Current Events

CURRENT EVENTS 

There are a few events that have happened in Turkey which any visitor should be away of. Knowing these events adds to you traveling as a political act, and expands your understanding of what this country is going through.

Kurdistan is a geo-cultural region which the Kurdish people form a major population of. This region extends from Turkey and Syria, into Iraq and Iran. Many of these Kurdish people wish to have their independent nation state, but have failed to do so. The Turkish government and these Kurds have fought each other in the Turkey-PKK conflict. The PKK is considered, by Turkey, the United States, the European Union, and NATO, as a terrorist organization and have carried out many attacks in Turkey. The PKK wishes to also form a independent nation state within Turkeys borders. Because of this, they have battled against Turkey to separate in a bloody war which has claimed more than 30,000 lives. In 2013, the PKK leader called for a ceasefire which continues today.

Recently, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIL, has controlled sections of the Kurdish region. One of these places coming near ISIL control is Kobane. Kobane is a small Kirdish city in Syria thats directly on the southern border of Turkey. Defending the city is a small group a Kurdish fighters who want to defend this city and push the invaders out. The IS currently controls about half of the city and are advancing. Turkey has not allowed for and Kurds to cross the border to support the fighters defending the city until October 29, the Turkish government allowed a group a 150 Kurdish fighters, armed with heavy weaponry, to cross the border into Kobane and help boost its defenses.

Turkey, other than support for air strikes, has not been involved in the issues south of its own border. Because ISIL has advanced so close to Turkeys border and no action has been made by the Turkish government to stop it, many clashes have been happening all over the country for support of action against ISIL.