Turkey has brought around 300 ethnically Turkish families from Ukraine and settled them in the country’s southeast, Rudaw reported yesterday, May 5th. The Turkish southeast is home to the bulk of the country’s Kurdish population, and clashes between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)-which seeks an independent Kurdish state in the region-and Turkish government forces have been raging as of late. The families settled in Khalat.
Rudaw claims the move is an attempt to change the ethnic makeup of the region, citing local residents. However, they also noted that the Turks brought from Ukraine were living in areas with fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces. Several thousand Turks have lived in Ukraine since at least Ottoman times.
Moves of this kind are nothing new to the Middle East. Israel helped bring thousands of Ethiopian Jews to the country throughout the 20th century and up to today. The state of poverty and warfare in Ethiopia was a motivator, as well as an attempt to increase the country’s Jewish population.
Rudaw is a multi-language news outlet based in Erbil, Iraq-the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region.
--AL
