This blog is intended to go along with Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues, by John R. Weeks, published by Cengage Learning. The latest edition is the 13th (it will be out in January 2020), but this blog is meant to complement any edition of the book by showing the way in which demographic issues are regularly in the news.

You can download an iPhone app for the 13th edition from the App Store (search for Weeks Population).

If you are a user of my textbook and would like to suggest a blog post idea, please email me at: john.weeks@sdsu.edu

Monday, September 22, 2014

New Surge out of Syria

As bad as things have been for the past three years in Syria, this past weekend appears to have been the worst yet in terms of refugees. The United Nations estimates that 130,000 Kurdish refugees from Syria have flooded into Turkey as ISIS conducts what some are seeing as ethnic genocide in the north of Syria. Unfortunately, their welcome has not been too warm in Turkey, which has been resisting a long-time demand by Turkish Kurds for autonomy from Turkish rule. CNN notes that:
As Turkish Kurds have responded to their ethnic brothers and sisters in Syria, friction has heated up between the Kurdistan Workers Party and Turkish security forces, who used tear gas and water cannons against them in several clashes.
The number of Syrian refugees now in Turkey since the beginning of the conflict is approaching 1.6 million with no end in sight.
That last comment is the key one here, adding to the huge question of what is going to become of Syria--and when?

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