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PREFACE This Book Is About the Forms of Life As Experienced

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PREFACE This Book Is About the Forms of Life As Experienced PREFACE This book is about the forms of life as experienced,imagined, and produced under the protracted conflict between the PKK (Partiya Karkeren Kurdis- tane, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and the Turkish state. The book is bounded by a par tic u lar time (2001–2015) and space (southeast Turkey). The time frame is not arbitrary; it corresponds to a moment of suspended tem- porality. This interval of time- space coincided with the end of the state of emergency1 (olağanüstü hal, abbreviated OHAL in Turkish), intensive mili- tary conflict, the instigation of long and short- term cease- fires, and the proliferation of democ ratization packages and peace talks. During this ex- traordinary win dow of time, my aim was to understand the historical and po liti cal modes of coexistence practiced by Kurds, Arabs, and Syriacs (Süry- aniler) as they waited for and attempted to craft the emergence of peace in a border province of southeast Turkey. Specifically, I sought to understand the forms of po liti cal subjectivity and the modes of state power at the margins of the Turkish state, margins not only in the sense of geo graph i cal location but also in the sense of the borderline flux between normalcy and emer- gency, continuity and disruption, order and disorder (Das and Poole 2004). The suspended temporality I refer to came to an end. The book closes with fragmented accounts of the vio lence that resumed in July 2015, the latest phase in the war between the PKK and the Turkish state. The final chapter is composed of what I call after Michael Taussig (1992) “terror’s talk”; talk that reveals the dissolution and destruction of hopes, promises, imaginations, expectations, and attempts to establish a good life. During this period of suspended temporality between the years of 2001 and 2015, I moved between the cities, towns, and villages that lie in the bor- der province of Mardin2 (Figure 1) and the towns and cities of the regions’ diasporic communities in Germany and Sweden. As peace trickled into the region, I followed the traces of absent communities, particularly Syriacs3, and documented their attempts to prepare for a full- fledged return to their GEORGIA Istanbul Map of Tur Abdin Tigris ARMENIA TURKEY Hasno d‘Kifo Ankara Diyarbakır IRAN Mor Dimet Yardo Mor Abay SYRIA IRAQ Arbaye Qelit Sawro Kafro Elayto Dayro Daslibo Bote Kfarburan TURKEY Zaz Mor Beth Qustan Hbûşyo Nêşe Lo'ozor Dayro d-Qube Mor Yakub Hah Ahlah Dayro d'Yoldath Aloho Salih Urnus Tigris ARTBEITER by Ilustrated Maserte Midyad Kferze Aynwardo Mor Abrohom Mardin Mor Gabriel Kefshenne Mzizah Anhal Bisorino Qartmin Midin Beth Zabday Gziro Deyzulzafaran Binebil Qalho d'atho Gavayto Kafro Tahtoyo Temerz Golliye Hesana Arbo Kafarbe Mor Malke Arkah Ehwo Sederi Mor Abrohom SYRIA Badibe (Kaskoroyo) Harbo d'misko Mor Yuhanun 10 km Mor Avgin Morbobo Birguriya Nisibin Gremira Qreetho di 'Eeto Figure 2. Village and Town Names in Tur Abdin (Syriac/Kurdish/Turkish) Golliye / Ksor / Göllü Harbo d'misko / Xerabê Mişka / Dağiçi Qreetho di 'Eeto / Gundîk Şikro / Ehwo / Habab / Güzelsu Beth Qustan / Baqisyan / Alagöz Hasno d'Kifo / Heskîf / Hasankeyf Qalho d'atho / Kilitmara / Eskikale Salih / Selhe / Barıştepe Gündükşükrü Kferze / Kevirzê / Altıntaş Temerz / Temerzê / Uçarlı Nisibin / Nisibîn / Nusaybin Sawro / Stewr / Savur Kafro Tahtoyo / Xerabê Kefrê / Elbeğendi Bote / Bate / Bardakçı Zaz / Zazê / İzbırak Arbaye /Arbay/ Alayurt Midyad / Midyade / Midyat Maserte / Mehsert / Ōmerli Arkah / Xarabe-ale / Űçköy Ahlah / Helexe / Narlı Kafarbe / Kafarbe/ Güngören Kfarburan / Kerboran / Dargeçit Mardin / Mêrdîn / Artuklu Binebil / Binêbil / Bülbülköy Badibe / Badib / Dibek Aynwardo / Eynwerd / Gülgöze Birguriya / Bîrguriwa / Balaban Dayro d-Qube /Derqub/ Karagöl Qelit/ Qellith / Dereiçi Gremira / Girêbiya / Girmeli Arbo / Erbo / Taşköy Hah / Hexe / Anıtlı Midin / Midihe/ Ōğündük Hbûşyo Nêşe / Habsus / Mercimekli Kafro Elayto / Kefri / Arıca Yardo / Erde / Yamanlar Bisorino / Basibrine / Haberli Kefshenne / Kifshenne / Kayalı Anhal / Nehile / Yemişli Mzizah / Mizîzex / Doğançay Urnus / Arnas / Bağlarbaşı Gavayto / Sarê / Sareköy Beth Zabday / Hezex / İdil Sederi / Sêderiyê / Üçyol Morbobo / Merbab / Günyurdu Qartmin / Qartmine/ Yayvantepe Dayro Daslibo / Dersalib / Çatalçam Gziro / Cizîre / Cizre Figure 1. The Tur Abdin region. Map by Miro Kaygalak. Preface xi villages. I had come to listen to their fears of encountering their old neigh- bors and needing to coexist with them. Each time I returned to the city of Mardin, another fragment of buried history surfaced. For as the city became the canvas for a stunning array of heritage, tourism, restoration, and art proj ects, questions lingered about the number and identity of the dead, both past and pre sent. And along with it all came an assortment of other life proj ects: reparation, restoration, and destruction of the built environment; desire for sudden enrichment; legal and extralegal contests over the confis- cation and possession of land; attempts to receive compensation for material loss; and desperate efforts to escape from material and immaterial debts— ideally by sudden enrichment. My concern was to shed light on the complex- ity of life in the post- emergency period, the aftermath of a fifteen- year- long (1984–1999) intensive military conflict between the PKK and the Turkish Armed Forces. Violent Peace The post- emergency period in the Kurdish region took the form of a “violent peace” (Visweswaran 2013) fraught with unilateral cease- fires, peace talks, and their failures. Peace was the abstract and intangible condition between the state and its Kurdish citizens. The declaration of every democ ratization package preceded the emergence of a new exception (Agamben 1998, 2005) that continually shifted the threshold between legal and illegal, insider and outsider. In this po liti cal environment, the post- emergency period wit- nessed the enactment of the Repentance Laws (Pișmanlik Yasasi) for PKK guerrillas, a symbolic performative return of PKK guerrillas crossing the border and entering Turkey as emblematic of the peace pro cess; the murder of civilians in the village of Bilge (Zangirt in Kurdish) caught in a cross fire among the village guards; the slaughter in the village of Roboskî of thirty- seven villa gers in an air strike carried out by the Turkish Air Force. In the meantime, vast amounts of cash were channeled into reparation, restoration, and infrastructure proj ects, including heritage- making ven- tures, archaeological excavations, establishment of new universities, dam and airport construction, the opening of two- lane highways, and massive housing proj ects in the region. Urban life prospered with cafes, restaurants, hotels, shopping malls, and new gated neighborhoods. Local NGOs run by xii Preface the provincial governments and municipalities run by the pro- Kurdish par- ties also thrived. In the midst of this new generation of locals, there was a boom in lawyers; architects; and civil engineers who returned to start up businesses in their hometowns. In the context of Mardin, this group constituted the core of the middle and upper- middle class, attracting and producing the real cash in the city. They were the main consumers of the amenities of the urban lifestyle. Furthermore, in the post- emergency era, Mardinites were busy devising proj ects having to do with visual art, documentary filmmak- ing, oral history collection, handicrafts, and local wine production. The film festivals, the Mardin Bienal (biennial) art exhibitions in the stone buildings, fashion shows in the old madrasas were highlighted on touristic itineraries that wound their way through the city. Residents, visitors and tourists from outside the region continued to produce and consume the artistic, historic, and touristic spaces despite the city’s close proximity to war zones in the Kurdish region of Syria and Iraq. Beginning in 2011, there was a continuous flow of Syrian refugees into the city. In 2014, Yazidis who had escaped the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) were settled in the province’s towns and refugee camps. Few locals in Mardin were preoccupied with discussions as to whether the city would still be considered a safe zone after the arrival of the Yazidis or whether they should postpone the Bienal exhibition and send the international artists home. In a few weeks’ time, on September 6 and 7, 2014, people were out on the streets in Mardin and elsewhere in the region protesting against the gov- ernment for having blocked military support for Kurds fighting against ISIS in Kobane, Northern Syria. Over the course of the next three days, fifty people were killed, among them PKK militants, members of the Turkish se- curity forces, civilian passersby, members of the far- right Islamist Free Cause Party (Hür Dava Partisi) and the Nationalist Movement Party (Mil- liyetçi Hareket Partisi). All these events took place as milestones in the zone between war and peace. They produced terror’s talk that both revealed and concealed the ef- fects of vio lence while fixing the meaning and covering over the murkiness that emerged from the indistinguishableness between normality and emer- gency. Despite all this, it was the violent peace that allowed openness, acces- sibility, and the movement of ideas, practices, and people. It was the violent peace that allowed the per for mance and production of the po liti cal for the possibility of other forms of life. Preface xiii Over the course of more than a de cade, my visits to Mardin were awash in uncanny entanglements
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