Many Turkish Kurds no longer see any prospects in their homeland – especially since Erdogan’s re-election a year ago. In Germany they make up one of the largest groups among asylum seekers.
“One, two, three, kick!” dance teacher Nazli Barutçu shouts, clapping her hands. The young woman wears her long brown hair in a ponytail and watches with a serious expression as her students move to the beat of American swing classics. “That wasn’t bad at all,” she finally murmurs and gets in herself. Barutçu has been teaching Lindy Hop courses for five years now.
In 2019, she moved from Istanbul to Diyarbakir, in southeastern Turkey, because of love, and set up her small dance school with her Kurdish husband, a programmer. This was something completely new in Diyarbakir back then. The region is known for its traditional dance Halay, which is danced not only at weddings, but at almost all festivals, even political rallies.
Lindy Hop appealed primarily to a young audience; most of her students are between 20 and 35. “We put a lot of work into creating a space where people can breathe,” she says. “People feel good as long as they dance.”
A frequent destination: Germany
But this brief feeling of lightness is no longer enough for many people. Barutçu sees more of her students moving away every year. Initially to western Turkey, to Istanbul or Izmir, looking for more freedom and jobs. Europe is now the number one destination.
“There are many cases where someone starts dancing and then stops dancing after six months,” says Barutçu. “Because he or she attends a language course instead or says directly: ‘I’m going to Germany.’ That happens a lot.”
“I want to live in a constitutional state”
Rojhat Kiran, one of the students who is dancing today, also plans to do the same. The 29-year-old studied computer science and has been learning German on his own for three years. He is trying to come to Germany as a skilled worker, i.e. on a work visa – a complicated process, he says.
He loves his country, but currently sees no chance for himself, neither economically nor due to the political situation in Turkey. “I want to live in a constitutional state where I can develop the way I want. After the elections last year, around 20 to 25 of my friends emigrated to Germany.”
The consequences of the Presidential election
In the presidential election last May, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan prevailed in the second round against his challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu from the Kemalist opposition party CHP. The pro-Kurdish party DEM, which ran under a different name at the time, did not put forward a candidate and called on its voters to vote for Kilicdaroglu. For many, support ended in the second round of voting after the politician tried to score points with increasingly xenophobic propaganda.
The election result is still a decisive factor in emigration today, says Reha Ruhavioglu, a sociologist and member of the Kurdish Studies think tank in Diyarbakir. “If the opposition had won back then, migration would probably have declined sharply,” he believes.
Last year 60,000 asylum applications from Turkey
More than 60,000 people from Turkey, the clear majority of them Kurds, applied for asylum in Germany in 2023. This makes them the second largest group of applicants after Syrians. This is an increase of 155 percent compared to the previous year.
“The future became politically and economically too uncertain for these people,” explains Ruhavioglu. “They are leaving the country because they don’t know: How long will I have to endure the political situation? How far will the currency collapse go or how long will I be unemployed?”
Who stays behind
An economic crisis has also been putting pressure on people in Turkey for years, regardless of their origins. Inflation is consistently high, currently at around 67 percent. The currency has been losing sharply in value against the euro or dollar for years and rents are rising monthly in many cities, including Diyarbakir.
The vast majority of those leaving the Kurdish southeast are young and well qualified. “We are losing more and more qualified workers,” says Ruhavioglu. This is also a disadvantage for Kurdish politics. “There is a lack of managers, including those in civil society. Those who are currently left behind are those who cannot afford to leave.”
Compulsory administration Kurdish cities
The so-called compulsory administration is also a big problem. Most Kurdish cities have been under this rule for years. Even after the last local elections in 2019, one elected mayor after the next was accused, arrested and finally deposed – often on flimsy allegations.
The receivers are civil servants appointed by Erdogan. Many Kurds fear that this will be the case again after the upcoming local elections on Sunday – a vicious circle. “Of course this discourages people from voting,” explains Ruhavioglu. “It’s like saying: You have no right to participate in politics, the will of the voters will be declared null and void three months later anyway.”
Repetition instead of construction
At the dance school, Barutçu is also thinking about what the next time will bring for her. She also thinks about leaving Diyarbakir from time to time. Maybe not immediately abroad, but at least back to Istanbul or another city in the west of the country.
Because the students are getting fewer – and above all: they are constantly changing. “You’re just coming together as a group, but there’s this constant change of people,” she says. “And that makes it feel like I’m repeating the same thing over and over again instead of building something together. That’s sad, because it not only affects my work here, but also my social environment.” For now, she says, she wants to stay. There is still hope for her.