The number of Kurdish villages depopulated by Turkey is estimated at around 3,000. Since 1984, the Turkish military has embarked on a

campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...

to eradicate the

Kurdistan Workers Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of south ...

, a militant Kurdish opposition group. As a result, by the year 2000 some 30,000 people have died, and two million

Kurdish refugees The problem of Kurdish refugees and displaced people arose in the 20th century in the Middle East, and continues today. The Kurds ( ku, کورد, Kurd), are an ethnic group in Western Asia, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which inclu ...

have been driven out of their homes into overcrowded urban shanty towns.

Background

Until 1970s, about 70% of the Kurdish population of

Turkish Kurdistan Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan () refers to the southeastern part of Turkey, where Kurds form the predominant ethnic group. The Kurdish Institute of Paris estimates that there are 20 million Kurds living in Turkey, the majority of the ...

, inhabited one of the approximately 20,000 Kurdish villages. But by 1985, only 58% of the population were still living in the rural areas and much of the countryside in Kurdish populated regions has been depopulated by the Turkish government, with Kurdish civilians moving to local centers such as

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...

Van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

, and

Şırnak Şırnak ( ku, شرنەخ, Şirnex) is a town in southeastern Turkey. It is the capital of Şırnak Province, a new province that split from the Mardin and Siirt provinces. The Habur border gate with Iraq which is one of Turkey's main links to Arab ...

, as well as to the cities of western Turkey and even to

western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

. The causes of the depopulation were in most cases the Turkish state's military operations and to a lesser extent attacks by the PKK on villages it deemed defended by collaborators of the Turkish Government. Often Kurds had to decide whether to become a member of the state-sponsored Village Guards, be deported or else they could face attacks by the PKK.

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

has documented many instances where the Turkish military forcibly evacuated villages, destroying houses and equipment to prevent the return of the inhabitants. An estimated 3,000 Kurdish villages in

Southeast Anatolia The Southeastern Anatolia Region ( tr, Güneydoğu Anadolu Bölgesi) is a Geographical regions of Turkey, geographical region of Turkey. The most populous city in the region is Gaziantep. Other examples of big cities are Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır ...

were virtually wiped from the map, representing the displacement of more than 378,000 people. During the 1990s, the Turkish military reportedly deployed the US manufactured helicopters Sikorsky and Cobra to drive out the Kurdish population from the villages.

Depopulated and demolished towns and villages

According to the

Humanitarian Law Project The Humanitarian Law Project (founded 1985) is a U.S.-based non-profit organization, working to protect human rights and promote "the peaceful resolution of conflict by using established international human rights laws and humanitarian law." The o ...

, 2,400 Kurdish villages were destroyed and 18,000 Kurds were executed, by the Turkish government. Other estimates have put the number of destroyed Kurdish villages at over 4,000. In total up to 3,000,000 people (mainly Kurds) have been displaced. The

Kurdish Human Rights Project The Kurdish Human Rights Project is the only non-partisan human rights organisation consistently working in the Kurdish regions of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and elsewhere. It is a registered charity, founded and based in London in 1992, and its s ...

divides the depopulation (evacuation) of villages in 5 phases. * The initial phase between 1985 and 1989 * The phase of centralization during 1990–1991 * the phase of the systematic village evacuation between 1992 and 1993 * the phase of the escalation of the village evacuation in 1994 * between 1995 and 2001 other villages further villages were depopulated An estimated of 1,000,000 are still internally displaced as of 2009.

Timeline

1992

*November –

Kelekçi village destruction The Kelekçi village destruction occurred in November 1992 in the Dicle district in Diyarbakır Province, Turkey. The Turkish authorities demanded the Muhtar of the Kelekçi village to evacuate all the inhabitants of the village. But as the vi ...

Government compensation

The

Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre or IDMC is an International non-governmental organization established in 1998 by the Norwegian Refugee Council in Geneva. It is focused on monitoring and providing information and analysis on the world's ...

stated in 2009 that the Turkish Government has taken "notable" steps to address the internal displacement situation. These include commissioning a national survey on the number and conditions of IDPs, drafting a national IDP strategy; adopting law on compensation and putting together a comprehensive pilot action plan in

Van Province Van Province ( tr, Van ili, ku, Parezgêha Wanê, Armenian: Վանի մարզ) is a province in the Eastern Anatolian region of Turkey, between Lake Van and the Iranian border. It is 19,069 km2 in area and had a population of 1,035,418 at ...

and 13 other south-eastern provinces addressing rural and urban situations of displacement.

References

External links

Kurds Are Finally Heard: Turkey Burned Our Villages

THE DEFENCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kurdish Villages Depopulated By Turkey Persecution of Kurds in Turkey Former populated places in Turkey Turkish settlements Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present) Internal migration Kurdish refugees Forcibly depopulated communities