Papers by Yesim Yaprak Yildiz
International Journal of Human Rights, 2022
Theory and Society, 2020
Drawing on Austin's speech act theory and on related theories of performativity and positioning, ... more Drawing on Austin's speech act theory and on related theories of performativity and positioning, this article analyses the public confessions during the 1990s by three prominent state actors in Turkey about their direct involvement in state crimes against Kurds and left-wing political opponents. All three cases received significant media attention at the time. The aim of the article is not only to shed new light on those specific confessions by the perpetrators within the Turkish context, but also to develop further theoretical insights into the phenomenon of public confessions as such. Whilst confessions of this kind are often welcomed and portrayed as truth-statements that are cathartic and enable society to move forward, this analysis demonstrates that the reality is often more complex as the confessions in question tend to go hand in hand with a disavowal of individual responsibility by the perpetrators involved. Denial and impunity are key features of the Turkish state's approach to mass atrocities perpetrated both in its distant and recent past. Except for several short-lived, partial, and strategic acknowledgments of past state violence and a handful of ineffectual criminal trials and parliamentary inquiries which failed to unearth the full extent of the crimes committed, Turkey has never had a formal process for redressing past state violence. This has also been the case for the crimes committed in the 1990s when the conflict between the Turkish army and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was at its peak. Yet despite this atmosphere of state denial and impunity, there has never been complete silence on state crimes. On the contrary, discourses on state violence have proliferated, even within the spaces in which power is exercised, as can be seen in parliamentary debates, parliamentary inquiry reports, media accounts, and an increasing number of publications on the Turkish "deep state" which recount the state's extralegal activities.1 Most importantly for the aims of this article, beginning in the early 1990s a number of state actors directly involved in crimes targeting Kurdish and left-wing members of the opposition have gone public with their confessions. These revelations have made crucial information available, including forensic evidence on dozens of cases of political killings and forced disappearances, offering rare insight into the operation and structure of state death squads. However, they have led neither to disclosures about the scale of atrocities, nor to conviction of the state actors involved. Confessional public acknowledgment of state violence by its perpetrators in the face of official state denial and impunity is considered significant, not least because of the nature and extent of the crimes committed.2 Human rights groups and victims' associations in Turkey and elsewhere have utilized such confessions to further their demands for truth and justice, despite any lingering doubts, disbelief, cynicism, anger, or revenge they might harbor about the perpetrator or his testimony. 3 This is often due to the constative aspects of confessions-that is, the mere facts and the forensic evidence they might reveal. However, confessions also produce broader performative effects that might preclude the possibility of truth and justice for past state violence. For although confessions may reveal much-needed information for the family of a victim of state crime, there is a large gap between what such a family demand and what the perpetrators can provide. For the families, the quest for truth and justice goes well beyond the question of 1 For a historical analysis of "deep state" see, Göçek, Denial of Violence and Söyler, The Turkish Deep State 2 Jelin, "Investigating What Happened"; Neier, "Rethinking Truth." 3 Payne, Unsettling Accounts.
Torture and confession are like ‘the dark twins’ as Foucault argued. Definitions of torture from ... more Torture and confession are like ‘the dark twins’ as Foucault argued. Definitions of torture from the 3rd century to the 21st century indicate confession as its primary motive. Systematic use of torture and confession has also characterised the Turkish state’s policy in Diyarbakır Military Prison against the Kurdish prisoners in the early 1980s. The detainees and the prisoners were routinely forced to repent and confess regardless of their organisational links or the crimes attributed to them. Wide, systematic and routine use of forced confessions in the prison showed that the significance of confession policy in Diyarbakır prison does not arise from their truth status or their effectiveness in intelligence gathering, but from their truth-effects. Although intelligence gathering was one of the objectives of the regime, the policy of confession was used primarily to establish dominance over the accused and to discipline and control the prisoners and the Kurdish population. Drawing upon Foucault, I will further argue that forced production of confession functioned as a ritual of truth-production and subjectification binding the prisoner to the dominant regime of power and truth and transforming him into a docile and obedient subject.
Reports by Yesim Yaprak Yildiz
Edited stuff by Yesim Yaprak Yildiz
Special section of the Asia Pacific Journal of Human Rights and the Law on torture (vol 17, no 2)... more Special section of the Asia Pacific Journal of Human Rights and the Law on torture (vol 17, no 2) (co-edited with Cynthia Banham)
Books by Yesim Yaprak Yildiz
Kurds in Turkey: Ethnographies of Heterogeneous Experiences, 2019
Lexington Books, 2019
Kurds in Turkey: Ethnographies of Heterogeneous Experiences is the newest contribution to the bou... more Kurds in Turkey: Ethnographies of Heterogeneous Experiences is the newest contribution to the bourgeoning Kurdish Studies literature. The edited volume unites eight junior scholars who offer ethnographic studies based on their latest research. The chapters are clustered around four main headings: women’s participation, paramilitary, space, and infrapolitics of resistance. Each heading assembles two chapters which are in dialog with each other and offer complementary and at times competing perspectives. All four headings correspond to the emerging domains of research in Kurdish studies. Authors share a micro-level focus and take extensive field work as the basis of their argument. In the wake of massive urban destructions and renewed warfare in the Kurdish region in Turkey, this volume also stakes a stance against the memoricide of the Kurdish municipal experience and cultural production.
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Papers by Yesim Yaprak Yildiz
Reports by Yesim Yaprak Yildiz
Edited stuff by Yesim Yaprak Yildiz
Books by Yesim Yaprak Yildiz