Nation-State Utopia and Collective Violence of Minorities, a Case Study: PKK from Turkey to Europe Since 1980 to 2013”
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MASTERARBEIT Titel der Masterarbeit “Nation-State Utopia and Collective Violence of Minorities, A Case Study: PKK from Turkey to Europe Since 1980 To 2013” Verfasserin Fatma Gül Özen angestrebter akademischer Grad Master of Arts (MA) Wien, 2014 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 066 824 Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt: Masterstudium Politikwissenschaft Betreuter: Doz. Dr. Johann Wimmer 2 3 Acknowledgement I would express my gratitudes to my father Merdan Özen, my mother Kezban Özen and my brother Mert Can Özen for supporting me with their love, and believing in my success from the beginning of my studies in University of Vienna. I would like to thank my supervisor Assist. Prof. Dr. Hannes Wimmer who gave me the chance to work with him on this thesis. With his great supervision and precious encouragement this work has been completed. I would like to send my special thanks to Prof. Dr. Ali Yaşar Sarıbay for his valuable theoretical advices about my thesis. I also thank Prof. Dr. Süleyman Seyfi Öğün for giving me stimulating guidance during my Bachelor's studies. My close friends Gülsüm Cirit, Ahmet Tepehan, and Çimen Akgün have shared my feelings in several difficulties and had fun when I went to Turkey. I would like to thank them for being with me all the time in spite of the long distances. I thank Aydın Karaer, Caner Demirpolat, Ayşe and Furkan Tercan, Nurdan and Idris El-Thalji who made our times enjoyable in Helsinki. I am thankful that Çağdaş Çeçen and Elif Bilici have helped me with the bureaucratic procedures at University of Vienna and made me feel in my old Bachelor's education days in Uludağ University with their sincere conversations on especially theater-cinema and politics. I thank also Aslı Güre Nemec who told me her M.A. experiences and opened her intimate friendship. I would like to thank to Chong Zhang, Judith Werner and Martin Schiegg with whom I spent a lot of nice time in Heidelberg and who supported me during the progress of my thesis. I profoundly thank my beloved husband Melih Kandemir for his endless moral support, the practical help he provided, and sincere encouragement about my academic career. With his patience, love, and helps this work could be possible. 4 Table of Contents Acknowledgement..........................................................................................................................3 1 Introduction.................................................................................................................................6 1.1 Research Questions.................................................................................................................6 1.2 Methodological Background................................................................................................13 2 Self-Image of Minorities From Ethno-Nationalism To Nation-Building.............................14 2.1 Ethnicity and Ethnic identity................................................................................................14 2.2 Nationalism and Ethno-nationalism.....................................................................................19 2.3 Minorities And Ethno-Nationalist Minorities In A Nation-State..........................................24 2.4 Nation-Building and Its Definition for Minorities...............................................................29 3 Collective Violence and Its Extensions....................................................................................36 3.1 Violence and collective violence..........................................................................................36 3.2 Ethnic violence and ethno-political conflicts.......................................................................46 3.2.1 Ethnic violence versus nation-state................................................................................46 3.2.2 Ethno-political conflicts.................................................................................................52 3.3 Conflict Resolution ..............................................................................................................58 4 Case Study: PKK in Turkey and Enlargement of the PKK’s sympathisers to Europe......61 4.1 Brief History on Kurdish Issue in Turkey ...........................................................................61 4.2 Past and current ideology of the PKK..................................................................................65 4.3 The organizational settlement of PKK in the Middle East and in Europe............................71 4.3.1 PKK in the Middle East: Northern Iraq / Qandil...........................................................71 4.3.2 Europe: PKK in diaspora .............................................................................................74 4.4 How do the Turkish government handle the Kurdish issue in Turkey so far? What is the eventual solution for both sides?................................................................................................77 4.5 Questionnaire with peoples who live in Austria as a political supporter or sympathizer of 5 PKK’s ideology...........................................................................................................................80 5 Other Studies and Opinions about PKK ...............................................................................89 5.1 Transnational resolution advisories......................................................................................89 5.2 Kurdish intellectuals and their thoughts on the Kurdish issue in Turkey.............................97 5.3 Current resolution process and “The Wise Men Commission”..........................................101 6 Summary and Conclusion......................................................................................................104 Bibliography...............................................................................................................................109 Appendix.....................................................................................................................................118 Abstract.......................................................................................................................................121 Curriculum Vitae ......................................................................................................................124 6 1 Introduction “A philosophy without heart and a faith without intellect are abstractions from the true life of knowledges and faith.” G. W. F. Hegel 1.1 Research Questions This thesis is about ethnic minorities and their links to violence. We will be questioning what the connections between collective violence and nation-state utopia of minorities in the society exactly are. As a case study, the past and present ideology of PKK will be described by means of the theories that will be discussed. Minorities under the sovereignty of a nation-state could be composed of various ethnic identities. For this reason, we will investigate the “ethnicity” and “nation” concepts under the concept of “minority”. Additionally, we will point out the similarities and differences between these two closely-related but different concepts. Afterwards, we will look deeply into two ideological movements, namely “nationalism” and “ethno-nationalism”. Our study will include nationalist policies of states and their applications about their minorities. On the other hand, we will analyze how the ethno-nationalist ideology of a minority is perceived by a nation-state. Nation-states follow a “nation-building” system via tools such as education and media. To counter this system, we will investigate what kind of a “nation-building” model is followed by the ethnic groups. Within the dominant nation-state model, some ethnic groups resort to violence in order to be recognized by the public. In this context, we will put our focus on violence committed by these ethnic groups, which is called “collective violence”. We will investigate conflicts of many countries from Europe and Middle East to Northern and Middle Africa with ethnic groups. We will analyze methods they apply to solve these conflicts comparatively. As a case study, Turkey’s Kurdish issue will be handled in depth for the time period between 1980 and 2013. PKK was founded as a political organization by a group of leftwing-communist students in 1978 with the aim of establishing an independent Kurdish state 7 within the Turkish territories. Then, they have took up arms and started violent acts in the society after 1984. In this study, reasons of this conflict are investigated and their theoretical bases are queried. In the second chapter, concepts of “ethnicity” and “nation” will be investigated, which are very commonly and erroneously attributed distinct meanings. Contrarily, for political science, these two terms are synonymous. The etymology of ethnic refers to nation, and vice versa. The relationship of these two concepts will be addressed in more detail in Section 2.1. States typically introduce a disambiguation to these concepts in their official discourse in the way that favors the authority of the dominant nation-state within the public, since in the 20th century, saving the structure of nation-state was believed to be possible only by recognition of a unique nation in a state. After the World War I, states were established by the idea of “nation-state” as a global movement. United Nations recognize the term “nation-state” as “a state where the great majority