Turkey's Kurdish Policy and Its Impact on Development in the Turkey's Kurdish Region, from 1923 to the Present HÜSEYİN EMLİK SUPERVISOR Associate Professor Vito Laterza University of Agder, [2020] Faculty of Social Science Department of Global Development Management and Planning The Abstract This thesis study focuses on political-economy of the Kurdish Question in Turkey. The current study focusing on the political, economic, and socio-cultural causes and outcomes of the ongoing Kurdish Question since the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 presents the political economy of the question by emphasizing the underdeveloped structure of the Kurdish Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia region (the ESA, Northern Kurdistan) compared to other regions of Turkey. In this study, which identifies the effects of Turkish nationalism, the Turkish state's being a unitary nation-state in terms of organization, economic policies of the state to establish and develop the national Turkish capital and capitalists, and the effects of all these policies on the emergence, development, and structuralization of the Kurdish poverty and Kurdish Question as the problem statement, a century-old state policies towards the ESA region were examined in depth. In addition, the ongoing internal conflict/war intensifying from time to time between the Turkish state and the Kurdish military movement organized as a result of the Kurdish discontent that has emerged in response to totalitarian policies aimed at establishing a full dominance over the ESA since the establishment of the Turkish state were examined within the context of the regional development issues. Finally, this thesis study claims to make a significant contribution to the literature in this field with an objective and academic perspective by addressing the ESA's underdevelopment within the historical context of the social, political and economic causes as well as providing a paradigm examining the emergence and development of the Kurdish Question that cannot be solved (or is not solved) until today. Keywords: Turkey, Nationa State, Turkish Nationalism, Northern Kurdistan, ESA, Kurdish Poverty, Underdevelopment, Kurdish Question. ii Acknowledgements I would like express my gratitude to my esteemed supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Vito Laterza, who shared his invaluable knowledge and experience with me by sparing his precious time whenever I consulted him and did his best to be helpful with patience and with great interest, for thoroughly providing me the fact that I could go to him without hesitation when I had a problem, and of course for not withholding his smiling face and sincerity from me. I believe I will benefit from the valuable information he offered me in my future academic life. I would also like to thank my dear friend Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Gürata for guiding me about the topic, sources and methodology and helping me to improve the study by noticing the gaps thanks to his critical reading of the thesis. In addition, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my dear friend Assoc. Prof. Muhsin Soyudoğan for sharing his views and knowledge in determining the topic and scope of the study and for suggesting the preliminary readings to identify the road map for the thesis. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of my lecturers in the Department of Global Development Management and Planning at Agder University, who made me love the field of Development Studies and helped me to improve my knowledge in this field by suggesting readings in the courses during my two-year master's education. I would like to thank my beloved mother Perihan Emlik and elder brother Emin Emlik, who always stood by my side by trusting me throughout my education life and provided their full support as well as keeping my motivation and morale high in all kinds of difficulties I encountered while I was writing my thesis. I also want to express my heartfelt thanks to all my brothers and sisters. iii Table of Contents The Abstract .......................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................. iii List of Abbreviations ..............................................................................................................v 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 2. Study Area (Geographical Setting) .................................................................................... 9 3. Methodology .................................................................................................................. 12 4. 1st.Chapter: Literature Review and Theoretical Framework........................................... 16 4. 1. Nation-Nation State: ........................................................................................................... 16 4. 2. Core-Periphery Theory ........................................................................................................ 24 4. 2. a. The Approach of Immanuel Wallerstein ...................................................................................... 25 4. 3. Conceptualization of Internal Colonialism ........................................................................... 35 5. 2nd. Chapter: Turkish Modernisation: From Homogeneous Nation Policies to Centralized/Etatist Economic Policy .................................................................................... 53 5. 1. Construction of Turkish Nationalism and Its Historical Journey .......................................... 53 5. 1. a. The Emergence of Turkish Nationalism in the Late Ottoman Empire ............................................ 53 5. 1. b. Establishment of Modern Turkish Nation-State and Structuralization of Turkish-Nationalism ...... 57 5. 2. The Process of Economic Centralization and The Establishment of Turkish National Economy .................................................................................................................................................... 65 5. 2. a. Policies Regarding the Centralization of Economy in the Late Ottoman Empire ............................ 65 5. 2. b. Ethno-Centralist Economic Policies as of the Establishment of the Turkish Nation-State and Construction of Turkish Economy ........................................................................................................... 68 6. 3th. Chepter: The Republic of Turkey’s Policy on the Kurds and Northern Kurdistan ...... 78 6. 1. From Autonomy to Colonization: The Status of Kurdistan in the Ottoman State ................ 78 6. 2. Ethnic Homogenization and Monopolistic State Policies of Turkish State towards the ESA between 1920-1950 .................................................................................................................... 81 6. 2. a. Reform Programs of the Kemalist Regime towards the ESA and Resistance of Kurds against the Reforms ................................................................................................................................................. 82 6. 2. b. Transition to the Unsteady Democracy Process between 1950-1980 and Kurdish Policy of the Period .................................................................................................................................................... 94 6. 3. Turkey's Kurdish Question in the Era of Neoliberalism: From the 1980 Coup to the AKP’s Kurdish Policy (1980–2010s) ....................................................................................................... 98 6. 3. a. The ESA Policy of Turkey during Authoritarian Neoliberal Reconstruction Period and the Beginning of the Armed Conflict between the PKK and the Turkish State .............................................................. 100 6. 3. b. The Second Wave of Conflict and AKP’s Kurdish Policy .............................................................. 105 7. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 110 Biblography: ..................................................................................................................... 115 iv List of Abbreviations AKP: Justice and Development Party KDP: Kurdistan Democratic Party (Partiya (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) Demokrat a Kurdistanê) AP: Justice Party (Adalet Partisi) MHP: Nationalist Action Party (Milliyetçi BDP:Peace and Democracy Party (Barış ve Hareket Partisi) Demokrasi Partisi) OECD: Organisation for Economic Co - CHP: Republican People’s Party operation and Development (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) OHAL: State of Emergency (Olağanüstü CUP: Ottoman Committee of Union and Hal) Progress OHCHR: Office of the United Nations High DDKO: Revolutionary Eastern Cultural Commissioner for Human Rights Hearths (Devrimci Doğu Kültür Ocakları) PDP: People's Democracy Party DEP: Democracy Party (Demokrasi Partisi) PKK: Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya DISK: Confederation of Revolutionary Karkarên Kurdistan) Trade Unions of Turkey (Türkiye Devrimci PLP: Kurdish People's Labor Party Işçi Sendikalar Konfederasyonu) SEEs: State Economic Enterprises DTP: Democratic Society Party SHP: Social Democratic Populist Party (Demokratik Toplum Partisi) (Sosyaldemokrat Halkçı Partisi) DP: Democrat Party (Demokrat Parti) TL: Turkish Liras DPP: Democratic People's Party TOKİ: Housing