What kind of peace? The case of the Turkish and Kurdish peace process (original) (raw)
Related papers
Peace Making or State Breaking? The Turkish-Kurdish Peace Processes and the Role of Diasporas 1
2016
When Erdogan and his party, the AKP, were elected for the first time in 2002, they made several important pledges. None of these have been fulfilled. On the contrary, in recent years the conflict between Turks and Kurds has increased and societal divisions are at boiling point. Unless relations between Turks and Kurds improve, this article contends that it is not possible to resolve the other pressing issues. Under an Erdogan-led regime Turkey has become a rogue state which is now heading towards civil war. This article begins by arguing that there has never been a real Turkish-Kurdish peace process. The outcomes of the research reported here show that the aim of past negotiations – for both the Erdogan-led AKP government and the PKK – is actually to monopolise power and violence, rather than to move towards sustainable peace. The second argument is that diaspora, especially for stateless people, is not just a 'home away from home'. The underlying concern tackled here is how successful negotiations for peace and post-conflict societies can be reached with the help of different stakeholders, including diasporas. The article includes a case history of Kurdish alternative legal practice, which shows that diaspora communities are not only idealistic protesters, but can also act as positive agents and create practical solutions for stateless communities. Finally, the article suggests 15 practical steps towards a sustainable peace.
The Influence of Diaspora Politics on Conflict and Peace: Transnational Activism of Stateless Kurds
Book Chapter: The Influence of Diaspora Politics on Conflict and Peace: Transnational Activism of Stateless Kurds, 2017
The conflict between the Turkish state and Kurds is increasing in Turkey and the neighbouring states. Societal divisions between Turks and Kurds are at boiling point. One of the main reasons for this is that successive Turkish governments are more interested in maintaining their own power than in any real attempt at peace-making with Kurds. This chapter focuses on two interconnected arguments. First, it analyses both the ongoing conflict and also the so-called ‘peace process’ between Kurds, especially the Partiya Karkeren Kurdistane (PKK; Kurdistan Workers’ Party), with their imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan, and the Turkish state. Secondly, it explores how, without any state to their name, Kurdish diasporas—both in Turkey and outside—have become increasingly active agents. The links that Kurds in the diaspora have with the international community are described. The effects of these links not only on the conflict, but also on potential roles of ‘peace-making’, ‘peace-building’, and ‘reconciliation’ processes within Turkey, are discussed. The chapter challenges Benedict Anderson’s idea that those who live in diasporas keep themselves safe and avoid personal sacrifices (Anderson 1998). Instead, it is suggested that diasporas can be an active part of both peace and conflict. The research reported here suggests that stateless diasporas can provide a training ground for institutions serving potential future states.
Peace and Conflict Journal of Peace Psychology , 2020
The perspectives of lay people within conflict settings are important because the ways in which they perceive and understand ongoing conflict can shape its course. While limited, existing research suggests that diaspora communities can also play a pivotal role in influencing conflict from outside their homeland; however, systematic examination of the different ways that members of diaspora communities frame conflict occurring within their homelands has not received attention. Using Entman’s (1993) systematic frames analysis, research by Uluğ and Cohrs’s (2016) examined conflict frames used by lay people from different ethnic groups in Turkey. The current research replicates and extends this work by examining conflict frames used by members of the Kurdish-Turkish diaspora in Germany following the same frame analysis: a) problem definitions, b) sources of the problem, c) moral evaluations, d) solutions to the problem, and e) barriers to the solution of the problem. Q methodology, a mixed-methods approach, was used to discover socially shared viewpoints regarding the Kurdish conflict with 43 people from the Kurdish and Turkish diaspora in Germany. Results highlighted four different conflict frames, labeled as a) a freedom for Öcalan frame; b) a nation-state ideology and democracy frame; c) an independence and identity for Kurds frame; and d) a terrorism, economy, and foreign power frame. These diverse viewpoints are evidence of the importance of emphasizing the role of diaspora groups’ perspectives in conflict resolution and peace process. The article concludes with a discussion of similarities and differences across lay people in Turkey and diasporic communities in Germany.
The Kurdish Question in Turkey : New Perspectives on Violence, Representation and Reconciliation
2013
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-K...
To Europe and Back: The Three Decades of Kurdish Struggle in Turkey
Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) Global Turkey in Europe Policy Briefs , 2013
Europe has been a primary actor in Turkey’s democratization process and for the Kurdish political struggle carried out simultaneously by the PKK and civilian actors since the late 1980s. The European Union and the European Court of Human Rights have had an indispensable role in raising awareness and documenting the plight of the Kurds on the one hand and inducing Turkey to embark on political reform on the other. Since the mid-2000s, however, the dynamics between Europe, the Turkish government and the Kurdish political movement have drastically changed, diminishing the role, legitimacy and significance of European institutions in Turkey and forcing the Turkish state and the Kurds to develop a “home grown” solution to the conflict. While the “peace process” launched by the government in late 2012 raises hopes for a peaceful settlement, the mismatch between the parties’ expectations render it extremely fragile.
Drawn from focus groups with 55 Kurdish young people in Diyarbakır, this article focuses on the young Kurds’ description of the Kurdish Issue in Turkey and their visions of peace. In recognition of their social and political agency, the article focuses on the Kurdish young people’s framing of both the conflict and peace, based on their own individual everyday observations and experiences, and seeks to understand how they frame the Kurdish Issue by defining the root-causes of the conflict and imagining solutions for its resolution, particularly vis-à-vis the dominant frames regarding the Kurdish Issue in Turkey.
The Kurdish Question in Turkey
2013
Almost three decades have passed since political violence erupted in Turkey's southeastern Kurdish 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 according to the Turkish authorities, the conflict has cost the lives of 40,000 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.