Bakur plot
Ever since the founding of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923, the Kurds have felt they were treated as second-class citizens: they were no longer allowed to call themselves Kurdish, but were henceforth referred to as 'Mountain Turks' and their language was banned. The feeling of being oppressed and discriminated against fueled Kurdish nationalist feelings, which eventually led to the establishment of the PKK in 1978: a political organization with an armed wing. A violent conflict was born, which has now claimed the lives of thousands – on the Kurdish and Turkish side.