We exist, Kurdistan exists! I remember as a child how afraid I was when my mother spoke Kurdish in public. When I was seven, I needed to go to the hospital every week because of an accident. When the doctor would ask my mom a question about my health, I would quickly answer before my […]
Is Şırnak one of the 81 cities of Turkey? I am in Şırnak, one of the Kurdish cities that was under curfew for 8 months, between 14 March-14 November 2016 . 70% of the city has been totally destroyed. 8 of the city’s 12 districts do not exist anymore. The streets that I walked on […]
I am like Diyarbakır: Grieving, furious, resentful but still, I stand. Last Friday 370 civil society organizations were closed by the government under the allegation of supporting terrorist groups. 50 of these organizations are based in Diyarbakir, in my city. There are associations that support the families who lost their houses during the curfews or […]
Writing from Diyarbakır under Blockgade Diyarbakır, the unofficial capital of the Kurdish people, has been one of the main locations of armed conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state. Since August 2015, numerous curfews have been declared in the city and its villages, hundreds of civilians have been killed, the center of the 5000 […]
Curfews in Turkish Kurdistan It was last January. I was in Brussels for a European Parliament meeting. A European journalist asked me about the curfews in Turkish Kurdistan. He told me that there were also curfews in Paris after the ISIS attack. He did not understand why Kurdish people were so angry about the curfews. […]
Nurcan Baysal: being a Yazidi means to be destined for massacre 1 Working for NGOs for years, Nurcan Baysal wrote a book for giving voice to women and not letting that horrible massacre to be forgotten. “73rd Decree” (“Ezidiler: 73. Ferman Katliam ve Kurtuluş”) is heavy, but it is nothing compared to what women, men […]