1st Edition

The Kurdish Question in Turkey New Perspectives on Violence, Representation and Reconciliation

Edited By Cengiz Gunes, Welat Zeydanlioglu Copyright 2014
    304 Pages
    by Routledge

    304 Pages
    by Routledge

    Almost three decades have passed since political violence erupted in Turkey’s south-eastern regions, where the majority of Turkey’s approximately 20 million Kurds live. In 1984, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) initiated an insurgency which intensified in the following decades and continues to this day. Kurdish regions in Turkey were under military rule for more than a decade and the conflict has cost the lives of 45,000 people, including soldiers, guerrillas and civilians. The complex issue of the Kurdish Question in Turkey is subject to comprehensive examination in this book.

    This interdisciplinary edited volume brings together chapters by social theorists, political scientists, social anthropologists, sociologists, legal theorists and ethnomusicologists to provide new perspectives on this internationally significant issue. It elaborates on the complexity of the Kurdish question and examines the subject matter from a number of innovative angles.

    Considering historical, theoretical and political aspects of the Kurdish question in depth and raising issues that have not been discussed sufficiently in existing literature, this book is an invaluable resource for students and scholars of Nationalism and Conflict, Turkish Politics and Middle Eastern politics more broadly.

    Foreword by Hamit Bozarslan Introduction: Turkey and the Kurds- Cengiz Gunes and Welat Zeydanlioglu 1 The Role of the Judicial System in the Politicide of the Kurdish Opposition– Derya Bayir 2 The Representation of Democratic Society Party (DTP) in Mainstream Turkish Media – Derya Erdem 3 Mobilizing the Kurds in Turkey: Newroz as a Myth – Delal Aydin 4 The State Sovereignty and the Politics of Fear: Ethnography of Political Violence and the Kurdish Struggle in Turkey – Ramazan Aras 5 Re-defining the Role of Women within the Kurdish National Movement in Turkey in the 1990s – Necla Acik 6 Taking to the Streets! Kurdish Collective Action in Turkey – Kariane Westrheim 7 Repression or Reform? An Analysis of AKP's Kurdish Language Policy – Welat Zeydanlioglu 8 Confederalism and Autonomy in Turkey: The Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Reinvention of Democracy- Ahmet Hamdi Akkaya and Joost Jongerden 9 The Impact of the EU on Minority Rights: The Kurds as a Case – Zelal B. Kizilkan-Kisacik 10 Music and Reconciliation in Turkey – Ozan E. Aksoy 11 Elimination or Integration of Pro-Kurdish Politics: Limits of the AKP's Democratic Initiative – Cuma Cicek 12 Political Reconciliation in Turkey: Challenges and Prospects – Cengiz Gunes

    Biography

    Cengiz Gunes is the author of The Contemporary Kurdish National Movement in Turkey: From Protest to Resistance (London: Routledge, 2012). His main research interests are in identity and nationalism, peace and conflict studies and the international relations of the Middle East.

     

    Welat Zeydanlioglu is the coordinator of the Kurdish Studies Network and the managing editor of the peer-reviewed journal Kurdish Studies. He has published several articles on the Kurdish question, state violence as well as on the politics of nation-building and modern Turkish and Kurdish history.