Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-v5vhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-27T16:57:47.317Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Violence and nationalist mobilization: the onset of the Kurdish insurgency in Turkey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Güneş Murat Tezcür
Güneş Murat Tezcür*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
*
* Email: gtezcur@luc.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

According to theories of nonviolent resistance, violence is counterproductive and undermines the ability of a movement to achieve mass support. At the same time, studies of ethnic insurgencies suggest that violence is the only available method of mobilization in political systems characterized by entrenched ethnic hierarchies. Engaging with these arguments, this article addresses a historical puzzle: What factors explain the timing and ability of the PKK's (Partiye Karkerên Kurdistan) rise as the hegemonic Kurdish nationalist organization in Turkey between the late 1970s and 1990? The article argues that studies that identify Kurdish nationalism as a reaction to repressive policies of the Turkish state without paying attention to prevailing social conditions and oppositional strategies fail to provide a satisfactory response. It argues that the rise of the PKK was primarily a function of its ability to gain support among the peasantry in deeply unequal rural areas through its strategic employment of violence. It also identifies four causal mechanisms of PKK recruitment based on rich archival and field research: credibility, revenge, social mobility, and gender emancipation.

Keywords

nationalist mobilizationviolenceethnic conflictTurkeyKurds
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , March 2015 , pp. 248 - 266
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahmad, Eqbal. 1971. “Revolutionary Warfare and Counterinsurgency.” In National Liberation: Revolution in the Third World, edited by Miller, Norman and Roderick, Aya, 137–213. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Akar, Rıdvan, and Dündar, Can. 2008. Ecevit'in Gizli Arşivi. Ankara: İmge.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1982. State of Anarchy and Terror in Turkey. Ankara: Feryal.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1988. “1971-1980 Arasında Kürt Sorunu.” Sosyalizm ve Toplumsal Mücadele Ansiklopedisi. İstanbul: İletişim.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 2004. Aklın Ötesindeler. n.p.: Azadi.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1963. On Revolution. New York: Viking Press.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1970. On Violence. New York: Harcourt Brace.Google Scholar
Aspinall, Edward. 2009. Islam and Nation: Separatist Rebellion in Aceh, Indonesia. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Ballı, Rafet. 1991. Kürt Dosyası. İstanbul: Cem.Google Scholar
Bayık, Cemil. n.d. Parti Tarihine Yaklaşım. n.p.Google Scholar
Belge, Ceren. 2011. “State Building and the Limits of Legibility: Kinship Networks and Kurdish Resistance in Turkey.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 43 (1): 95–114.Google Scholar
Beşikçi, İsmail. 1969. Doğu Anadolu'nun Düzeni: Sosyo/Ekonomik ve Etnik Temeller. Ankara: E.Google Scholar
Bila, Fikret. 2007. Komutanlar Cephesi. İstanbul: Detay.Google Scholar
Bildirici, Faruk. 2008. Yemin Gecesi: Leyla Zana'nin Yaşamöyküsü. İstanbul: Doğan.Google Scholar
Bilgin, M. Sıraç. 1993. Barzani'nin Son Yılları ve Kürdistan'da Çok Partili Sistem. Stockholm: Hiddekel.Google Scholar
Bozarslan, Hamit. 2007. “Türkiye'de Kürt Sol Hareketi.” In Modern Türkiye'de Siyasi Düşünce, Cilt 8: Sol, edited by Gültekingil, Murat, 1169–1207. İstanbul: İletişim.Google Scholar
Bozarslan, Hamit. 2008. “Kurds and the Turkish State.” In Vol. 4 of Cambridge history of Turkey, edited by Kasaba, Reşat, 333–356. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Buldan, Nejdet. 2004. PKK'de Kadın Olmak. İstanbul: Doz.Google Scholar
Bunce, Valerie J., and Wolchik, Sharon L. 2010. “Defeating Dictators: Electoral Change and Stability in Competitive Authoritarian Regimes.” World Politics 62 (1): 43–86.Google Scholar
Burkay, Kemal. 1983. Devrimcilik mi, Terörizm mi? PKK Üzerine. n.p.: Özgürlük Yolu.Google Scholar
Burkay, Kemal. 2002. Anılar-Belgeler Cilt 1. İstanbul: Deng.Google Scholar
Burkay, Kemal. 2010. Anılar-Belgeler, Cilt 2. İstanbul: Deng.Google Scholar
Büyükkaya, Necmettin. 1992. Kalemimden Sayfalar. Stockholm: Apec-Tryck & Forlag.Google Scholar
Çağlayan, Handan. 2007. Analar, Yoldaşlar, Tanrıçalar: Kürt Hareketinde Kadınlar ve Kadın Kimliğinin Oluşumu. İstanbul: İletişim.Google Scholar
Carter, April. 2009. “People Power and Protest: The Literature on Civil Resistance in Historical Context.” In Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present, edited by Roberts, Adam and Garton Ash, Timothy, 25–42. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cederman, Lars-Erik, Wimmer, Andreas, and Brian, Min. 2010. “Why Do Ethnic Groups Rebel? New Data and Analysis.” World Politics 62 (1): 87–119.Google Scholar
Çelik, Selahattin. 2000. Ağrı Dağı'nı Taşımak: Çağdaç Kürt Halk Direnişi. Frankfurt: Zambon.Google Scholar
Chenoweth, Erica, and Stephan, Maria J. 2011. Why Civil Resistance Works?: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Collier, Paul, Hoeffler, Anke, and Rohner, Dominic. 2009. “Beyond Greed and Grievance: Feasibility and Civil War.” Oxford Economic Papers 61 (1): 1–27.Google Scholar
Debray, Régis. 1967. Revolution in the Revolution?: Armed Struggle and Political Struggle in Latin America. New York: MR Press.Google Scholar
Degregori, Carlos Iván. 1998. “Harvesting Storms: Peasant Rondas and the Defeat of Sendero Luminoso in Ayacucho.” In Shining Path and Other Paths: War and Society in Peru, 1980–1995, edited by Stern, Steve J., 128–157. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Della Porta, Donetalla. 1995. Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State: A Comparative Analysis of Italy and Germany. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Doronsoro, Gilles, and Watts, Nicole F. 2009. “Toward Kurdish Distinctiveness in Electoral Politics: The 1977 Local Elections in Diyarbakır.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 41 (3): 457–478.Google Scholar
Eckstein, Harry. 1965. “On the Etiology of Internal Wars.” History and Theory 4 (2): 133–163.Google Scholar
Ellenbogen, Gustavo Gorriti. 1991. “Latin America's Internal Wars.” Journal of Democracy 2 (1): 85–98.Google Scholar
Elster, Jon. 1985. “Rationality, Morality, and Collective Action.” Ethics 96 (1): 136–155.Google Scholar
Elster, Jon. 1990. “Norms of Revenge.” Ethics 100 (4): 862–885.Google Scholar
English, Richard. 2004. Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Erdost, Muzaffer İlhan. 1992. Şemdinli Röportajı. 2nd ed. Ankara: Onur.Google Scholar
Fanon, Frantz. 2005. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press.Google Scholar
Fearon, James D., and Laitin, David D. 2003. “Ehniticy, Insurgency, and Civil War.” American Political Science Review 97 (1): 75–90.Google Scholar
Feldman, Allen. 1991. Formations of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in Northern Ireland. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Figes, Orlando. 1998. A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891–1924. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Ghassemlou, Abdul Rahman. 1965. Kurdistan and the Kurds. Prague: Publishing House of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Jeff. 2001. No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945–1991. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Jeff, and Pfaff, Steven. 2001. “Emotion Work in High-Risk Social Movements.” In Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements, edited by Jeff Goodwin, James M. Jasper, and Polletta, Francesca, 282–302. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Grandin, Greg. 2010. “Living in Revolutionary Time: Coming to Terms with the Violence in America's Long Cold War.” In A Century of Revolution: Insurgent and Counterinsurgent Violence During Latin America's Long Cold War, edited by Grandin, Greg and Joseph, Gilbert M., 1–42. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Güçlü, İbrahim. 2010. “Rizgarì Örgüt müydü ve Nasıl Bir Örgüt İdi?” Accessed May 1, 2014. http://www.rizgari.com/modules.php?name=Rizgari_Niviskar&cmd=read&id=2047 Google Scholar
Gülmüş, Şükrü. 2009. “Öcalan'a Türk Çok Hafif Gelir.” Accessed December 21, 2009. http://www.nasname.com Google Scholar
Gündoğan, Cemil. 2007. Kawa Davası Savunması and Kürtlerde Siyasi Savunma Geleneği. İstanbul: Vate.Google Scholar
Gunes, Cengiz. 2012. “Explaining the PKK's Mobilization of the Kurds in Turkey: Hegemony, Myth and Violence.” Ethnopolitics: Formerly Global Review of Ethnopolitics 12 (3): 247–267.Google Scholar
Gurses, Mehmet, and David Mason, T. 2010. “Weak States, Regime Types, and Civil War.” Civil Wars 12 (1–2): 140–155.Google Scholar
Horne, Alistair. 1977. A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–1962. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Horowitz, Donald L. 2000. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hutchinson, Martha Crenshaw. 1972. “The Concept of Revolutionary Terrorism.” The Journal of Conflict Resolution 16 (3): 383–396.Google Scholar
İmset, İsmet G. 1992. The PKK: A Report on Separatist Violence in Turkey (1973–1992). Ankara: Turkish Daily News.Google Scholar
Jongerden, Joost, and Hamdi Akkaya, Ahmet. 2011. “Born from the Left: The Making of the PKK.” In Nationalisms and Politics in Turkey, edited by Casier, Marlies and Jongerden, Joost, 123–142. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Joshi, Madhav, and Mason, David T. 2011. “Peasants, Patrons, and Parties: The Tension Between Clientelism and Democracy in Nepal.” International Studies Quarterly 55 (1): 151–175.Google Scholar
Kalkan, Duran. n.d. Silahlı Mücadele Tarihimiz ve Komuta Sorunlarımız. n.p. Accessed April 1, 2014. http://www.hezenparastin.com/tr/kitap/silahli_mucadele_tarihi.htm.Google Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis N. 2006. The Logic of Violence in Civil War. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis N., and Adam Kocher, Matthew. 2007. “How “Free” Is Free Riding in Civil Wars?: Violence, Insurgency, and the Collective Action Problem.” World Politics 59 (2): 177–216.Google Scholar
Karayılan, Murat. 2011. Bir Savaşın Anatomisi: Kürdistan'da Askeri Çizgi. n.p.: Serxwebŭn.Google Scholar
Kilcullen, David. 2009. The Accidental Guerilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kırmızıtoprak, Sait. 1997. Kürt Millet Hareketleri ve Irak'ta Kürdistan İhtilali. Stockholm: APEC.Google Scholar
Kotan, Mümtaz. 2003. Yenilginin İzdüşümleri. Dortmund: Yunan Kürt Dostluk Derneği.Google Scholar
KUK. 1995. Şehitler Albümü: Nasnameya Şehidan. Kista, Sweden: Niştìman.Google Scholar
Kürkçü, Ertuğrul. 2007. “Türkiye Sosyalist Hareketine Silahlı Mücadelenin Girişi.” In Modern Türkiye'de Siyasi Düşünce Cilt 8: Sol, edited by Gültekingil, Murat, 494–542. İstanbul: İletişim.Google Scholar
Maraşlı, Recep. 2010a. “Rizgarì'nin Sosyalist Hareket ve Kürdistan Ulusal Kurtuluş Mücadelesindeki Yeri Üzerine Bir Deneme.” Mesafe 4: 68–93. http://www.enternasyonalyayincilik.net/2010/05/mesafe-04-bahar-2010-dosya-kurt-sorunu.html Google Scholar
Maraşlı, Recep. 2010b. “Rizgarì'nin Sosyalist Hareket ve Kürdistan Ulusal Kurtuluş Mücadelesindeki Yeri Üzerine Bir Deneme-II.” Mesafe 5: 40–49. http://www.enternasyonalyayincilik.net/2010/07/mesafe-05-yaz-2010-dosya-kurt-sorunu-ii.html Google Scholar
Marcus, Aliza. 2007. Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Mason, T. David, and Krane, Dale A. 1989. “The Political Economy of Death Squads: Toward a Theory of the Impact of State-Sanctioned Terror.” International Studies Quarterly 33 (2): 175–198.Google Scholar
McDowall, David. 2000. A Modern History of the Kurds. 2nd ed. London: I. B. Tauris.Google Scholar
McKenna, Thomas. 1998. Muslim Rulers and Rebels: Everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in the Southern Philippines. Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Murat, Hıdır. 1973. Türkiye Şartlarında Kürt Halkının Mücadelesi. Zurich: Ronahi.Google Scholar
Natali, Denise. 2005. The Kurds and the State: Evolving National Identity in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Nepstad, Sharon Erickson. 2011. Nonviolent Revolutions: Civil Resistance in the Late 20th Century. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nepstad, Sharon Erickson. 2013. “Mutiny and Nonviolence in the Arab Spring: Exploring Military Defections and Loyalty in Egypt, Bahrain, and Syria.” Journal of Peace Research 50 (3): 337–349.Google Scholar
O'Hearn, Denis. 2009. “Repression and Solidary Cultures of Resistance: Irish Political Prisoners on Protest.” American Journal of Sociology 115 (2): 491–526.Google Scholar
Olson, Robert, ed. 1996. The Kurdish Nationalist Movement in the 1990s: Its Impact on Turkey and the Middle East. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.Google Scholar
Özcan, Nihat Ali. 1999. PKK (Kürdistan İşçi Partisi): Tarihi, İdeolojisi ve Yöntemi. Ankara: AS AM.Google Scholar
Pecency, Mark, and Stanley, William D. 2010. “Counterinsurgency in El Salvador.” Politics & Society 38 (1): 67–94.Google Scholar
PKK. 1982a. Bağımsızlık ve Özgürlük Mücadelesinde PKK 4. Yılını Yaşıyor. Cologne: Serxwebŭn.Google Scholar
PKK. 1982b. Politik Rapor: Konferans Belgeleri 1. Cologne: Serxwebŭn.Google Scholar
PKK. 1982c. Faşizme Karşı Mücadelede Birleşik Cephe Üzerine. Cologne: Serxwebŭn.Google Scholar
PKK. 1982d. 12 Eylül Faşist Cuntası Birinci Yılını Doldururken. Cologne: Serxwebŭn.Google Scholar
PKK. 1983. Kürdistan'da Zorun Rolü: Ulusal Kurtuluş Savaşı-Ulusal Kurtuluş Siyaseti. Cologne: Serxwebŭn.Google Scholar
PKK. 1998. 1993–1997 Şehitler Albümü. Cologne: Serxwebŭn.Google Scholar
PKK. n.d. 1976–1984 Direniş Şehitleri Albümü. Cologne: Serxwebŭn.Google Scholar
Race, Jeffrey. 1972. War Comes to Long An: Revolutionary Conflict in a Vietnamese Province. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Romano, David. 2006. The Kurdish Nationalist Movement: Opportunity, Mobilization and Identity. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sánchez-Cuenca, Ignacio, and Aguilar, Paloma. 2009. “Terrorist Violence and Popular Mobilization: The Case of the Spanish Transition to Democracy.” Politics & Society 37 (3): 428–453.Google Scholar
Sayigh, Yezid. 1997. Armed Struggle and the Search for State. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schock, Kurt. 2005. Unarmed Insurrections: People Power Movements in Nondemocracies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1985. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 2009. The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Seidman, Gay. 2001. “Guerillas in Their Midst: Armed Struggle in the South African Anti-apartheid Movement.” Mobilization: An International Journal 6 (2): 111–127.Google Scholar
Slater, Dan. 2009. “Revolutions, Crackdowns, and Quiescence: Communal Elites and Democratic Mobilization in Southeast Asia.” American Journal of Sociology 115 (1): 203–254.Google Scholar
Stephan, Maria J., and Chenoweth, Erica. 2008. “Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict.” International Security 33 (1): 7–44.Google Scholar
Tarım, Orman ve Köyişleri Bakanlığı. 1985. 35074 Köyümüzün Envanter Etüdleri. Ankara: Başbakanlık Devet İstatistik Enstitüsü.Google Scholar
Tezcür, Güneş Murat. 2009. “Kurdish Nationalism and Identity in Turkey: A Conceptual Reinterpretation.” European Journal of Turkish Studies (10). http://ejts.revues.org/4008 Google Scholar
Tezcür, Güneş Murat. 2013. “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Risks: Participation in an Ethnic Rebellion.” Unpublished Manuscript.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 2003. The Politics of Collective Violence. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Türkiye İhtilalci İşçi Köylü Partisi. 1974. Türkiye Íhtilalci Íşçi Köylü Partisi Davası Savunma. Ankara: Aydınlık.Google Scholar
Van Bruinessen, Martin. 1998. “Shifting National and Ethnic Identities: The Kurds in Turkey and the European Diaspora.” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 18 (1): 39–52.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael. 1973. “Political Action: The Problem of Dirty Hands.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 2 (2): 160–180.Google Scholar
Weingast, Barry R. 2005. “Persuasion, Preference Change, and Critical Junctures: The Microfoundations of a Macroscopic Concept.” In Preferences and Situations, edited by Katznelson, Ira and Weingast, Barry R., 161–185. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Wimmer, Andreas. 2013. Waves of War: Nationalism, State Formation, and Ethnic Exclusion in the Modern World. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2003. Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2008. “The Social Process of Civil War: The Wartime Transformation of Social Networks.” Annual Review of Political Science 11: 539–561. doi:10.1146/annurev.polisci.8.082103.104832Google Scholar
Yalcin Mousseau, Demet. 2012. “An Inquiry into the Linkage among Nationalizing Policies, Democratization, and Ethno-Nationalist Conflict: The Kurdish Case in Turkey.” Nationalities Papers 40 (1): 45–62.Google Scholar
Yavuz, Hakan. 2001. “Five Stages of the Construction of Kurdish Nationalism in Turkey.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 7 (3): 1–24.Google Scholar
Yeğen, Mesut. 1996. “The Turkish State Discourse and the Exclusion of Kurdish Identity.” Middle Eastern Studies 32 (2): 216–229.Google Scholar
Yüce, M. Can. 1999. Vol. II of Doğu'dan Yükselen Güneş. Istanbul: Zelal.Google Scholar
Zunes, Stephen. 1994. “Unarmed Insurrections Against Authoritarian Governments in the Third World: A New Kind of Revolution.” Third World Quarterly 15 (3): 403–426.Google Scholar