Abstract
This chapter refers not to rationalist-structural-historical explanations, as until now the book has done, but to a sociological-ideational explanation that identifies deep conditions affecting the ontological security of a state. As constructivist theory says, just as there are material structures that affect the actions of states, there are also psychological, sociological, and ideational structures that impact them. Ontological security therefore should not be considered a rival explanation to the others but rather a complement to them. The chapter starts out by providing a theoretical basis for this variable, trying to operationalize it. Then it presents the case studies, with Turkish ontological insecurity (and the consequent securitization of Kurds) analyzed also through Erdogan’s narratives and Indonesian ontological security (and its impact on the autonomization of Aceh) analyzed also through the narratives of Indonesian presidents in the country’s democratic transition.
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Notes
- 1.
See on this Bahar Rumelili, Peace Anxieties: Ontological Security and Conflict Resolution, Seminar at Koç University, May 2, 2014, accessed September 30, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkQUbYN7BH4.
- 2.
See Jennifer Mitzen, “Ontological Security in World Politics: State Identity and the Security Dilemma”, European Journal of International Relations, vol. 12 no. 3 (2006).
- 3.
Regarding the problem of passing a psychological concept from individual to state level, see the literature on the role of emotion and biases in international relations, for example, Steve Yetiv, National Security through a Cockeyed Lens: How Cognitive Bias Impacts U.S. Foreign Policy (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2013).
- 4.
See on this Bahar Rumelili, Conflict resolution and ontological security: peace anxieties (New York: Routledge, 2015), p. 17.
- 5.
Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1991).
- 6.
Jennifer Mitzen, “Ontological Security in World Politics: State Identity and the Security Dilemma”, European Journal of International Relations, vol. 12 no. 3 (2006). Brent J. Steele, Ontological Security in International Relations: Self-Identity and the IR State (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008).
- 7.
Buzan et al., 1998, p. 120.
- 8.
Ibid., p. 121.
- 9.
See on this also Bahar Rumelili, Conflict resolution and ontological security: peace anxieties (New York: Routledge, 2015).
- 10.
Ibid., pp. 14–15 (Rumelili following Huysmans 1998, Marlow 2002, Kinnvall 2004).
- 11.
Myron Weiner, “The Macedonian syndrome: An Historical Model of International Relations and Political Development,” New Balkan Politics- Journal of Politics, 2, 2001; originally published in World Politics (1971) pp. 665–683.
- 12.
Kymlicka, 2002, p. 19.
- 13.
Will Kymlicka, “Justice and security in the accommodation of minority nationalism,” in The politics of belonging: nationalism, liberalism, and pluralism, by Alain Dieckhoff (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2004): p. 138.
- 14.
Jennifer Mitzen, “Ontological security in world politics,” 2006, p. 353.
- 15.
Brent J. Steele, Ontological Security in International Relations, 2008, pp. 2–3.
- 16.
Trying to explain why Belgium decided to fight Germany in World War I, Steele argues, for example, that the cause must be found in Belgium’s conception of honor: analyzing the statements and speeches of the foreign policy elites, Steele shows how feelings of honor played an important role in the country’s decision to fight a stronger adversary. The same holds for shame, analyzing the feeling for the UK and NATO allies with respect to Milosevic’s actions, feeling related to a possible ontological insecurity that played a role in the Kosovo war.
- 17.
Ibid., pp. 69–75.
- 18.
Ibid., p. 71.
- 19.
Ibid., pp. 72–73.
- 20.
According to Kinnvall, for example, people feeling ontologically insecure in the increasingly global world look to groups with strong nationalistic and religious characteristics. This can explain also the recent religious revivals and success of radical groups. See Catarina Kinnvall, “Globalization and religious nationalism: self, identity and the search for ontological security,” Political Psychology, 25, n. 5 (2004): 714–767.
- 21.
Actually Russia too can be considered as having a low level of ontological security today.
- 22.
Stephen Kinzer, Crescent and Star: Turkey between two worlds (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008), p. 10.
- 23.
Akin Unver. Turkey’s Kurdish question: discourse and politics since 1990. London: Routledge, 2015.
- 24.
Ferhat Kentel, “Nationalist reconstructions in the light of disappearing borders,” in Marlies Casier and Joost Jongerden, Nationalisms and politics in Turkey: political Islam, Kemalism, and the Kurdish issue (New York: Routledge, 2011): pp. 48–64.
- 25.
See: Dietrich Jung, “The Sèvres Syndrome, Turkish foreign policy and its historical legacies,” American Diplomacy, August 2003, accessed September 30, 2017, http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2003_07-09/jung_sevres/jung_sevres.html.
- 26.
The Treaty of Sèvres was one of the treaties that the Central Powers had to sign after WWI. It planned the partition of the Ottoman Empire, fragmenting Anatolia into “zones of influence” under the European powers, leaving to Turkey a small part of the peninsula. The treaty was refused by Ataturk, who started the Turkish war of independence.
- 27.
Michelangelo Guida, “The Sèvres Syndrome and “Komplo” Theories in the Islamist and Secular Press,” Turkish Studies, 9:1, (March 2008): p. 37.
- 28.
As examples of policies also prompted by low ontological security, consider many of the recent actions of Erdogan against internal and external enemies, for example, the incarceration, in January 2016, of Turkish academicians who had signed a petition criticizing the government of Turkey in repressing the PKK and the Kurds. These people were defined as terrorists by Erdogan, affiliated with some obscure “international forces.” The same was repeated about the Gulenists following the attempted coup in the summer of 2016.
- 29.
Mesut Yegen, “Turkish nationalism and the Kurdish question,” Ethnic and Racial Studies, Volume 30, Issue 1 (2007) pp. 119–151.
- 30.
On the Turkish orientalist view of tribal, backward Kurdish group,s see also the study on Iraqi Kurds by Ipek Demira and Welat Zeydanlioğlub, “On the Representation of ‘Others’ at Europe’s Borders: The Case of Iraqi Kurds,” Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Volume 18, Issue 1, 2010.
- 31.
Mesut Yegen, “The Kurdish Question in Turkish State Discourse,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Oct., 1999): p. 555.
- 32.
Kinzer, Crescent and star, xiv.
- 33.
Following the framework of Rumelili, Çelik explains how the Kurdish conflict in Turkey is an “unstable conflict,” that is, a conflict with high levels of both anxiety and fear, with different levels of physical and ontological insecurity because of the asymmetric relationship, and with different levels of conflict (between the Turkish state and the ethnic minority at the cultural and political levels, between the Turkish state and the PKK at the military level, and between Turks and Kurds at the social level). See Ayşe Betül Çelik, “The Kurdish issue and levels of ontological security,” in Conflict Resolution and Ontological Security, ed. Bahar Rumelili, New security studies, PRIO (Abingdon: Routledge, 2015).
- 34.
Ibid., p. 57.
- 35.
Tatort Kurdistan (Author) and Janet Biehl (Translator), Democratic autonomy in north Kurdistan: the council movement, gender liberation, and ecology–in practice : a reconnaissance into southeastern Turkey (Porsgrunn: New Compass Press, 2013).
- 36.
See on this Sener Akturk, “The PKK and PYD’s Kurdish Soviet Experiment in Syria and Turkey,” Daily Sabah, January 27, 2016, accessed September 30, 2017, http://www.dailysabah.com/op-ed/2016/01/27/the-pkk-and-pyds-kurdish-soviet-experiment-in-syria-and-turkey#.
- 37.
Communalism is a libertarian socialist political philosophy created by American activist Murray Bookchin. Communalism proposes that markets and money be abolished and that land and enterprises, i.e., private property, be placed increasingly in the custody of the community, with the custody of citizens in free assemblies and their delegates in confederal councils. See: http://www.communalismpamphlet.net/.
- 38.
Kadri Gursel, “Ouster of Kurdish MPs threatens to fuel separatism in Turkey,” Turkey Pulse, Al Monitor, The pulse of the Middle East, May 23, 2016, accessed September 30, 2017, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/05/turkey-kurdish-hdp-lawmakers-lifts-immunities-arrest.html.
- 39.
Akin Unver, Turkey’s Kurdish question, 2015, p. 153.
- 40.
Tulin Daloglu, “Erdogan’s Many Positions on the Kurdish Issue,” Al Monitor, April 23, 2013, accessed September 30, 2017, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/erdogan-kurdish-issue-flip-flop-turkey-peace.html.
- 41.
Johanna Nykanen, “Identity, Narrative and Frames: Assessing Turkey’s Kurdish Initiatives,” Insight Turkey, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Spring 2013): pp. 85–101.
- 42.
In a 2005 rally in Diyarbakır, Erdogan made a famous declaration that the answer to the Kurds’ long-running grievances was not repression but democracy. Unfortunately, the democracy that Erdogan meant was the bus to step down from when they arrived at their last stop, as in 2011 and 2013 things have changed dramatically for Turkish democracy and the Kurdish issue.
- 43.
Hurriyet Daily News, “There’s no Kurdish issue in Turkey, just terrorism: Erdogan,” January 6, 2016, accessed September 30, 2017, http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/theres-no-kurdish-issue-in-turkey-just-terrorism-erdogan.aspx?pageID=238&nID=93511&NewsCatID=338.
- 44.
Unver, Turkey’s Kurdish question, p. 166.
- 45.
“Ankara bombing: Erdogan seeks to widen terrorism definition,” BBC News Europe, March 14, 2016, accessed September 30, 2017, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35807987.
- 46.
Financial Times, “Erdogan launches crackdown after failed Turkish coup,” July 16, 2016, accessed September 30, 2017, https://next.ft.com/content/ba2f3a5a-4b3f-11e6-8172-e39ecd3b86fc.
- 47.
Ebru News, “MHP leader says Kurdish peace process will ‘ruin’ Turkey,” March 3, 2015, accessed September 30, 2017, http://news.ebru.tv/en/mhp-leader-says-kurdish-peace-process-will-ruin-turkey.
- 48.
Ayşe Zarakol, “Ontological (In)security and state denial of historical crimes: Turkey and Japan,” International Relations, vol. 24, n. 1 (2010): pp. 3–23.
- 49.
The Economist, “Name and shame. Deciding what to call a century-old Turkish atrocity,” June 2, 2016, accessed September 30, 2017, http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21699952-deciding-what-call-century-old-turkish-atrocity-name-and-shame.
- 50.
- 51.
Business Insider, “Turkey slams ‘unacceptable’ photos of US troops wearing Kurdish patches while they fight ISIS,” May 27, 2016, accessed September 30, 2017, http://www.businessinsider.com/us-soldiers-ypg-patches-syria-2016-5.
- 52.
New York Times, “Live More Coverage: Coup Attempt in Turkey,” July 16, 2016, accessed July 16, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/live/turkey-coup-erdogan/erdogan-calls-on-u-s-to-arrest-or-extradite-fethullah-gulen/.
- 53.
Elizabeth Drexler, Aceh, Indonesia: Securing the Insecure State (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania University Press, 2008).
- 54.
Larry Niksch, “Indonesian separatist movement in Aceh,” in E. McFlynn, Economics and Geopolitics of Indonesia (New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2002). Larry Niksch, “Indonesian Separatist Movement in Aceh,” CRS Report for Congress, January 12, 2001.
- 55.
Edward Aspinall, Islam and nation: separatist rebellion in Aceh, Indonesia (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2009).
- 56.
Sumanto Al Qurtuby, “Interethnic Violence, Separatism and Political Reconciliation in Turkey and Indonesia,” India Quarterly 71(2) (6/2015): p. 141.
- 57.
Ted Piccone, Five Rising Democracies and the Fate of the International Liberal Order (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2016): p. 212.
- 58.
Tim Lindsey, “The Criminal State: Premanisme and the New Indonesia,” In Indonesia Today. Challenges of History, G. Lloyd and S. Smith, eds. (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2001), pp. 283–297.
- 59.
Nils Ole Bubandt, “Vernacular security: governmentality, traditionality and ontological (in)security in Indonesia,” Danish Institute for International Studies, Working Paper no 24, 2004.
- 60.
Ibid., p. 2.
- 61.
Dewi Fortuna Anwar and Bridget Welsh, eds. Democracy Take-Off: The B. J. Habibie Period (Jakarta: Sinar Harapan, 2013).
- 62.
Zainon Ahmad, “Habibie—the ‘unpresidential’ master of Indonesian politics,” New Sunday Times, 21 February 1999, accessed September 30, 2017, https://www.library.ohiou.edu/indopubs/1999/02/21/0018.html.
- 63.
Ibid.
- 64.
“Gus Dur Told to Avoid State of Emergency,” The Jakarta Post, June 27, 2016, accessed September 30, 2017, http://blog.indahnesia.com/entry/200106280002/gus_dur_told_to_avoid_state_of_emergency.php.
- 65.
Ibid.
- 66.
Dewi Fortuna Anwar and Bridget Welsh, Democracy Take-Off, 2013, p. 214.
- 67.
“Megawati Pledges National Unity,” The Jakarta Post, June 1, 2001, accessed September 30, 2017, https://www.library.ohiou.edu/indopubs/2001/06/01/0046.html.
- 68.
Paul Dibb, “Indonesia: The Key to Southeast Asia’s Security,” International Affairs, 77(4) 2001: 829–842.
- 69.
Megawati speech in Aceh, from Atjehcyber.net , July 30, 1999 (published in 2013) accessed September 30, 2017, http://www.atjehcyber.net/2012/08/janji-cut-nyak-megawati-di-tanah-serambi.html#ixzz4CLrvDR7A.
- 70.
Richel Langit-Dursin, “Acehnese Want Justice, Not Bullets,” Asia Times, August 31, 2001, accessed September 30, 2017, http://www.atimes.com/se-asia/CH31Ae01.html.
- 71.
“Yudhoyono calls for peace with Aceh rebels,” United Press International, February 16, 2005, accessed September 30, 2017, http://www.upi.com/Yudhoyono-calls-for-peace-with-Aceh-rebels/18781108542339/.
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Geri, M. (2018). Interacting Variable: Ontological Security. In: Ethnic Minorities in Democratizing Muslim Countries. Minorities in West Asia and North Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75574-8_8
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