Civilian Victimization and the Politics of Information in the Kurdish Conflict in Turkey

Abstract

During the 1990s, thousands of Kurdish settlements in Eastern Turkey were forcibly evacuated, resulting in the displacement of more than one million Kurdish villagers. This article examines why some villages survived while the populations of others were forcibly displaced. It also addresses the broader question of why particular groups of civilians become more vulnerable to coercion in the course of armed conflict, and how their vulnerability is shaped by the extent and quality of information that states possess about population groups, particularly minorities deemed dangerous to the regime. The author argues that state practices to categorize the identity of minority groups and to collect information about their behavior and allegiances are integral to the dynamics of violence. Such practices make certain categories of citizens more vulnerable to victimization and often introduce biases into the information gathered. Focusing on Turkey's population census, elections, and the use of informants embedded in communities, the author examines information-gathering practices from the national to the local level. The author uses original data on displacement, Kurdish insurgent violence, and election results, as well as interviews with displaced persons and progovernment militia members, tochallenge the view that civilian victimization in counterinsurgency wars stems primarily from states' inability to distinguish civilians from insurgents.

A Path out of Patriarchy? Political Agency and Social Identity of Women Fighters

“…There is limited empirical evidence supporting the dismantling of traditional family structures as a primary explanation in the case of the PKK women for two reasons. 38 First, women’s mobilization in large numbers preceded the intensification of counterinsurgency policies characterized by systematic village evacuations, mass arrests, and extrajudicial killings by 1993 (Belge 2016). Next, while many female recruits came from displaced families who were exposed to violence, male family members were still present.…”

TURKEY: The Kurdish Issue. Limits of Security Methods

“…The armed con lict has not only left at least 50,000 people dead so far, but it has also generated other signi icant humanitarian costs, including village evacuations, forced migrations, extrajudicial killings and persecutions (Barkey, 1993;Belge, 2016;Calislar, 2013;Candar, 2013). In addition, the con lict has cost the economy at least 300 to 450 billion USA dollars (Ensaroglu, 2013;Yayman, 2011).…”

“…9 The inal report supporting all the above studies was published by the KONDA Research and Consultancy (KONDA Araştırma ve Danışmanlık, KONDA) in 2016. 10 This report inds that almost all Kurdish circles want Turkey to eliminate any sense of ethnicity-based discrimination in its Constitution and laws (KONDA, 2016).…”

Reconsidering nationalism and feminism: the Kurdish political movement in Turkey

“…The 1990s, for example, were extremely tense and violent in terms of the conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurdish political movement, including the forcible evacuation of 3,000 Kurdish villages and the displacement of anything between 1 and 4 million Kurds depending on the sources (Kurban :7). Not just Kurdish guerrillas, but thousands innocent male and female civilians were killed by government forces (Belge ). Our respondents' recollections about this period are in line with Dryaz' assessment that women's involvement was encouraged by the Kurdish movement not only as a symbol of liberation and revolution but also as a symbol of Kurdish culture: ‘In parades and demonstrations they occupied the first rows by dressing up in the red, green and yellow colours which constitute a recognizable Kurdish symbol’ (Dryaz ).…”