New York University will be presenting a talk that will explore the historical journey of Dersim (now called Tunceli), a mountainous region in eastern Anatolia with a predominantly Kizilbash Kurdish population, as it transitioned from the Ottoman Empire to the modern Turkish state. The talk will be by historian Cevat Dargin of Columbia University, who […]
Police have arrested the main suspect in the killing of seven members of the Dedeoğulları family, four women and three men aged between 30 and 65. Mehmet Altun had gone on the run and was eventually caught in Bozkır district, some 120 km from where the horrific mass shooting had taken place. Emergency services were […]
Legislation passed in the lower chamber of the German Parliament has outlawed the symbols of groups designated as ‘terrorist organisations’ by the European Union. The ban applies to groups such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and militant Palestinian movement Hamas. The new law, approved in the Bundestag on Friday, 25 June, now heads to […]
Thirteen Turkish citizens held in captivity by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq were shot dead last week, the Turkish government announced on Sunday. The 13 included six soldiers, two police officers and intelligent officers who had been abducted from different parts of southeast Turkey by the PKK in separate incidents six years […]
A Kurdish politician from Diyarbakır is aiming to change the law so schoolchildren can be educated in their native tongue. İmam Taşçıer, an MP for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (Halkların Demokratik Partisi, HDP), has submitted a draft bill to the Turkish Parliament for Kurmanji and Zazaki, the two languages commonly spoken by Turkey’s Kurdish population, […]
Officials in Germany have called for restraint between the country’s Turkish and Kurdish communities after five people were reportedly injured during a protest against Turkey’s military operation in north-eastern Syria. Violence broke out on Monday, 14 October, when a group of around 350 demonstrators marching through the western city of Herne were “provoked” by a […]
TURKEY has launched a staunch defence of its military campaign in north-eastern Syria following an international backlash. The country began a large-scale military incursion, which it has called Operation Peace Spring, on Wednesday, 9 October, with the aim of creating a “safe zone” on the other side of its border with Syria. The operation went […]
The Turkish president was hoping that his meeting with new American president Donald Trump would mark a “turning point” in relations between the two states. Instead, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s May 2017 trip to Washington will be remembered for his bodyguards taking part in a violent clash with protestors that left a dozen people bloody […]
