Kurds in Turkey Kurds in Turkey Kurds in Turkey refers to people born in or residing in Turkey who are of Kurdish origin. The Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Turkey. According to various estimates, they compose between 15% and 20% of the population of Turkey. There are Kurds living in various provinces of Turkey, but they are primarily concentrated in the east and southeast of the country, within the region viewed by Kurds as Northern Kurdistan. Massacres, such as the Dersim ethnocide and the Zilan massacre, have periodically occurred against the Kurds since the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in
Population exchange between Greece and Turkey of 3 million within the present borders of Turkey was actually 4.3 million of the 17.5 million total. Christians were actually close to 25% of the population in 1912, not 18.9% as reported. There were 8.5 million people in the Ottoman governed Arabic-speaking regions of the Levant and Arabia of whom 1.6 million were Christian giving the total number of Christians in the Empire as just short of 5.8-6 million or slightly less than 23%. By 1924 the Christian population of Turkey proper had been reduced from 4.2 million in 1912 to 700,000 (50% of the pre-War Christians had been