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History Turkey & Ottoman Empire

Kurds in Dark Times

New Perspectives on Violence and Resistance in Turkey

edited by Ayça Alemdaroglu & Fatma Müge Göçek

contributions by Metin Atmaca, Janet Klein, Baris Ünlü, Michael Ferguson, Gullistan Yarkin, Deniz Duruiz, Sefika Kumral, Ali Keles, Delal Aydin, Amy Bartholomew, Rusen Firat Güllüoglu, Emine Rezzan Karaman, Hazal Atay & Nisa Göksel

afterword by Hamit Bozarslan

Publisher
Syracuse University Press
Initial publish date
Jan 2023
Category
Turkey & Ottoman Empire, Cultural, Middle Eastern Studies
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780815637806
    Publish Date
    Jan 2023
    List Price
    $57.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780815637707
    Publish Date
    Jan 2023
    List Price
    $114.95

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Description

With an estimated population of 35 million, Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without an independent state of their own. Kurds constitute about 20 percent of Turkey, the largest Kurdish population in the region. The history of the Kurds in Turkey is marked by state violence against them and decades of conflict between the Turkish military and Kurdish fighters. Although the continuous struggle of the Kurdish people is well known, and the political actors involved in the conflict have received much attention, an increasing wave of scholarship is being written from the vantage point of the Kurds themselves.
Alemdaro?lu and Göçek’s volume develops a fresh approach by moving away from top-down Turkish nationalist macroanalyses to a microanalysis of how Kurds and Kurdistan as historical and ethnic categories were constructed from the bottom up. Contributors look beyond the politics of state actors to examine how Kurdish workers, women, youth, and political prisoners experience and resist marginalization, exclusion, and violence. Kurds in Dark Times opens an essential window into the lives of Kurds by generating meaningful insights into the formal and informal ways of negotiating their power and place in Turkey; and therefore, it provides crucial perspectives for any endeavor to create peace and reconciliation in the country.

About the authors