The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey

From Protest to Resistance

Cengiz Gunes author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:28th Nov '11

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

This hardback is available in another edition too:

The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey cover

This book provides an interpretive and critical analysis of Kurdish identity, nationalism and national movement in Turkey since the 1960s. By raising issues and questions relating to Kurdish political identity and highlighting the ideological specificity, diversity and the transformation of Kurdish nationalism, it develops a new empirical dimension to the study of the Kurds in Turkey.

Cengiz Gunes applies an innovative theoretical approach to the analysis of an impressively large volume of primary sources and data drawn from books and magazines published by Kurdish activists, political parties and groups. The analysis focuses on the specific demands articulated by the Kurdish national movement and looks at Kurdish nationalism at a specific level by disaggregating the nationalist discourse, showing variations over time and across different Kurdish nationalist organisations. Situating contemporary Kurdish political identity and its political manifestations within a historical framework, the author examines the historical and structural conditions that gave rise to it and influenced its evolution since the 1960s. The analysis also encompasses an account of the organisational growth and evolution of the Kurdish national movement, including the political parties and groups that were active in the period.

Bringing the study of the organisational development and growth of the Kurdish National Movement in Turkey up to date, this book will be an important reference for students and scholars of Middle Eastern politics, social movements, nationalism and conflict.

To the merit of the Kurdish National Movement in Turkey is its attempt to understand how subjectivation takes place and political actors give meaning to the world and themselves. In this sense, the book is a sharp and welcome turn away from analyses in which the PKK, or for that matter any political party, is treated as an expression of something else. The author is also among the first to have observed the articulation of Kurdish demands into a discourse of radical democracy and the profound importance of this for a development of the political struggle for self-determination and rights…Overall, The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey is a well thought out and welcome contribution to the study and understanding of identity politics and political struggle and a much needed textbook for students in Kurdish Studies." Joost Jongerden, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

ISBN: 9780415680479

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 630g

244 pages