Why does Turkey hate the Kurds?
The whole notion of “countries” in the Middle East is a relatively new one. Although there have always been cities, they didn’t really have fixed borders for larger geographical areas until the Europeans came along and started drawing maps. They were all used to gradually shifting alliances, and long-term feuds. There was an overarching Ottoman empire in the region for centuries, but it didn’t correspond to today’s national boundaries. Those boundaries were set up, mostly by Britain and France, after the Ottoman empire finally gave out in 1922. The British and French set up the boundaries for their convenience, not for those of the underlying peoples. In particular, the Kurds didn’t get their own country but were instead divided up over a bunch of other countries. They immediately had a revolution to change that, and were put down. So they had another revolution, which was put down. And another, and another. Turkey responded by clamping down on Kurdish identity, banning the language, w
