Түркиядағы Курдстан аймағы

Kurdish inhabited area of Turkey

Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan is 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 them in the southeast. Southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan) is considered to be one of the four parts of Kurdistan, which also includes parts of northern Syria (Western Kurdistan), northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan) and northwestern Iran (Eastern Kurdistan). The term Turkish Kurdistan is often used in the context of Kurdish nationalism, which makes it a controversial term among proponents of Turkish nationalism. The term has different meaning depending on context.

In the first census of Turkey in 1927, Kurdish was the largest first language in the provinces of Ağrı , Bitlis , Diyarbakır , Elazığ , Hakkâri , Mardin , Siirt (, includes present day Batman) and Van Moreover, Kurdish was the largest first language with a plurality in Şanlıurfa with of the population in Muş Province had Kurdish as their first language in the census of 1935, the first census conducted there after the province was split from Bitlis earlier. Bingöl Province was separated from Muş in 1935, while Tunceli Province was separated from Elazığ in 1936 and Kurdish was also the first language in these newly established provinces in their first census in 1945 with and , respectively. Moreover, other ethnic groups also exist in Turkish Kurdistan including Arabs, Assyrians, Circassians, Ossetians and Turks. There used to be 11 Jewish communities in the Turkish Kurdistan.

Much of the region is fertile and has traditionally exported grain and livestock to the cities in the plains. 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. Larger scale agriculture and industrial activities dominate the economic life of the lower lying region around Diyarbakır, the largest Kurdish majority city in the region. Elsewhere, however, military activity and high unemployment has led to extensive migration from the region to other parts of Turkey and abroad.

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. In the Bronze Age, it was ruled by the Arameans, followed by the Neo Assyrian Empire in the Iron Age. Classical antiquity saw the arrival of first Greater Armenia, then the Roman Empire. The early Muslim conquests swept over the region with the spread of Islam. During the Middle Ages, the region came under the rule of local chieftains. In the 10th and 11th centuries, it was ruled by the Kurdish Marwanid dynasty. From the 14th century onwards, the region was mostly incorporated into the Ottoman Empire.

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). The document refers to the Kurdish emirates as eyalet (state), an indication of the autonomy they enjoyed. 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. Hereditary succession was granted to Kurdish emirates loyal to the Ottoman Empire, and Kurdish princes were granted autonomy within the Empire. The degree of autonomy of these emirates varied greatly and depended on their geopolitical significance. The weak Kurdish tribes were forced to join stronger ones or become a part of Ottoman sanjaks. However, powerful and less accessible tribes, particularly those close to the frontier with Persia, enjoyed a high degree of autonomy. According to a kanunname (book of law) mentioned by Evliya Çelebi, there were two administrative units different from regular sanjaks: 1) Kurdish sanjaks (Ekrad Beyliği), characterized by the hereditary rule of the Kurdish aristocracy and 2) Kurdish governments (hükümet). The Kurdish sanjaks, like ordinary sanjaks, had military obligations and had to pay taxes. On the other hand, the Kurdish hükümet neither paid taxes nor provided troops for the Ottoman Army, and the Ottomans preferred not to interfere in their succession and internal affairs. According to Çelebi, by the mid 17th century the autonomy of the Kurdish emirates had diminished. At this time, out of 19 sanjaks of the Diyarbekir Eyalet, 12 were regular Ottoman sanjaks, and the remaining were referred to as Kurdish sanjaks. The Kurdish sanjaks were Sagman, Kulp, Mihraniye, Tercil, Atak, Pertek, Çapakçur and Çermik. Çelebi lists the Kurdish states or hükümets as Cezire, Egil, Genç, Palu and Hazo. In the late 18th and early 19th century, with the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the Kurdish principalities became practically independent.

When refugees from Caucasus reached the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople decided not to settle these in Kurdistan due to the extreme poverty and lack of material resources for the refugees. Yet after some time, the Ottomans started seeing the refugees as a chance to diminish the Kurdish claim to the region and allowed the refugees to settle in the region. From early stage on, some Caucasians went through a voluntary process of Kurdification and thereby had Kurdish as their mother tongue.

When the Kurdish question arose in Turkey, it also had an effect on their Caucasian neighbors. Even today, there is an aversion from joining the Kurds in their conflict against the Turkish state, but some individuals of Caucasian origin joined the Kurdistan Workers' Party. As part of their campaign, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) won elections in most Caucasian villages in Turkish Kurdistan.