The Diyarbakır Region -- troubled but enduring
The territory around Diyarbakır province has been 'troubled' for a very long time. Some historians claim that its headaches began as many as 8,000 years ago, with the emergence of a warlike culture called the 'Halaf'. And a steady stream of clashes, conflicts, and controversies has followed Diyarbakır down the ages -- right up to the present-day, with its ethnic strife and the ominous-sounding "Kurdish Question". Yet, Turkish Kurds (unlike their Syrian, Iraqi, Iranian, Armenian, and Russian counterparts) have a growing identity. And one has high hopes that the Turkish Government and her loyal Diyarbakırlı citizens can work out their differences peacefully -- in light of the recent (though by no means complete) decline of the deadly Kurdish terrorist group, the PKK.
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