ABSTRACT
It is not easy to analyse the evolution of Turkish Kurdistan since the foundation of the Kemalist republic within the restricted limits of a chapter. The same is true even of the events since the ªSecond Republicº, when the Turkish constitution was adopted in 1961. A number of questions immediately present themselves. What terms can be used to discuss the Kurdish problem since it is both an integral element of the minority problem within the Middle East and an internal problem for Turkey itself? Is it appropriate to select a historical viewpoint and emphasize the significance of the particularly bloody revolts that shook the Kemalist republic? Or might it not be preferable to refer to economic and demographic factors in order to describe the ways in which the agricultural economy was thrown into crisis and Kurdish towns became vast human conglomerations which only had an insignificant role within the overall national industrial production patterns? Or again, should the socio-political aspect of the issue be highlighted, so that the significance of religious brotherhoods, tribes and new urban social strata within the political life of Kurdish regions and of Turkey itself can be emphasized? Finally, would it not be most convenient to concentrate on geopolitical considerations, as the Kurdish problem extends far further than the confines of Turkey and is a key factor in its foreign policy?
