Kurds in Anatolia

1920s

During TR's foundation there were some warm signals sent towards Kurds who were, at least on paper, seen as equal founders of the Republic. Such closeness would not be surprising since both peoples fought in the war of liberation. But, as any astute observer at the time could point out, knowing the ethnic nationalistic roots of the new Republic and some of its most visible founders, things would evolve to a different point later on. Evolve to a different point they soon did.

After 1925 Sheikh Said rebellion and subsequent reforms, by 1933 Kemal would utter the words ne mutlu türküm diyene (happy is who can say I am a turk) in a speech with clear subtext that ppl who could not make such claims would perhaps be unhappy (?) and take the last name Ataturk himself in 1934, cementing ethnic nationalism in TR. The identity of course is a concoction of fairy tales per the dictates of nationalism.

1960s

After 1960 coup naturally the state reverted to factory settings. A young Kurdish student Dengir Firat reports, who did not care much of his ethnic origin during those days, did not speak the language, was from an affluent Kurdish family would see a poster one day carrying the words of the then President that read "whoever says I am a Kurd, spit on his face!". He would decide to learn Kurdish the next day, and also pursue politics shortly thereafter.

1977

An armed leftist terrorist organization named PKK is formed. Tho their roots and methods were Marxist they were largely influenced by ethnic encroachement by the hegemon country in their region, Kurdistan. From [1, pg. 421]; "It is also possible that the PKK's nationalism was all the more virulent because its founders sought to recreate an identity they felt they had lost. They were not alone: across the Middle East religious and ethnic groups that felt the loss of traditional identity through modernization or state attempts to homogenize society, sought to rediscover it through a revivalism that invoked an imaginary past. For the PKK the intensity of Kurdish national feeling was accentuated by the loss of spoken Kurdish among its founding members.

In 1977 [.. they..] identified the enemies of the Kurdish people as the fascists (Greywolves and similar groups); agents of the state and those who supported them; the Turkish Left which subordinated the Kurdish question to the leftist revolution and finally the exploitative Kurdish landlord class".

1980s

The fascist coup of 1980 doubles down on nationalistic identity and opresses Kurds even more. In the infamous Diyarbakir prison many Kurds are tortured, whose suffering would fuel the PKK backlash many times over. "The hell of 90s" in terms of their counterattack would be fueled with the opression felt throughout the 80s.

Among the regular public the coup would opress even the mention of the word Kurd, in any publication. Growing up in this era I can attest; I did not even know Kurds existed until well in my teens, perhaps twenties. I laughed many years later when I heard a politician named Selahattin Demirtaş reported the same experience, this is (tragic) funny because Demirtaş himself is a Kurd! I guess his parents were scared, did not speak the language at home, did not mention the identity to him with the fear of him slipping up, didn't let their children know, so it went.

1990s

The hell of 90s.. I have friends who served in the campaigns of the South East, met actual shell-shocked soldiers after the war. It's not pretty. Sadly same errors are being repeated today, with continuous declerations of "we finally quashed terror", a slogan that repeats verbatim every 5-10 years. The sin is just too great for that ever to be real, the punishment will not end until one absolves self of sin. The greatest sin of all, uncalled for, unjustified war.

2015

A Kurdish party HDP led by Selahattin Demirtaş would gain >10% of the votes, putting them in a kingmaker position. If democracy was followed they could extract some concessions in return for some cultural rights, strengthen localities, and be represented in the greater body politic. The nationalists clearly did not want this route, terror attacks were triggered likely by deep state actors, scaring regular people and voters, which raised the votes of the party in gov. Election was repeated in a disgusting show of phony democracy, which gave the gov back its majority. Since this method worked, trading democracy for votes in an atmosphere of scaremongering, it continued, even intensified resulting with the eventual jailing of Demirtaş, and many of his party members.

Reference

[1] McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds, 3rd Edition