Diyarbakir, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey, is considered the “unofficial capital” of Kurdistan. Turkey’s Kurds have been often viewed as terrorists by the Turkish government, and their language and music banned. This photo essay appeared in George magazine in 1999, when the Turkish army was heavily embroiled with the PKK, the Marxist-Leninist Kurdistan Workers Party. As recent as 2010, the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance reported that “public use by officials of the Kurdish language lays them open to prosecution.” Here, Kurdish men dare to dream in their tea house; a Kurdish neighbor shows off her new dress.