1. Kurdish Conflict in Turkey
Causes, Actors, and Means of Struggle

2. Geography of conflict

3. Kurds of Turkey Kurds make up about 15% of Turkey’s population
About two-thirds of Turkey’s Kurds live in the country’s southeastern provinces; about one-third live in western Turkey
Kurds are distinguished primarily from Turks by the fact that they speak Kurdish, but are physically indistinguishable from ethnic Turks

5. Why is there a conflict? State-building nationalism in Turkey
1923: foundation of Turkish Republic
Turkish nationalism & integration of Kurds
Repression of those who resisted

6. Response: Kurdish peripheral nationalism
Early uprisings
Rise of a new counter-elite and the re-creation of Kurdish identity, 1960s
PKK guerrilla activism, , and 2005-present

7. Kurds I can't talk because I don't know my language I'd like to tell you about my self but I don't know my history I have no education because there are no schools I don't have a brother, he was a politician, he got killed No I'm sorry, no friends either, they are all in prison I don't have a village because it's burned down I don't have a house because tanks destroyed it I couldn't stay in my land because mines cover it I have no sister, she was a journalist, she just disappeared No I'm sorry, no relatives either, they fled from the war I don't know any songs, they are banned I can't dance, it's forbidden I can't tell you any stories because no one ever told me any I don't have parents, they were hanged No, I'm sorry, no country either, it has been stolen S.W.Z

8. PKK guerrillas, early 1990s.
Boys at a Kurdish New Year celebration in the early 1990s. Photo: Kevin McKiernan.

10. 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

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

12. 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.

13. Current status: stalemate & new conflict
1999 capture of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan; PKK guerrillas lay down arms
PKK guerrillas in northern Iraqi mountains
Some democratic reforms BUT…
Spring : new sets of attacks, and new anti-terror bill?
PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan being returned to Turkey for trial, Feb