Episode 9: The structural discrimination against the Kurds in Turkey

Our guest is Rojhat. He is from Van, a southeastern city of Turkey where most of the population is Kurdish. He talks about the structural bias and discrimination against the Kurdish people in Turkey. He gives several examples of incidents in which he was treated disrespectfully and disdainfully by many of his friends. His family has long had tensions and disagreements with the police. For instance, his grandmother was beaten up by the police when she was young just because she spoke Kurdish. He says that his name lets away his ethnicity before people even get to know him. His family purposefully did not teach him Kurdish because they did not want Rojhat to be mocked in school or social communities for his Kurdish accent.