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Kurdish Movement’s Democratic Autonomy Proposals in Turkey

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Democratic Representation in Plurinational States

Part of the book series: Comparative Territorial Politics ((COMPTPOL))

Abstract

From the early 2000s onwards, Turkey’s Kurdish movement has been conceptualising the accommodation of Kurdish political demands for autonomy and self-rule in Turkey around the ‘democratic autonomy’ proposal. This proposal is based on a critique and rejection of the nation-state model and seeks to accommodate the rights of Kurds and other ethnic and religious minorities without challenging Turkey’s territorial integrity. It involves creation of decentralised local self-governance structures that are designed to involve citizens in the decision-making process and empower communities to engage in solving the immediate problems that they face. This chapter examines the key texts through which democratic autonomy proposal has been articulated to unpack what it entails and the specific demands for minority groups it puts forward.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

    Cengiz Gunes

  2. University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Çetin Gürer

Authors
  1. Cengiz Gunes
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  2. Çetin Gürer
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for the Study of Ethnic Conflicts, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

    Ephraim Nimni

  2. Çankaya, Ankara, Turkey

    Elçin Aktoprak

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Gunes, C., Gürer, Ç. (2018). Kurdish Movement’s Democratic Autonomy Proposals in Turkey. In: Nimni, E., Aktoprak, E. (eds) Democratic Representation in Plurinational States. Comparative Territorial Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01108-6_8

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