The place occupied by Kurds in Turkish society has changed remarkably in recent years. Around the turn of the millennium, the Turkish state still denied their very existence, whereas now Kurdish parties are seen as key parts of Turkish political life. This book uses the situation of the Kurds in Turkey as a case study for attempting to understand the conditions that foster nonviolent civic engagement in emerging civil societies. How and why did the Kurds choose participation over rebellion, discarding the violent approach of the PKK and opting instead for organization within the structures of the state? And what can their success teach us about possible ways to encourage similar approaches in other developing democracies?
The Kurdish Movement in Turkey’s growing alliance with Islam One of the fault lines of Turkish politics traditionally has been the divide between religious and secular movements. However, as Zeki Sarigil argues, the secular Kurdish movement in Turkey has increasingly become aligned with Islam. As a result, Islam has become part of the movement’s political discourse, strategies and actions. Ethnic Boundaries in Turkish Politics traces the evolving relations between the leftist, secular Kurdish movement and Islam, from an apathetic and/or antagonistic attitude in the 1970s and 1980s to an increasingly Islam-friendly approach in the 1990s to an attitude of accommodation and the rise of Kurdish-Islamic synthesis in the early 2000s. Based on 104 interviews in several provinces in Turkey (primarily Ankara, Diyarbakir, Istanbul, and Tunceli) between 2011 and 2015 as well as ethnographic data, public opinion surveys and statements from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Kurdish leaders, Sarigil shows how the secular Kurdish movement increasingly has been endorsing Islam and Islamic actors. The reasons for this Islamic opening are global, national, and local; Sarigil demonstrates that a group of strategic and ideological factors have encouraged and/or forced Kurdish leaders to redraw symbolic and social boundaries of the movement. Namely, with the end of the Cold War support for Marxist ideas collapsed, creating increasingly more favorable responses towards religion. In addition, the movement’s need to expand its social basis and popularity; electoral politics; and legitimacy struggles against rival political actors were other major factors, which triggered the Kurdish movement’s boundary expansion (i.e. its Islamic opening). The study also shows that the Kurdish boundary making was not without any tension or contestation. The boundary expansion by Kurdish ethnopolitical elites triggered both internal and external boundary contestations. The movement’s embrace of Islam on a more widespread level has major ramifications for politics in Turkey and in the region. Ethnic Boundaries in Turkish Politics has important insight into the PKK, modern Turkish and Islamic societies and highlights the increasing role of Islam in global politics.
In January 2013, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government initiated a peace process in order to settle the Kurdish question through peaceful means. However, this sanguine atmosphere gradually disappeared, before finally collapsing after the general elections of 7 June 2015. This book addresses the question of why the peace building attempts that culminated between 2013 and 2015 failed. It deals with the historical background of the Kurdish question and contemporary complexities of the Turkish politics to explain how they eventually jeopardized the peace process. This is an important and relevant research question because the Kurdish question has been viewed as a variable shaping Turkey’s domestic politics and its foreign relations. The Kurdish question's influence on Turkish foreign policy is not confined to its neighbors. Turkey's relations with the United States and the European Union was also shaped by the issues stemmed from the Kurdish question. As this was the first serious peace attempt in a conflict that lasted over three decades, examination of why it failed will inform any future attempts at peace and will help pinpoint the potential path that Turkey might face in both the domestic and international realm. This book will appeal to students and scholars with an interest in Turkey and the Kurdish issue, peacekeeping, security studies and Middle East Politics.
At the core of the interest are the controversy on the political implementation of violence, the relevance of the international law for the conflict, the regional and foreign relations of the PKK, and the chances and obstacles of a peaceful democratic conflict resolution."--Jacket.
In this study, I analyze three significant mobilizations in Turkey's pre-dominantly Kurdish-populated Southeastern region. These social movements, namely the Kurdish ethno-nationalist movement, the GÃ1⁄4len movement, and Hizbullah, claim to represent local Kurdish people by competing with one another for political influence, public recognition, and legitimacy. Despite the fact that social movement scholars have long discussed competition among social movement organizations (SMOs) within a movement, few studies have paid attention to inter-movement relations. The current literature on inter-movement relations is also unable to explain the dynamics of competition among divergent social movements. Some scholars focus on interactions between opposing movements (movement versus counter-movement), while others examine the spillover effects among similar movements who are friendly with one another. Dynamics of enmity and friendship, however, cannot sufficiently explain social relations when social movements perceive each other as rivals. This work contributes to the literature by introducing the concept of "rival movements." Based on qualitative data including field interviews and analysis of social movement publications, I analyze the process of inter-movement competition. Three mechanisms are identified: resemblance, niche building, and strategic subversion. As the first comprehensive study on social movement rivalry, this study aims to fill the bridge between the ethnicity/nationalism literature and social movement theory.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Turkey relentlessly persecuted any form of Kurdish dissent. This led to the radicalisation of an increasing number of Kurds, the rise of the Kurdish national movement and the PKK's insurgency against Turkey. Political activism by the Kurds or around Kurdish-related political demands continues to be viewed with deep suspicions by Turkey's political establishment and severely restricted. Despite this, the pro-Kurdish democratic movement has emerged, providing Kurds with a channel to represent themselves and articulate their demands. This book is timely contribution to the debate on the Kurds' political representation in Turkey, tracing the different forms it has taken since 1950. The book highlights how the transformations in Kurdish society have affected the types of actors involved in politics and the avenues, organisations and networks Kurds use to challenge the state. Based on survey data obtained from over 350 individuals, this is the first book to provide an in-depth analysis of Kurdish attitudes from across different segments of Kurdish society, including the elite, the business and professional classes, women and youth activists. It is an intimate portrait of how Kurds today are dealing with the challenges and difficulties of political representation.
In fact, Kurds in Turkey have many diverse political and ideological orientations. Focusing on the elites of these informal groups - national, religious and economic - Cuma Cicek analyses the consequences of the divisions and subsequent prospects of consensus building. Using an innovative theoretical framework founded on constructivism, the 'three 'I's' model and various strands of sociology, Cicek considers the dynamics that affect the Kurds in Turkey across issues as diverse as the central state, geopolitics, nationalism, Europeanisation and globalisation. In so doing, he examines the consensus-building process of 1999-2015 and presents the possible route to a unified Kurdish political state.Cicek's in-depth and meticulously researched work adds an indispensable layer of nuance to our conception of the Kurdish community. This is an important book for students or researchers with an interest in the history and present of the Kurds and their future in Turkey and across the Middle East.
Protests worldwide followed the capture and trial of the Kurdish nationalist leader Abdullah Öcalan in 1999. But where does the PKK come from? What are its aims? Who supports it? What will its future be without Öcalan? And is there hope for a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish question in Turkey and a democratic future? This timely book seeks answers to these questions and provides an informative, up-to-date and readable account of the Kurdish reality in Turkey today. Its focus is a critical examination of the Kurdish nationalist movement--especially the largest and most powerful grouping, the PKK.
In the aftermath of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Kurds were promised their own state. However, several factors meant that this dream never became a reality, and the land of the Kurds was divided. Amid a sense of a loss of identity, the Kurds started to fight for their social and political rights. ‘Kurdish Politics in Turkey’ argues that the Kurdish struggle has largely been a failure, and that the emergence of the Unions of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK) has been a direct result of this. The book examines the success of the KCK and how it has transformed this Kurdish struggle in Turkey from a one-dimensional political movement, to a multi-dimensional social movement.
