Die Besetzung der Dunkelheit

Can one erase an entire ethnic group from history by erasing their language? Is it even possible to completely eradicate a language?

In Bakhtyar Ali’s latest novel "Conquering Darkness", professor Tarik Akansu attempts to do just that at the behest of the Turkish state: the Kurdish language should cease to exist. He hands this task over to his two sons. The first attempts to comprehend his father's actions, while the second severs all ties with his father, falls in love with a Kurdish woman and moves with her to Istanbul.

A fascinating journey through Turkish-Kurdish history and the political conflicts in Turkey in the 1970s and 1980s.