Jodi Hilton

The Kurds

The Kurds are Turkey’s largest ethnic minority and have been struggling for an independent homeland for much of the 20th century. They are estimated to make up between 18 and 20% of Turkey’s 77.8 million citizens. The Kurdish insurgency that began in the 1980s, in which the Marxist-separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) conducted a guerrilla war against the Turkish state, claimed nearly 40,000 lives. During the years 1984-1999, the Turks retaliated by emptying and burning down as many as 4000 villages and imprisoning 14,000 PKK sympathizers. Nearly every Kurdish family experienced tragedies during that time. A recent surge in violence has taken the lives of both Kurdish militants and Turkish soldiers. In the fall of 2011 Turkish forces moved into Iraqi Kurdistan to attack PKK training bases.

Yakay-Der mothers gather every Saturday in central Istanbul to hold vigil for their disappeared sons. They say that 1,500 persons went missing from 1993 to 1998, as Turkish forces fought the PKK Kurdish guerillas.
  
A child dressed in Kurdish colors for the festival of Newroz in Diyarbakir. The holiday is celebrated throughout the Kurdish region with huge gatherings featuring shows of solidarity, political speeches and the building of a bonfire.
  
A billboard in the Kurdish-majority city for Press, a movie about Turkey's first Kurdish language newspaper.
     
  
A wedding dance in Diyarbakir's old city.
  
Diyarbakir's old city walls, built by the Romans beginning in the 4th century.
  
A child trash collector, Diyarbakir.
     
  
Medya Ormek dresses up in traditional Kurdish clothing, at home in Diyarbakir.
  
Kurdish children in the village of Yovaceli, Sanliurfa attend public school, where classes are taught in Turkish. Kurdish activists have been lobbying the Turkish State for rights to use their mother tongue in education and public affairs.
  
Park, Diyarbakir.
     
  
Old city, Diyarbakir.
  
Kurds hold Friday prayers outdoors in Diyarbakir, as a protest against government control of religious life in Turkey.
  
Newroz, Diyarbakir.
     
  
Dancing during Newroz celebrations, Diyarbakir.
  
Political Rally for BDP Kurdish party, Diyarbakir.
  
Political rally, Diyarbakir, during a rainstorm.
     
  
Chaos broke out in the streets of Diyarbakir after Kurds learned of the killing of 12 PKK fighters in Sirnak, Spring, 2011.
  
Hiding his face, a youth makes the sign of the PKK during street protests that broke out in Diyarbakir after the killing of 12 PKK fighters by the Turkish military.
  
A child working as a trash collector holds a found flower.
     
  
A sign reading Happy Newroz in Kurdish is hung over the entrance to the city train station in Diyarbakir. The use of Kurdish in slowly being accepted into public life in Turkey.