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THE IDEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ROOTS OF THE KURDIST MOVEMENTS IN TURKEY: ETHNICITY, DEMOGRAPHY, AND POLITICS

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 10; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13537110490518282

1557-2986

Sedat Laçiner, İhsan Engin Bal,

Historical Turkish Studies

Abstract The Partia Karkare Kurdistan, or the Workers Party of Kurdistan (PKK) campaign of violence has cost Turkey about 30,000 lives and billions of dollars. In 20 years the organization made great efforts to create a Kurdish nation and to establish a separate state. However the lack of popular support forced the PKK to shift its policies. In fact the PKK movement is no exception. All Kurdist movements in Turkey's history have failed. This article looks at the reasons of this failure. According to the authors the ethnic origin, history, and demography did not provide a suitable environment for Kurdish nationalism, particularly in the Anatolian territories. The study focuses on the ethnic origin of the Kurds, their current perceptions, sociological and cultural descriptions of the Kurds, demography and their impact on Kurdish uprisings and separatism. Notes 1. For the Eastern Question see: Mathew Anderson, The Eastern Question, 1774–1923: A Study in International Relations (London: Macmillan, 1972); John A.R. Marriott, The Eastern Question: A Historical Study in European Diplomacy (London: Oxford University Press, 1917); Marian Kent (ed.), The Great Powers and the End of the Otoman Empire (London: Allen & Unwin, 1984); Alan Palmer, Decline and Fall of the Otoman Empire (London: 1992). 2. Kendal, Kurdistan in Turkey, in G. Chailand, People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan (London: Zed Press, 1980), p. 19. 3. Johon and Harwey, ‘No Friends But Mountains: The Tragic History of Kurds,’Middle East Journal, Vol. 47, No. 4, 1993, p. 55. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid., pp. 55–7. 6. D. McDowall, The Kurds: A Nation Denied (London: Minority Rights, 1992); D. McDowall, The Modern History of the Kurds (London: I.B. Tauris, 1996). 7. Her Yönüyle Kürt Dosyasi [The Kurdish File from Every Aspects] (Istanbul: Boğaziçi, 1993); Z. Yıldız, Kürt Gerçeği [Kurdish Reality] (Istanbul: Yeni Asya Yayınları, 1992); P.A. Andrews (ed.), Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey (Weisbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1989), pp. 152–71. 8. Andrews, Ethnic Groups. 9. Çay, Her Yönüyle Kürt. 10. O.F. Gençkaya, ‘The Kurdish Issue in Turkish Politics: An Overview,’ Islamic World Report, Vol. 1, No. 3, 1996, pp. 94–101. 11. Mehrdad R. Izady, The Kurds: A Concise Handbook (Washington and London: 1992), pp. 166–82. 12. For more examples see ibid. 13. Selahaddin Mihotuli, Arya Uygarlıklarından Kürtlere [From the Aria Civilizations to the Kurds] (Istanbul: Koray Yayınları, 1992); Ekrem Cemil Paşa, Kürdistan Kısa Tarihi [The Short History of Kurdistan] (Istanbul: Doz, 1998); Tori, Kürtlerin İlkçağ; Tarihi ve Kültürü [Ancient History of the Kurds] (Istanbul: Berfin Yayınları, 1997), pp. 185–9. Also see Sedat Laciner, ‘MED-TV'nin Etki ve .Islevleri’ [MED-TV's Impacts and Functions], Stratejik Analiz, Vol. 3, No. 27, July 2002, p. 120; Sedat Laciner, ‘Bolucu Televizyon Yayinciligi ve Uluslararasi Baglantilari: MED-TV Ornek Olayi: 1994–1999’ [The Separatist Television Broadcasting and Its International Connections: MED-TV Case-Study: 1994–1999], Avrasya Dosyasi, Vol. 8, No. 2, Summer 2002, pp. 329–71; Sedat Laciner, ‘Ayrilikci Televizyon Yayinciliginda Dis Destek ve Nedenleri’ [The Foreign Support in Separatist Broadcasting and Its Reasons], Avrasya Dosyasi, Vol. 8, No. 4, Winter 2002, pp. 227–52. 14. Paşa, Kürdistan, p. 17. 15. Yıldız, Kürt. 16. Çay, Her Yönüyle Kürt. 17. A. Aydın, Kürtler, PKK ve Abdullah Öcalan [Kurds, PKK and Abdullah Ocalan] (Ankara: 1992). 18. B. Kodaman, Sultan II. Abdülhamit'in Doğu Anadolu Politikasi [The Eastern Policy of the Sultan Abdulhamid II] (Ankara: Ankara University Printinghouse, 1987). 19. Also see: Seferoğlu and Türközü, 101 Soruda; Şükrü Kaya Seferoğlu, Anadolu'nun İlk Türk Sakinleri: Kürtler [The First Turkish Inhabitants of Anatolia: The Kurds], (Ankara: Ayyıldız Matbaası, 1982); 20. Çay, Her Yönüyle Kürt. 21. Ibid., pp. 53–9. 22. Ibid., pp. 64–95. 1. Aydi n, Kürtler, p. 27. 24. Yıldız, Kürt. 25. Ibid., pp. 27–9. 26. Ibid., pp. 27–32. 27. The original text is as follow: ‘Men Kürt-el-kan Alp-Urungu Altunluğ Keşiğim Bantım Belde, Elim Tokuz Kırk Yaşım.’ Ali Tayyar Önder, Türkiye'nin Etnik Yapısi, Halkimizin Kökenleri ve Gerçekler [Turkey's Ethnic Structure, Our People's Roots and the Truth] (Ankara: Zirve Ofset, 1999), p. 97. 28. For more examples and details see Önder, Türkiye'nin, p. 91; M. Fahrettin Kırzıoğlu, Kürtlerin Türklüğü [Kurds’ Turkishness] (Istanbul: Hamle, 1995), pp. 86–98; Seferoğlu and Türközü, 100 Soruda, pp. 23–4. 29. Önder, Türkiye'nin, p. 98; Seferoğlu and Türközü, 101 Soruda, pp. 10–11. 30. Winrow and Kirişçi, The Kurdish Question and Turkey (London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1997). 31. J. Bulloch and M. Harvey, No Friends but the Mountains: The Tragic History of the Kurds (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 52. 32. Bulloch and Harvey, No Friends, p. 58. 33. S. Mutlu, ‘The Population of Turkey by Ethnic Groups and Provinces,’ New Perspectives on Turkey, No. 12, Spring 1995. 34. Winrow and Kirisci, The Kurdish. 35. Ibid., p. 121. 36. Ibid. 37. McDowall, The Modern History of the Kurds (1996); D. McDowall, The Kurds (London: Minority Rights Group, 1996). 38. H.J. Barkey and G. Fuller, ‘Turkey’s Kurdish Question: Critical Turning Points and Missed Opportunities,’ Middle East Journal, Vol. 51, Winter 1997, pp. 57–79. 39. For this period see: Ihsan Bal and Sedat Laciner, ‘The Challenge of Revolutionary Terrorism to Turkish Democracy, 1960–80,’ Terrorism and Political Violence, Vol. 13, No. 4, Winter 2001, pp. 90–115. 40. V.B.M. Bruinessen, Agha, Sheikh, and State (London: Zed Books, 1992); V.B.M. Bruinessen, Kurdish Society, Ethnicity, Nationalism and Refugee Problems, in Philip G. Kreyenbroek and Stefan Sperl (eds.), The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview (London: Routledge, 1992). 41. L. Yalcin-Heckmann, ‘Kurdish Tribal Organisation and Local Political Processes,’ in A. Finkel and N. Sirman (eds.), Turkish State, Turkish Society (London and New York: Routledge, 1990). 42. Winrow and Kirisci, The Kurdish; Kodaman, Sultan II. 43. The Encyclopedia Americana (New York, 1952), Vol. XVI, p. 558. 44. D. McDowall, The Kurds (London: Minority Rights Group, 1989), p. 8. 45. Ibid. 46. Kodaman, Sultan II, pp. 67–75. 47. D. McDowall, ‘The Kurdish Question: A History of Review,’ in Kreyenbroek and Sperl (eds.), The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview (London: Routledge, 1992), p. 15. 48. Bruinessen, Agha; Yalcin-Heckmann, ‘Kurdish.’ 49. McDowall, ‘The Kurdish,’ p. 17. 50. For the Turkish Independence War see: Ali Kazancigil and Ergun Ozbudun (eds.), Ataturk, the Founder of a Modern State (London: Hurst, 1997); Laciner, Ideological, pp. 50–74; Serafettin Turan, Turk Devrim Tarihi [History of Turkish Revolution], 2nd Book (Ankara: Bilgi, 1992); Salahi Ramsdan Sonyel, Turkish Diplomacy, 1918–1923: Mustafa Kemal and the Turkish National Movement (London: Sage, 1975). 51. For the details see Laciner, Ideological, chapters II and III. 52. Bilal Şimşir, İngiliz Belgeleriyle Türkiye'de ‘Kürt Sorunu,’ 1924–1938 [The ‘Kurdish Problem’ in Turkey in British Documents, 1924–1938] (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, 1991), p. 58. 53. O.F. Gençkaya, ‘The Kurdish Issue in Turkish Politics: An Overview,’ Islamic World Report, Vol. 1, No. 3, 1996, pp. 94–101, p. 94. 54. Sheikh Said, cited in Uğur Mumcu, Kürt—İslam Ayaklanmasi [Kurdish—Islamic Uprising] (İstanbul: Tekin, 1992), p. 124. 55. Sedat Laçiner, The Ideological Evolution of Turkish Foreign Policy, unpublished PhD thesis, King's College, University of London, 2000. Also see: Yaşar Kalafat, Bir Ayaklanmani n Anatomisi, Şeyh Sait [An Anatomy of an Uprising] (Ankara: Asam, 2003); Kemal Melek, ‘Türk İngiliz İlişkileri (1890–1926) ve Musul Petrolleri [The Musul Oil in Turkish—British Relations, 1890–1926] in Toktamış Ateş and others, Türk Diş Politikasında Sorunlar [The Problems in Turkish Foreign Policy] (İstanbul: Der yayi nlari, 1989), pp. 38–9. 56. Mumcu, Kürt; Kodaman, Sultan II. 57. D. Kinnane, The Kurds and Kurdistan (Oxford: University Press, 1964). 58. Ibid. 59. Bruinessen, Agha. 60. Ibid., p. 35. 61. Andrews (ed.), Ethnic Groups (1989), pp. 152–75. 62. Ibid., p. 162. 63. Bruinessen, Agha, p. 35. Also about the Kurdish language and the diversity see: The Encylopedia of Islam, Vol. 2, pp. 189–94; Seyfi Cengiz, Dış Kaynaklarda Kırmanclar, Kızılbaşlar ve Zazalar [The Kırmachs, Kızılbashs and Zazas in the Foreign Sources] (London: Desmala Sure Press, 1995); C.J. Edmonds, ‘Some Developments in the Use of Latin Characters for the Writing of Kurdish,’ Journal of the Royal Asiastic Society (London: 1933); D.N. MacKenzie, ‘The Origins of Kurdish,’ Transactions of the Philological Society (London: 1961); J.G. Taylor, ‘Journal of a Tour in Armenia, Kurdistan and Upper Mesopotamia with Notes of Research in Deyrsim Dagh,’ Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Vol. 38, 1866, pp. 281–361; Basile Nikitine, ‘Kurdish Stories from My Collection,’ Bulletin of Oriental and African Studies, IV, 1926–1928; V. Minorsky, ‘The Guran,’ Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XI, 1943–1946; ‘Zazaca, Kurmançca (Kürtçe) ve Farsça Arasındaki Farklar Üzerine Bir İnceleme [An Evaluation on the Differences between Persian, Zaza, Kurmanch (Kurdish) Languages], Asmeno Bewayir, No. 13, May 1998; Michael Chyet, Standardizing the Modern Journalistic Languagein Kurdish, paper presented in MESA, 1996; Seyfi Cengiz, Dersim ve Dersimli [Dersim and People from Dersim] (London: Desmale Sure Yayınları, 1995). 64. Barkey and Fuller 1997, Turkey's Kurdish Question; Fact Book on Turkey:Kurds and PKK Terrorism (Ankara: 1996, TDF); Fact Book on Turkey: Kurds and PKK Terrorism II (Ankara: 1997, TDF). 65. Fact Book on Turkey: Kurds and PKK Terrorism (1996); S. Dilmaç, Terrörizm Sorunu ve Türkiye [The Problem of Terrorism and Turkey] (Ankara: EGM, 1997). 66. McDowall, The Kurds (1989). 67. Ibid., p. 5. 68. Andrews, Ethnic Groups. 69. Kinnane, The Kurds. 70. V.B.M. Bruinessen, ‘Kurdish Society, Ethnicity, Nationalism and Refugee Problems,’ in Philip G. Kreyenbroek and Stefan Sperl (eds.), The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview (London: Routledge, 1992). 71. Andrews, Ethnic Groups. 72. Bruinessen, ‘Kurdish.’ 73. Michael Ignatieef, Blood & Blonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism (Toronto: Viking, 1993). 74. P. Robins, ‘The Overlord State: Turkish Policy and Kurdish Issue,’ International Affairs, Vol. 69, October 1993, pp. 657–32. 75. Robins, ‘The Overlord,’ p. 661. 76. Ibid. For instance İstanbul has become the biggest ‘Kurdish city’ in the world after the influx from the Eastern part of Turkey. It must be noted that the city has no ethnic or separatist problem. 77. Laciner, ‘MED-TV'nin,’ pp. 119–23. 78. Kendal, ‘Kurdistan’ (1980), p. 25. 79. Bulloch and Harvey, No Friends, p. 75. 80. Kendal, ‘Kurdistan’ (1980), p. 31. 81. Hay in P.G. Kreyenbroek and S. Sperl (ed.), The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview (London: Routledge, 1992), p. 50. 82. Bulloch and Harvey, No Friends, p. 223. 83. Kodoman, Sultan II, pp. 34–50. 84. S.A. Arvasi, Doğu Anadolu Gerçeği [The Eastern Anatolia Reality] (Ankara: Özge, 1986). 85. H. Bozarslan, ‘Political Aspects of the Kurdish Problem in Turkey,’ in Philip G. Kreyenbroek and Stefan Sperl (eds.), The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview (London: Routledge, 1992), pp. 95–114. 86. O. Aytepe, ‘Yeni Belgeler Işığında, Kürdistan Teali Cemiyeti,’ Tarih ve Toplum, June 1998, 174, pp. 13–15. 87. Bal, Prevention, chapter 1. 88. Kendal, ‘Kurdistan.’ 89. Aytepe, ‘Yeni,’ pp. 9–15. 90. For the details see Bal, Prevention, chapter 3. 91. J.P. Piscatori, Islam in a World of Nation-State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991). 92. Piscatori, Islam, p. 77. 93. Ibid., p. 76. 94. Laçiner, Evolution. 95. Said Nursi, Mektubat [The Letters] (Ankara: Sözler Yayınevi, 1978), p. 330. 96. Ibid., p. 331. 97. Ibid., pp. 330–35. 98. Arvasi, Doğu. 99. I.C. Vanly, ‘The Kurds in Syria and Iraq,’ in Kreyenbrook and Sperl, The Kurds: A Contemporary Overview (London: Routledge, 1992), p. 144. 100. Kendal, ‘Kurdistan,’ pp. 40–1. 101. Ibid., p. 40. 102. McDowall, The Kurds, pp. 16–8. 103. Aytepe, ‘Yeni,’ pp. 9–16. 104. A Salih, Kürt Tarihi, Kürtler ve Demokrasi [The Kurdish History, Kurds and Democracy] (Istanbul: 1993). 105. Said Nursi, Sözler [Speeches] (Ankara: Sözler Yayınevi, 1987), pp. 195–7. 106. O.F. Gençkaya, ‘The Kurdish Issue in Turkish Politics,’ in Wiberg and Bussittil Kalleja (ed.), Research for Peace in the Mediterranean Region (Malta: Mireva, 1994). 107. K.H. Karpat, The Turkish Experiment in Democracy, 1950–1975 (London: Hurst, 1977). 108. Aytepe, ‘Yeni,’ pp. 9–16. 109. Barkey and Fuller, Turkey's Kurdish Question, p. 18. 110. For the details of the DP era also see: Cem Erogul, Demokrat Parti, Tarihi ve Ideolojisi [The DP, History and Ideology] (Ankara: SBF, 1970); Huseyin Bagci, Demokrat Parti Donemi Dis Politikasi [Foreign Policy of the DP Period] (Ankara: Imge, 1990); Feroz Ahmad, The Turkish Experiment in Democracy, 1950–1975 (London: Hurst, 1977). 111. I.P. Lipovsky, The Socialist Movement in Turkey, 1960–1980 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992). 112. I.G. Imset, The PKK: A Report on Separatist Violence in Turkey (1973–1992) (Istanbul: Turkish Daily News Publications, 1992). 113. S. Kinzer, ‘Kurds Fashion, Two Identities in a Fearful Turkey,’ New York Times, 27 July 1997. 114. Kinzer, ‘Kurds.’ 115. Uğcr Mumcu, Kürt—İslam Ayaklanması [The Rebellion of Kurdish Muslims] (Istanbul: Tekin Yayınevi, 1992). 116. V.B.M. Bruinessen, ‘Between Guerrilla War and Political Murder: The Worker's Party of Kurdistan,’ Middle East Report, July–August 1988. 117. R. Olson, The Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism and the Sheikh Said Rebellion, 1880–1925 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989); R. Olson, The Kurdish Nationalist Movement in the 1990s: Its Impact on Turkey and Middle East (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996). Additional informationNotes on contributorsSEDAT LACINER Sedat Laciner is President of the International Strategic Research Organization (ISRO) and IR lecturer at the Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University in Gallipoli, Turkey. His research interests include ethnic conflicts, security studies and Turkish foreign policy, and he is the author of books on Turkish politics and international relations. He holds a PhD from King's College, University of London. IHSAN BAL Ihsan Bal is head of the Legal Studies Department at the national Police Academy, Ankara. He is author of many studies on ethnic conflicts, international policing and international security. He holds a PhD from Leichester University.