No abstract

This article examines the dissemination of images of mutilated and humiliated dead bodies of ‘others’ and reactions of Twitter users to these images as dehumanizing practices. When the peace negotiations between the Turkish state and Kurdish PKK failed, numerous images of mutilated and humiliated dead bodies of PKK militants were disseminated by Twitter accounts apparently used by members of the Turkish security forces. The author focuses on two controversial cases from 2015 and immediate social media reactions to those images in order to demonstrate how dehumanization of Kurdish militants played out in the case of Turkey.

This article examines the Turkish State’s recent practice of removing pro-Kurdish mayors and appointing trustees in their place without holding new elections. By comparing previous cases of removals of pro-Kurdish mayors to post-2016 practices, it argues that the discursive shift in legitimizing recent anti-democratic governmental practices should be read in relation to authoritarian neoliberalism in Turkey. To this end, it analyzes a Twitter account dedicated to promoting public services of trustee-ran municipalities (oluyor.net) and 89 YouTube videos that feature the trustees themselves. By demonstrating the ways in which the trustees themselves promote their work in Kurdish-populated cities, it underlines the dangers of authoritarian neoliberalism in subordinating democratic mechanisms to economic development and providing better public services. However, by studying the results of the following 2019 local elections in these 89 trustee-appointed municipalities, this article shows that the local people mostly continue supporting democratic mechanisms by electing pro-Kurdish candidates even in unfair electoral conditions.

No abstract

No abstract

This essay focuses on the anti-intellectualism in Turkey in relation to the oppression, persecution, and discrediting of critical academics. It shows how this anti-intellectualism affects the reproduction and re-legitimation of war policies in regards to the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. To this end, first it presents excerpts from in-depth interviews with academics who were dismissed from universities by presidential decrees for signing a peace petition criticizing the military operations and human rights violations in Kurdish-majority cities. Subsequently, it shows some Twitter entries from a larger dataset where critical academics are attacked to legitimize police violence in a university campus. It concludes with underlining the importance of re-legitimation of critical academics and intellectual work in Turkey if authoritarianism is to be overcome.

This article examines tweets about state violence targeting student protesters at the University of Cauca in December 2018. Its objective is accounting for the role of dehumanization of actors in legitimizing and delegitimizing state violence. It analyzes 8421 tweets to unravel specific mechanisms of dehumanization based on following sub-categories: (a) animalization, (b) classism, (c) racism, (d) religious discrimination, (e) sanitation, (f) sexism, (g) wishing for or celebrating injuries, and h) other. It shows how dehumanization a) attributes lack of rationality, morality, or agency to social actors; (b) trivializes their lives; and (c) defines them as sources of contamination. After arguing that dehumanizing discourse makes it extremely difficult to establish dialogue and promote nonviolence, it suggests future research on possible ways of re-humanization of dehumanized actors.

This article explores how two comics published by Colombia’s National Center for Historical Memory engage with the ongoing peace process by promoting a neoliberal discourse. It argues that these comics are examples of narratives that focus on economic productivity to justify the peace process and restitution of lands. First, it shows how comics participate in the construction of collective memories. Second, based on critical discourse studies, it analyses the comics to trace the signs of the greater economic discourse. Finally, it underlies certain dangers of relying on this discourse to legitimize the peace process in Colombia.