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American Anthropologist, 2019
ABSTRACT 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 ên ji çîna karker li Stembolê bi çi awayên cihêreng û nakok li tundiyê dihizirin, wê vedibêjin û pênase dikin. Di çarçoveya jinûvedestpêkirina şerê di navbera dewleta tirk û Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK) de, awayê ku karkerên kurd tundiyê, xwe-parastin û tolhildanê bi bîr tînin û di qada giştî de behsê dikin bi awayekî berçav guheriye. Di çarçoveya vê lêkolînê de ez lê serwext bûm ku ev çîrokbêjiya tundiyê, ku hemû dem û deverên civakî yên jiyana mêrên kurd li Stembolê vedigire û lê amade ye, formeke keda ragihandinî ye ku bi rêya wê hişmendiyeke dîrokî ya xweser û fehmên hevpar ên tundiyê tên afirandin, torên ji bo domandina jiyanê û parastina rûmetê pêk tînin û kesayetiyên exlaqî tên çêkirin. Ev vegotin an qisetên jiyanê wan derbirînan red dikin ku têkoşîna kurdan tenê wek teror an jî mexdûrî şîrove dikin, û li şûnê, li bikeriya kurdan û tundiya beramber xwedî derdikevin. Di van vegotinan de, “parastina gel” ne tenê doza mafê hebûnê ya gelan dike, lê herwiha qîmeteke exlaqî jî bar dike tundiya heq, û wisa jî wan kesên ku gelê xwe li hember tundiya dewletê diparêzin dike kesên pêşeng û ilhambexş. [tundî, vegotin, exlaq, şer û aştî, bîr, kurd, Tirkiye]
Bee Hive - Dayan Center TAU Social Media Watch Bulletin
Turkey’s elections on June 7th last year saw the unprecedented entrenchment of pro-democracy forces and the bringing to an end of one-party rule by the Justice and Progress Party (AKP) for the first time since 2002. Even more significantly, for the first time in the history of the country, a political party that emerged from within the Kurdish Liberation Movement, the HDP (People’s Democratic Party), passed the 10% threshold necessary for entering the parliament by successfully catering to the demands and grievances of a wide-range of groups including left-wing liberals, middle class Turks, anti-capitalist Muslims, LGBTI activists and Turkey’s stigmatised ethno-religious minorities. This powerful alignment of the democracy block, however, urged the AKP government to show its totalitarian tendencies more explicitly. Following the elections, a series of intricate extra-legal and political moves taken by President Erdoğan and his entourage helped to drag the country to elections once again on November 1st to quickly reconstitute the party’s and its leader’s power. The ultra-nationalist mobilisation that the AKP set in motion by decisively terminating the peace talks with the Kurdish political movement and giving the green light to a long-lasting military campaign against Kurdish towns and neighbourhoods, partly account for this success story.
opendemocracy.net, 2016
Bee Hive - Dayan Center TAU Social Media Watch Bulletin
Journal of Labor and Society, 2017
Dominant literature on social movements and extreme right politics assumes that participation in electoral politics is incompatible with utilization of political violence. This elections-violence dualism has recently been challenged by the rise of far right political movements and parties that utilize political violence and electoral politics in various countries, such as the BJP in India, the Golden Dawn in Greece and the MHP in Turkey. This paper examines the negative case of the extreme right in Turkey, led by the MHP (Nationalist Action Party) to explain how far right movements can utilize political violence and avoid both marginalization and state repression. The paper utilizes mixed methods using original quantitative data on extreme right violence in Turkey compiled from historical newspaper archives and in-depth interviews conducted by the author. Through a combination of historical and quantitative analysis, the paper shows that political violence used by ulkucu movement has not declined but further increased with extreme right votes. Qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews explains how extreme right was able to escape marginalization and state repression due to the political context marked by Kurdish conflict as well as movement's strategic utilization and framing of political violence in response to this political context.
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