Turkish Kurdistan

Turkish Kurdistan ( , No.19, Summer 1996, Kurdish Institute of Paris. or Bakurê Kurdistanê, , or Northern Kurdistan) is an unofficial name for the southeastern part of Turkey, which is inhabited predominantly by ethnic Kurds. The area covers between 190,000 to 230,000 km² (88,780 sq mi), or nearly a third of Turkey. The unofficial term references the region's geographical location with respect to the larger Kurdish region, often named Kurdistan, stretching across Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq."Kurd," Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia including Atlas, 2005.

Geography and economy

The Encyclopaedia of Islam describes Turkish Kurdistan, historically, as covering at least 17 provinces of Turkey: Erzincan, Erzurum, Kars, Malatya, Tunceli, Elazığ, Bingöl, Muş, Ağrı, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Siirt, Bitlis, Van, Şanlıurfa aka Urfa, Mardin and Hakkâri or Çolamerik, stressing at the same time that "the imprecise limits of the frontiers of Kurdistan hardly allow an exact appreciation of the area."

In Turkey, the 17 provinces of ancient Kurdistan covered around 190,000 km².Kurds, Kurdistan, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Edited by C.E. Bosworth, E. Van Donzel, B. Lewis and C. Pellat, Vol.V: KHE-MAHI, E.J. BRILL Publishers, Leiden, Netherlands, 1986, ISBN 9004078193 (see pp. 439-440)...
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