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University of Bergen STATE AND MEDIA INFLUENCE ON THE DRAWING OF ETHNIC BOUNDARIES : KURDISH WORK MIGRANTS ON THE BLACK SEA COAST OF TURKEY By Harun Cengiz Karayakupoğlu A Thesis submitted to the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, Norway in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Anthropology. Summer 2012 i ABSTRACT In the Turkish Black Sea Region Kurdish agricultural workers and other ethnic groups interact and form relations. This study is focused on the effects of ethnic difference in the formation of these relations, groups’ perception of each other and the issues that emerge out of these perceptions. Within the frame of this focus, this study problematizes the following matters: Do economic (advantageous or disadvantageous), social, ethnic parameters created by the ethnic difference between the groups form a threshold value? Do these threshold values get shaped by the discourses of state and media as well as economic, social, ethnic variables? Do these threshold values completely determine the relations and perceptions between Kurdish workers and the local public? Barth’s general approach assumes that the shaping of the relations between two ethnic groups and the borders that emerge between them accordingly are products of the interaction between the groups. Therefore he states that these borders are solely built on an interactional basis. This research was prepared with the intention of emphasizing different mechanisms in the definition of borders between groups and it stands in opposition with Barth’s argument. These mechanisms were designed to demonstrate that groups’ perception of each other, content of their relations, and the borders between them are vulnerable to the effects of state and media. The main part of this research aims to demonstrate the effects of state and media formations which Barth has left blank while defining the emergence of the borders between ethnic groups. Keywords: Immigration, ethnicity, Turk, Kurd, media, state ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I want to thank the people who have supported me both financially and morally throughout the planning, applying and writing processes of this research. I owe the debt of gratitude firstly to my advisor Associate Professor Stale Knudsen who has been patient with me throughout the planning and writing processes and Gülşah Mursaloğlu who have helped me on translation, to my friends in Ordu; Tahsin Vedat Şensoy, Selami İnce, Tayfur Çandır, Selçuk Küpçük, Kutsi Yaşar and Yiğit who have never left me alone during the time I stayed in Ordu, to my worker brothers who are struggling to survive in the tents and who bring a wizened Mediterranean climate to Ordu, to my mother and siblings who have always supported me, and to my father whose presence I always feel with me. iii CONTENTS CHAPTER 1:INTRODUCTION 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………….......1 2. Objective and Motives…………………………………………………………………………….11 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Theoretical Framework………………………………………………………………………………..14 Concept of Migration and Turkey…………………………………………………………………….22 CHAPTER 3: THE FIELD AND THE METHOD General Properties of Ordu Region…………………………………………………………………..29 3.1. Methods and Techniques Used in This Research……………………………………………...34 3.2. Structuring the Questions and Approach to the Subject……………………………………....37 3.3. Problems Encountered in the Field and the Solutions………………………………………….38 CHAPTER 4: SEASONAL WORKERS AND THE LOCAL PUBLIC 4.1. Ghosts of the City: Kurdish Seasonal Workers…………………………………………………42 4.2. Economic Dimension of the Formation of Relations……………………………………………50 4.3. Position of the Beekeeper’s Association: Let’s Eat Sweets to Speak Sweetly………………....56 4.4. Position of the Civil Servants: We are Only Performing Our Duties…………………………57 CHAPTER 5:RELIGION AND HYGIENE 5.1. Religious Life in Shaping the Reciprocal Perceptions…………………………………………64 5.2. “Dirty Kurds”: Daily Habits and Hygiene within the Relations between the Groups………66 5.3. Seasonal Workers and the Gypsies……………………………………………………………..70 CHAPTER 6: THE FLOOD 6.1. Relations that Emerged After the Flood……………………………………………………….72 6.2. Dormitory of the Science High School after the Flood………………………………………..77 CHAPTER 7: STATE AND MEDIA 7.1. The Influence of the Conflicts between PKK and State in Shaping the Perceptions between the Groups……………………………………………………………………………………….......82 7.2. Mediocrity of Death: Representation of Kurds in the Media…………………………….….85 CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………….97 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………………...108 Appendix Photos………………………………………………………………………………………………..117 Maps………………………………………………………………………………………………....12 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1. Introduction This research’s context is the Province Ordu in the Black sea region of Turkey. It is focused on the relationships between the Kurdish seasonal agricultural workers who come to the region to gather hazelnuts and the local population of the region (including the state representatives and the producers).The main objective of this research is to shed light on the dynamics that drive, shape and give content to the relationships between these groups. Fundamental to these dynamics are; state and media discourses, which through their practice and politics, create the ethnic, economic, political, social and cultural variables of these relationships and this research aims to reveal their effects. With this objective, I did a field research in Ordu between August and September 2011 which was the season for gathering hazelnuts. Through participant observation and interviews I tried to understand the picture. The borders between the seasonal Kurdish workers and the other groups in their work environment are very rigid. These borders get reshaped through the variables listed above and I believe they create a sphere which is worth to be studied anthropologically. The quantity of the seasonal workers in Turkey which is between 190-200 thousand according to the records also signifies the importance of this issue. The majority of these seasonal workers consist of Kurdish. Considering that seasonal workers work as a family, that their children also get involved with the work and that there is a significant amount of unrecorded labor force, agriculture experts estimate that their quantity is close to one million1. Although it doesn’t enter the realm of this study, it has been observed that seasonal workers bring along their children to each city they work in. As a consequence, although indirectly, these school-age children get deprived of education opportunities and this lack of education is even strengthened with the bad living conditions they’re exposed to. Within the last few years, state representatives took measures regarding the education of these children. Although they tried to enable these children to continue their education temporarily in the work place, these measures didn’t create a lasting impact. Deprivation of these children of education 1 Source: http://www.radikal.com.tr/Radikal.aspx?aType=RadikalEklerDetayV3&ArticleID=1009782&CategoryID=42. 2 opportunities is significant in the sense that in the long run they join the unskilled labor force just like their parents, and get obliged to continue this cycle. Why was this research necessary? Especially within the last thirty years, there has been a radical economic and political transformation in Turkey. This transformation has reflected on one of the major components of Turkish society; Turkish-Kurdish relations. Some portion of this transformation has been surveyed in this research, particularly the issues related to the fact the relations between the two groups have transformed significantly as a consequence of the conflict between state and PKK2. This relationship was relatively stable under the shadow of the denial and assimilation policies of the Republic3. However during the 1980s, through the conflicts that arose with the PKK, it turned into a low density war. These conflicts created effects in terms of the two parties’ perception of each other. Although this situation created significant problems in the social and economic sphere, it also opened up a research sphere that is productive for the social sciences. The term “productive” shouldn’t be interpreted as apathy for the agony people have gone through or as a conclusion devoid of humanistic perspective. At this point, anthropology is usually regarded as a social science capable of taking a side in terms of the social matters. In this respect, our acknowledgement is that these relations tend to be shaped within the frame of media and state discourses and this study aims to explain these processes. In post-1980 Turkey’s political sphere, the words Kurdish and Turkish were mentioned more than ever before. It’s a conventional situation4 that this mentioning usually includes certain prejudices, exclusionist and chauvinist judgments. The relations between Turks, Kurds and the state have been and continue to be the subject of many studies both in the national and international sphere (including the academia). Through these studies, these relations have been analyzed ethnologically, etymologically, sociologically, demographically…etc and questions on the matter were tried to be answered accordingly. This issue which has a really dynamic structure has been an topic very frequently and has been analyzed in both local and international levels. The reasons behind these processes are the post-1980 war between the Turkish state and PKK and the consequences