I. WHAT IS THE PROPORTION OF THE CITIZENS OF KURDISH DESCENT TO THE POPULATION OF TURKEY?

It appears to be impossible to reach a definite conclusion on the number of Turkish citizens with Kurdish origin and their proportion to the whole population. The figures given by different orientalists on the subject are sometimes contradictory and they do not confirm each other.

Some of those figures can be described as follows:1

The discrepancy among these figures might depend on the following factors:

i. When ethnicity is decided upon the mother tongue, these two may not necessarily correlate, e.g. Kurdish not being spoken as mother tongue by those who are of Kurdish descent either from the father’s or mother’s side or both, disagreement on whether Zaza and Kurmanji spoken in Turkey are dialects of the same language or are different languages, and becoming of non-Kurdish speaking tribes into Kurdish speaking through assimilation.2

ii. The latest population census which contains data on population by mother tongue was conducted in the year 1965.

iii. An ethnic group is always in a state of evolution in response to changes of conditions both internal and external, particularly through interprovincial and international migration, and never a fixity.3

iv. It is not always easy to be objective on the issue because of its sensitivity from humanitarian and political aspects.4

According to a comprehensive and seemingly the most objective survey supported by the Ford Foundation,5 in 1990 Kurdish population in Turkey was 7,046,150 and their percentage was 12.6. If the growth rate of Kurdish and non-Kurdish population between 1985-1990 is considered, the number and the percentage of Kurds for the year 1995 might be estimated as 8.21 millions and 13.08 respectively. Another important outcome of the survey is that there is a growing tendency of Kurds for living in Western Turkey. In 1965 one-fifth of Kurds lived in Western Turkey. In 1990 their ratio was one-third. By the year 1995 this ratio is expected to increase to 40%. Such distribution to whole Turkey avoids building a social structure and population density on the ethnic grounds and it paves the way for the functioning of a freely developing integration model through tolerance and pluralism. Hence, in the general elections held on December 24, 1995, the alliance between pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party (HADEP) and extreme leftist parties could gain 4% of the total votes while ultra-nationalist Nationalist Action Party (MHP) gained 8%. 18% of the votes in Southeastern provinces were cast for HADEP.6 These election results point to the fact that radical approaches will have less impact on Kurdish question.

1 For the figures by CIA, Anthony Hyman and the researchers who agree on 20%, see Michael M. Gunter, The Kurds in Turkey: A Political Dilemma (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990), p.7. Also, Shirin Akiner, Sovyet Müslümanları [Soviet Muslims] (İstanbul: 1995), p. 183; Henry J. Barkey, “Turkey’s Kurdish Dilemma”, Survival (Winter 1993), p. 52; Mehrdat R. Izady, The Kurds (Washington,D.C.: Taylor&Francis, 1992) pp. 111-120; Eric Rouleau, “The Challenges to Turkey”, Foreign Affairs (November-December 1993), p. 122; David McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds (London: I.B. Tauris, 1996), p. 3; CIA World Fact Book, 1995.

2 Servet Mutlu, "Population of Turkey by Ethnic Groups and Provinces", New Perspectives on Turkey (Spring 1995), p. 35.

3 Mutlu, "Population of...", p. 34.

4 Peter A. Andrews, Ethnic Groups in Turkey (Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1989), p. 111. Also for the number of Sunni Kurds in Turkey, see Andrews, Ethnic Groups..., pp. 110-111.

5 Mutlu, "Population of...", pp. 33-60.

6 Andrew Finkel, ATV as quoted in Taha Akyol, "Sandıktan Çıkan Mesaj-3" [Message Given by the Voters-3], Milliyet, 29 December 1995.