1st Edition
The Kurds in Erdogan's "New" Turkey Domestic and International Implications
This book focuses on the AKP government since 2002 during which time the state’s approach to the Kurdish Question has undergone several changes. Examining what preceded and followed the failed putsch of 2016, it explains and critiques that situates the Kurdish Question in its broader context. It stands out with the main objective to avoid any ‘policy-oriented bias’ through an interdisciplinary and multi-thematic approach.
The volume discusses the state and policies in the Kurdish region of Turkey, as well as counter-hegemonic discourses that seek to reform existing institutions. Some chapters focus on the domestic aspects and gender perspectives of the Kurdish Question in Turkey, which focus has been taken over by recent developments in Syria and the Middle East in general. Other chapters include a range of new aspects of Turkish society and politics, and the international aspects of Ankara’s policies and its implications not only inside Turkey but also internationally.
Taking both domestic and foreign policy aspects into account, the book offers a set of innovative explanations for the state of crisis in Turkey and a solid basis for thinking about the likely path forward. Scholars, researchers and post-graduates, interested in political theory, Kurdish and Middle East politics will find this book invaluable.
Introduction The Kurds in Erdoğan’s ‘New’ Turkey: Domestic and International Implications Nikos Christofis
Part I. Accelerating Turkey’s Transition
1. Conquering the State, Subordinating Society: A Kurdish Perspective on the Development of AKP Authoritarianism in Turkey Joost Jongerden
2. The Kurdish Struggle in Turkey: The Risks of Peace and Surrender Seevan Saeed
3. Neither Peace nor Resolution: Friends and Foes during Oslo and İmralı talks 2005–2015 Kumru F. Toktamış
Part II. Kurdish Gender Perspectives
4.Clashes, Collaborations and Convergences: Evolving Relations of Turkish and Kurdish Women’s Rights Activist Nadje Al-Ali and Latif Tas
5. One State, One Nation, One Flag – One Gender? HDP as a challenger of the Turkish nation state and its gendered perspectives Rosa Burç
Part III. State Discourse and Counter-Hegemonic Politics
6. Left-wing Populism in Turkey: The Case of HDP Ömer Tekdemir
7. ‘My Muslim Kurdish Brother’: Colonial Rule and Islamist Governmentality in the Kurdish Region of Turkey Mehmet M. Kurt
8. Neo-colonial Geographies of Occupation: A Portrait of Diyarbakir Hazal Dölek
9. Dersim 1937–38: Shifts and continuities in the state discourse and reasoning under Kemalism and Erdoğanism Pınar Dinç
Part IV. International Implications
10. The geopolitics of Turkey’s Kurdish question Can Cemgil
11. Turkey in Syria: A Neo-Ottomanist or a Nationalist Moment for Erdoğan? Cengiz Çandar
12. Autonomous Administration in the Shadow of Turkish Aggression: De-facto (Kurdish) Autonomy in Northern Syria and the Turkish Invasions of Afrîn and Northeastern Syria in 2018–2019 Thomas Schmidinger
Afterword Michael M. Gunter
Biography
Nikos Christofis is an associate professor in the Center for Turkish Studies and the School of History and Civilization at Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China. His work focuses on comparative historical analysis of Greece, Turkey and Cyprus. He has published extensively in Greek, English, Turkish, Chinese and Spanish.
