The Kurdish Issue in Turkey: A Spatial Perspective

355 Pages·2015·4.494 MB·English

by  Zeynep Gambetti, Joost Jongerden (eds.)

The Kurdish Issue in Turkey
ThisvolumegivesathoroughandcomprehensiveanalysisoftheKurdishissuein
Turkeyfromaspatialperspectivethattakesintoaccountgeographicalvariations
in identity formation, exclusion and political mobilization.
AlthoughanalysisofTurkey’s Kurdish issue from a spatialperspective is not
new, spatial analyses are still relatively scarce. More often than not, Kurdish
studies consist of time-centredwork. In this book, the attention is shifted from
outcome-oriented analysis of transformation in time towards a spatial analysis.
The authors discuss the spatial production of home, identity, work – in short,
ofbeingintheworld.Thecontributionsarebasedonthetacitavowalthatthe
Kurdish question, in addition to being a question of group rights, is also one
of spatial relations. Byasking a differentset of questions, this bookexamines:
which spatial strategies have been employed to deal with Kurds? Which spatial
strategies are developed by Kurds to deal with state, and with the neo-liberal
turn? How are these strategies absorbed and what counter-strategies are
developed, both in cities populated by the Kurds in south-eastern Turkey and
in other regions?
Emphasizing that identity or place, its particularity or uniqueness, arises
from social practices and social relations, this book is essential reading for
scholars and researchers working in Kurdish and Turkish studies, urban and
rural studies and politics more broadly.
Zeynep Gambetti is Associate Professor of Political Theory at Bog˘aziçi Uni-
versity. Her research interests include collective action, ethics and public space.
She co-edited Rhetorics of Insecurity: Belonging and Violence in the Neoliberal
Era (2013), and the special issue of The Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern
Studies on the spatial dimensions of the Kurdish question in Turkey.
Joost Jongerden is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology of
Development, Wageningen University, the Netherlands. His research interests
includethesociologyofspaceandplace,thesocio-spatialdimensionsofprotest
and violent conflict.
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in Turkey Edited by Zeynep Gambetti and
Gül Arıkan Akdag˘ Joost Jongerden

The Kurdish Issue in Turkey
A Spatial Perspective
Edited by
Zeynep Gambetti and Joost Jongerden
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Firstpublished2015
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TheKurdishissueinTurkey:aspatialperspective/editedbyZeynep
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pagescm.--(RoutledgestudiesinMiddleEasternpolitics)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Kurds--Turkey--Socialconditions.2.Kurds--Civilrights--Turkey.
3.Kurds--Turkey--Politicsandgovernment.4.Humangeography--Turkey.
5.Spatialbehavior--Turkey.6.Groupidentity--Turkey.7.Cityandtown
life--Turkey.8.Politicalparticipation--Turkey.9.Turkey--Ethnicrelations.
10.Turkey--Socialconditions.I.Gambetti,Zeynep.II.Jongerden,Joost.
DR435.K87K8652015
305.891’5970561--dc23
2014029215
ISBN:978-1-138-82415-7(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-74088-1(ebk)
TypesetinTimesNewRoman
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
List of illustrations xi
Notes on contributors xiii
Turkish and Kurdish spelling and pronunciation xvi
1 Introduction: the Kurdish issue in Turkey from a
spatial perspective 1
ZEYNEPGAMBETTIANDJOOSTJONGERDEN
PARTI
Making and remaking the southeast 25
2 Space, state-making and contentious Kurdish politics in the
East of Turkey: the case of Eastern Meetings, 1967 27
˘
AZATZANAGÜNDOGAN
3 Diyarbakır’s “witness sites” and discourses on the “Kurdish
question” in Turkey 63
ERAYÇAYLI
4 What is hidden beneath the Mor Gabriel Monastery wall?
Consolidating borders between self and other, self and the state 93
ZERRINÖZLEMBINER
5 An ethnographic account of compulsory public service by doctors
in Hakkari: the limits of the AKP assimilation strategy and the
production of space 105
.
ILKERCÖRÜT
6 Beyond Kurdistan? The Mesopotamia Social Forum and
the appropriation and re-imagination of Mesopotamiaby the
Kurdish movement 136
MARLIESCASIER