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This paper focuses on a particular moral category, 'betrayal,' that has gained significant purchase on Kurdish public culture in Turkey. It examines the ways Kurds reconfigure the relationship between political conditions and personal guilt by using betrayal as an orienting framework expressive of this relationship. In this sense, this paper frames 'betrayal' not as a label or an abstract idea, but a register of political engagement that allows Kurds to recognize the conditions as well as the ethics of their shared membership in a public. It argues that examining Kurds' reflexive interactions about betrayal--how they debate, define, and describe it--reveals a great deal about the formative significance of moral categories to the work of negotiating group-life, a specific kind of intellectual work thus rendered salient. The goal of the paper is to point to some productive directions in the anthropological study of moral categories by foregrounding the co-indexical relations between these categories and the semiotic operations in which they gain public and ethical recognition. [Keywords: political anthropology, ethics and morality, reflexivity, social interaction, Kurdish studies] [Keywords: political anthropology, ethics and morality, reflexivity, social interaction, Kurdish studies] [Peyvane enextar: antropolojiye siyasete, etik u rewist, refleksivite, tekiliyen civaki, Xebaten Kurd!] [Palavras-chave: antropologia polltica, etica e moralidade, reflexividade, interacgao social, estudos curdos] [phrase omitted], Roza was born and raised in Van, a predominantly Kurdish city in east Turkey. (1) At age 27, she started working as an architect at the urban planning department of [...]

Since the 1960s, Turkish policymakers have developed a distant attitude towards the Kurdish movement in Iraq and they have been concerned about the possibility of similar developments taking place in Turkey. However, in the early 1990s, and then from 2007/2008 onwards, Turkey left its distant attitude towards northern Iraq and pursued an active policy developing close relations with the Iraqi Kurds. This paper explores to what extent Turkey's foreign policy change towards northern Iraq in these two periods constituted leader-driven change and to what extent these changes resulted from structural/environmental factors. Keywords: Turkish Foreign Policy, Foreign Policy Change, Northern Iraq, Tayyip Erdogan, Turgut Ozal 1960'lardan itibaren Turk politika yapicilari Irak'taki Kurt hareketine karsi mesafeli bir tutum takinmis ve benzer olaylarin Turkiye'de de yasanmasindan kaygi duymuslardir. Fakat, Turkiye, oncelikle 1990'larin basinda, sonra da 2007/2008 yillarindan itibaren, Kuzey Irak'a karsi mesafeli tutumunu bir tarafa birakarak, aktif ve Irakli Kurtlerle yakin iliskiler gelistirme odakli politikalar izlemistir. Bu calismada, soz konusu iki donemde Turkiye'nin Kuzey Irak politikasi degisikliklerinin ne kadar lider kaynakli oldugu ve ne olcude yapisal/cevresel unsurlarin etkisiyle gerceklestigi sorularina yanit aranmaktadir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Turk Dis Politikasi, Dis Politikada Degisim, Kuzey Irak, Tayyip Erdogan, Turgut Ozal, 1960'lardan itibaren Turkiye'nin Irak'a yonelik baslica ilgi alani Kurt etnik uyanisi olmus, Turk karar alicilari benzer olaylarin kendi sinirlari icerisinde de gerceklesmesinden kaygi duymuslardir. Bu nedenle, Turk politika yapicilari Irak'taki [...]

The Kurdish problem has not only been one of Turkey's most important and long-standing problems, but also always ranked among top agenda items in relation to the EU accession process. Consequently, the stance and opinions of the Kurds on matters pertaining to the Union are of critical importance. The present paper aims to analyze Kurdish orientations to the EU based on two main modes of orientation described in the literature, level of awareness (interest and information), and subjective assessments, on the basis of a field study conducted among university graduate Kurds. Keywords: Kurds, European Union, Orientation to the EU, EU-Turkey Relations Kurt sorunu sadece uzun zamandir Turkiye'nin en onemli sorunlarindan biri olmakla kalmamis ayni zamanda AB uyelik sureci bakimindan da her zaman en onemli gundem maddelerinin basinda yer almistir. Bu acidan, Kurtlerin AB ile ilgili meselelerde durduklari yer ve sahip olduklari gorusler kritik degere sahiptir. Elinizdeki calismada, universite mezunu Kurtler arasinda gerceklestirilen bir alan calismasindan hareketle; literaturde kullanilan iki ana oryantasyon moduna, farkindalik (ilgi ve bilgi) duzeyine ve subjektif degerlendirmelere dayali olarak Kurtlerin AB'ye oryantasyonlari (yonelimleri) analiz edilmeye calisilmistir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Kurtler, Avrupa Birligi, AB'ye Oryantasyon, AB-Turkiye Iliskileri, Giris Avrupa Birligi (AB) uyeligi cok uzun sureli ve cok boyutlu bir tartismanin konusu olan Turkiye gibi bir ulkede; hem ulkenin ulusal duzlemi acisindan hem de AB ile iliskileri etkilemesi [...]

In this article, I consider one aspect of the larger linguistic-political project of rendering Kurdish an 'equivalent' language in a world of standard languages: the material contours of text artifacts, and their commensurating capacities. In Turkey, where Turkish has long been the sole officially sanctioned code of public life, the project of asserting equivalence takes place in no small part as a function of an increasingly textualized and widely circulating Kurdish. Inserting Kurdish, both spoken and printed, into ever more arenas--disrupting the expectations of which code goes with which context--has become a central plank in a Kurdish political project. Yet relatively few people actually read the texts in question. The circulation of largely unread Kurdish texts allows us to investigate how material qualities of text objects--shape, sheen, heft, etc.--contribute to the assertion of particular forms of linguistic commensurability. I examine how textual forms anchor affiliations of loyalty and allegiance to language community, even without necessarily transforming speech practices and norms of pragmatic usage. In the Kurdish project of commensurating codes, the circulation of textual artifacts--stacked newspapers, glossy street signs, hefty dictionaries, paperback novels--works to signal the presence of the genres they are presumed to contain. At least three commensurating processes are at play here: between spoken Kurdish and its textual equivalent; between 'Kurdish' and 'Turkish' as the orienting codes of their respective language communities; and between 'Kurds' and 'Turks' as members of those communities, participants in a fiercely contested struggle over sovereignty and resources. At stake in these assertions of linguistic equivalence--the normative purchase of a would-be newly commensurate Kurdish--are politically and socially consequential mappings of groupness, polity, and political legitimacy. [Keywords: Commensuration, language community, textualization, Kurdish, Turkey] [Tegehen sereki: hevrejeyikirin, cemawere zimani, bideqkirin, kurdi, Tirkiye] [Anahtar kelimeler: orantisallastirmak, dilsel topluluk, metinsellectirme, Kurtce, Turkiye] [Palavras-chave: Comensuracao, comunidade linguistica, textualizacao, curdo, Turquia], On a cloudy afternoon in early November, 2010, an MP from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (Baris ve Demokrasi Partisi) in Turkey stood on the steps of the Turkish [...]

Before Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government was reelected in July 2007, Erdogan made a calculated decision to shift his foreign-policy focus away from his NATO allies in Europe, [...]

In 2009 the Turkish government launched a novel initiative to tackle the Kurdish question. The initiative soon ran into deadlock, only to be untangled towards the end of 2012 when a new policy was announced. This comparative paper adopts Michael Barnetts trinity of identity, narratives and frames to show how a cultural space within which a peaceful engagement with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) would be deemed legitimate and desirable was carved out. Comparisons between the two policies reveal that the framing of policy narratives can have a formative impact on their outcomes. The paper demonstrates how the governing quality of firmness fluctuated between different connotations and references, finally leading back to a deep-rooted tradition in Turkish governance., Since 1984 when the PKK commenced its armed struggle against the Turkish state, Turkish security policies have been framed around the Kurdish question with the PKK presented as the primary [...]

A study was conducted to examine the experience of Kurds during the rise of violent forms of nationalism in Turkey. The Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East, and their experience is situated within the contemporary politics of neighboring societies in the post-Ottoman world.

'Shedders of blood, raisers of strife, seekers after turmoil and uproar, robbers and brigands; a people all malignant, and evil-doers of depraved habits, ignorant of all mercy, devoid of all [...]

1870 BEFORE ADVANCING ANY FURTHER into the details relating to the description of this country, and to the manners and customs of the inhabitants, it is necessary to give her [...]

Despite the claim that Kurds intend to remain part of Iraq, it is highly unlikely that they will remain within the country's borders. For the past 80 years or more, Iraq's centralized system of control has failed to accommodate the Kurds, and it is apparent that federalism, too, is a form of government that will fail to satisfy them. The Kurdish goal of independence is apparent in the system they have developed within their state, and this could challenge any future plan for further integration back into Iraq. This goal is also evidenced in popular demands for independence in Kurdistan and in Kurdish politicians' warnings that they will separate if violence, intolerance, or tyranny continue in Iraq. The nature of Iraq's divided society constantly produces civil war and intolerance, and the reality is that it is a nation dominated by ethnic-nationalism and clashing ideologies and interests, but lacking a unifying national identity. Therefore, it is not Kurdish secession that causes continuing communal violence; it is the forced unification of people with different interests and ideologies. Key Words: Kurds; Kurdistan; Kurdish role vis a vis Iraq; Kurdish independence; Iraq and federalism.

Import factors like mistrust between Kurdish and Turkish, continued terrorist activity, failure in government's reform measures and divided leadership of the Kurdish community are some of the obstacles that stand in the way of developing a democratic solution of Turkey's Kurdish problem. Civil action training for Turkish military and security personnel and open-ended conversation between moderate Turks and Kurds to define area of accommodation are some of the immediate solutions for the problem.

This article addresses the ways in which Turkish nationalism has perceived the Kurdish question. It is shown that both Turkish nationalism and the Kurdish question have passed through some paradigmatic moments in the twentieth century. This, I argue, has shaped the way that the Kurdish question has been perceived by Turkish nationalism. While the Kurdish question had been seen by Turkish nationalism mostly in terms of a fatal rivalry between the backward, pre-modern and tribal past and the prosperous present in the first half of the century, it was perceived in terms of a tension between the peripheral economy and national market in the fifties and sixties. In the 1970s, the Kurdish unrest was believed to be a product of communist incitement. Despite this impurity in perception, one thing has remained nearly unchanged for Turkish nationalism: Kurds could become Turkish. In other words, Turkish nationalism of the republican era has principally perceived Kurds as future-Turks. However, the signs in circulation at present indicate that the confidence of Turkish nationalism as to Kurds' potential of becoming Turkish is not as firm as it used to be. At present, Turkish nationalism seems to be getting prepared to abandon its contention that Kurds are future-Turks. Keywords: Turkish nationalism; Kurdish question; Republican period of Turkey.

ABSTRACT In this paper we provide an analysis of Kurdish women's organizing in the diaspora, highlighting the tension between 'homeland' and 'host-land' nationalisms, patriarchy, and feminism. This is the first [...]

Behind patrilineal descent is an asymmetrical descent structure based on sex, and father's brother's daughter marriage. Because it is a means of constructing the patrilineage, patrilateral parallel cousin marriages continue [...]

INTRODUCTION It has been almost half a century since I left my little village in Kurdistan. And yet it is still my refuge from the hustle and bustle of the [...]

One can understand why governments and chancellors respond to the lack of fraternal allies with realpolitik, but it is a scandal that liberal, left-wing opinion, supposedly motivated by humanistic and universal values has traditionally ignored the case of Kurds. With the toppling of Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq, Kurds will have a place of their own and this self-determination would be due to the questionable politics of the Bush administration.

The citizenship ideal of the Turkish republic has taken shape through the logics of alterity, defined by and through both a paradoxical understanding of Turkishness and the rise of Kurdish identity politics. Citizenship in Turkey represents an uneasy marriage between ethnic and civic conceptions of national identity and belonging. This article develops an analysis of citizenship and everyday spatial practice in Istanbul through the narratives produced in focus group discussions with Kurdish-identified, migrant women. Their stories explore how citizenship, as a hegemonic process that assembles identities, fixes power relations, and disciplines space, is encountered and contested through the spatial practices of everyday life, through what Michel de Certeau calls the tactics of 'making do.' Viewing dominant discourses and practices of citizenship as techniques of spatial organization ('strategies,' in de Certeau's terms), this study focuses on how participants narrate their own spatial stories of resistance to and appropriation of dominant codings of 'the citizen' and 'the stranger' in the Turkish context. This analysis brings to the fore the ways in which focus group participants encounter discourses and practices that position them as strangers and citizens, their use of tactics of anonymity and strategies of identity as they traverse city spaces, and the moments in which they situate themselves as political subjects in schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces in Istanbul, through the spatial enactment of the strategies of citizenship and the tactics of everyday life. Key Words: citizenship, urban geography, Kurdish identity, Turkey, Michel de Certeau.

Data from the 1998 Turkish Demographic and Health Survey are used to gain insight into the characteristics of the non-Turkish speaking individuals in Turkey and in the socio-economic consequences of not speaking Turkish for them. The very large majority of non-Turkish speaking individuals turn out to be Kurdish and Arabic women, living in East Turkey and in the countryside. The data indicate that of the married women aged 15-49 in Turkey, about 4 per cent, or one in 25, is not able to speak Turkish. More than 90 per cent of these women has not finished primary education. Regarding their social background, our results suggest that they were more under the influence of traditional cultural values, that their access to the public domain was limited, and that they were more heavily controlled by their family. Regarding the consequences of not speaking Turkish, we found the non-Turkish speaking women to be less employed in the formal economy, to have husbands with lower educational levels and occupations and to have lower family incomes. This result is in line with the predictions of linguistic capital theory. Keywords: Linguistic capital; women; Turkey; Kurds; Arabs; speaking Turkish; patriarchy.

KURDS invariably greet visitors to 'Kurdistan' with a cup of sweet tea and the complaint that they are 'the largest people without a nation.' They are right. Approximately 24 million [...]

I My childhood unfolded amidst the flowering pomegranate trees and their enchanting colors. In the garden of the house of the large tribe where I was born and where I [...]

In a prominent corner of my office hangs a phrase of Euripides: Omnis hominum vita est plena dolore. That means: man's entire life is full of suffering. It goes without [...]

Introduction 'It is a long time that I have waited for a proper situation, full of quietness and loneliness, in order to be able to write down some of my [...]

They were sitting on the terrace in the sun. Bafrine was leaning against the chest of her mother who was holding her tightly between her knees. Beneath the teeth of [...]

Abstract This article proposes that the research area of refugee studies can benefit from contemporary discussions about the concepts of transnationalism and diaspora. It is argued that the concept of [...]

Although many travelers have passed through this portion of the Ottoman dominions, there is still a good deal of it the geography of which is but imperfectly known. Kurdistan is [...]

Now that the excessively imperialistic claims of Armenia are officially known, I may venture to define more accurately before the Peace Conference the legitimate claims of the Kurd Nation. The [...]

April 25, 1849 -- Leaving my home at Seir, at 7 o'clock A.M. I started for Mosul. I rode to the city, and remained there till 1 o'clock, P.M. engaged [...]

Some Kurdish proverbs are probably very ancient, others quite recent in origin. Like any other part of a living language, new proverbs may emerge over time and old ones may [...]

Following are proverbs and commentary reprinted from an article written more than eighty years ago. It appeared in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, London Institution (Vol. I: [...]

Proverbs always bring to mind the Euphrates--its awe, the sound of its running water, its snow white waves, its antiquity, and its murmur reminding man of his humanity. For me, [...]

One of my favorite books is Haim's Persian-English Proverbs. A reader can browse through it endlessly, and one of its peculiar qualities is that it doesn't simply translate the proverbs: [...]

Kirkuk Is an essential part of Iraqi Kurdistan. While Kirkuk s demography as been in flux in recent decades, this is largely a result of ethnic cleansing campaigns implemented by [...]

This article will focus on the challenge of Kurdish nationalism within Turkey, particularly as it affects Turkey's relations with Syria and the distribution of the waters of the Euphrates, Tigris [...]