During our stay in Turkey, none Turkish spoke well about the Kurdish people. When we said that we were going to Kurdistan, the Turkish got really annoyed and they just said:
- “Such region doesn’t exist and there isn’t a discussion about it, the Kurds are Turkish!”
Even, some Turkish said that we shouldn’t go to Kurdistan because it was a dangerous and non interesting place.
In fact, Kurdistan is a safe and fascinate place, with a rich history and culture. The Kurds were very friendly and they invited us all the time to stay in their house.
The people of this part of Mesopotamia are much poorer and religious than in western Anatolia. In Kurdistan there aren’t industries, nor investments, and the Turkish government does nothing to improves the well-being of Kurdistan.
The Kurdish population grows very fast and the young population increase very fast. All families are numerous and each marriage has at least five children. In a small house live up to three generations; grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren…..
It’s estimated that there are 20 millions Kurds in Turkey (52% of all Kurdistan). “It is the greater nation without state”. Due to the economic problems many Kurds have emigrated to the western part of Turkey or to the European Community. Some Kurds are political refugee.
Dicle Firat Kultur Sanat Merkezi
Before we went to Kurdistan we didn’t have the opportunity to speak about politic in Turkey. Turks are patriotic and conservative. They didn’t want to speak about this subject and most Turkish said;
”The politic in this country is always the same”.
In Kurdistan, it was the opposite. We spoke a lot about politic and mainly about the situation in Kurdistan. After we visited the Kurd centre
“Dicle Firat Kultur Sanat Merkezi, it made us to reflect and think about that we were experimented in Turkey, and the way to see how the Turkish are.
Turkey is a society of great men, very male chauvinist with a sense of the honour. The men constantly think that they always have the right and they will never admit their errors. Many Turkish spoke us about how nice is Turkey, but nobody mentioned negative things.
Some history;
The Ottoman empire was allied with Germany and Austria during World War I, after losing the war the empire crumbled.
The 29th October 1923 the Republic of Turkey was founded by Mustafa Kemal, "Ataturk" (Turkish’s father). Ataturk became the first president of Turkey. In 1925 with The Republican People's Party - Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi), Ataturk occurred the task of retiring religious courts, Koran schools, Muslim associations and the polygamy. Ataturk decreed new codes (civil & penal) according to the western model. In 1928 Turkish language started to be written in the Latin alphabet, and the metric system were used. The leader wanted to modernise Turkish cities and he prohibited to use the Fez (Turkish conical cap), to be replaced by the western hat. In 1934 the women obtained the right to vote and it was prohibited to dress the Islamic veil. Although some people though that Ataturk was a dictator (attaching to the most ingrained traditions), the Turkish never stopped loving him.
Nowadays Ataturk’s picture is everywhere. During our stay in Turkey, it wasn’t a day that we didn’t see his face. People just love him. It looks like in Turkey there aren’t other personalities or geniuses that did something for their country, so they could have a simple memorial statue. When the children open a scholastic book (it could be mathematic, English, physic, language book….) always in the first page appear a big Ataturk’s picture and in the second page his biography. “All Turkish must know very well who found their country”.
Turkey is one of the most militarised countries in the world (the second one in the NATO after USA). The army is everywhere, but mainly in the conflicts zones, like Kurdistan (due to the PKK) and in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus" (State created in 1983 but only recognised by Turkey). This place is an example how the Turkish government solves its conflicts. The North of Cyprus has 3350 km ² and a population of 185.000 inhabitants. It’s occupied by 35.000 soldiers, being one of most militarised zones in the world. Although the international community is asking to get out, the Turkish military is bringing in more war material to North Cyprus.
Since many years the Kurdish people has fought to be recognised, but the Turkish army has always shut up their demands with kidnappings, tortures and even murders. Nowadays the situation is getting better, although the Kurds aren’t happy. The “Kurdistan” word is still a taboo and their culture isn’t accepted. The Kurdish language is not official and it cannot be used in public places. The Kurds cannot expressed themselves publicly and learn in their own language.
Now Turkey this changed of attitude because its government is interested to integrate in the European Community, but they have to recognise the minorities’ population in the Turkish territory. They are improving slightly the situation in Kurdistan, but many Kurds are disappointed because the Turkish government doesn’t do much about it. There are a couple of Kurds newspapers (distributed sporadically in certain bookstores), as well some books and Kurd traditional music that can be listened in the street for a short time. But neither, there is television nor Kurdish radio. In December 2004 some private Kurdish schools were opened, exactly when Erdogan went to Brussels to speak about the adhesion to the EU.
In the Turkish parliament there isn’t Kurdish representation. the HADEP was illegalised, accused to support the PKK (Kurdish Working Party which decided to fight). Now, the unique Kurdish representation is the DEHAP party (the Kurdish Democratic People's Party). But the last elections were distorted. As soon as they wanted to expressed themselves in a meeting, the army and Jardama (Turkish police) were always presence to threat. This party could only obtain a 6,5% of the votes. But a party need at least a 10% of the votes to be presented in en Turkish parliament.
The Turkish parliament has 550 seat, although there are occupied by a unilateral policy (the last elections were in November 2002). Only three parties occupied those seats:
The party most voted was the young party AKP (Adalet sees Kalkýnma Partisim) founded in 2001; Justice and Development Party or White Party; conservative and moderate Islamic. it obtained 34,3% of the votes with 363 seats. The second party was the CHP (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) Republican People Party; the party of Ataturk, " Social Democrat and nationalist, central-left" , it obtained a 19% with 178 seats and the third party, the DYP (Doðru Yol Partisi) Democratic Party before True Path Party; conservative – right wind, it just got a 9%, but it could enter to the parliament thanks to the votes obtained of other parties with 10% less than, obtained 9 seats.
The parties couldn’t be part of the Turkish parliament were:
MHP (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi), Nationalistic Movement; right wind and nationalist with a 8%, GP (Genç Parti) the Young Party; nationalist and protectionist with 7%, the Kurdish Democratic People's Party (Demokratik Halk Partisi), left wind, pro-Kurd with 6,5% and the AP (Anavatan Partisi), the Mother Country Party; neo-liberal conservative with a 6%.
The Turkish parliament is not very diverse , the great majority of the parties are preservative and nationalist.
Turkey is a country that doesn’t like the idea of being a multicultural nation. Turkey must be great and unique, an uncultured country with 780,500 km ². Everyone must love Atartuk. Although they shouldn’t forget that Anatolia is a land of crossbreeding and emigrations. The route between Asia and Europe during centuries.
The Route: From Mersin to Gaziantep we took a bus to start where Kurdistan supposedly began. Afterward we did a loop in the area to know several cities like; Diyarbakir, Sain-Lurfa, Mardin, Batman until the Van lake. And them, we went until Erzurum and Hopa , in the Black sea coast.
It’s not very clearly where this region begins, each person marked in our map a different territory.
At the end the famous dogs in Kurdistan were not as bad as some people told us. Often we saw these aggressive big dogs, but we always stopped and threaded them. Although we were lucky because it was winter time and the giant Kangal dogs weren’t looking after the flock, so they weren’t very violate.
Note: it’s not trustworthy to ask to Turkish for a direction or a place. If they don’t know, they are just going to respond you simply –
“straight on". They will never say -
"I don’t know" , it seems that they are shameful if they don’t know a place.
If you ask them if a place is nice or not, always they are going to respond you: Çok güzel (very good) even if they were never been there.
The road: The road state in Kurdistan is bad (the maintenance is almost null) and in the south, the road that it goes to Irak is plagued of trucks.
In the northeast of Anatolia is even worse due to bad weather; rain, snow and mainly the continuous passage of the snowploughs.
(*) Asphalt
The weather: The protagonist was the freeze wind, and it was always front wind. There was much snow, mainly around the Van lake. I wouldn’t recommended to travel by bicycle in this part of Anatolia until the month of May, IT IS STILL FREEZING!
Expenses: Eastern Anatolia is cheaper that the western part, although it isn’t much difference for a traveller pocket. Guesthouses are nearly the same price. Food is cheaper too, and bigger quantity.
Our daily average cost in Kurdistan was: 16 €
Lodging:
Acampada libre = Wild camping; pension = guesthouse; invitado = invited.
Some data;
Kilometres: 1479 km (average 67,25 Km/ daily - 22 days ridden of 28 days)
Maximum altitude: 2290 mts. Seçdagi Gecidi – pass.
Maximum temperature: 20 °C, minimum: -7°C (during bicycle ride).
Finally we left Turkey; 144 days and 4520 km.
