Kurdish Imperialism
Kurdish self-government and eventually a state of Kurdistan have long been dreams of many, if not all, Kurds. ... Up until very recently, the Kurdish minority in Turkey, which makes up 19% of the Turkish population, had not been recognized as an ethnic minority. In fact, anti-Kurdish sentiment has raged on in these parts for hundreds of years. ... As mentioned before, Turkish efforts have been made to subvert any nationalist movement by the Kurds, including banning the Kurdish Democratic Party from the country, as well as attempting to dilute the Kurdish population by encouraging Kurds to immigrate to predominantly ethnic Turkish cities. ... This is a question of the Kurdish history, dating as far back as 12,000 years ago. The Kurdish race is an amalgamation of ancient indigenous tribes native to the present-day area that the Kurds now inhabit, and Indo-European settlers that surfaced in approximately 2000 BC. ... It was about this time that literature such as the epic Mem-o-Zin was written (1695), something of a call for the Kurdish state to fight for its people. There was no real immediate result, but Kurdish nationalism had taken root. ... There is very little consensus among the Kurdish people over how far the nationalist movement should go.