The Kurdish Question

Abstract

The Kurdish Question has a long history. Turkish state policy toward the Kurds has evolved from denial and assimilation to their ethnocultural recognition in the previous decade, following the Helsinki Summit of the EU. The election of 36 pro-Kurdish representatives to the national parliament, most of whom are representatives of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), encourages the salience of Kurdish nationalism and the need to accommodate it through legitimate politics rather than suppressing it through violence. How state actors and politicians handle the Kurdish question will indicate the success of Turkey’s efforts at democratic consolidation. This chapter will inquire into the history of the question as well as the ways in which Kurdish issues have so far been raised. It will be argued that Kurds have always been in search of politics to have their ethnocultural differences recognized by the Turkish state, which has often framed and portrayed the Kurdish question as a symptom of social-economic backwardness.