ABSTRACT
Probably no other issue has plagued the Turkish state as incessantly as the Kurdish question. The Turkish Republic has, since its establishment in the early 1920s, wrestled with the Kurdish question, which has assumed many forms since then, including armed resistance, massive political discontent, lack of cultural integration and acute poverty. In due course, the state employed a rich vocabulary of rhetoric and varying policies of citizenship in dealing with this enduring and multifaceted question. While it has perceived the question, at turns, as one of ‘the resistance of the past’, ‘banditry’, ‘regional backwardness’, ‘foreign incitement’ and ‘disloyalty’, it has utilized recognition, oppression, assimilation and discrimination in its attempts to cope. This chapter aims at documenting the Turkish state’s varying perceptions of the Kurdish question and the citizenship policies that have accompanied these perceptions.
