Hakkari, Turkey
If I would not get the opportunity to see Hakkari through an Youth in Action project, I probably would have never visit ed this blessed town, settled in the middle of the mountains. Hakkari is a place situated in the South East corner of Turkey, close to the border with Iraq and Iran. It is composed of a Kurdish and Assyrian population and has approximately 57,844 people. The history of this place takes your breath away. It was a refuge for the persecuted Christian Assyrians who ran away in the mountains to protect themselves against the Timurlane occupation (Turko-Mongolian emir) in the 14 th century. Then in the 19 th century, they were conquered by the Kurdish people and were turned into slaves or executed. There were also many conflicts between the Kurdish population an d the O t toman (later, Turkish) control. Hakkari was considered and it is still seen as an unsafe place to live. Still, there is no r