Rival Kurdish Movements in Turkey: Transforming Ethnic Conflict Explores the Conditions That Encourage Non-Violent Civic Engagement in Emerging Civil Societies
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PROTEST AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS 7 PROTEST AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Gürbüz Rival Kurdish Movements in Turkey: Transforming Ethnic Conflict explores the conditions that encourage non-violent civic engagement in emerging civil societies. The book examines the radical transformations over the past decade in the politics of Turkey’s Kurdish minority. On the eve of the new millennium, the Turkish state was still openly denying the existence of Kurds, calling them “mountain Turks,” and Kurdish populated cities were ruled under martial law. Kurdish politics in Turkey was dominated by a revolutionary movement, the PKK, which engaged in violent clashes with the state. Less than a decade later, the PKK’s rebellion had all but ended, and Kurdish political and civic movements of numerous stripes had emerged. The Turkish state even introduced an official Kurdish-language TV channel. How did this rapid change occur? Gürbüz proposes that contending social movements has transformed the politics of the region, ushering in an era of post-conflict political and cultural competition. Mustafa Gürbüz is a policy fellow in the School of Policy, Government, and Rival in Movements Turkey Kurdish International Affairs at George Mason University and teaches Middle East politics at American University in Washington, DC. ‘Dr. Gürbüz provides readers with an original and very engaging, theoretically informed and compelling account of competing Kurdish social movements in Turkey.’ David Romano, Missouri State University Mustafa Gürbüz ‘Gürbüz shows how globalization and competition among Kurdish opposition groups has shaped the trajectory of Turkey-Kurdish relations. His multi- institutional approach is a fresh advance and essential for understanding Rival Kurdish the cycles of violence, repression, and reconciliation.’ Jack A. Goldstone, George Mason University Movements in Turkey ‘An important new contribution to the study of Turkey’s Kurdish question. This book will help the reader to understand the complexities of the situation.’ Martin van Bruinessen, Utrecht University Transforming Ethnic Conflict ISBN: 978-90-8964-878-5 AUP.nl 9 7 8 9 0 8 9 6 4 8 7 8 5 Rival Kurdish Movements in Turkey Protest and Social Movements Recent years have seen an explosion of protest movements around the world, and academic theories are racing to catch up with them. This series aims to further our understanding of the origins, dealings, decisions, and outcomes of social movements by fostering dialogue among many traditions of thought, across European nations and across continents. All theoretical perspectives are welcome. Books in the series typically combine theory with empirical research, dealing with various types of mobilization, from neighborhood groups to revolutions. We especially welcome work that synthesizes or compares different approaches to social movements, such as cultural and structural traditions, micro- and macro-social, economic and ideal, or qualitative and quantitative. Books in the series will be published in English. One goal is to encourage non- native speakers to introduce their work to Anglophone audiences. Another is to maximize accessibility: all books will be available in open access within a year after printed publication. Series Editors Jan Willem Duyvendak is professor of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. James M. Jasper teaches at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Rival Kurdish Movements in Turkey Transforming Ethnic Conflict Mustafa Gürbüz Amsterdam University Press Cover illustration: Roboski Monument in Diyarbakır, photo by Ismail Avci © Ismail Avci Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Typesetting: Crius Group, Hulshout Amsterdam University Press English-language titles are distributed in the US and Canada by the University of Chicago Press. isbn 978 90 8964 878 5 e-isbn 978 90 4852 742 7 (pdf) doi 10.5117/9789089648785 nur 697 | 763 © Mustafa Gürbüz / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2016 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. Table of Contents Acknowledgments 7 Introduction 9 1 Ethnic Conflict and Social Movements 11 A Multi-Institutional Politics Approach What Makes a Kurdish Activist 16 The Argument of the Book 23 How Does Meaning-Making Matter? 25 Organization of the Book 29 2 Kurdish Movements in the Southeast 31 The Kurdish Ethno-Nationalist Movement 33 Hizbullah in Turkey 36 The Gülen/Hizmet Movement 39 Locating the Pro-Islamic AKP 43 3 Exogenous Shocks on the Eve of the Millennium 49 Abdullah Öcalan: The Role of the PKK Leader in Shaping Kurdish Politics 50 The EU Factor: Turkey’s Membership Process and De- Securitization 55 Changing International Political Environment 58 The Rise of the AKP: Radical Shifts in Turkish Politics 60 4 Civic Competition and Conflict Transformation 65 Emerging Arenas of Competition in the Kurdish Civic Sphere 69 Arenas of Competition and Strategy-Making 71 5 Resemblance and Difference 77 Constructing Kurdish Civil Society Why Charity Organizations? 80 Exogenous Shocks: Increasing Poverty and the Emergence of Kurdish Slums 81 Constructing Competition through Resemblance: The Charity Initiatives 84 “Education is Our Job”: The Gülen Movement Goes to Slums 89 Namûsa Me Azadîya Me Ye: The Democratic Free Women’s Movement 93 Religious Public Symbolism: Hizbullah Finds Its Niche 101 Civic Activism and Conflict Transformation 105 6 Going Native 109 Contesting Kurdish Islam Revolutionary Ideology as a Discursive Process 110 The Kurdish Ethno-Nationalist Movement, Islamic Identity, and Symbolic Localization 113 Symbolic Localization and Conflict Transformation 125 7 Îslam Çareser e 131 Islamic Activists Discover Kurdish Increasing Competition over Kurdish Language 132 Hizbullah: From Ayatollah Khomeini to Said Nursi 139 HÜDA-PAR: Calling the Party of God in Kurdish 142 8 Enemies of the “Deep State” 145 Narrative Contests and Symbolic Localization The “Deep State” and Kurds 147 The Rival Movements and Competing Narratives on Ergenekon 149 The Gülen/Hizmet as Enemy of the Deep State 151 The PKK: “The State wants to sweep its filth under the carpet!” 155 Hizbullah: “We’re the Victims of the Deep State!” 158 Narratives in Conflict Transformation: Reputation Work and Symbolic Localization 161 9 Conclusion 163 Strategic Engagement and Conflict Transformation 166 Global Dynamics and Pro-Ethnic Strategies 168 Toward a Multi-Institutional Politics Perspective 170 A Kurdish Spring on the Horizon? 174 List of Abbreviations 177 References 179 Appendix: Data and Methods 199 Index 203 Acknowledgments “It takes a village,” as the saying goes. Begun as a doctoral dissertation project at the University of Connecticut, this book’s journey took a village to be completed. I accumulated so many debts to so many individuals who generously gave their time and knowledge. Among them, two names deserve specific mention: Mary Bernstein and Charles Kurzman. Mary was an exceptional mentor, carefully and patiently reading numerous drafts. Similarly, Charlie supervised the project from its inception and provided invaluable guidance in transforming a dull dissertation into a work of art. I am also much indebted to Nancy Naples and Bandana Purkayastha for their feedback and support at the initial phase of the project. I am most grateful for comments and criticism of those who read either the entire manuscript or earlier versions of individual chapters includ- ing Robert Benford, Marlies Casier, James DeFronzo, Nicole Doerr, Vera Eccarius-Kelly, Gülsüm Gürbüz-Küçüksarı, Randle Hart, James Jasper, Joost Jongerden, Turan Kayaoğlu, Ahmet Kuru, David Romano, Renat Shaykhut- dinov, Lee Smithey, Marc Steinberg, Güneş Tezcür, Stephen Turner, and Ahmet Yükleyen. Special thanks to the organizers and attendees of the First Young Scholars in Social Movements conference in the Center for the Study of Social Movements at the University of Notre Dame – particularly to Ron Aminzade, Doug McAdam, John McCarthy, and Rory McVeigh – for their constructive feedback. My post-doctoral appointments at the University of South Florida and George Mason University enabled me to crystallize the arguments raised in this book. I thank Sinem Adar, Gavin Benke, Peter Funke, David Jacobson, Zacharias Pieri, and Roger Stanev for their intellectual companionship at the University of South Florida. I also thank Şeyma Akyol and Melikşah Ayvaz for research assistance at the final stage of manuscript preparation. All of my editors at Amsterdam University Press, especially Saskia Gieling, Vanessa de Bueger, Jaap Wagenaar, and Carrie Ballard, were most helpful. An earlier version of chapter 6 was published in Sociological Inquiry (“Ideology in Action: Symbolic Localization of Kurdistan Workers’ Party,” vol. 85, no: 1, 2015). Portions of some chapters appeared in “‘Sold Out to the Enemy’: Emerging Symbolic Boundaries in Kurdish Politics and Strategic Uses of Labeling Treason,” European Journal of Turkish Studies vol. 14 (2012) as well as “Revitalization of Kurdish Islamic Sphere and Revival of Hizbullah in Turkey” in Fevzi