This shapes Turkish people's worldview in powerful way. Turkey borders Iraq and Syria, yet the violence in those countries seems like a world away. Even violence in southeastern Turkey felt as if it was in a different country.

Gas costs about 3.70TL per liter. That means it's roughly $8.25 a gallon. Again, Turks make less than the average American who pays about $3.70 a gallon right now. The price of owning a car is also far more expensive than it is in America. The result is that Turks do not have the freedom to travel within their own country that Americans possess. This is part of the reason why southeastern Turkey is so divided from central Anatolia and farther west. The other reason is ethnicity. The southeast is home to the Kurds.

Istanbul's European side is filled with BMWs, Lamborghinis, and other lavish cars. They go to nightclubs such as Reina and spend upwards of 100TL on a beer. Meanwhile, many people in rural areas eat meat only once a month. The economic inequality is staggering and ethnic makeup is to some degree a determining factor. Kurds tend not to enjoy the same opportunity for wealth as do ethnic Turks.