Browsing by Subject "Kurds"
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Item Open Access The conflict resolution and counterterrorism dilemma: Turkey faces its Kurdish question(Taylor & Francis, 2011) Aydinli, E.; Ozcan, N. A.This article considers the relationship between two processes-conflict resolution and counterterrorism-which conceptually share many common points, yet in practice do not necessarily proceed together easily towards a common goal. Considering particular cases of ethnic conflict in which terrorist factions exist, the article argues that while neither conflict resolution nor counterterrorism alone can adequately address the problem, simultaneously conducting both must keep in mind the processes' inherent differences and avoid excessive prioritizing of one over the other. By exploring recent Turkish governmental initiatives to address the Kurdish question, the article attempts to provide an outline for how to successfully cope with the two processes simultaneously.Item Open Access Curbing Kurdish ethno-nationalism in Turkey: an empirical assessment of pro-Islamic and socio-economic approaches(Routledge, 2010) Sarigil, Z.Within the debates on curbing Kurdish ethno-nationalism in Turkey, the pro-Islamic approach puts emphasis on empowering the notion of 'Islamic brotherhood' between Turks and Kurds. The socio-economic approach, on the other hand, draws attention to improving the socio-economic status of the Kurds. By using World Values Survey data, this study tests these two distinct approaches. Logit estimates provide strong support for the socio-economic approach. Individuals with a better socio-economic status (i.e. higher level of education and income) are less likely to support Kurdish ethno-nationalist formations while religion-related factors do not have a significant impact. Some theoretical and policy implications are also provided. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.Item Open Access The ethnic question in an environment of insecurity: the Kurds in Turkey(1999) Icduygu, A.; Romano, D.; Sirkeci, I.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.Item Open Access “Inside outsiders:” comparing state policies towards citizens of Palestinian and Kurdish descent in Israel and Turkey(2021-10) Elitsoy, Zeliha AslıIsrael and Turkey have been regarded as ethnically divided societies where ethnicity represented a fundamental political cleavage between a national majority and ethnic minority. The formation of Israeli and Turkish nation-states simultaneously led to the “minoritization” of those Palestinians and Kurds who constituted the biggest ethnic and linguistic minority by a wide margin in their respective countries. While Israel never considered assimilating its Palestinian citizens into mainstream Israeli national identity, considering Jewishness as its essential and indispensable element, Turkey engaged in assimilation policies visà- vis its Kurdish citizens, which met with limited success. Although the two countries applied different methods of ethnic diversity management, they have converged in maintaining exclusive state identities, Jewish and Turkish, and excluded their Palestinian and Kurdish minorities from political and economic power. Especially in recent decades, both states have been challenged by their Palestinian and Kurdish minorities seeking equal treatment with the Jewish and Turkish majority. Minority demands share common elements: the recognition of their status as a national minority entitled to collective rights and effective inclusion into the political system. However, awarding full citizenship rights has been questioned on accounts of Jewish sovereignty dilution fears in Israel and Kurdish self-determination and partition in Turkey. Failing to distinguish their citizens from their trans-border ethnic kin groups and viewing them as part of trans-national community threatening Israeli and Turkish sovereignty, Israel’s citizens of Palestinian descent and Turkey’s citizens of Kurdish descent have been turned into “inside outsiders.”Item Open Access Is it ripe yet? resolving Turkey’s 30 years of conflict with the PKK(Routledge, 2016) Ünal, M. C.Turkey has lately been in the midst of trying to resolve its three-decade old struggle with the Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK). Elaborating on the history of this conflict, this study analyzes why previous attempts to resolve it failed and why other conflict-resolution opportunities were not taken until 2007. It devotes particular attention to the emergence and failure of the latest resolution process and analyzes prospects and challenges of a potential resolution by analyzing the context, content, and conduct of Turkey's latest peace attempt. This study finds, first, that the PKK has been open to a negotiated settlement since 1993, but the state regime rejected reconciliation and pursued unilateral military solutions until 2007, when Turkey finally recognized the military stalemate and costly deadlock. Second, it argues that what really forced Turkey to search for a resolution are—in addition to the hurting stalemate—recent national and regional power shifts, which have also destabilized the resolution process itself. Third, this study asserts that despite the ripe conditions for resolution, the context and the content of the latest process revealed crucial deficiencies that require a complete restructuring of the central government as well the need to develop greater institutionalization and social engagement for a potential conflict resolution. Finally, this study claims that the nature and characteristics of the current phase of the conflict, as they stand, indicate significant fragilities and spoiling risks due to both internal and external dynamics and actors, as recent developments have indicated in the failure of the latest resolution attempt. © 2015 Taylor & Francis.Item Open Access Passing ethnic identities : a case study on comedy in Turkish cinema(2014) Deliormanlı, EceThis study analyzes minority representation strategies in Turkish cinema, particularly Kurds in mainstream comedies. In the study passing is taken into account as a representation strategy that was developed and sustained by the dominant ideology in order to maintain ethnic inequalities in a society. Study examines how minority representations are created by majority through different discourses and how Kurdishness contextually either exaggerated or lessened by passing strategies of the mainstream Turkish cinema to privilege one ethnicity, Turkishness, over the other(s).Item Open Access The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the 2015 elections(Routledge, 2016) Grigoriadis, I. N.The Peoples’ Democratic Party (Halkların Demokratik Partisi [HDP]) was one of the leading actors in Turkey's double parliamentary elections in 2015. Under the leadership of Selahattin Demirtaş, it has enjoyed great success, crossing the ten percent threshold and entering parliament in the June 7, 2015 elections. Yet the hype was mitigated by the party's poorer results in the November 1, 2015 elections. This electoral performance manifested the strengths as well as the limits of the HDP's ability to maintain its support in a polarized political environment. Yet the HDP remains an indispensable actor for the peaceful resolution of the Kurdish issue. © 2016 Taylor & Francis.Item Open Access Politics, cultural heterogeneity and support for European Union membership in Turkey(Routledge, 2012) Wuthrich, F. M.; Ardağ, M. M.; Uğur, D.This study analyses factors related to attitudes toward European Union (EU) accession, taking into account political affiliation, religious and ethnic identity, fear of foreign threat, utilitarian considerations, along with a number of other variables through a survey conducted among Turkish citizens in general and also among various Alevi communities. The results show that Alevi identity, in contrast to Kurdish background, was strongly indicative of positive attitudes toward the EU. Furthermore, in conjunction with existing literature on EU integration, political party affiliation, utilitarian concerns and fear of foreigners were associated with attitudes toward membership among all groups, while religiosity was not a significant determinant of attitudes toward the EU.Item Unknown Why religious people support ethnic insurgency? Kurds, religion and support for the PKK(Cambridge University Press, 2020) Karakoç, E.; Sarıgil, ZekiThis study challenges a dominant view that religion constrains the support for an ethnic insurgency. It argues that observing the discrepancy between religious brotherhood discourses of ethnic majority state and discrimination and inter-ethnic inequality in the social, political, and economic sphere as a result of the long-standing securitization of minority rights increase skepticism toward government among religious minorities. This long-term perception makes them receptive to the messages of an insurgent group that claims to fight for cultural and political rights of an ethnic minority. Utilizing two original public opinion surveys conducted in Turkey in 2011 and 2013, before and right after the peace talks between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers' Party—The Partîya Karkêren Kurdistan (PKK), this study tests its hypotheses by taking the Kurdish conflict as a case study. The findings challenge the dominant paradigm that expects a negative relationship between religiosity and rebel support. Religious Kurds do not differ from non-religious ones in support for the formerly Marxist–Leninist PKK. Second, political and economic grievances matter; the perception among Kurds, of state discrimination and inter-ethnic economic inequality generates positive attitudes toward the PKK. Finally, the perception of inter-ethnic socioeconomic inequality amplifies support for the PKK among religious Kurds.