The AKP’s engagement with Turkey’s past crimes: an analysis of PM Erdoğan’s “Dersim apology”

Ayata, Bilgin; Hakyemez, Serra

doi:10.1007/s10624-013-9304-3

Cited by 60 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…It defined itself at the time against the oppressive Turkish state tradition (epitomized as the deep state), creating “the myth of the government against the state” (Günay , 180). Key in this moment was the public recognition, for the first time, of past massacres and disasters—even if in limited, hesitant, and highly convoluted forms (Ayata and Hakyemez ). At the same time, the AKP's selective critique of state violence and past massacres fortified the promise of peace among Kurds and provided further legitimacy (and electoral support) to the government (notwithstanding the ongoing state violence): Islamists claimed to be the victims of the same secular state tradition that oppressed the Kurds.…”

Section: The Work Of Remembering: On Politics Of History and Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

In War and Peace: Shifting Narratives of Violence in Kurdish Istanbul

Günay

2019

American Anthropologist

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In this article, I draw on two years of ethnographic research to explore the multiple and contradictory ways Kurdish working-class men in Istanbul imagine, narrate, and conceptualize violence. How Kurdish workers remember and publicly speak of violence, self-defense, and retribution has notably changed in the context of the resurgence of the war between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). I came to understand this storytelling of violence, omnipresent in all the social infrastructures of male Kurdish life in Istanbul, as a form of communicative labor through which a distinct historical consciousness and shared understandings of violence are created, networks for survival and dignity engendered, and moral selves crafted. These narratives refuse interpretation of the ongoing Kurdish struggle as mere terrorism or victimhood and instead recuperate Kurdish agency and counterviolence. In these narratives, "defense of the community" not only asserts peoples' right to exist but also charges just violence with moral significance, turning those who protect their community against state violence into aspirational figures. [violence, narrative, morality, war and peace, memory, Kurds, Turkey] RESUMEN En este artículo, me baso en dos años de investigación etnográfica para explorar las formas múltiples y contradictorias en que hombres kurdos de la clase trabajadora en Estambul imaginan, narran y conceptualizan la violencia. Cómo los trabajadores kurdos recuerdan y hablan públicamente de violencia, autodefensa, y retribución ha cambiado notablemente en el contexto de la resurgencia de la guerra entre el estado turco y el Partido de los trabajadores de Kurdistán (PKK). Llegué a entender esta narración de la violencia, omnipresente en todas las infraestructuras sociales de la vida kurda masculina en Estambul, como una forma de trabajo comunicativo a través de la cual una consciencia histórica distinta y entendimientos compartidos de violencia son creados, redes para la sobrevivencia y la dignidad engendradas e individualidades morales elaboradas. Estas narrativas rechazan la interpretación de la lucha kurda en desarrollo como mero terrorismo o victimismo y en cambio recuperan la agencia kurda y la contraviolencia. En estas narrativas, la "defensa de la comunidad" no sólo afirma el derecho de los pueblos a existir sino también carga la violencia simplemente con un significado moral, convirtiendo aquellos quienes protegen la comunidad en contra de la violencia del estado en figuras aspiracionales. [violencia, narrativa, moralidad, guerra y paz, memoria, Kurdos, Turquía] KURTE Di vê gotarê de, li ser bingeha lêkolîneke etnografîk a du salan ez hewl didim lêbikolim ka ka mêrên kurd en ji çîna karker li Stembolê bi ç i awayên cihêrengû nakok li tundiyê dihizirin, wê vedibêjinû pênase dikin. Di ç arç oveya jinûvedestpêkirina ş erê di navbera dewleta tirkû Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK) de, awayê ku karkerên kurd tundiyê, xwe-parastinû tolhildanê bi bîr tîninû di qada giş tî de behsê dikin bi awayekî berç ...

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Section: The Work Of Remembering: On Politics Of History and Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

In War and Peace: Shifting Narratives of Violence in Kurdish Istanbul

Günay

2019

American Anthropologist

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“…Paralleling this, the AKP government had promoted a multiculturalist discourse and rhetorical retribution about the past injustices towards the Kurdish population, until the collapse of the peace process in the summer of 2015 after the general elections in June. Tayyip Erdoğan, as the then-prime minister, even uttered a semi-apology speech about the 1938 Massacre in 2011 in an official party meeting, which put the sole blame on the CHP, as the founding party of the Turkish Republic, rather than the state itself for this atrocity (Ayata and Hakyemez, 2013).…”

Section: Festival Politics and Internal Contestationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Culture, Politics and Contested Identity among the “Kurdish” Alevis of Dersim: The Case of the Munzur Culture and Nature Festival

Sözen

2019

J Ethn Cult Stud

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This article analyzes the Munzur Culture and Nature Festival organized by the people of Dersim, an eastern province of Turkey, as a site of political activism, cultural reproduction, and intra-group contestation. The festival began as a group-remaking event for restoring cultural identity, defending locality, and mobilizing Dersimli people in the face of repressive state policies. In time, socio-spatial and political fragmentation within Dersimli society became more prevalent. The festival experience came to reflect and contribute to the debates and anxieties about identity whereby different political groups competed to increase their influence over local politics as well as the event itself. On the one hand, this article discusses the organization of the Munzur Festival, its historical trajectory, and the accompanying public debates and criticisms. On the other, it explores festive sociabilities, cultural performances, and the circulation of politically-charged symbols throughout the event which showcases the articulation and competition of multiple ethno-political belongings which are the Dersimli, Kurdish, Alevi, and socialist ones. The festival’s historical trajectory is dealt as two stages, unified struggle and internal strife, whereby the festival appeared as first a group-remaking then unmaking public event. The paper argues that this transformation is tied to hanging power relations in the local politics of Dersim, and the shifting state policies, namely the phase of repressive control strategies until the mid-2000s and the peace process and political relaxation until 2015.

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“…Kurds are a 'non-state nation' (Mojab 2001), spanning territories in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, where they have been variously subjected to genocide in a long history of denial of their Kurdish identity (Ayata and Hakyemez 2013;Skutnabb-Kangas and Fernandes 2008). Kurdish identity in Turkey, or what many Kurds claim as North Kurdistan (Keles 2015), has been highly contested, making it difficult or even illegal to claim Kurdish identity throughout long periods of the republic's history (McDowall 2007;Keles 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enacting intersectional multilayered citizenship: Kurdish women’s politics

Erel

Acik

2019

Gender, Place & Culture

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Focusing on the institutional aspects of the Kurdish women's movement in Turkey since the 1990s the article shows how it established a consciousness within the Kurdish national movement that gender equality is a cornerstone of democracy and ethnic rights. We frame this through theories of enacting intersectional multilayered citizenship and identify three key interventions: autonomous women's assemblies, women's quotas in pro-Kurdish rights parties and the cochair system where all elected positions within the pro-Kurdish parties are jointly occupied by a male and female. These have achieved a better representation of women in formal politics, rendered gender equality and sexual violence legitimate subjects of politics and contributed to establishing an aspiration for a more dialogic political ethos. While the women's movement's close affiliation with the Kurdish national movement has been highly effective, it also in part circumscribes gender roles to fit its agendas. ARTICLE HISTORY

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The AKP’s engagement with Turkey’s past crimes: an analysis of PM Erdoğan’s “Dersim apology”

Cited by 60 publications

References 6 publications

In War and Peace: Shifting Narratives of Violence in Kurdish Istanbul

In War and Peace: Shifting Narratives of Violence in Kurdish Istanbul

Culture, Politics and Contested Identity among the “Kurdish” Alevis of Dersim: The Case of the Munzur Culture and Nature Festival

Enacting intersectional multilayered citizenship: Kurdish women’s politics

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