Editing Forced assimilation (section)

=== Middle East ===
==== Turkey ====
{{Main|Denial of Kurds by Turkey}}
<!-- This article is on forced assimilation, not genocide. This section only covers forced assimilation, not the late Ottoman genocides. -->

The denial of Kurds was the official state policy of Turkey for several decades, which denied that [[Kurds]] constituted an ethnic group and instead alleged that they are a subgroup of [[Turkish people|Turks]]. The words 'Kurd' and 'Kurdistan' were omitted by state institutions, and during the 20th century, Kurds were referred to as Mountain Turks ({{Langx|tr|Dağ Türkleri}}). To this day, Turkey does not recognize Kurds as an ethnic group, though the [[Kurdish languages]] are now permitted to be used.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Hassanpour |first=Amir |author-link=Amir Hassanpour |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fP9jAAAAMAAJ |title=Nationalism and Language in Kurdistan, 1918-1985 |date=1992 |publisher=Mellen Research University Press |isbn=978-0-7734-9816-7 |location= |pages=132–133 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=12 June 2012 |title=Turkey to allow Kurdish lessons in schools |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/06/2012612133656956705.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130313145427/http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/06/2012612133656956705.html |archive-date=13 March 2013 |access-date=12 June 2013 |newspaper=Aljazeera}}</ref>

It was denied that a Kurdish nation had ever existed; according to the [[Turkish History Thesis]], the Kurds migrated from [[Turan]]ic Central Asia in the past.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Poulton |first=Hugh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f4dpAAAAMAAJ |title=Top Hat, Grey Wolf, and Crescent: Turkish Nationalism and the Turkish Republic |date=1997 |publisher=[[C. Hurst & Co.]] |isbn=0-81476648-X |pages=121 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> During the 1920s and 1930s, merchants were fined separately for every word of Kurdish they used.<ref name=":3" /> In school, students were punished if they were caught speaking Kurdish and during the 1960s Turkish language boarding schools were established in order to separate the students from their Kurdish relatives<ref name=":5">Hassanpour, Amir (1992). p.133</ref> and [[Turkification|Turkify]] the Kurdish population.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=webteam |date=11 December 2014 |title=SEÇBİR Konuşmaları-41: Bir Asimilasyon Projesi: Türkiye'de Yatılı İlköğretim Bölge Okulları {{!}} Haberler / Duyurular Arşivi {{!}} İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi |url=https://www.bilgi.edu.tr/tr/etkinlik/6298/secbir-konusmalari-41-bir-asimilasyon-projesi-turkiyede-yatili-ilkogretim-bolge-okullari/ |access-date=2021-01-28 |website=www.bilgi.edu.tr |language=tr}}</ref>