The ethnic question in an environment of insecurity: the Kurds in Turkey
Author
Icduygu, A.
Romano, D.
Sirkeci, I.
Date
1999Source Title
Ethnic and Racial Studies
Print ISSN
0141-9870
Electronic ISSN
01466-4356
Volume
22
Issue
6
Pages
991 - 1010
Language
English
Type
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Abstract
This article examines the effect that a poor structural context, what we term an 'environment of insecurity', has on the Kurdish ethnic nationalist mobilization in Turkey. The empirical evidence for this analysis is based on data from the 1993 Turkish Demographic and Health Survey [TDHS]. The data provide, to the best of our knowledge, the first reliable and representative figures on the situation of Kurds in Turkey. Our key claim is that the Kurdish population in Turkey is relatively much worse off than the Turkish population in the country. This claim is strongly supported by the data. Many other factors also account for the ethnic nationalist mobilization, but we argue that the Turkish Kurds' environment of insecurity, materially and non-materially, stands out as a key package of both causal and intermediate variables behind the ethnic revival.
Keywords
Environment of insecurityEthnic revival
Kurdish population
Kurds
Turkey
Turkish population
Ethnic revival