Rêves et réalité : la question kurde

The current Turkish incursion into Northern Iraq, within the framework of the struggle against the PKK and its activities, is reflective of the strength of the tensions at the border between Iraq and Turkey, as well as the stakes underlying the Kurdish issue. The Kurds are a people without a state of their own: they are mostly divided up between Syria, Iran, Iraq and Turkey where half of them live, especially in the South, next to the Iraqi border. The Kurds have always been claiming (at least) the recognition of their cultural specificities and a status of autonomy, to underscore the difference with the people of the countries they live in.
The Kurdish issue is controversial, especially in Turkey: the PKK, the Kurdish party, as well as its activities, is considered illegal by Turkish authorities, and its leaders are imprisoned, like Abdullah Ocalan. The PKK members are actually viewed as terrorists by the international community, so there is a consensus over the qualification of this party. However, Turkish authorities keep denying the Kurds the autonomy and the recognition they have been claiming since the foundation of the modern Turkey by Ataturk in the twenties. The repression against the Kurdish identity in Turkey therefore cannot be denied, even though no one has ever stood for the creation of an independent Kurdish state. Indeed, how to reconcile the need for Turkey to ensure its sovereignty and its unity, and the need for the Kurdish people to have their identity recognized within Turkish territory?
The issue is actually even more complex than it seems, because of the interweaving of population, which favours ethnical conflict and military confrontations. But since the nineties and the first Gulf War, the issue has become even more delicate because of the creation of an autonomous Kurdistan in Northern Iraq, raising new unsolved questions.