The Nation and its Fragments

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The Nation and its Fragments

• Moderating Resisting State-sponsored
  Nation-Building in Turkey

Türkiyede 71½ millet var/In Turkey there are
71½ nations. -Turkish proverb
A Kurdish man in southeast Turkey, 2004. Photo
N.F. Watts
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The New Turkish Nation (in sum) what were its
key characteristics?

• Modern
• Western
• National (Turksnation)
• Secular
• Scientific, rational

Turkish businessmen walk across the street and
past the subway station in Levent, one of
Istanbul's most famous living and financial
areas. EPA PHOTO / KERIM OKTEN
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The New Turkish nation Who what didnt belong?

• Traditionals
• Customary ways of life
• Religious figures
• Islam
• Kurds, Arabs
• Christians, Jews
• Folk lore/superstition

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Fragments of the nation Those who didnt belong
Kurdish leader Seit Riza, 1930
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State-sponsored nationalism Who resisted, and
how?

• Many Kurds, especially in the southeast
• Rebellions (1925, 1938-39, 1984-1999)
• Ballot box, political activism (1960s onward)
• Muslim leaders
• Many ordinary people
• Challenging edict through practice and time
• call to prayer in Arabic
• Through the ballot box
• Consistent support for more populist, less
  reformist parties
• Continued pressure for popular participation,
  respect for the popular will

Former Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes,
elected in Turkeys first multi-party elections
in 1950, and later executed.
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Some details on the Kurdish response
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Response Kurdish peripheral nationalism

• Early uprisings
• Rise of a new counter-elite and the re-creation
  of Kurdish identity, 1960s
• PKK guerrilla activism, 1984-1999

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Modes of Conflict

• Guerrilla war
• Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
• Conventional politics
• Pro-Kurdish political parties
• Civil contention and protest
• Kurdish newspapers, cultural organizations
• Human rights organizations

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KurdsI can't talk because I don't know my
languageI'd like to tell you about my self but I
don't know my historyI have no education because
there are no schoolsI don't have a brother, he
was a politician, he got killedNo I'm sorry, no
friends either, they are all in prisonI don't
have a village because it's burned downI don't
have a house because tanks destroyed itI
couldn't stay in my land because mines cover itI
have no sister, she was a journalist, she just
disappearedNo I'm sorry, no relatives either,
they fled from the warI don't know any songs,
they are bannedI can't dance, it's forbiddenI
can't tell you any stories because no one ever
told me anyI don't have parents, they were
hangedNo, I'm sorry, no country either, it has
been stolenS.W.Z
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PKK guerrillas, early 1990s.
Boys at a Kurdish New Year celebration in the
early 1990s. Photo Kevin McKiernan.
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Who is involved?

• Turkish Armed Forces
• Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
• Pro-Kurdish politicians in various political
  parties
• Liberal Turkish media and civil society
  organizations
• Kurdish diaspora community and other
  transnational actors
• Ordinary people

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Effects of the conflict

• 35,000 dead
• New attention to status of Kurds in Turkey on
  domestic and international agenda
• Some political gains
• Human rights abuses

Pro-Kurdish newspapers such as this one are often
closed down for expressing support for PKK leader
Abdullah Ocalan.
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Current status stalemate?

• 1999 capture of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan PKK
  guerrillas lay down arms
• Reformation of PKK?
• Emergency law lifted in the southeastern
  provinces
• 2002 Mini-democratization
• PKK guerrillas in northern Iraqi mountains

PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured by
Turkish special forces in Kenya in Feb. 1999 and
flown, drugged and tied up, back to Turkey for
trial.