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This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. PERSONAL NARRATIVES OF NATIONALISM IN TURKEY Emel Uzun PhD in Sociology The University of Edinburgh 2015 Abstract The Kurdish Question, which dates back to the Ottoman Era, has been a constituent element of narratives of Turkish nationalism for the past 30 years. The Kurdish Question stands as the most prominent “other” of Turkish nationalism. The members of two groups, Kurds and Turks, became highly politicised throughout 30 years of internal conflict and through their daily encounters, giving way to a constant redefinition of the understanding of nationalism and ethnicity. The encounters and experiences of these two groups have facilitated the development of various narrative forms of personal nationalism in daily life. Accordingly, the daily manifestations of the Kurdish Question and Turkish nationalism have grown as an object of academic interest. The question of how ordinary people produce – and are produced in – personal narratives of nationalism is a subject that still needs to be addressed, and this thesis aims to fill this gap by examining the notion of “personal narratives”. Analysing nationalism through personal narratives enables us to see how hegemonic nationalist ideology is reproduced and practiced by individuals through various dynamics. The thesis finds that the determining theme in the personal narratives of Turks and Kurds follows fundamentally the official ideology of the state about the Kurds, which is based principally on „a strategy of denial‟. The macro political transformations of the 2000s and the increased potential of encountering the “other” in daily life underline the challenging nature of this ideological strategy of denial. Herein, while the Turkish participants define themselves as the benevolent party in their nationalist narratives, they mark Kurdish people as terrorists, separatists and primitives. In contrast, the narratives of the Kurdish participants are characterised by the adoption of a “self-defence” strategy against the dominant negative perceptions of Turkish society about their culture: they assert that they are in fact not ignorant; not terrorists; not disloyal citizens, and so on. The narratives of the Turkish participants about the ethnic “other”, the Kurds, generally follow a strategy of contempt and accusation; yet personal experiences give them the opportunity to politicise the problem on different grounds by empathising or humanising. On the Kurdish side, the subjects of the personal narratives are more often the state and the army than Turkish individuals, and again they construct a narrative that endeavours to reverse the dominant negative perceptions about Kurds. They attempt to negate the denial strategy through both collective and personal stories of the discrimination they have experienced over the years and generations. Vital questions such as through which mechanisms of resistance do ordinary people construct and practice their ethnic identities, again become visible through their personal narratives. i Declaration In accordance with University regulations, I declare that I am the sole author of this thesis and the work contained herein is original and my own. I also confirm that this work or any part of it has not been submitted for any other degree or personal qualification. Emel UZUN ii Acknowledgments Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisors Dr. Michael Rossie and Dr. James Kennedy for the continuous support of my Ph.D study, for their patience, and motivation. Their guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having better advisors for my Ph.D study. Besides my advisors, I would like to thank the rest of my thesis committee: Dr. Jon Fox and Dr. Liliana Riga for their insightful comments and encouragement, but also for the hard questions which incented me to widen my research from various perspectives. The following dissertation, while an individual work, benefited from the insights of several people. I would like to thank Feyza Bhatti, Asuman Özgür Keysan, who gave me helpful comments on various stages of my work or asked questions that made me think in new ways about my findings. Besides the technical support they gave, our company during the process became one of my most vlauable and enricher experience. Göze Orhon, Berfin Emre Çetin and Nagehan Tokdoğan Kartal were also the members of this small support group. Without their friendship this perriod would have been more frustrating and overwhelming pursuit. I am also thankful to Rebecca Rotter for proof reading my draft. I am grateful to my family for their support. Without the help and love of my parents and my brother Maksut ve sister Sibel, completing the PhD would have been very difficult. In particular, I thank Murat Avci, whose presence and love was a source of strength for me. iii Table of Contents PERSONAL NARRATIVES OF NATIONALISM IN TURKEY................................................................. - 1 - ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................... I DECLARATION ......................................................................................................................................... II ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................................................. III TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................... IV INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 1 My Personal Story: First Encounters ............................................................................................. 1 Research Aims and Questions ....................................................................................................... 7 Outline of the Thesis ..................................................................................................................... 8 1. THE KURDISH QUESTION: A LONG HISTORY OF DENIAL ...................................................................... 12 1.1. Emergence of the Kurdish Question: The Late Ottoman Era ........................................ 13 1.1.1. Sevres Treaty: A Penetrated Syndrome ................................................................................. 16 1.2. A secularist Nation State: The Turkish Republic ........................................................... 19 1.2.1 Denial of Ottoman Heritage ................................................................................................... 19 1.3. Turning Point: 1980s and 1990s ................................................................................... 24 1.3.1. 1.3.1 Migrations and Forced Migration: A Possibility for Daily Encounters between Kurds and Turks 29 1.4. Paradigmatic Change: 2000s ........................................................................................ 32 1.5. Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 38 2. CONCEPTUALISING NATIONALISM .................................................................................................. 41 2.1. ‘Modernisation’ as the Starting Point of Nationalism .................................................. 42 2.1.1. From Critiques of Elite-Based Perspectives of Nationalism to an Everyday Perspective of Nationalism ............................................................................................................................................ 45 2.2. Nationalism in Everyday Life ........................................................................................ 48 2.2.1. Ethnicity in Everyday Life ....................................................................................................... 51 2.2.2. Nation and Nationhood in Everyday Life ............................................................................... 54 2.2.2.1. Talking about the Nation’ and ‘Talking with the Nation’ ............................................. 55 2.3. Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 57 3. THEORETICAL DISCUSSION ON NARRATIVE ....................................................................................... 59 3.1. Discussions on the Concept of the Narrative ................................................................ 61 3.2. Stories and Political Narrative .....................................................................................

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