Turkish Kurdistan

The Encyclopaedia of Islam delineates the geography of Turkish Kurdistan as following: According to Trotter (1878), the limit of their extent to the north was the line Divriği—Erzurum—Kars.

Equally, the whole region includes areas to the east and south-east of these limits... Turkish Kurdistān numbers at least 17 of them almost totally: in the north-east, the provinces of Erzincan, Erzurum and Kars; in the centre, going from west to east and from north to south, the provinces of Malatya, Tunceli, Elazığ, Bingöl, Muş, Karaköse (Ağrı), then Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Siirt, Bitlis and Van; Finally, the southern provinces of Şanlıurfa (Urfa), Mardin and Çölamerik (Hakkarî).Nonetheless, it is emphasized that "the imprecise limits of the frontiers of Kurdistan hardly allow an exact appreciation of the area."

In the first census of Turkey in 1927, Kurdish was the largest first language in the provinces of Ağrı (58%), Bitlis (75%), Diyarbakır (69%), Elazığ (53%), Hakkâri (89%), Mardin (61%), Siirt (74%, includes present-day Batman) and Van (77%).

[8] Moreover, other ethnic groups also exist in Turkish Kurdistan including Arabs, Assyrians,[9] Circassians, Ossetians and Turks.

[5] Since the 1990s, forced immigration from the southeast has led millions of Kurds to settle in the cities Ankara, Izmir or Istanbul.

The local economy is dominated by animal husbandry and small-scale agriculture, with cross-border smuggling to and from Iraqi Kurdistan (especially of petroleum) providing a major source of income in the Iraq-Turkey border area.

[12] Part of the Fertile Crescent of the Ancient Near East, Northern Kurdistan was quickly affected by the Neolithic Revolution that saw the spread of agriculture.

A tax register (or defter) dating back to 1527 mentions an area called Vilayet-i Kurdistan, which included seven major and 11 minor emirates (or principalities).

In a Ferman (imperial decree) issued by Suleiman I, around 1533, he outlines the rules of inheritance and succession among Kurdistan beys i.e. the Kurdish aristocracy.

Concerned with independent-mindedness of Kurdish principalities, Ottomans sought to curb their influence and bring them under the control of the central government in Constantinople.

One of the prominent Sufi leaders was Sheikh Ubeydalla Nahri, who began a revolt in the region between Lakes Van and Urmia.

'[14] The breakup of the Ottoman Empire after its defeat in the First World War led to its dismemberment and establishment of the present-day political boundaries, dividing the Kurdish-inhabited regions between several newly created states.

The establishment and enforcement of the new borders had profound effects for the Kurds, who had to abandon their traditional nomadism for village life and settled farming.

[21] In 1983, a number of provinces were placed under martial law in response to the activities of the militant separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

By 1993, the total number of security forces involved in the struggle in southeastern Turkey was about 200,000, and the conflict had become the largest counter-insurgency in the Middle East,[24] in which much of the countryside was evacuated, thousands of Kurdish-populated villages were destroyed, and numerous extra judicial summary executions were carried out by both sides.

[25] The situation in the region has since eased following the capture of the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in 1999 and the introduction of a greater degree of official tolerance for Kurdish cultural activities, encouraged by the European Union.

[31][32] As part of their campaign, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) won elections in most Caucasian villages in Turkish Kurdistan.