Author: Mehmet Gurses
Affiliation: Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA
Organization/Publisher: Middle East Critique
Date/Place: May 25, 2020/ UK
Type of Literature: Journal Article
Number of Pages: 13
Link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19436149.2020.1770448?journalCode=ccri20
Keywords: Armed, Conflict, Kurds, Middle East, PKK, Turkey
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.
By: Muhammad Taimoor Bin Tanveer, CIGA Research Associate
