What is it like to be a Kurd ?

I've noticed there is a lack of empathy and overwhelming amount of ignorance in this world. Indeed, some people are incapable of putting themselves in the shoes of someone else. I will try to explain what it is like to be a Kurd, put you in the shoes of a Kurd in Turkey. To make it easier I won't be talking about Kurdistan and Turkey but about France and Germany, to draw a parallel.

So as you are probably unfamiliar with the word "Kurdish", instead imagine you are French (no matter what you really are). Imagine you're french and nazi-Germany has won the second world war. Imagine, the names of your towns were changed into German in 1946, French names and surnames were banned and Germanified. Even listening to French songs was illegal, basically the french language and anything remotely of the french culture was forbidden in New Germany (as you know as occupied France). France never existed and your history was more or less erased.

On your passport (if you were lucky and went through the trouble to obtain one) it would be written of German nationality. Imagine, only German was taught in schools. Imagine as soon as you entered primary school, teachers would make you sing the German Anthem, with a Hitler portray in every class and force you to say "Proud is the one who calls himself German" at least once a week even though you knew yourself to be French. Imagine you were obliged to do military service and was deployed to fight against the French resistance which was labeled a terrorist organization by Germany, by it's allies and by other superpowers in the world because Germany had said so.

Imagine during any uprising or resistance, thousands of your people were massacred, homes destroyed, hundred of thousands forcefully displaced and assimilated. Think, anyone who stood up against the injustice (and sometimes just for being french), would be imprisoned, tortured, raped or arbitrarily assassinated...

Now imagine, things got a little better in the late 90s. The French language was tolerated but still not taught in public schools to this day. You even got a few government controlled French TV channels in the year 2000, but you'd rather watch the illegal ones. In the country if you were to say you are french, moderate Germans would reply something like "Yes brother/sister, you are french but we live in Germany (occupied France), and you have German written on your passport, we are all German before all else" or would ask you "Do you support the outlawed French resistance ?" and would call you separatist or a terrorist if you did (considering the fact that you have relatives -ancestors- who are or were part of the resistance in one way or another).

Imagine going aboard and hearing questions such as, "french ? You mean you're German, right ?", "Where is France ?", "What's the difference between French and German ? Isn't it the same thing ?" or even "what are you complaining about ? things are a lot better now for you in Germany, see you even have french members in the German Parliament, you should co-exist and make peace with the Germans", "Autonomy ? that's like a stepping-stone for independence, Germany would never go for it, be realistic"....

If you read and can imagine all that, then you got a glimpse of the reality of what it is like to be a Kurd. What would you do if you were in this position ? Submit or continue resisting ? You can rejoice in the fact that you have your own nation state and identity, but we Kurds are denied to have our own.

The Kurdish question is just a matter of right and wrong. Self-determination is a universal right.