The Kurds in Turkey

Diyarbakir - man wıth skull cap, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

THis photo of mine on flickr was used to illusrate an artcile about the political situation in Diyarbakir (link: http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=18157). Funnily enough, there was a similar article published in the NRC Handelsblad at the weekend, albeit using someone else´s photo.

The internet article stresses more the Islamisation of teh area whikle the newspaper mentions the point is that although Diyarbakir is primarily a Kurdish city, it has seen a rise in popularity of the mainstream Turkish politcial parties, especially the governing AK Party in recent years. I prefer the altter explanation.

Anyway, in the light of the latest dreadful atrocities of the terrorist communist PKK party in recent days, it is worth remembering that like in Northern Ireland and in Basque country, most people are not in favour of violent extremism and this applies definitely to the Kurds living in Turkey.

The patience being shown by the Turkish government in Ankara is a marked contrast to the reaction of the US when it suffers terrorist acts I am hoping that they can use political pressure on the Americans and Iraqis to solve the terrorist threat they are harbouring (and maybe arming) in northern Iraq.