The persecution of Kurds is the ethnic and political persecution which is inflicted upon

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

by the governments of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, and

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

20th century

The newly declared Turkish Republic leader

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...

repudiated the

Treaty of Sèvres The Treaty of Sèvres () was a 1920 treaty signed between some of the Allies of World War I and the Ottoman Empire, but not ratified. The treaty would have required the cession of large parts of Ottoman territory to France, the United Kingdom, ...

which proposed a referendum be conducted in the Kurdish homeland. As a result, conflict continued between the Turkish military and the Kurds. This conflict still exists today. After the

Dersim massacre The Dersim massacre, also known as Dersim genocide, was carried out by the Turkish military over the course of three operations in the Dersim Province (renamed Tunceli) against Kurdish rebels of Alevi faith, and civilians in 1937 and 1938. A ...

, 40,000-70,000 civilians were killed by the Turkish Army and 11,818 people were exiled, depopulating the province."Resmi raporlarda Dersim katliamı: 13 bin kişi öldürüldü"
''

Radikal ''Radikal'' () was a daily liberal Turkish language newspaper, published in Istanbul. From 1996 it was published by Aydın Doğan's Doğan Media Group. Although Radikal did not endorse a particular political alignment, it was generally consider ...

'', November 19, 2009. Nuri Dersimi stated that many tribesmen were killed after surrendering, and women and children were locked into hay sheds which were then lit on fire. 30,000 Kurds were massacred by the Turkish Army after the rebellion. The Zilan massacre killed about 15,000 Kurdish civilians and the Zilan River was full to the brim with dead bodies.Yusuf Mazhar, ''Cumhuriyet'', 16 Temmuz 1930, ''... Zilan harekatında imha edilenlerin sayısı 15.000 kadardır. Zilan Deresi ağzına kadar ceset dolmuştur...'' Ahmet Kahraman, ''ibid'', p. 211, '' Karaköse, 14 (Özel muhabirimiz bildiriyor) ...'' Ayşe Hür
"Osmanlı'dan bugüne Kürtler ve Devlet-4"
, ''

Taraf ''Taraf'' ("Side" in Turkish) was a liberal newspaper in Turkey. It had distinguished itself by opposing interference by the Turkish military in the country's social and political affairs. It was distributed nationwide, and had been in circula ...

'', October 23, 2008, Retrieved August 16, 2010. Ayşe Hür
"Bu kaçıncı isyan, bu kaçıncı harekât?"
, ''

'', December 23, 2007, Retrieved August 16, 2010. The Kuşkonar massacre killed 38 people, 13 in Koçağılı and 25 in Kuşkonar. Most of the victims were children, women or elderly, including seven babies. 13 people were injured. Later the

Turkish Armed Forces The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; , TSK) are the armed forces, military forces of the Turkey, Republic of Turkey. The TAF consist of the Turkish Army, Land Forces, the Turkish Navy, Naval Forces and the Turkish Air Force, Air Forces. The Chief of ...

blamed the PKK and used the massacre as propaganda. The Turkish government refused to start investigating despite complaints of surviving villagers. The 3-year-long

Anfal campaign The Anfal campaign was a counterinsurgency operation which was carried out by Ba'athist Iraq from February to September 1988 during the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict at the end of the Iran–Iraq War. The campaign targeted rural Kurds because its p ...

Killed 50,000 to 100,000 non-combatant Kurdish civilians.GENOCIDE IN IRAQ
Human Rights Watch, 1993 Kurdish officials claimed the figure could be as high as 182,000.
PBS Frontline 1,754 schools, 270 hospitals, 2,450

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

s, and 90% of the Kurdish villages were destroyed.

21st century

The 2021 Konya massacre was the killing of a Kurdish family in Turkey. 4 women and 3 men were killed as a result. According to an interview given by members of the family to Duvar, the attackers where close to the far-right

Nationalist Movement Party The Nationalist Movement Party, or alternatively translated as Nationalist Action Party (, MHP), is a Turkish Far-right politics, far-right, ultranationalism, ultranationalist Political parties in Turkey, political party. The group is often de ...

(MHP) who did not want to permit Kurds to live in the neighborhood. The Roboski massacre was the killings of 40

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

villagers on the night of December 28, 2011. They were coming from

towards the Turkish border. They were mostly teenagers from the Encü family of Ortasu (in ) in the Uludere district of

Şırnak Province Şırnak Province (, ) is a Provinces of Turkey, province in Turkey in the Southeastern Anatolia Region. Şırnak Province was created in 1990, with areas that were formerly part of the Siirt Province, Siirt, Hakkâri Province, Hakkâri and Mardin ...

, Turkey. They were smuggling

cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into Rolling paper, thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhale ...

diesel fuel Diesel fuel, also called diesel oil, heavy oil (historically) or simply diesel, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a re ...

and other goods into Turkey, riding on

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey, and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two ...

s. Later in 2020, Pro-Iran protesters torched Kurdish party offices in Baghdad.

List

References

{{Anti-Kurdism, state=expanded Persecution of Kurds Anti-Kurdish sentiment Massacres of Kurds