Abstract
In Turkey, as elsewhere, structural violence characterizes politics and everyday life. Institutional power structures, along with mainstream media, reproduce, reinforce, and normalize violence by emphasizing survival of the Turkish state. Because women from all walks of life are the major subjects of this violence, feminist antimilitarist activists and organizations stand as the main reference points in the search for an alternative understanding of politics that privileges not killing and war, but life and peaceful coexistence. This chapter analyzes feminist struggles against structural violence in Turkey, focusing on those aspects that emphasize structural peace. It is based on my in-depth, semistructured interviews with Turkish sociologist and activist Pinar Selek, taken as the modal example of feminist antimilitarist activism. Selek, the author of several books focusing on issues of peace and war in Turkey (Selek, 2001/2007; Selek, 2004, Selek, 2008), is the founding member of Amargi Kadin Kooperatifi (Amargi Women’s Cooperative), a feminist collective, and she participates in the editorial board of the cooperative’s journal, Amargi.
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© 2010 Robin M. Chandler, Lihua Wang, and Linda K. Fuller
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Coşar, S. (2010). Peace Is the Name of an Unborn Child in Turkey. In: Chandler, R.M., Wang, L., Fuller, L.K. (eds) Women, War, and Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230111974_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230111974_10
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