The Kurdish Movement in Turkey : Nationalism, Social Movements and Recurring Cycles of Conflict

An analysis of the Kurdish movement in Turkey in the context of social movement theory.

This book examines the Kurdish movement in the context of total social movement theory. First tracing its origins as a conventionally nationalist movement, Elsa Sen draws upon Alan Touraine’s concept of a total social movement to argue that from 2000 to 2015 the Kurds in Turkey pursued a policy of engaging in a peace process, channeling energy into civil society activism and electoral campaigns, and promoting an inclusive understanding of national identity for all the components of Turkish society – not just the Kurds – in a hypothetically fully functioning democracy. Both theoretically informed and drawing upon empirical research in the form of interviews with Kurdish and Turkish activists, non-activists and political representatives, the book provides a new perspective on contemporary Kurdish politics as oscillating between nationalist and social movement paradigms, with the recent decline of the latter due to the resumption of military action by the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party after 2015.