01:06 Here in Istanbul is little Kurdistan. In the early 1990s, millions of migrants fled their troubled homeland in the south-east to find a job and stability in Turkeys most flourishing town.
01:18 Kurdish pop group Agire Jiyan - which translates roughly as fire of life - is hugely popular among the young here. Previously, lyrics writtten in Kurdish about freedom was a recipe for a visit from the heavy handed Turkish police. Those days are over, but the music is still censored on the Radio.
01:42 Meral Tekci, Singer of Agire Jiyan
Our songs tell stories about our lives. For example the song about my friend Helin. She was an actress in a political theatre group. She died 1995 when some armed people opened fire on a public bus. The killers were never arrested, they just disappeared.
02:03 Turkey is still getting used to the seeming end of Kurdish seperatism.
Here in Ankara, soldiers are mocking up a riot, to practice de-escalation. The security forces act with restraint.
02:21 But in reality, the police here have a far less restrained reputation. At this protest in 2004, police took batons to many unarmed protestors, who were championing minority-rights. The law has now been changed to allow more freedom of protest, but it will take time for the security-forces to adapt to the new rules.
02:48 Diyarbakir in the Southeast of Turkey is the center of the Kurdish dominated provinces. Two and a half years ago martial law was lifted in the troubed province. Many reforms have been passed by the government since then, but change on the ground is a slow process.
03:01 Local station Gün-TV only plays Agire Jiyans love songs. Political songs and the news are strictly censored. But even non-political Kurdish music has to be approved by the Council for Radio and Television.
Cemal Dogan, Chefeditor Gün TV
03:21 If you want to broadcast a programme in Kurdish you have to send scripts to the Council for Radio and Television a month before. But how can you produce news a month in advance? Thats impossible. So at the moment we can only broadcast entertainment programmes in Kurdish.
03:43 Kurdish was forbidden for centuries. Now, at last, there are courses to study the language. From Diyarbakir we are driving 200 Kilometres to the town of Urfa.
.
03:53 Urfa isnt just populated by Kurds. Arabs, Kurds and Turks all live together in this 2000 year old town. The conservative islamic party is the most popular party here one of the reasons why the first Kurdish language course could get opened in this town.
04:13 There are enough interested students, but there are still only six courses in the whole of Turkey. The A lot of problems remain unsolved for example the Kurdish alphabet.
04:26 Huseyin, Pro-Kurdish Party
W is no problem in English names, but it is forbidden to use Kurdish names with W, because the letter doesnt exist in the Turkish alphabet.
04:42 The former ban on Kurdish has left its mark on the region. A lot of Kurds dont speak their mother tongue properly and the younger ones are usually not able to write or read in Kurdish.
Hüseyin Kücükbalaban, Demokratische Volkspartei (DEHAP)
04:58 I am a teacher myself, but I am illiterate in Kurdish, I am only able to speak it. We want to have Kurdish as a taught language at schools. Teachers have to get trained at the universities. A few language courses are not enough.
05:15 Politics effects all spheres of life in the region. The distribution of water here has long been used in games of brinkmanship: Giant dams were supposed to bring welfare and progress, but in reality farmers in Soruc, close to Urfa, got only deserted land and grew poorer.
05:32 In the village, water is strictly rationed, because it has to be brought from the nearest big city in tanks. The farmers keep few animals, because of the shortage of water. Arable farming is nearly impossible owing to the dryness of the soil. The huge dam a few kilometres away lowered the ground water level - all the fountains are dry. The reason is simple - villagers in this area vote for the pro-kurdish party, meaning the ruling conservative-islamic town council wont deliver irrigation. Most families have been forced to leave the village.
Kurdish Farmer
06:08 This land was very fertile before, when we still had water. But thats politics. This isnt really a place to live any more; men and animals need water.
06:21 Living conditions in the country-side have forced many Kurds to migrate to bigger cities. We are driving with Huseyin to the shanty-towns of Urfa.
06:31 Kurdish migrants make up nearly two thirds of the citys population nowadays. Almost none of them are here by choice.
06:41 Hüseyin used to work as a teacher here. He was fired for suggesting poverty was linked to Turkish suppression of the Kurds.
06:50 Hazal Cetin came ten years ago as a widow with eight children. The Turkish military had burnt her village.
Hazal Cetin, kurdischer Land-Flüchtling
06:59 I dont want to return to my village. What will I do there? Theres nothing left. I have a home and peace here. The village is gone.
07:11 Hazal Cetin comes from the province of Sirnak.
07:16 Sirnak was a paradise before the fighting between Turkish military and Kurdish seperatists started.
07:22 The soil of ancient Mesopotamia was always fertile - villages in this area were once rich. People lived in solid stone-houses, close to lots of water. But nowadays they sit empty. 500 villages in this region are now uninhabited. Two and a half years after martial law was lifted, the majority of the region is still wasteland.
07:44 Tasköy is one of the rare villages that is still inhabited. The villagers pay paramilitaries to act as village-guards. In the 90s these paramilitaries were used by the Turkish military to help crush the kurdish gerrillas. Many Kurds refused to join the unit, and resent the soldiers - but there were only two choices: to leave or to get a village guard.
08:10 Kurdistans past is still visible everywhere. The Kurds are tired of war and they have dropped claims for a separate state. But they still want a demilitarization of the region.
08:22 Veysels Father had been a village guard and was killed in an attack. Abdulkadirs brother died fighting with the PKK. Although neither Veysel or Abdulkadir had ever touched a gun, they were forced to leave the area.
08:33 Abdulkadirs father was once a rich farmer. Nowadays he drives a cab in the next city.
Abdulkadir Inadi
08:40 Every year we make an application to the governor, but they wont allow us to return to the village. We have to get get village guards first. My brother was possibly killed by a village guard. I dont want to become something in peacetime, that I even refused to be in wartime.
08:57 Veysel took his case to the European Court for Human Rights. His father had been booby trapped in a minibus full of village guards. It is still unclear what happened - the military claims it was the PKK that killed him. The relatives of the 11 murdered men believe it was a cover by the Tiurkish military to justify further attacks.
Veysel Ilhan
09:22 My father had been taken to a military police-station before. The circumstances are clear. They were on a road, by the banks of the river, surrounded by military posts. So what happened? I want an explanation.
09:38 It is vital for the Southeast that its people get the chance to return home without too much bureaucratic wrangling if reform is to work.
09:48 A wedding is celebrated in a shantytown of Diyarbakir. Kurdish singing is allowed, as long as it isnt too political.
10:00 Reporter: Sabine Küper und Thomas Büsch
01:18 Kurdish pop group Agire Jiyan - which translates roughly as fire of life - is hugely popular among the young here. Previously, lyrics writtten in Kurdish about freedom was a recipe for a visit from the heavy handed Turkish police. Those days are over, but the music is still censored on the Radio.
01:42 Meral Tekci, Singer of Agire Jiyan
Our songs tell stories about our lives. For example the song about my friend Helin. She was an actress in a political theatre group. She died 1995 when some armed people opened fire on a public bus. The killers were never arrested, they just disappeared.
02:03 Turkey is still getting used to the seeming end of Kurdish seperatism.
Here in Ankara, soldiers are mocking up a riot, to practice de-escalation. The security forces act with restraint.
02:21 But in reality, the police here have a far less restrained reputation. At this protest in 2004, police took batons to many unarmed protestors, who were championing minority-rights. The law has now been changed to allow more freedom of protest, but it will take time for the security-forces to adapt to the new rules.
02:48 Diyarbakir in the Southeast of Turkey is the center of the Kurdish dominated provinces. Two and a half years ago martial law was lifted in the troubed province. Many reforms have been passed by the government since then, but change on the ground is a slow process.
03:01 Local station Gün-TV only plays Agire Jiyans love songs. Political songs and the news are strictly censored. But even non-political Kurdish music has to be approved by the Council for Radio and Television.
Cemal Dogan, Chefeditor Gün TV
03:21 If you want to broadcast a programme in Kurdish you have to send scripts to the Council for Radio and Television a month before. But how can you produce news a month in advance? Thats impossible. So at the moment we can only broadcast entertainment programmes in Kurdish.
03:43 Kurdish was forbidden for centuries. Now, at last, there are courses to study the language. From Diyarbakir we are driving 200 Kilometres to the town of Urfa.
.
03:53 Urfa isnt just populated by Kurds. Arabs, Kurds and Turks all live together in this 2000 year old town. The conservative islamic party is the most popular party here one of the reasons why the first Kurdish language course could get opened in this town.
04:13 There are enough interested students, but there are still only six courses in the whole of Turkey. The A lot of problems remain unsolved for example the Kurdish alphabet.
04:26 Huseyin, Pro-Kurdish Party
W is no problem in English names, but it is forbidden to use Kurdish names with W, because the letter doesnt exist in the Turkish alphabet.
04:42 The former ban on Kurdish has left its mark on the region. A lot of Kurds dont speak their mother tongue properly and the younger ones are usually not able to write or read in Kurdish.
Hüseyin Kücükbalaban, Demokratische Volkspartei (DEHAP)
04:58 I am a teacher myself, but I am illiterate in Kurdish, I am only able to speak it. We want to have Kurdish as a taught language at schools. Teachers have to get trained at the universities. A few language courses are not enough.
05:15 Politics effects all spheres of life in the region. The distribution of water here has long been used in games of brinkmanship: Giant dams were supposed to bring welfare and progress, but in reality farmers in Soruc, close to Urfa, got only deserted land and grew poorer.
05:32 In the village, water is strictly rationed, because it has to be brought from the nearest big city in tanks. The farmers keep few animals, because of the shortage of water. Arable farming is nearly impossible owing to the dryness of the soil. The huge dam a few kilometres away lowered the ground water level - all the fountains are dry. The reason is simple - villagers in this area vote for the pro-kurdish party, meaning the ruling conservative-islamic town council wont deliver irrigation. Most families have been forced to leave the village.
Kurdish Farmer
06:08 This land was very fertile before, when we still had water. But thats politics. This isnt really a place to live any more; men and animals need water.
06:21 Living conditions in the country-side have forced many Kurds to migrate to bigger cities. We are driving with Huseyin to the shanty-towns of Urfa.
06:31 Kurdish migrants make up nearly two thirds of the citys population nowadays. Almost none of them are here by choice.
06:41 Hüseyin used to work as a teacher here. He was fired for suggesting poverty was linked to Turkish suppression of the Kurds.
06:50 Hazal Cetin came ten years ago as a widow with eight children. The Turkish military had burnt her village.
Hazal Cetin, kurdischer Land-Flüchtling
06:59 I dont want to return to my village. What will I do there? Theres nothing left. I have a home and peace here. The village is gone.
07:11 Hazal Cetin comes from the province of Sirnak.
07:16 Sirnak was a paradise before the fighting between Turkish military and Kurdish seperatists started.
07:22 The soil of ancient Mesopotamia was always fertile - villages in this area were once rich. People lived in solid stone-houses, close to lots of water. But nowadays they sit empty. 500 villages in this region are now uninhabited. Two and a half years after martial law was lifted, the majority of the region is still wasteland.
07:44 Tasköy is one of the rare villages that is still inhabited. The villagers pay paramilitaries to act as village-guards. In the 90s these paramilitaries were used by the Turkish military to help crush the kurdish gerrillas. Many Kurds refused to join the unit, and resent the soldiers - but there were only two choices: to leave or to get a village guard.
08:10 Kurdistans past is still visible everywhere. The Kurds are tired of war and they have dropped claims for a separate state. But they still want a demilitarization of the region.
08:22 Veysels Father had been a village guard and was killed in an attack. Abdulkadirs brother died fighting with the PKK. Although neither Veysel or Abdulkadir had ever touched a gun, they were forced to leave the area.
08:33 Abdulkadirs father was once a rich farmer. Nowadays he drives a cab in the next city.
Abdulkadir Inadi
08:40 Every year we make an application to the governor, but they wont allow us to return to the village. We have to get get village guards first. My brother was possibly killed by a village guard. I dont want to become something in peacetime, that I even refused to be in wartime.
08:57 Veysel took his case to the European Court for Human Rights. His father had been booby trapped in a minibus full of village guards. It is still unclear what happened - the military claims it was the PKK that killed him. The relatives of the 11 murdered men believe it was a cover by the Tiurkish military to justify further attacks.
Veysel Ilhan
09:22 My father had been taken to a military police-station before. The circumstances are clear. They were on a road, by the banks of the river, surrounded by military posts. So what happened? I want an explanation.
09:38 It is vital for the Southeast that its people get the chance to return home without too much bureaucratic wrangling if reform is to work.
09:48 A wedding is celebrated in a shantytown of Diyarbakir. Kurdish singing is allowed, as long as it isnt too political.
10:00 Reporter: Sabine Küper und Thomas Büsch