Photograph by Sebastião Salgado
The conflict between the Kurdish people and their Turkish government is an issue that has been going on for years with little progress made towards peace. Even as early as 1915, the Kurds in this region struggled to end the Ottoman Empire’s rule over them, and today they still struggle for their independence. The Turkish government has made serious efforts to suppress the Kurdish culture, which doesn’t help in anyway to ease the tension between the two groups of people. “Until 1991, the use of the Kurdish language – although widespread – was illegal…Additionally, education in Kurdish is now permitted though only in private institutions” (Wikipedia – History of the Kurdish People).
Whether or not the Kurds should be criticized for their violent efforts to fight back is unsure, but something to indeed be sure about is that the Turkish government is always quick to respond with harsh efforts of their own. The Kurdish Workers Party (P.K.K.) is an ethnic secessionist organization that uses both diplomacy and force to achieve a national identity for the Kurds living in
In the photograph above, a Kurdish woman is gathering wood for heating as she tries to adapt to her new life. Like so many others, she was recently forced to flee her home because her village was razed by her own government. Sebastião Salgado’s commentary on this picture explains that “Today, more than 1,300 villages have been destroyed, scattering hundreds of thousands of Kurds throughout
Works Cited
“History of the Kurdish People”. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 2010. Web. 12 March. 2010.
Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture.
Salgado, Sebastiao. Photograph. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Aperture.
Fantastic post Dylan. It is very powerful to read a blog when you can sense the writer's passion behind it. It's upsetting to realize that the Turkish Government used such harsh methods to enforce their ideal lifestyle among the Kurdish. It's so sad to think about those 1300 villages that were destroyed. Those lost individuals had their lives destroyed as they were forced to adapt to a new lifestyle.
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