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Over 22.5 million Kurds live in Turkey,
new Turkish statistics reveal
20.9.2012 |
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Kurds demonstrating in Diyarbakir, Turkey's Kurdish
region (northern Kurdistan).
Turkey which still denies the constitutional
existence of Kurds, refuses to recognize its Kurdish
population as a distinct minority. Kurds ask for
more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who constitute
the greatest minority in Turkey, numbering more than
20 million. Kurds call for lifting the ban on
education in Kurdish, paving the way for an
autonomous democrat Kurdish system within Turkey. A
large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise
with the Kurdish PKK rebels. Photo:
AFP
September 20, 2012
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey's Kurdish
region,— The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat)
recently published the birth records of Kurdish
citizens in Turkey.
According to these records, there are 22,691,824
Kurds in Turkey, mostly born in Kurdish cities in
the southeast of the country. Therefore, out of
Turkey’s 74.7 million citizens, more than 30 percent
are Kurds. These records only include people who
have been registered at official government
institutions.
After the founding of the Turkish Republic, the
first census was carried out in 1927. According to
that census, the Turkish population was 13,464,564.
At that time, Serhat was the most populous Kurdish
city with 38,000 residents. The second most populous
city was Dilok.
Official census records show that the Kurdish
population in 1927 was 2,323,359. This number
increased to 3,850,723 in 1950, to 5,147,680 in 1960
and to 10,505,672 in 1990.
According to TurkStat, the number of Kurds in
Kurdish cities of Turkey in 2000 was 12,751,808; in
2012, this number increased to 14,733,894.
There are 8,902 Kurdish villages, 108 towns and 275
districts, according to TurkStat.
In the 2000 census, only residents of Kurdish cities
were taken into account. From 1990 to 1997, under
the pretext of security measures, around 4,000
Kurdish villages were evacuated and destroyed. The
villagers left for other Turkish towns, and thus
were not taken into account in this census.
Rohat Alakom, a researcher and writer, said that
there are 102 Kurdish villages in Ankara, 75 in
Konya, 44 in Kirsehir, 17 in Aksaray, 41 in
Yozgat-Tokat-Amasya,www.ekurd.net
23 in Kaysari and 26 in Cankiri and Kizilirmak.
There are around 313 Kurdish villages in central
Anatolia.
Additionally, a large number of Anatolian Kurds have
fled to European countries. There are no official
records of the number of the Kurds in central
Anatolia, but it is estimated to be no less than 1
million people.
Kurdish researcher and historian Jalili Jalil has
presented an important document related to the
Gozanogullari that shows a 1888 message from
Suleyman Beg, a Gozanogullari member, directed to
the Russian ambassador in which he presented himself
as a Kurd.
TurkStat also published the number of the migrants.
The largest number of migrants appears to be those
who left Mardin for Izmir. There are also many Adana
migrants in Urfa, and Arzrum migrants in Bursa.
The real number of Kurds cannot be determined with
these statistics, but can give an idea of the actual
figures.
Not all those who were born in Kurdish cities are
Kurds. There are many other ethnicities who live in
Kurdish regions but have been counted as Kurds due
to their place of birth.
But, taking 22.7 million as the number of Kurds and
adding the 1 million who live in central Anatolia
and other regions, then subtracting the number of
citizens of other ethnicities who live in the
Kurdish regions, leads to an acceptable figure of
around 20 million.
Turkstat has published the census records of 81
provinces of Turkey. They include the place of birth
and the number of the citizens.
The most populated cities of Turkey are Istanbul,
Konya, Urfa, Diyarbakir and Izmir, consecutively.
The least populated cities are Yalova, Bayburt and
Bilecik. The least populated Kurdish cities are
Kilis and Jolemerg.
By Mashallah Dakak, Rudaw
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author or news agency,
rudaw.net
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