Why does the EU have such a firm stance against the Kurds?
It's a political game with Turkey.
The PKK has been until recently firm socialists of the Moaistic kind under Ocalan.
He has now left that doctrine while in prison.
EU has been afraid of a communist/socialist stronghold on a strategically important place as the Bosporus.
A lot of people don't realise that over half of Turkish/EU citizens are in fact Kurdish.
EU is divided about whether PKK and the Kurds should be considered terrorists.
In Holland a Kurdish ex-pat organisation can be subsidised by the goverment as long as they don't openly support Ocalan.
In Germany just mentioning his name or the group can get a person into trouble. Part of their past with a divided nation.
Tragic as it is, for the Kurds this (ISIS) is a propaganda moment as they've not had before.
Public opinion is changing and with that legislation, given enough time.
On the religious front, Kurds are predominantly Muslims. They differ in their views from traditional Muslims.
Women are (near) equal to men and can hold any function alongside men.
That never sat well with the other more conservative groups in the region.
They are often of a humanistic type of religion, if that's possible.
A fourth-world people without a country of their own. Scattered over several countries they now have deep cultural differences amongst themselves but all dream of an independent Kurdistan.
