Abstract
In the twentieth century, from the 1920s onwards, Turkish state’s relations with its citizens of Kurdish origin (below, ‘Kurds’) have at times been rather problematic. Between 1920 and 1938 alone, that country faced 17 Kurdish rebellions, three of them, those of 1925, 1930, and 1937, being major ones. Then, between 1984 and 1999, Turkey had been the scene of protracted armed conflict between Kurdish separatists and government forces. The estimated loss of life from both sides during that second round of ‘troubles’ was around 35.000.
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Introduction
Ali Çarkoglu and Binnaz Toprak, Degi~en Türkiye’de Din, Toplum ve Siyaset (Istanbul: TESEV, 2006), p. 29.
Soner Çagaptay, Islam, Secularism, and Nationalism in Turkey: Who is a Turk? (London: Routledge, 2006), pp. 112–113.
Henry J. Barkey and Graham Fuller, Turkey’s Kurdish Question (New York: Rowman and Little, 1998). p. 11.
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For this definition, and the definitions of terms related to the ethnic management strategies, the author either derives upon or else has been inspired by John Coakley, ‘The Resolution of Ethnic Conflict: Towards a Typology’, International Political Science Review 13, no. 4 (1992): 343–53.
For the distinction between non-recognition of ethnicity and forced assimilation, see P. L. van den Berghe, ‘Protection of Ethnic Minorities: A Critical Appraisal’, in R. G. Virsing, ed., Protection of Ethnic Minorities: Comparative Perspective (Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1981), pp. 343–55.
Heinz Kramer, A Changing Turkey: The Challenge to Europe and the United States (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2000), p. 40.
The policy of breaking up collectivities and resettling their members in different parts of the country was an often-resorted to strategy of both the Republican and Ottoman rulers. See, Serif Mardin, ‘Power, Civil Society, and Culture in the Ottoman Empire’ Comparative Studies in Society and History 12 (1969), p. 265. For an elaboration of the rationale behind the banishments during the times of ‘troubles’, see Chapter Seven.
Marvine Howe, Turkey Today: A Nation Divided over Islam’s Revival (London: John Murray, 1997), pp. 83 and 79, respectively.
Stephen Kinzer, Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds (New York: Farrar, 2001), p. 133.
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© 2007 Metin Heper
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Heper, M. (2007). Introduction. In: The State and Kurds in Turkey. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230593602_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230593602_1
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