While there are no less than 51 ethnic groups in Turkey according to a recent and comprehensive study (Andrews 1989b, pp.53-178), there is little that is demonstratively known on their present numbers and spatial distribution. Even on the size of the second largest ethnic group, the Kurds, the estimates vary between 3 to 20 million (Özsoy, Koç and Toros 1992, pp.101-114; Abramowitz 1993, p.174; Dickey 1993, p.33; Pelletiere 1985, pp.15-16, 28-31; Bayrak 1993, p.585; van Bruinessen 1992, p.35; Burkay 1992, pp.22-25). Yet knowledge of the sizes of ethnic groups and their geographic location, especially of the Kurds, is of immediate public interest from the standpoint of search, design and implementation of policies towards the solution of what has come to be called the Kurdish or the Southeastern problem, depending upon the protagonist's ethnic affiliation or sympathies.