Turkey's Kurdish Question: Discourse and Politics Since 1990

Abstract

The Kurdish question is one of the most complicated and protracted conficts of the Middle East and will never be resolved unless it is fnally defned. The majority of the Kurdish people live in Turkey, which gives the country a unique position in the larger Kurdish conundrum. Society in Turkey is deeply divided over the defnition and even existence of the Kurdish question, and this uncertainty has long manifested itself in its complete denial, or in accusations of political rivals of ‘separatism’ and even ‘treason.’ Turkey’s Kurdish Question explores how these denial and acknowledgement dynamics often reveal preexisting political ideology and agenda priorities, themselves becoming political actions. While the very term “Kurdish question” is discussed in the academic literature as a given, a new and systemic study is required to deconstruct and analyze the constitutive parts of this discursive construct. This book provides the frst comprehensive study and analysis of the discursive constructions and perceptions of what is broadly defned as the “Kurdish question” in Turkish, European and American political cultures. Furthermore, its new methodological approach to the study of discourse and politics of secessionist conficts can be applied to many similar intrastate confict cases. Turkey’s Kurdish Question would suit students and scholars of Middle East studies, Confict studies and Comparative Politics, as well as Turkish or Kurdish studies.

Full text

Turkey’s Kurdish Question
The Kurdish question is one of the most complicated and protracted conicts of
the Middle East and will never be resolved unless it is nally dened. The majority
of the Kurdish people live in Turkey, which gives the country a unique position in
the larger Kurdish conundrum.
Society in Turkey is deeply divided over the denition and even existence of the
Kurdish question, and this uncertainty has long manifested itself in its complete
denial, or in accusations of political rivals of ‘separatism’ and even ‘treason.’
Turkey’s Kurdish Question explores how these denial and acknowledgement
dynamics often reveal preexisting political ideology and agenda priorities, them-
selves becoming political actions. While the very term “Kurdish question” is dis-
cussed in the academic literature as a given, a new and systemic study is required
to deconstruct and analyze the constitutive parts of this discursive construct. This
book provides the rst comprehensive study and analysis of the discursive con-
structions and perceptions of what is broadly dened as the “Kurdish question” in
Turkish, European and American political cultures. Furthermore, its new method-
ological approach to the study of discourse and politics of secessionist conicts
can be applied to many similar intrastate conict cases.
Turkey’s Kurdish Question would suit students and scholars of Middle East
studies, Conict studies and Comparative Politics, as well as Turkish or Kurdish
studies.
H. Akin Ünver is an assistant professor of international relations at Kadir Has
University. This book is based on his dissertation Dening Turkey’s Kurdish Ques-
tion, which has won the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) 2010 Malcolm
H. Kerr award for the best dissertation in the eld of social sciences.
8329-010-0FM.indd 1 3/17/2015 9:32:27 AM

1 Algeria in Transition
Ahmed Aghrout with Redha M.
Bougherira
2 Palestinian Refugee
Repatriation
Edited by Michael Dumper
3 The International Politics of the
Persian Gulf
Arshin Adib-Moghaddam
4 Israeli Politics and the First
Palestinian Intifada
Eitan Y. Alimi
5 Democratization in Morocco
Lise Storm
6 Secular and Islamic Politics in
Turkey
Ümit Cizre
7 The United States and Iran
Sasan Fayazmanesh
8 Civil Society in Algeria
Andrea Liverani
9 Jordanian-Israeli Relations
Mutayyam al O’ran
10 Kemalism in Turkish Politics
Sinan Ciddi
11 Islamism, Democracy and
Liberalism in Turkey
William Hale and Ergun Özbudun
12 Politics and Violence in Israel/
Palestine
Lev Luis Grinberg
13 Intra-JewishConictinIsrael
Sami Shalom Chetrit
14 Holy Places in the Israeli-
PalestinianConict
Edited by Marshall J. Breger,
Yitzhak Reiter and Leonard
Hammer
15 Plurality and Citizenship in Israel
Edited by Dan Avnon and Yotam
Benziman
16 Ethnic Politics in Israel
As’ad Ghanem
17 Islamists and Secularists in Egypt
Dina Shehata
18 Political Succession in the Arab
World
Anthony Billingsley
19 Turkey’s Entente with Israel and
Azerbaijan
Alexander Murinson
Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Politics
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20 Europe and Tunisia
Brieg Powel and Larbi Sadiki
21 Turkish Politics and the Rise of
the AKP
Arda Can Kumbaracibasi
22 Civil Society and
Democratization in the Arab
World
Francesco Cavatorta and Vincent
Durac
23 Politics in Morocco
Anouar Boukhars
24 The Second Palestinian Intifada
Julie M. Norman
25 Democracy in Turkey
Ali Resul Usul
26 Nationalism and Politics in
Turkey
Edited by Marlies Casier and
Joost Jongerden
27 Democracy in the Arab World
Edited by Samir Makdisi and
Ibrahim Elbadawi
28 Public Management in Israel
Itzhak Galnoor
29 Israeli Nationalism
Uri Ram
30 NATO and the Middle East
Mohammed Moustafa Orfy
31 The Kurds and US Foreign
Policy
Marianna Charountaki
32 The Iran-Iraq War
Jerome Donovan
33 Surveillance and Control in
Israel/Palestine
Edited by Elia Zureik, David Lyon
and Yasmeen Abu-Laban
34 ConictandPeacemakingin
Israel-Palestine
Sapir Handelman
35 Arab Minority Nationalism in
Israel
Amal Jamal
36 The Contradictions of Israeli
Citizenship
Edited by Guy Ben-Porat and
Bryan S. Turner
37 The Arab State and Women’s
Rights
Elham Manea
38 Saudi Maritime Policy
Hatim Al-Bisher, Selina Stead and
Tim Gray
39 The Arab State
Adham Saouli
40 Regime Stability in Saudi
Arabia
Stig Stenslie
41 Sacred Space in Israel and
Palestine
Edited by Marshall J. Breger,
Yitzhak Reiter and Leonard
Hammer
42 The UN and the Arab-Israeli
Conict
Danilo Di Mauro
43 SectarianConictin
Egypt
Elizabeth Iskander
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44 Contemporary Morocco
Edited by Bruce Maddy-Weitzman
and Daniel Zisenwine
45 Political Regimes in the Arab
World
Edited by Ferran Brichs
46 Arms Control and Iranian
Foreign Policy
Bobi Pirseyedi
47 Everyday Arab Identity
Christopher Phillips
48 Human Rights in Libya
Giacomina De Bona
49 Negotiating Political Power
in Turkey
Edited by Elise Massicard and
Nicole Watts
50 Environmental Politics in Egypt
Jeannie L. Sowers
51 EU-Turkey Relations in the 21st
Century
Birol Yesilada
52 Patronage Politics in Egypt
Mohamed Fahmy Menza
53 The Making of Lebanese Foreign
Policy
Henrietta Wilkins
54 The Golan Heights
Yigal Kipnis
55 Iranian Foreign Policy since
2001
Edited by Thomas Juneau and Sam
Razavi
56 Modern Middle East
Authoritarianism
Edited by Noureddine Jebnoun,
Mehrdad Kia and Mimi Kirk
57 Mobilizing Religion in Middle
East Politics
Yusuf Sarfati
58 Turkey’s Democratization
Process
Edited by Carmen Rodríguez,
Antonio Avaloz, Hakan Yilmaz and
Ana I. Planet
59 The Formation of Kurdishness
in Turkey
Ramazan Aras
60 Egyptian Foreign Policy From
Mubarak to Morsi
Nael Shama
61 The Politics of Truth
Management in Saudi Arabia
Afshin Shahi
62 Transitional Justice and Human
Rights in Morocco
Fadoua Loudiy
63 Contemporary Kemalism
Toni Alaranta
64 Urbicide in Palestine
Nurhan Abujidi
65 The Circassian Diaspora in
Turkey
Zeynel Abidin Besleney
66 Multiculturalism and
Democracy in North Africa
Edited by Moha Ennaji
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67 Strategic Relations Between
the US and Turkey,
1979–2000
Ekavi Athanassopoulou
68 Ethnicity and Elections in
Turkey
Gül Arıkan Akdağ
69 The Kurdish Liberation
Movement in Iraq
Yaniv Voller
70 Arab Regionalism
Silvia Ferabolli
71 The Kurdish Issue in Turkey
Edited by Zeynep Gambetti and
Joost Jongerden
72 The Turkish Deep State
Mehtap Söyler
73 Koreans in the Persian Gulf
Shirzad Azad
74 Europeanization of Turkey
Ali Tekin and Aylin Güney
75 Turkey’s Kurdish Question
H. Akin Ünver
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Turkey’s Kurdish Question
Discourse and politics since 1990
H. Akin Ünver
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First published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2015 Hamid Akin Ünver
The right of Hamid Akin Ünver to be identied as author of this work has
been asserted by him/her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identication and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
[CIP data]
ISBN: 978-1-138-85856-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-71788-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
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This book is dedicated to the hope that the children and
grandchildren of those who died in the war-torn valleys and
mountains of Turkey can one day play and thrive in the same
valleys and mountains – together.
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List of illustrations xiii
List of acronyms xv
Acknowledgements xvii
Introduction 1
Why study discourse on the Kurdish question? 3
Political language and the study of the Kurdish question 5
Why post–Cold War conicts aren’t ‘internal’ anymore: State sovereignty,
parliaments and secession 10
Organization of the book 17
1 ThetransnationalKantandthesearchforaDiyarbakırsocial
contract: Emancipation discourses in the European Parliament
and US Congress 23
Human rights: Or, how to shoot yourself in the head
with an infantry rie 26
Was ‘Turkish democracy’ an oxymoron in the 1990s? 37
Scorched earth: Excessive force and security misconduct
criticisms 45
Conclusion 53
Notes 60
2 HobbesinWashingtonandBrussels:DeningKurdishchaos
and Turkish order 63
How power thinks: Deconstructing the logic of states
in conict 64
European priorities of Turkish statecraft: Strategic utility
and secularism 67
US Congress: Betwixt selling cluster bombs and ling war crimes
case against Turkey 78
AuQ1
Contents
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xii Contents
Transnational Locke meets transnational Hobbes: Self-critique
in the European Parliament and US Congress 83
Conclusion 92
Notes 93
3 Schrödinger’s Kurd: Can the Kurdish question both exist
and not exist in Turkey? 97
Dening the Kurdish question in Turkish political discourse 100
Human rights 100
Democracy and democratization 106
Excessive force and disproportionate use of weaponry 110
Security and terrorism 114
Economic–developmental discourses 116
Legalistic discourses 118
Autonomy–ethnicity–culturalism 121
Self-criticism in the TGNA 123
Foreign Dark Powers: How Turkey understood the international
relations of the Kurdish question 127
Conclusion 131
Notes 136
4 Concluding comparative analysis 140
Notes 151
Epilogue: Justice and Development Party (AKP) discourse
on the Kurdish question 152
Welfare Party and Erdoğan’s political formation
on the Kurdish question 153
Erdoğan in power: AKP’s Kurdish discourse, 2002–2009 156
After 2009: Kurdish opening, Arab spring and the Syrian
civil war 159
Notes 166
Index 171
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Illustrations
Figures
4.1 Overall discursive preferences in the TGNA,
European Parliament and US Congress 141
4.2 Radar graph comparing discursive priorities of
emancipatory parties 147
4.3 Radar graph showing statist parties’ discursive focus 148
Tables
1.1 European Parliament national breakdown of discursive preferences
(emancipatory consciousness) 54
1.2 Both Houses of the US Congress in their discursive trends
on the Kurdish question 56
1.3 Three most active senators on the Kurdish question
and their supportive/critical record towards Turkey 57
1.4 Top four most active House Representatives on the Kurdish
question and their supportive/critical record towards Turkey 58
2.1 Comparing EP political groups’ discourse preferences with
Council–Commission 77
2.2 US executive branch discursive preferences on the Kurdish question 83
2.3 Intra-EU criticism on the Kurdish question – sorted by countries and
political party groups 88
2.4 Both houses in the Congress and both parties’ criticism record 92
3.1 Turkish governments: 1989–2002 and corresponding ideology
designations 99
3.2 Aggregate discursive output in the TGNA:
January 1990–December 1999 132
3.3 Discursive choices of emergency-region MPs and other MPs 132
3.4 Percentage of education–developmental discourses within
parties’ aggregate discourses 134
3.5 Percentage of security discourses within parties’
aggregate discourses 136
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xiv Illustrations
3.6 Percentage of ‘foreign powers’ discourse within parties’
aggregate discourses 136
4.1 Consciousness of the state versus emancipation
across three legislatures 146
4.2 Parties with the highest percentage of emancipatory discourses 146
4.3 Parties with higher percentage of statist discourses 148
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Acronyms
TK
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Acknowledgements
This book is a product of my doctoral studies at the University of Essex, Depart-
ment of Government. I would like to thank the anonymous committee, which
awarded my dissertation Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA) 2010 Mal-
colm H. Kerr Best Dissertation in the eld of Social Sciences. This award was the
main encouragement that convinced me to convert the study into this book.
I am also grateful to Dr. Soner Cagaptay (Washington Institute for Near Eastern
Studies), Associate Professor Muge Gocek (University of Michigan, Sociology),
Professor Sukru Hanioglu, Professor Michael Cook and Associate Professor
Michael Reynolds (Princeton University, Near Eastern Studies), for their valuable
comments and directions that helped me re-think my dissertation into manuscript
form. I am also thankful to Kadir Has University, Faculty of Economic and Admin-
istrative Sciences, for providing me with a great work environment that helped me
complete this manuscript on time. I am forever thankful to Professor Hasan Bulent
Kahraman for his guidance, mentoring and vision that has set the tone of my intel-
lectual life.
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Early September 2012 – right before noon. As I rush through the lobby of Istan-
bul’s famous Conrad Hotel, my eyes scan through the brunch crowd to locate my
interviewee. At a time when new Turkish foreign policy was witnessing the epit-
ome of its ‘soft power’ prestige, I am about to speak to a high-level foreign policy
maker about some questions related to this book. Perhaps the most highly in
demand interviewee for many foreign policy and political science analysts – not
to mention journalists or foreign politicians – he is unexpectedly calm and low key
for one of the central gures of new Turkish foreign policy’s golden age.
Siting down at his brunch table, I notice how the hotel’s restaurant is, in fact, a
hub of diplomacy; Egyptian opposition, Syrian resistance, Libyan notables all sit
scattered in the hall, discussing their countries’ politics and future in Istanbul, orbit-
ing my interviewee’s table. Turkey’s reach for its Ottoman legacy seemed complete
and justied from where I was sitting; foreign dignitaries scrambling to sit closer
to an inuential modern-day Re’is ül-Küttab, diligently rening their cases, pre-
pared for weeks in advance, before trying to get Turkey’s support for their country’s
future within a brief allocated time. But now it was my turn; I was going to ask him
about the regional implications of the new ‘Kurdish initiative’ – a peace plan rened
after the failure of its 2009 predecessor. After making a brief introduction of my
book and its main arguments, he speaks with an uncommonly low volume, forcing
the listener to move in closer to be able to hear his reply. “So you are writing a book
on the Kurdish question?” After several seconds’ pause, he adds “It may be too late
to write such a thing. There won’t be [a Kurdish question] soon.”
Nine months later – mid-May 2013. After months of shuttle diplomacy between
the Turkish government and the long-imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, the latter agrees to order his organization to move
out of Turkish soil and retreat back into northern Iraq. This would be the second
‘Kurdish initiative,’ an attempt at the resolution of the Kurdish question after the
failed rst attempt in 2009. The overall spirit in Turkey was one of cautious opti-
mism; would the PKK also disarm? Would Öcalan be put on house arrest, improv-
ing his captivity conditions? Would the PKK evolve into a political party and enter
the Turkish Parliament?
Amidst such debate and PKK’s unilateral decision to withdraw, Turkey’s prom-
inent journalist Hasan Cemal embeds himself into the retreating PKK ranks and
Introduction
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2 Introduction
writes a series of columns titled “Withdrawal Diaries,” charting the PKK’s with-
drawal journey from the southeastern Turkish mountains to northern Iraqi hills.
One PKK member interviewed by Hasan Cemal, called Fuat, says the 2013 with-
drawal is different than the group’s major withdrawal in 1999, which was caused
by the arrest of the group’s leader, Abdullah Öcalan: “We were new, we didn’t
know [and caused the Turkish military many casualties during the withdrawal].
This time the withdrawal is led directly by [Öcalan].” Yet, he adds cautiously:
“But this is the Middle East. Balances may change at anytime; anything can hap-
pen. Why did we go up in the mountains in the rst place? Why are we coming
down now?”
Fourteen years earlier – late May 1999. After Turkey’s then President Süley-
man Demirel’s ultimatum to Syria, in which PKK leader Öcalan was provided
shelter, Turkish tanks breach the border and begin rolling into Syrian territory.
After several hours of simultaneous diplomacy, Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad
agrees to oust Öcalan from Syrian territory. Öcalan then travels to Russia, and the
Russians forward him to Italy, and nally he goes to the Greek embassy in Nairobi,
Kenya. With signicant American intel aid, Turkish special ops capture Öcalan,
dealing a major blow to a top-down organization. Weeks after the capture of their
founder/leader, PKK enters a period of interregnum and leadership crisis, with-
drawing from Turkish territory into northern Iraq to regroup and settle succession
issues. In a documentary of the withdrawal aired in 2013 on the Kurdish Nüçe TV,
an unidentied PKK militant recalls the spirit of the retreat. Under heavy Turkish
re, militants pass through a rugged terrain, falling into ambush repeatedly. “We
were uncertain; the leadership was gone. But we believed we would ultimately
prevail.” As his group left their mountain defenses, the same militant recalls:
A comrade tol d us: “Be not afra id. We will one day retu rn bac k to these moun-
tains, for these mountains are ours.” He was right; that was the spirit that kept
us all alive: [A situation] that separates the Kurd from his mountain can not
be permanent. Then we understood we would some day return back.
Four years earlier – mid-March 1995. Operation Steel, the second major cross-
border operation carried out by the Turkish Armed Forces against PKK camps in
northern Iraqi is going at full speed. The Gulf War of 1990–1991 and Operation
Provide Comfort – the no-y zone imposed by NATO – had unintentionally but
signicantly strengthened PKK activities in northern Iraq. Without Saddam’s
troops or jets, all Kurdish factions in the north went through a fundamental reor-
ganization and rearmament period. PKK specically had conscated arms and
ammunition caches left by Saddam’s retreating army, stepping up the pressure on
Turkish military targets and intensifying attacks against Turkish military outposts
on the border. An earlier 1992 cross-border operation had resulted in military vic-
tory, but the PKK could regroup quickly with its supply and recruitment base in
Iraq. This time, in 1995, with around thirty-ve thousand troops and ten thousand
village guard irregulars, Turkey was trying to destroy PKK’s recruitment, training
and base operations in Iraqi territory. Hasan Kundakçı, lieutenant-general in
8329-0010_Intro.indd 2 3/17/2015 9:36:17 AM

Introduction 3
command of the operation conducted a successful sweep of the camps in about a
month and a half. Upon meeting the operational objectives, he speaks to an army
cameraman for the military’s archival records: “Mehmetçik is in full command of
almost all operational areas and [PKK camps]. I believe in the next 24 hours all
camps will be neutralized. They will either surrender, or die. The PKK is no more.
Terrorism is no more.”
Why study discourse on the Kurdish question?
The Kurdish question, without doubt, is one of the most complicated and pro-
tracted issues affecting the Middle East and the Caucasus. Although Kurdish
people span across three other neighboring countries – Iran, Syria and Iraq – the
great majority of the Kurds live in Turkey,1 which gives the country a unique posi-
tion in the larger Kurdish conundrum. The real difculty in Turkey in addressing
this question comes from the existence of competing and mutually exclusive de-
nitions of this problem, each associated with a corresponding belief on how this
issue can be solved. Ironically, however, even calling the Kurdish question the
“Kurdish question” is regarded as an ideological position by the Turkish state.2 For
example, if a person says that there is a “Kurdish problem” in Turkey, it is – often
inaccurately – inferred that the speaker believes in the cultural and ethnic separate-
ness of the Kurds which is – mostly misleadingly – inferred to be ‘supporting’
Kurdish separatism. On the other hand, saying “there is no Kurdish problem” is
regarded as an ultra-nationalist, aiming to oppress the cultural identity of the
Kurds. Predictably, this sensitivity surrounding the very denition of the Kurdish
question has made it a taboo topic in Turkey for many years, often with a govern-
mental check on the terms and words used to discuss this topic. This uncertainty
and vagueness surrounding the denition (not to mention the perspectives on the
very existence) of the Kurdish issue has been manifesting itself either as the com-
plete denial of the Kurdish question, or ‘separatism’ and even ‘treason.’ Even
today, an opinion survey in Turkey as to ‘what the Kurdish question is’ would
reveal many different interpretations and denitions of the issue, ranging from ‘a
problem of democracy’3 to ‘a threat to territorial integrity.’4 Society in Turkey is
deeply divided over what the Kurdish question means, and even over whether such
a question exists in the rst place. Denial and acknowledgement dynamics often
reveal political ideology and agenda and therefore are political actions in and of
themselves. While the very term ‘Kurdish question’ is discussed in the academic
literature as a given, a new and systemic study is required to deconstruct and ana-
lyze the constitutive parts of this discursive construct.
This book, therefore, is the rst comprehensive study and analysis of the dis-
cursive constructions and perceptions of what is broadly dened as the ‘Kurdish
question’; more importantly, it presents a study of the political motives and factors
behind differing interpretations of the problem. Using the Kurdish conundrum in
Turkey as a case, this study also seeks to provide an analytical framework for the
analysis of the factors behind domestic and foreign discursive constructions of
other intrastate conicts.
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