Reluctant Victims into Challengers Narratives of a Kurdish Political Generation in Diaspora in Sweden Zettervall, Charlotta 2013 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Zettervall, C. (2013). Reluctant Victims into Challengers: Narratives of a Kurdish Political Generation in Diaspora in Sweden. Lund University. 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LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 Reluctant Victims into Challengers Narratives of a Kurdish Political Generation in Diaspora in Sweden Charlotta Zettervall Copyright © Charlotta Zettervall Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology ISBN 978-91-7473-412-6 ISSN 1102-4712 Lund Dissertations in Sociology 103 Printed in Sweden by Media-Tryck, Lund University Lund 2013 Oh, the leaky boundaries of man-made states! How many clouds float past them with impunity; how much desert sand shifts from one land to another; how much mountain pebbles tumble on to foreign soil in provocative hops! ... Only what is human can truly be foreign. The rest is mixed vegetation, subversive moles, and wind. (From Psalm by Wisława Zymborska, translated by Stanisław Barałczak and Clare Cavanagh) Table of Content Acknowledgments........................................................................................... 5 Part I Opening................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 1 Points of Departure ..................................................................11 1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 11 1.2 Aim and Questions ........................................................................................ 13 1.3 Why a Study of a Kurdish Political Generation from Turkey? ....... 15 1.4 A Kurdish Political Generation and its Constitutive Others ........... 19 1.5 Previous Research......................................................................................... 31 1.5.1 Research on Kurdish Nationalism in Turkey ........................................... 32 1.5.2 Research on Diasporic Kurds.......................................................................... 34 1.5.3 Significance of the Study ................................................................................... 38 1.6 Methodology: A Narrative Approach ...................................................... 40 1.6.1 The Discursive Field and "The Linguistic Turn" ..................................... 40 1.6.2 The Narrative ......................................................................................................... 42 1.6.3 The Political Counter Narrative ..................................................................... 44 1.7 On Method........................................................................................................ 46 1.8 Disposition of the Thesis............................................................................. 59 Chapter 2 Political Generation, Diaspora and Long-Distance Nationalism .....................................................................................................61 2.1. Three Concepts.............................................................................................. 62 2.2 Political Generation...................................................................................... 64 2.2.1 Concept ..................................................................................................................... 64 2.2.2 Generation as a Sociological Category......................................................... 65 2.2.3 Historical Location, Actuality and Generation Units............................. 68 2.2.4 Becoming a Political Generation.................................................................... 69 2.2.5 Summary of the Section..................................................................................... 72 2.3 Diaspora ........................................................................................................... 73 2.3.1 Concept ..................................................................................................................... 73 2.3.2 Dispersion, Homeland Orientation and Boundaries............................. 75 2.3.3 Consciousness, Cultural Production or Social Formation?................. 77 2.3.4 Connected and Differentiated......................................................................... 81 2.3.5 Triadic Relations and Transnationalism.................................................... 82 2.3.5 Summary of the Section..................................................................................... 84 2.4 Long-Distance Nationalism ........................................................................ 85 2.4.1 The Concept.............................................................................................................85 2.4.2 State, Nation and Ethnie.....................................................................................86 2.4.3 Constructed, Imagined, Challenging .............................................................90 2.4.4 Three Central Aspects of Long-Distance Nationalism ..........................94 2.4.5 Summary of the Section .....................................................................................98 2.5. Closing of the Chapter ................................................................................. 99 Part II The Modern Turkish Republic, The Kurdish Question and The Emergence of a Political Generation............................................103 Chapter 3 Becoming Marginalized: From Ottoman Empire to Turkish State................................................................................................105 3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................105 3.2. Tightened State Control............................................................................106 3.3 The Kurdish Sheiks .....................................................................................108 3.4 The Kurds in Istanbul.................................................................................110 3.5 The Political Vacuum..................................................................................111 3.6 Political and Social Challenges................................................................111 3.7 Kurdish Nationalist Aspirations.............................................................113 3.8 Closing of the Chapter ................................................................................117 Chapter 4 Repression: The Kurds and the Turkish Nation Building Project ............................................................................................................121 4.1 The Turkish Republic.................................................................................121 4.1.1 President Kemal Takes Office....................................................................... 121 4.1.2 The Consolidation of the One Party State................................................ 123 4.1.3 "Kemalism" and "Nationalism" .................................................................... 126 4.2 Kurdish Resistance .....................................................................................130 4.2.1 The Sheikh Said Rebellion.............................................................................. 131 4.2.2 The Ararat Rebellion ........................................................................................ 136 4.2.3 The Rebellion in Dersim.................................................................................. 139 4.4 Closing of the Chapter ................................................................................142 Chapter 5 Resistance: Post-Kemal Turkey and the Kurdish Nationalist Movement...............................................................................145 5.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................145 5.2 Multi-Party System......................................................................................146 5.3 The Socio-Economic Landscape..............................................................148 5.4 1960 - 1980 Political Openings and Turmoil .....................................152 5.5 Kurdish Resistance .....................................................................................155 5.5.1 "The 49" - the Spearheads.............................................................................