Turkish Kurds say they're not going anywhere despite crackdown
Even before the shocking assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey Dec. 19, Turkey has been a country very much on edge.
Since a failed coup attempt in July, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hit back hard at those he considers enemies.
Thousands of Turkish academics, activists, journalists have been arrested under the auspices of the government's fight against domestic threats.
And Erdogan continues to crack down on the country's Kurdish population.
Journalist and filmmaker Nelofer Pazira has just returned from the Kurdish heartland in southeastern Turkey, where the government has been locked in a guerilla war with the Kurdistan Workers Party — or PKK — for decades.
Not all Kurds support the PKK's terror campaign, or the group's dream of an independent Kurdistan. But Pazira tells The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti that since the coup attempt, the Turkish government no longer distinguishes between Kurdish citizens and the PKK.
"Kurds have not been immune to the crackdown that the rest of Turkey has faced in the past five months even though there is no evidence that Kurds or the PKK had anything to do with the coup attempt."
Pazira says that a lot of the Kurds believe the government's new publicized assault on ISIS in Syria is a smokescreen for the army to attack them.
And adds that Turks and many people in the Middle East believe this too.
"They point out that the Turkish Air Force spends much more time bombing the Kurds than they are bombing ISIS."
'This is our city, our country.'
Pazira tells Tremonti that in the old city of Dyeribakair she met a Kurdish woman with friends in a hidden cafe. All of them consider themselves Turks as well as Kurds.
"They said they do not support the PKK, they just want their freedom back," Pazira explains.
Despite the crackdown, the women refuse to leave.
"This is our city, our country."
Listen to the full conversation at the top of this post.