CIGA PUBLICATIONS / GEOPOLITICAL COMPASS

The Evolving Kurdish Question in Turkey

West & Central Asia

Publication Dossier

GEOPOLITICAL COMPASS
Author(s)
Mehmet Gurses
Publishers
Middle East Critique
Date / Place
May 25, 2020/ UK
Type of Literature
Journal Article
Word Count / Number of Pages
13
Keywords
Armed, Conflict, Kurds, Middle East, PKK, Turkey

The Brief

Early Kurdish movements can be traced out from late Ottoman era but always suppressed by modern nation states i.e. Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. The basic ingredients of a state are territory, sovereignty, population, and government therefore, lethal resolve is expected from every state while facing exponential threats to its territorial integration. The Kurdish movement of Turkey i.e. PKK (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan) is titled as ‘the last Kurdish Rebellion’ by this article. The study explores the evolution of PKK from being violent to pro-democratic organization. The author also highlighted the success of HDP (Haklarin Demokratik Partisi) in general elections of 2015 and passed 10% national electoral threshold. Moreover, the author also interpreted the decline in HDP’s support during follow-up elections on November 1, 2015 as a strategy to support opposition. The study emphasized on state sponsored ignorant behavior of mainstream parties whether Islamist or Secular towards Kurdish issue. Whereas, in presidential election of 2018 large pockets of Kurdish population from Eastern Turkey supported AKP (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi). The study concluded that Kurdish question would remain a silent predator against the territorial integration of Turkey if not entertained politically.