Images from Northern Kurdistan - my recent travel:

GOLA WANÊ / LAKE WAN + Akdamar Island + Church in the background :):










BIDLÎS + Fortress + Armenian Church (second picture):







COLEMÊRG:





















XOŞAW + KELA XOŞAW / Khoshav + Fortress of Khoshav + ancient ruins (second picture):






Between Amed and Bidlîs - ruins + bridge:









XARPÛT / ELEZÎZ:




Military presence along the road:






Note: The military presence in the area has decreased drastically since last year. Probably because they've been stationed on the Iraqi border. But still they have very long and strict controlls along the road - checking your baggage, passport etc.. Ca 10 on the road from Meletî to Wan.


To be continued...

Great that you posted this Dirii, beautiful scenery.

Awesome scenery

my favourite

You are welcome, Westerort and Optimaton... :)


@Optimaton

Yeah - mine too... I was amazed at the beauty when I saw the result on my laptop...


@Piyade

Be a MAN... Stop calling me names, Piyade... You sound like a sissy drama queen...

Great pics of Turkey Dirii,
offffffffffffffffff my Turkey i missed you
More than 3 long years without you
God, i'll become crazy
But in winter Dirii
i'll go to Turkey

Nice pics.

3 years is a long time...

Where will you be going then? :) Your home town or will you travel around?

Have you ever been there, Domestos?

I've seen all the cities in SE.

Van, Dersim and Mardin are my favourites.

What about further south and east? Did you go to Colemêrg?

That's by far the most beautiful part...

I said all cities and most of the towns. I've seen the whole corner either. Cizre, Silopi, Colemerik, Yüksekova, Çukurca, Şemdinli, Bahçesaray... But I think Munzur Valley is far more beautiful than Zap.

Wow - you've been around...

Very impressive in fact...

Nice pics Diri, thanks for sharing.



Its a very Green landscape, do they get a lot of rain in that region, or is it just very well irrigated?

Now, I don't want to turn this into a POLITICAL thread, although I think it may be slightly too late for that, but has that region ever been called Kurdistan in the past under Ottoman rule (forget sovereign nation, I'm talking regional name).

Last year i went in Portugal with my bro just 15 days

Every years my parents went in Turkey but during 3 years i stay in Belgium because i work for my dad during the vacation (he trust me)

For Christmas, i'll go to Afyon and Izmir

@Dome
Sure Mardin is wonderfull, the poeple is mixed, there is tolerance, etc...
Plus my dad did his military training there

You're welcome - glad you enjoyed them...


It's not so much irrigation - but the fact that there is a lot of rain - since it's a mountainous region (goes by the name of Serhed among the Kurds) - and it's known as part of the "Furtile Cresent" internationally... There's a Mediterranean climate - all the way to my birth city Ûrmiye (Iran) and a little further south to Sulêmanî (Iraq)...


And to answer your question: Yes, it was the Seljuk Turks who coined the term "Kurdi-stan" even before the Ottomans... "Stan" being an Iranic word meaning "Sted" in Scandinavian...

Nor did the Ottomans or any other Turkic or Mongolian or Persian or Arab dynasti have any problems calling it such

And here is a map from the Ottoman Empire:

http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cmenas/Graphic...e_asia_1792.jpg

And please check out the History Section for the Turkish document made in 1074, which has mapped Kurdistan as "Arz'ul Akrad"... "Kurdish Country"...

If you read some Ottoman history - you'll find that the Kurds were autonomous most of the time - through mutual agreements reached between the local princes and the Sultan...