Rival Kurdish Movements in Turkey: Transforming Ethnic Conflict

207 Pages·2016·1.844 MB·English

by  Mustafa Gürbüz

PROTEST AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS 7 PROTEST AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Rival Kurdish Movements in Turkey: Transforming Ethnic Conflict explores G
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the conditions that encourage non-violent civic engagement in emerging rb
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civil societies. The book examines the radical transformations over the z
past decade in the politics of Turkey’s Kurdish minority. On the eve of the
new millennium, the Turkish state was still openly denying the existence
of Kurds, calling them “mountain Turks,” and Kurdish populated cities were
ruled under martial law. Kurdish politics in Turkey was dominated by a
revolutionary movement, the PKK, which engaged in violent clashes with
the state. Less than a decade later, the PKK’s rebellion had all but ended, and
Kurdish political and civic movements of numerous stripes had emerged.
The Turkish state even introduced an official Kurdish-language TV channel.
How did this rapid change occur? Gürbüz proposes that contending social
movements has transformed the politics of the region, ushering in an era
of post-conflict political and cultural competition.
Mustafa Gürbüz is a policy fellow in the School of Policy, Government, and
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International Affairs at George Mason University and teaches Middle East
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politics at American University in Washington, DC. a
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‘Dr. Gürbüz provides readers with an original and very engaging, theoretically i
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informed and compelling account of competing Kurdish social movements in h
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Turkey.’
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David Romano, Missouri State University v Mustafa Gürbüz
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‘Gürbüz shows how globalization and competition among Kurdish opposition e Rival Kurdish
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groups has shaped the trajectory of Turkey-Kurdish relations. His multi- t
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institutional approach is a fresh advance and essential for understanding i
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the cycles of violence, repression, and reconciliation.’ T Movements in Turkey
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Jack A. Goldstone, George Mason University
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‘An important new contribution to the study of Turkey’s Kurdish question.
This book will help the reader to understand the complexities of the situation.’
Transforming Ethnic Conflict
Martin van Bruinessen, Utrecht University
ISBN: 978-90-8964-878-5
AUP.nl
9 789089 648785
Rival Kurdish Movements in Turkey
Protest and Social Movements
Recent years have seen an explosion of protest movements around the world,
and academic theories are racing to catch up with them. This series aims to
further our understanding of the origins, dealings, decisions, and outcomes
of social movements by fostering dialogue among many traditions of thought,
across European nations and across continents. All theoretical perspectives are
welcome. Books in the series typically combine theory with empirical research,
dealing with various types of mobilization, from neighborhood groups to
revolutions. We especially welcome work that synthesizes or compares different
approaches to social movements, such as cultural and structural traditions,
micro- and macro-social, economic and ideal, or qualitative and quantitative.
Books in the series will be published in English. One goal is to encourage non-
native speakers to introduce their work to Anglophone audiences. Another is to
maximize accessibility: all books will be available in open access within a year
after printed publication.
Series Editors
Jan Willem Duyvendak is professor of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam.
James M. Jasper teaches at the Graduate Center of the City University of New
York.
Rival Kurdish Movements in Turkey
Transforming Ethnic Conflict
Mustafa Gürbüz
Amsterdam University Press
Cover illustration: Roboski Monument in Diyarbakır, photo by Ismail Avci
© Ismail Avci
Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden
Typesetting: Crius Group, Hulshout
Amsterdam University Press English-language titles are distributed in the US and Canada by
the University of Chicago Press.
isbn 978 90 8964 878 5
e-isbn 978 90 4852 742 7 (pdf)
doi 10.5117/9789089648785
nur 697 | 763
© Mustafa Gürbüz / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2016
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of
this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise)
without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book.
Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations
reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is
advised to contact the publisher.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 7
Introduction 9
1 Ethnic Conflict and Social Movements 11
A Multi-Institutional Politics Approach
What Makes a Kurdish Activist 16
The Argument of the Book 23
How Does Meaning-Making Matter? 25
Organization of the Book 29
2 Kurdish Movements in the Southeast 31
The Kurdish Ethno-Nationalist Movement 33
Hizbullah in Turkey 36
The Gülen/Hizmet Movement 39
Locating the Pro-Islamic AKP 43
3 Exogenous Shocks on the Eve of the Millennium 49
Abdullah Öcalan: The Role of the PKK Leader in Shaping
Kurdish Politics 50
The EU Factor: Turkey’s Membership Process and De-
Securitization 55
Changing International Political Environment 58
The Rise of the AKP: Radical Shifts in Turkish Politics 60
4 Civic Competition and Conflict Transformation 65
Emerging Arenas of Competition in the Kurdish Civic Sphere 69
Arenas of Competition and Strategy-Making 71
5 Resemblance and Difference 77
Constructing Kurdish Civil Society
Why Charity Organizations? 80
Exogenous Shocks: Increasing Poverty and the Emergence of
Kurdish Slums 81
Constructing Competition through Resemblance: The Charity
Initiatives 84
“Education is Our Job”: The Gülen Movement Goes to Slums 89
Namûsa Me Azadîya Me Ye: The Democratic Free Women’s
Movement 93
Religious Public Symbolism: Hizbullah Finds Its Niche 101
Civic Activism and Conflict Transformation 105
6 Going Native 109
Contesting Kurdish Islam
Revolutionary Ideology as a Discursive Process 110
The Kurdish Ethno-Nationalist Movement, Islamic Identity,
and Symbolic Localization 113
Symbolic Localization and Conflict Transformation 125
7 Îslam Çareser e 131
Islamic Activists Discover Kurdish
Increasing Competition over Kurdish Language 132
Hizbullah: From Ayatollah Khomeini to Said Nursi 139
HÜDA-PAR: Calling the Party of God in Kurdish 142
8 Enemies of the “Deep State” 145
Narrative Contests and Symbolic Localization
The “Deep State” and Kurds 147
The Rival Movements and Competing Narratives on Ergenekon 149
The Gülen/Hizmet as Enemy of the Deep State 151
The PKK: “The State wants to sweep its filth under the carpet!” 155
Hizbullah: “We’re the Victims of the Deep State!” 158
Narratives in Conflict Transformation: Reputation Work and
Symbolic Localization 161
9 Conclusion 163
Strategic Engagement and Conflict Transformation 166
Global Dynamics and Pro-Ethnic Strategies 168
Toward a Multi-Institutional Politics Perspective 170
A Kurdish Spring on the Horizon? 174
List of Abbreviations 177
References 179
Appendix: Data and Methods 199
Index 203
Acknowledgments
“It takes a village,” as the saying goes. Begun as a doctoral dissertation
project at the University of Connecticut, this book’s journey took a village
to be completed. I accumulated so many debts to so many individuals
who generously gave their time and knowledge. Among them, two names
deserve specific mention: Mary Bernstein and Charles Kurzman. Mary was
an exceptional mentor, carefully and patiently reading numerous drafts.
Similarly, Charlie supervised the project from its inception and provided
invaluable guidance in transforming a dull dissertation into a work of art.
I am also much indebted to Nancy Naples and Bandana Purkayastha for
their feedback and support at the initial phase of the project.
I am most grateful for comments and criticism of those who read either
the entire manuscript or earlier versions of individual chapters includ-
ing Robert Benford, Marlies Casier, James DeFronzo, Nicole Doerr, Vera
Eccarius-Kelly, Gülsüm Gürbüz-Küçüksarı, Randle Hart, James Jasper, Joost
Jongerden, Turan Kayaoğlu, Ahmet Kuru, David Romano, Renat Shaykhut-
dinov, Lee Smithey, Marc Steinberg, Güneş Tezcür, Stephen Turner, and
Ahmet Yükleyen. Special thanks to the organizers and attendees of the
First Young Scholars in Social Movements conference in the Center for the
Study of Social Movements at the University of Notre Dame – particularly
to Ron Aminzade, Doug McAdam, John McCarthy, and Rory McVeigh – for
their constructive feedback.
My post-doctoral appointments at the University of South Florida and
George Mason University enabled me to crystallize the arguments raised in
this book. I thank Sinem Adar, Gavin Benke, Peter Funke, David Jacobson,
Zacharias Pieri, and Roger Stanev for their intellectual companionship at
the University of South Florida. I also thank Şeyma Akyol and Melikşah
Ayvaz for research assistance at the final stage of manuscript preparation.
All of my editors at Amsterdam University Press, especially Saskia Gieling,
Vanessa de Bueger, Jaap Wagenaar, and Carrie Ballard, were most helpful.
An earlier version of chapter 6 was published in Sociological Inquiry
(“Ideology in Action: Symbolic Localization of Kurdistan Workers’ Party,”
vol. 85, no: 1, 2015). Portions of some chapters appeared in “‘Sold Out to the
Enemy’: Emerging Symbolic Boundaries in Kurdish Politics and Strategic
Uses of Labeling Treason,” European Journal of Turkish Studies vol. 14 (2012)
as well as “Revitalization of Kurdish Islamic Sphere and Revival of Hizbullah
in Turkey” in Fevzi Bilgin and Ali Sarihan (eds.) Understanding Turkey’s
Kurdish Question Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2013.
8 Rival KuRdish MoveMenTs in TuRKey
I dedicate this book to my wife, Tuğba, who not only traveled with me
to the field in the initial phase of this research but also supported me at
every step along the way. Over the years, we have shared the pain and joy
of scholarship and intellectual life. I am truly grateful to her.
Introduction
We used to think that people who were not with us were truly the enemies
of Islam. Even if they were Muslims. We soon became afraid of even our
own wives. It’s because we were living in a system where everybody was
a suspect. Yet, thank God, compared to the past, we can gather more
people (around us) and help them nowadays. If you ask me what has
changed in me, I would tell that I have come to realize that words are
more powerful than weapons and I never take up a gun anymore … In the
past, we used to take action against our enemies with guns; but now and
then, we respond to them with ideas, books, conferences, and meetings.
These are the words of a Kurdish Hizbullah member speaking to a journal-
ist about Hizbullah’s transformation in the past decade.1 As the activist
clearly points out, the master strategy of Hizbullah has changed. Armed
revolutionaries, formerly lodged underground, would now seek a place
within the civic sphere on democratic grounds. In 2004, the very year
Hizbullah released its first publication ever, interesting civic initiatives
were taking place among militant leftist Kurds as well. A guerilla com-
mander explained why the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) undertook
such a radical transformation:
After thirty years of struggle and changes in the world, we also changed.
As a result of the Kurdish freedom struggle we had to leave behind the
struggle based on one class and nation. We have accepted Öcalan’s de-
fense writings for the (European) Human Rights Court as a manifesto for
us. The manifesto calls for democratic civilization and an understanding
of the history of human beings. We have a new organization, the Demo-
cratic Ecological Society. When we don’t clash directly with the state but
disagree with them, this leads to a more democratic approach. By doing
this, the basic aim is to develop a democratic mentality in the society.
In the Middle East, there is a reality of religious/nationalist clashes. In
this perspective, members of Kongra-Gel [the new platform of the PKK
movement] try to solve their problems within the Democratic Ecological
Society in a democratic manner.2
1 Çiçek 2008: 58-59.
2 Interview with David Romano in the PKK camp in Iraq’s Qandil Mountains, see Romano
2006: 145.