The dislocation of continental empires created a long and continuous period of instability in the aftermath of World War I. Almost a century (and World War II) passed, but essential and structural problems still persist. Out of the remains of two multi-ethnic, multi-religious empires, the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires, a huge number of nation-states were created, and minorities in these new nation-states all encountered very unenviable predicaments. Turkey remains probably the only big country out of this dislocation we call the Versailles system in political history. Not that it did not have its misfortunes while establishing a structure of sustainable statehood, but it had the advantage of inheriting the core of the Ottoman administrative and military system, which was not at all the case in Austria nor Hungary. The Turkish Republic was structured as a centralized state, with a qualified bureaucracy from the very beginning. This was also structured as a nation-state, a unitarian republic very much taking as a reference the French model.Only three non-Muslim communities were granted the legal status of "minorities:" the Greeks of Istanbul, Armenians and Jews. It is very questionable whether this "legal," seemingly protective status, ever did any good to the minorities, since Greeks have almost totally vanished, and the Armenian and Jewish populations have been consistently decreasing. But the real "minority" issue was not legally defined. Kurds, who for the most part supported the Turkish liberation struggle and who did not at all want to live alongside a projected "Armenian" state, were not considered as anything but a continuous threat by the nascent Republic. Eight important uprisings occurred after the demise of the Ottoman dynasty and later the Caliphate. Out of these eight insurrections, seven were of Kurdish origin. Clearly, Kurds from the very beginning refused the underdog status they were reduced to. After a period of bloody insurrections in eastern Turkey, mainly up until World War II, the "Kurds" remained totally ostracized. Obviously a laicist unitarian Republic offered many opportunities to citizens of Kurdish origin, as long as they did not define themselves as "Kurds" before anything else.The multiparty period that really started in 1950 with a new political movement in power, the Democratic Party of Bayar and Menderes, saw for the first time Kurdish politicians becoming part of the democratic political struggle, while professing their ethnic identity (albeit not very openly). This period of pseudo-normalization continued, with crises and interruptions, till 1980. The coup d'état of Sept. 12 totally outlawed the "Kurdish" from Turkey's political life (sometimes out of life altogether). A very deep and bloody vendetta began, and it continued for almost 33 years. In such cases, there cannot be a winner on either side. This kind of ethnic strife continues, with different densities, till the time when both sides have had enough of sending their youth to their deaths.The situation indicated some possibility of remission when the Turkish administration, first under cover, then overtly, started discussions with Öcalan, the imprisoned historic leader of armed Kurdish insurgency in Turkey. And it worked. For almost three years, there were talks and important reforms carried out regarding Kurdish language and culture, which defused much of the tension. To crown the whole evolution, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), a party of the Kurds, received an all-time-high 13 percent of the votes in the elections, thanks to its peace-abiding stance. Many Turks in the big metropolitan areas voted for the HDP, although the core of its votes is clearly Kurdish. Everything looked as if a new era could really begin between Turks and Kurds in Turkey. This was too much for conservative circles in the state and obviously for the PKK, which declared the end of the non-hostility period, assassinating in cold blood two police officers in their home and opposing the "construction of dams for military purposes." Clearly, there was no real reason for the PKK to resume the armed struggle, but it did. The government responded very violently by waging air raids over northern Iraq. This all sounds like a nightmare, and more deaths and more violence will not free Kurds and will not help Turks. Still, a century after the Versailles agreement system, blood is shed in the name of nationalism, in the name of statehood. Obviously, this must be a nightmare...