ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 shows how the discursive struggles over Kurdish rights and the conflict with the Kurds developed in Turkey between 2002 and 2013. Up until 2013, the traditionally strongly securitised Kurdish rights issue became a more legitimate topic because of a favourable government policy and increasing public recognition of Kurdish rights. That this has dramatically changed again since 2015 shows that Kurdish rights continued to be a highly sensitive and securitised issue. The second part of the chapter provides an analysis of the general work and the EU-funded activities of three human rights organisations working on Kurdish rights. Most of them provided services to torture survivors and conducted monitoring activities publishing regular reports on human rights abuses. The author argues that the provision of services to torture survivors is strongly politicising in this context because it makes Kurdish lives visible. In fact, the organisations tried to appear apolitical by doing empowerment projects and constituting Kurdish activists as human rights defenders. Moreover, the organisations increasingly incorporated technologies of visibility and performance to increase their legitimacy. Yet they were also a voice in political discourse.
