Turkey’s eastern province of Van has been the first stop for refugees from Iran and Afghanistan for a long time. Some of these refugees have been waiting in Van for years until their asylum application is accepted by a third country. I know babies that have grown up during these waiting years. An Iranian refugee […]
Syrians who began arriving in Turkey nine years ago, after a civil war erupted in their country, were designated as “guests’’ by the Turkish government. There is no designation in international law or that of any country for such a status. And even though the status of the country’s 3.6 million Syrians changed later on, […]
Discussions about racism in the United States have taken over Turkey for days. Turkish artists, columnists, journalists, celebrities, football clubs, athletes and actors have shared photographs of George Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, accompanied by how sad they are, adorned with the message: “We can’t breathe.” It is true that “we can’t […]
In the heart of Diyarbakır, the largest city in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, lies the ancient district of Sur. The fortress encircling the district, and the gardens just beyond the walls, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, while over 1,500 buildings in Sur have been labelled historic and are protected by law. In late 2015, […]
“I saw the parcel with my Agit was there. So, I took the bones and went home,” Halime Aksoy, mother to the late Agit İpek, said to the Mezopotamya News Agency recently. Like so many Kurdish families, Aksoy’s family had been mourning the loss of their loved one without their body. It wasn’t until this […]
May 15 was celebrated as Kurdish Language Day all over the world, except in Turkey. Almost 20 million Kurdish people live in Turkey – the highest Kurdish population in the world – but education in Kurdish is still forbidden. This has serious effects on the educational landscape. When the mother tongue is different from the […]