ABSTRACT

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.

chapter |22 pages

Introduction

The Kurds in Erdoğan's ‘new' Turkey: domestic and international implications

part I|48 pages

Accelerating Turkey's transition

chapter 1|16 pages

Conquering the state, subordinating society

A Kurdish perspective on the development of AKP authoritarianism in Turkey 1

chapter 2|13 pages

The Kurdish struggle in Turkey

The risks of peace and surrender

chapter 3|17 pages

Neither peace nor resolution

Friends and foes during Oslo and İmralı talks 2005–2015

part II|38 pages

Kurdish gender perspectives

chapter 4|17 pages

Clashes, collaborations, and convergences

Evolving relations of Turkish and Kurdish women's rights activists 1 , 2

chapter 5|19 pages

One state, one nation, one flag—one gender?

HDP as a challenger of the Turkish nation state and its gendered perspectives

part III|72 pages

State discourse and counter-hegemonic politics

chapter 6|17 pages

Left-wing populism in Turkey

The case of HDP

chapter 7|17 pages

‘My Muslim Kurdish brother'

Colonial rule and Islamist governmentality in the Kurdish region of Turkey 1

chapter 8|14 pages

Neo-colonial geographies of occupation

A portrait of Diyarbakır

chapter 9|22 pages

Dersim 1937–1938

Shifts and continuities in the state discourse and reasoning under Kemalism and Erdoğanism

part IV|63 pages

International implications

chapter 11|19 pages

Turkey in Syria

A neo-Ottomanist or a nationalist moment for Erdoğan?

chapter 12|19 pages

Autonomous administration in the shadow of Turkish aggression

De facto (Kurdish) autonomy in Northern Syria and the Turkish invasions of Efrîn and northeastern Syria in 2018–2019

chapter |7 pages

Afterword