Even Kurds who expressed doubts about his tactics said he had awakened a new generation to a sense of common identity that their forefathers never felt. The Kurdish conflict has led to much criticism of Turkey abroad, and has been cited as one of the main obstacles to Turkish membership in the European Union. In recent weeks, commentators in several countries have suggested that if the ethnic Albanian majority in Serbia's Kosovo province deserves international protection, so does the Kurdish majority in southeastern Turkey. Almost all of Turkey's estimated 10 million Kurds come from this region. They constitute 90 percent of the population here, although in the last decade many have migrated westward to large cities like Istanbul.
Turkish officials reject any comparison between Kosovo and the southeastern Turkey.
Last month, voters in seven provincial capitals in the Kurdish region dealt the government a sharp blow by electing leaders of the Kurdish nationalist party as mayors. Here in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the region, the nationalist candidate won an astonishing 62 percent of the vote despite police harassment that included banning and attacking his rallies and arresting many who campaigned for him. Nothing can be achieved by refusing to recognize us. This problem has existed since the founding of the Turkish Republic, and it has to be confronted. There is a great fear of diversity and the expression of diversity in this country.