Majority of the youth in Diyarbakır want to leave Turkey

Duvar English

An overwhelming majority of the youth in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir, 74.1%, want to live outside of Turkey, a March 1 poll by the Sociopolitical Field Research Center revealed.

Three-fourths of poll participants ages 18 to 22 said that they’d rather live abroad because of “better living conditions,” “more job opportunities,” “education” and “a life with more liberties.”

The Sociopolitical Field Research Center conducted a poll in Diyarbakir among 350 individuals between the ages of 18 and 34, with 62% males and 37% females. Some 80.5% were reportedly single and 59.3% were unemployed.

While the youth in Diyarbakir cited the financial crisis to be the biggest problem in Turkey right now, all other age groups said that the unresolved Kurdish peace process was the most important issue. 

Overall, 33.7% thought the Kurdish issue was the most severe problem, 21.2% thought unemployment was the biggest issue, 20.9% said the financial crisis was Turkey’s most dire problem, and 11.8% pointed to the education system. 

Across all age groups, some 83.1% of participants said they were worried about their future, with 52.5% saying they were “very worried.”

Majority Kurdish-speaking

More than half of the participants, 52.9%, were revealed to speak the Kurmancî dialect of Kurdish, while another 9.4% speak the Kirmançkî dialect of Kurdish for a total of more than 60% of the population whose native language is Kurdish. 

Some 37.4% of the locals speak Turkish and a 0.3% speak Arabic. 

The poll revealed that 50% of women speak Turkish at home, while this number is only 29.7% among men.

Ages 18 to 26  were revealed to speak Kurdish more than others.

All participants without diplomas happy 

The happiest group of participants were literate individuals who had not received an official college education, with 100% of these individuals reporting they are happy in life.

More than half of the unhappiest participants were college graduates, 55.5%, and the remaining portion, 40%, was taken up by those who had master’s degrees.

Some 44.1% said that they were happy with life, while 38.4% said they weren’t. The average of those who were happy to live in Diyarbakir was higher than the average of those who were happy with life. 

The happiest age group was ages 31 to 34.