The Kurds and the Turks

In southeastern Turkey roads often lead nowhere. Along the narrow dirt paths and partly paved roads that wind through this mountainous region, stone and mud villages stand empty, casualties of the battle between the Turkish Army and separatist Kurdish guerrillas.

The people who have fled—under military pressure and crushing poverty born of decades of government neglect—now crowd shabby cities not far from their old homes. City life is not much better: schools are overcrowded and j...