And this was the funniest comment I have ever heard.. so you think the Kurds want our land because they innocently want to live on their own land?  There is nothing there.. How weird.. There is fuel in Iraq, there is fuel in Caspian Sea, there is fuel everywhere around.. and not there.. come on, grow up.. stop believing in media.. or the media created crisis.. if there is no benefit, no one would have fought about it..  Why doesn´t the other minority groups in Turkey ask for partition?  Did you ever think?  And I don´t know where you are from, but i can say your great grandfathers were not shedding their blood to keep our country and our land together.

I had many kurdish friends, and i always liked Kurdish people.. but if we talk about only them being tortured or treated badly, it is not fair.. yesterday somenody was talking about, how things went bad, and how the kurdish people suffered during the 1980 coupe.. for your info, the only people who were tortured badly or whatever was not the Kurds.. it affected everyone living in Turkey who was trying to bring a more independent life. 

And it was during our (supressed as azade said - or given up their origin)Kurdish presidents´ time, when all the dams were built in the south east.. when people realised that they were actually not living in a desert.. and of course let´s not forget the fuel issue..  which was located long ago, but not allowed to take it out, and recently rediscovered by an american oil company.. what a coincidence..

There is a big picture out there.. young people, specially young kurds who have no choice but join PKK or cooperate with the government and become a betrayers in their own community, soon becomes the target of this newly raised racism.. but actually there is none..  did you know that if you get on a bus and go to that area, the PKK willl stop you on the way, interrogate you, and rob you off?  So what are we talking about.

Turkish land has always been a home for many ethnic groups, which doesn´t necessarily mean that they own the land.. and like mltm said, we are all Turk - not genetically, but because we share the land. 

The only solution is to stop fighting and work together for the goodness of all of us.. if we are loosing our soldiers in the battle, they are also loosing their people.. at the end of the day, there is no gain.. but, you know, our voices can not be heard, when there is so much noise.

So I just pray for everyone, for our soldiers, and for the PKK to realise what they are doing is wrong and bad.  And there can be no good outcome of it if they keep on killing the people.. If they have invested all the money they have invested in the guns, south east asia could have become one of the richest places.  Such a shame..

As neither Sui or I are Kurdish, perhaps some of our Kurdish members could clarify the situation.

Do you feel discriminated against?

Do you feel the police are disrespectful or abusive to you?

Do you every feel uneasy in your day to day life, because of your race?

If there are any Kurdish turks left on this site (who have not been chased away by name calling) please let us know

as a kurdish who live in Istanbul

1.no

2.yes

3.sometimes

my answer is no to first question only because i am well educated , have a good job and have no kurdish accent so people dont realise that i am kurdish. but there are millions of kurdish who would answer "yes" all those questions.

And you think that, Thats only related to being Kurd huh? very well pointing out

I wrote something recently about the importance of 1980´s torture and specially about diyarbakir prison..(Kurds have been kind of  ´double´ tortured )

http://www.turkishclass.com/forumTitle_34039_3

And regarding oil there, according to my searches the oil in the east is a bit of a baloon..

Oil there is too deep and too expensive to bring it up.

But i will say I agree with you in generic terms.

We have to find a way to live together and should stop trying to impose any type of ethnicity to others.

We should stop calling people who dont want to call themselves Turk as traitors. It is like forcing a scott to call himself english (and saying that but ´being english´ refers to being the citizen of this country)

i dont understand what you mean

but for other rules, like the abuse of police and etc... near your being kurd, turk and laz doesnt have the major role... what you do, how you behave...

You are living in a dream world if you believe this!  Are you trying to tell me that the police are not racist?

I have news for you - nearly ALL police in any country are racist!