Amid the turmoil in the Middle East, references to Zoroastrianism keep cropping up. The most prominent were by the dictatorial president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to the Istanbul based Hurriyat Daily News and cumhuriyet.com.tr before a gathering in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir on May 28, 2016 Erdogan referred to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (Partiya Karkearên Kurdistan or PKK) as "atheists… they are Zoroastrians. Nothing will come of them. They have not and are not acting with our values." On June 8, the zealously pro Erdogan daily Aksam headlined a story "Zoroastrians! The Traitors of PKK......