Rahman DAG

Demokratik sistemlerde, demokratik ilke ve esaslar açısından sivil toplumun varlığı ve işlevi büyük önem arz etmektedir. Aynı minvalde, demokratik ilkelere uygun bir toplumun inşası için de sivil toplum kritik bir rol oynamaktadır. Sivil toplumun daha güncel bir parçası olan sosyal hareketler de her alandaki karar alma süreçlerine etkide bulunmaktadır. Fakat günümüz sosyal hareketlerinin talep ve yöntemleri demokrasinin temelini ifade eden meşru temsiliyeti zedeleyen bir aşamaya gelebilmektedir. Siyasetin işleyişini ve seçimlerin kazandırdığı meşruiyeti sekteye uğratacak talepler ve yöntemlerden dolayı sosyal hareketler sivil toplum kavramının altına oymaya başlamaktadır. Bu çalışmada, demokratik yapı ve sivil toplum arasındaki ilişkinin düzeyi saptanmaya çalışılacak ve Hong Kong örneği üzerinden karar alma aşamasında ortaya çıkan çatışmanın sebep ve sonuçları ele alınacaktır.

As a new but uncertain international system has been operating for decades that can be regarded as a transition from unipolarity to something resembling multipolarity. Therefore, established and possible future great powers have been determining their foreign policies according to their future projections of the regional conflicts. This paper investigates Turkey and Russia’s stances in the Syrian and Ukrainian Crises. It might sound odd that Russia and Turkey are comparable in a struggle for the sphere of influence that intercepts each other. However, their good bilateral relations and different, even conflictual, approaches to regional and international issues provide a suitable ground to claim that a new international system is about to emerge. It will continue until the positions of established and newly emerged great powers are embedded. In practice, Russia's stance in the Ukrainian crisis and Turkey's stance in the Syrian crisis represent ontological threads to the vision of their own countries. However, they can still work together at a certain level because of third-party involvement in the issues.

Türkiye ve Rusya kendi aralarında etki-alanlarının kesiştiği birçok coğrafyada mücadele etmeye devam ederken, mevut küresel güç sisteminde duydukları rahatsızlık birbirleri için doğrudan bir çatışmaya girmektense diğer büyük güçlere karşı hareket alanlarını genişletmek amacıyla siyasi ve askeri diyaloğa devam etmektedirler. Her iki ülke tarihi etkinliklerini ve etki alanlarını yeniden canlandırmaya ve bu alanlar hinterlandında kalan tüm sorunların çözümünde söz sahibi olmaya ve pay almaya çalışmaktadırlar.

The Kurdish question has been one of the most protracted issues in the political history of Turkey. Given such a long securitization of the Kurdish question, it almost came to an end due to the peace process initiated by the AK Party government and the imprisoned leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan in 2013. Apparently it was not a solid process because it failed immediately after the June 2015 general election. There may have been many internal and external factors explaining the reason why it failed but this paper looks specifically at one of them: the influence of the Syrian crisis on the peace process in Turkey in light of spillover effects and spreading insurgency theories.

The last century of the Empire can be called a “Reform Century” since throughout the 20th century, the Empire implemented radical reforms covering its military, economic, social and administrative structures. In particular, from 1514 to the beginning of the 19th century, the relationship of Kurdish tribes with the Porte remained in balance and the agreed autonomous status was protected. However, due to greater revenue requirements to meet military expenditure, bureaucratic modernization and an overt requirement for conscription to help support a new army which was to substitute for the abandoned Janissaries units, when the administrative reforms of the Empire were implemented all across the Empire, the silent relationship was broken and the struggle between the Kurdish tribes and the Porte commenced continuing, indeed until the end of the Empire. From the reforms in administration, in other words, centralisation proved to be the most significant as it triggered events which encourag...

The Kurdish question has been one of the most protracted issues in the political history of Turkey. Given such a long securitization of the Kurdish question, it almost came to an end due to the peace process initiated by the AK Party government and the imprisoned leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan in 2013. Apparently it was not a solid process because it failed immediately after the June 2015 general election. There may have been many internal and external factors explaining the reason why it failed but this paper looks specifically at one of them: the influence of the Syrian crisis on the peace process in Turkey in light of spillover effects and spreading insurgency theories.

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUNG CHAPTER III: THE SINGLE-PARTY PERIOD (1923-46) CHAPTER IV: TRANSITION TO MULTI PARTY PERIOD (1946-60) CHAPTER V: THE PERIOD OF 1960-80 CHAPTER VI: THE PERIOD OF 1980-2010 CHAPTER VII: CONCLUDING REMARKS: ANALYSIS AND SOLUTION SUGGESTIONS.

.................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements .................................................................................... ix Abbreviations .............................................................................................. x Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Methodological Framework: Critical Discourse Analysis ..................... 3 Conceptual Framework: Nationalism and Islamism ............................ 10 Structure of the Book ........................................................................... 19 Part One: Historical Development of Pro-Kurdish and Pro-Islamist Identities: From Denial to Resurfacing ................................................. 23 Chapter One ............................................................................................... 25 Single Party Era: Total Repression of Kurdish and Islamic Identities Introduction .......................................................................................... 25 Denial of Kurdish Identity in the Single Party Era .............................. 28 Denial of Religious Identity in the Single Party Era ............................ 39 Conclusion ........................................................................................... 45 Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 48 Kurdish and Islamic Identities in the Democrat Party (Multi-Party System) Era Transition from the Single Party to the Multi-party System ................ 48 The Case of Kurdish Nationalism ........................................................ 49 The Case of Political Islam .................................................................. 52 Conclusion ........................................................................................... 54 Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 56 Mobilization of Pro-Kurdish and Pro-Islamic Social Movements, 1960–80 Mobilization of the Pro-Kurdish Social Movement ............................. 56 Mobilization of the Pro-Islamist Social Movement ............................. 71 Conclusion ........................................................................................... 83

The last century of the Empire can be called a “Reform Century” since throughout the 20th century, the Empire implemented radical reforms covering its military, economic, social and administrative structures. In particular, from 1514 to the beginning of the 19th century, the relationship of Kurdish tribes with the Porte remained in balance and the agreed autonomous status was protected. However, due to greater revenue requirements to meet military expenditure, bureaucratic modernization and an overt requirement for conscription to help support a new army which was to substitute for the abandoned Janissaries units, when the administrative reforms of the Empire were implemented all across the Empire, the silent relationship was broken and the struggle between the Kurdish tribes and the Porte commenced continuing, indeed until the end of the Empire. From the reforms in administration, in other words, centralisation proved to be the most significant as it triggered events which encouraged Kurdish tribal leaders to rebel against the Centre, to protect their long enduring and established positions among their adherents and also against the Centre superseded by the Porte. My argument in providing this information is that the rebellions of the Kurdish Tribes during the 19th century should be considered as reactions towards reforms rather than a preliminary phase of Kurdish nationalism which had as its goal the establishment of a separate Kurdish state. I will consider the cases of the Abdurrahman Pasha Revolt in 1806, the Mir Muhammad Pasha of Rewanduz in 1834, the Bedirhan Pasha Revolt in 1840s and finally the Sheikh Ubeydullah Revolt in 1880 to support this argument.

Demokratik sistemlerde, demokratik ilke ve esaslar açısından sivil toplumun varlığı ve işlevi büyük önem arz etmektedir. Aynı minvalde, demokratik ilkelere uygun bir toplumun inşası için de sivil toplumun sistem içerisindeki mevcudiyeti kritik bir rol oynamaktadır. Sivil toplumun daha güncel bir parçası olan sosyal hareketler de her alandaki karar alma süreçlerine etkide bulunmaktadır. Fakat günümüz sosyal hareketlerinin talep ve yöntemleri demokrasinin temelini ifade eden meşru temsiliyeti zedeleyen bir aşamaya gelebilmektedir. Siyasetin işleyişini ve seçimlerin kazandırdığı meşruiyeti sekteye uğratacak talepler ve yöntemlerden dolayı sosyal hareketler sivil toplum kavramının altına oymaya başlamaktadır. Bu çalışmada, demokratik yapı ve sivil toplum arasındaki ilişkinin düzeyi saptanmaya çalışılacak ve Hong Kong örneği üzerinden karar alma aşamasında ortaya çıkan çatışma demokratik yapı ve sivil toplum bağlamında sebep ve sonuçları şeklinde ele alınacaktır.

The main aim of the paper is to discover if a long term of a ruling political party provides economic development or decreases democratic quality of a country since more than two terms rule of a political party is considered as a tendency from democracy to authoritarianism. This paper analytically compares the long and short term governments in terms of various economic indicators and employs a regression model to estimate the relationships between economic growth and political stability. Time span of the paper starts in 1950 when Turkey changed political party system from single party to multi-party system and ends in 2018. The paper concludes that average GDP difference between the long and short term governments is 75 per cent more on average in longer term governments. Predicted GDP per capita is approximately 65 per cent higher in longer term of ruling political party. It can be eventually argued that more than two terms of ruling party create economic development, even though there has been a transition from democracy to autocracy.

Open To this day, despotic regimes in the Middle East are greatly benefitting from the support of the West. The demands of the people are suppressed by violence which ends in chaos creating power vacuums that terrorist organizations are eager to fill The big picture in Syria is bigger than any one group B Y R AHMAN DAĞ N O V 26, 2014 12:00 A M T he Middle East has been persevering not because the leaders of Middle Eastern countries are just and legitimate, but because the people who live there still have hope for the future and ask for a better one. It would be naive to think that the future is going to be shaped by local dynamics and through democratic means. If that were true, then post-Arab Spring states would not have returned to dictatorships. And democratic Western states would not have tried to legitimize these dictators by cooperating with to fight terrorist organizations. By doing that, the West is actually using terrorist states against a terrorist organization, and in the mean time they get what they want-a destabilized and controllable Middle East.

On the path of Kemalism, CHP and PKK : A new monotype mentality, Gülenism | Daily Sabah https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/2014/04/21/on-the-path-of-kemalism-chp-and-pkk-anew -monotype-mentality-gulenism 1/4 Kemalism has actually imposed on society is an identity crisis. In the same vein, Gülenism is the new monotype mentality as a religious structure that become another political ideology, excluding other religious ways of serving people On the path of Kemalism, CHP and PKK : A new monotype mentality, Gülenism B Y R AHMAN DAĞ A P R 21, 2014 12:00 A M S ince the period of the late Ottoman Empire, modernism, in order to catch up with Western countries' powers, has been a crucial subject of many questions. Turkey continued to pursue that ultimate (sacred) goal to be a member of advanced civilizations by imposing the 19th century's prevailing social, political and economic envisages. That ended up with the prevailing Kemalism ideology encouraging people to be Turkish and Muslim along with internalized Western values. The hegemonic power of Kemalist rulers and elites were equalized themselves, in addition to their myth modernization project, with the existence of the state and Turkishness, the rationalization of all their actions, despite popular will, was provided.

According to an Iraqi-Kurdish website, the KCK recently made a symbolic and dramatic decision to lift a ban on militants marrying one another. If this announcement proves to be accurate, then it should be regarded as one of the fundamental steps which could contribute to the ongoing peace process in Turkey. The seemingly insignificant news might go unnoticed on account of the last declaration by the KCK warning the Turkish government to discontinue the peace process unless it takes steps forward immediately following the March 30 local elections. To prevent such a mistake, this piece would try to emphasize its prominence. As is well known, the PKK was founded under Marxist-Leninist ideological principles aiming at freeing all exploited people from imperialist powers until a proletariat administration is formed. As a part of this ultimate target, the first initiative would be taken by freeing Kurds from the suppression of regional imperialists, primarily Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. It chose to back a revolution supported by the people to topple down the imperials power foci. As a revolutionary strategy and also as a requirement of ideological commitment, gender differentiation has been reduced to be something akin to nonsense in order to concentrate on the revolution and serving the leadership. This is not to imply that men and

The entire 19th century was the most controversial years of the Ottoman Empire. It was the time period that the Ottoman Empire, as once one of the great powers in the world, had to struggle with the great western powers. This struggle ended with the disintegration of the Empire and several nation-states were conceived of in the Middle East immediately after the First World War. Within this century, transformation from traditional social, political and philosophical structures to modernization had been severely felt by the last decades of the Empire. While this transformation had been a significant motive on both domestic and foreign policies of the centre, peripheries of the Empire did not follow the same ideals with the centre, especially Arab provinces. This paper seeks to depict the transformation in the Arab provinces. To crystalize, the eras of Abdulhamid II with pan-Islamist and of the CUP with secular modernist would be compared via tracing policy changes in the Arab provinces.
Keywords: Arab Provinces, Modernization, Ottoman Empire, Abdulhamid II, CUP

Energy resources since the industrial revolution have been paramount for both developing and developed countries. Therefore, the urgent need for and control over energy resources in order to have an advantage against rivalries have become a significant part of national security. From the late 18 th century to early 20 th century, coal and gasoline were major energy resources to make machines operational but they have been gradually replaced by the fossil fuels, oil and gas. While transformation is happening, dependency on energy resources in the fields ranging from housewarming to jet fuels dramatically increased. Having adequate energy resources, in this sense, provides industrially and economically strategic advantages for a country, so military or political struggles over energy resources have been a salient issue in international relations. This paper seeks to examine the struggle over energy resources under the light of Alsace-Lorraine case and to compare the results with the Cyprus case. In doing so, securitization studies facilitate theoretical ground on how energy resources are securitized, which leads to a country to take extreme cautions, including armed conflict and on how energy resources are de-securitized, which leads to changes in foreign policies from conflict to cooperation.

Rise of leftist and rightist populist movements and political parties, the reluctance of international cooperation over climate change, perceived refugee threats in the Western world and the most recently Corona Virus have changed states’ understanding of international order. Nations are now taking precautions for external security issues, and these lead to degenerate core principles of liberalism, which are global economic and political integrations. These two pillars of liberalism are practised via free-market economy and encouraging liberal democratic systems against the statist closed economy and autocratic political systems, respectively.

Öz Siyasal davranış, sadece oy kullanma ile sınırlandırılmayıp siyasi karar verme mekanizmalarını etkileyecek tüm davranış ve tutumları da kapsar hale gelmiştir. Özellikle sivil toplumun siyaseten etkili olması siyaseti etkime yollarını genişletmiştir. Aynı zamanda çeşitlenen siyasal davranışları etkileyen faktörler ayrı bir çalışma konusu haline gelmiştir. Bu çalışmada, siyasal sistem, medya, din, çevre, aile, etnisite ve ekonomi faktörlerinin Adıya-man seçmenlerinin siyasal davranışını ne derece etkilediğine bakılmaktadır. Yapılan anket çalışması ile elde edilen veriler doğrultusunda söz konusu kategorilerin ortalama puanları üzerinden hangi faktörün daha fazla etkili olduğu ortaya çıkarılmıştır. Elde edilen sonuçlar ifadeci ve araçsal oy kavramları ışığında değerlendirmeye alınmıştır. Adıyaman ilinin tüm ilçe ve köylerinde anket uygulanmasına rağmen bu makale Adıyaman geneline odaklanmış ve sadece Adıyaman siyasal davranış haritası tablosu üzerine analiz yapılmıştır. Abstract Political behavior has become separate research area which is not limited with just voting in the elections but extended with all behavior and attitudes influencing political decision making mechanisms. Especially with great impact of civil society on politics, the way of affecting politics has been enlarged. This also gives birth of distinctive researches on factors affecting varied political behavior. In this research, it is looked at the factors of political system, media, religion, environment, family, ethnicity, and economy on electorates within the administrative border of Adıyaman province in Turkey. Relying on the data gathered from the applied questionnaire , it seeks to find out that which factor is more effective than others through the range of frequencies. Even though the questionnaire was conducted in all districts of Adıyaman the paper focuses on general results regarding to Adıyaman. Thus, analysis of the paper is based on the resultant figure of Adıyaman political behavior map.

Osmanlı Devleti'nden günümüz Türkiye'sine kadar hemen hemen her dönemde siyasi iktidarlar ile dini gruplar arasında karşılıklı çıkarlar doğrultusunda bir etkileşim süregelmiştir. Bazı dönemlerde dini gruplar siyasi otoriteyi etkilerken bazı dönemlerde de siyasi iktidarlar dini grupları kendi menfaatleri doğrultusunda etkilemiştir. Osmanlı döneminde dini gruplar, siyasal ve toplumsal sistemde kendilerine yer bulamışken modern Türkiye'nin laik temelde inşa edilmesi dini grupları kontrol dışı bırakmıtır. Yasal statülerü ortadan kaldırılan cemaatler büyük baskılara mazur kalsalar bile günümüze kadar varlıklarını sürdürmeyi başarmışlardır. Bu çalışmanın odak noktası ise Nakşibendi tarikatının Türkiye'deki kollarından biri olan Menzil Cemaati'ni din-devlet ilişkisi açısından incelemektir. Dini grupların resmi bir statüsü olmadığından devletle veya siyasi iktidarla olan ilşkilerini somut bir şeklide ortaya koymak zordur. Bu yüzden bu çalışmada, Menzil cemaati ve siyasi iktidar mensuplarının fikirlerine başvurmak yerine Menzil cemaati'nin merkezi olarak bilinen Mezil (Durak) köyünün çevre köylerle karşılaştırılması yapılmıştır. Bu vesileyle Menzil ve çevre köylerin alt-yapı profilleri çıkarılmış ve akabinde ortaya çıkan farklar üç açıdan tartışılmıştır. Bunlar sırasıyla devletin vatandaşlarına hizmet götürme sorumluluğu, siyasi partilerin dini cemaatleri oy potansiyeli olarak görüp ayrıcalık tanıması ve cemaatlerin kendi mensuplarına dayanarak siyasi iktidarlardan talepte bulunmalarıdır. Profil çıkarımı sonası ortaya çıkan farkların aşırı derece fazla olması bu çalışmanın önemini daha da arttırmaktadır. Aynı zamanda yakın geçmişte yaşanan FETÖ darbe girişimi de devlet ile dini gruplar arasındaki ilişkinin ne kadar elzem olduğunu gözler önüne sermiştir.

Current politics in Turkey proves that the roots of the Kurdish question have to be taken under strict examination in order to diagnose the problem so that a permanent solution might be found. With this in mind, this paper tries to explain the emergence of the pro-Kurdish nationalist movement, the PKK, via social movement theories. What makes this paper significant is that it examines the process of emergence in three phases via three different social movement theories. For Turkey's single party era (1923-1950), relative deprivation theory is applied. In the second phase, political opportunity theory is matched with the onset of the multi-party system under the rule of the Democrat Party (1950-1960). Finally resource mobilization theory is applied to the time period between 1960 and 1980. In general, the theoretical approaches chosen are selected in accordance with certain socio-political realities of Turkey. This helps to explain how an ethnic minority ended up with a socially – but not legally – representative organization when they are relatively deprived and obstructed politically. If not all, a certain amount of mobilization of the Kurdish people could result in a social movement, be it is legal or illegal.

The Kurdish question has been one of the most protracted issues in the political history of Turkey. Given such a long securitization of the Kurdish question, it almost came to an end due to the peace process initiated by the AK Party government and the imprisoned leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan in 2013. Apparently it was not a solid process because it failed immediately after the June 2015 general election. There may have been many internal and external factors explaining the reason why it failed but this paper looks specifically at one of them: the influence of the Syrian crisis on the peace process in Turkey in light of spillover effects and spreading insurgency theories.

Özet Bu çalışma Adıyaman Siyasal Davranış Haritası adlı araştırma anketinden elde edilen verilere dayanmaktadır. Anket, siyasal davranışı etkileyen yedi faktörün (medya, din, aile, etnisite, siyasal sistem ve çevre) Adıyaman seçmenleri üzerindeki etkisinin ne kadar olduğunu ölçmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu amaca ek olarak, uygulanan anket seçmenler tarafından gerçekleştirilen siyasal aktivitelerle ilgili soruları içermektedir. 38. soru " siyaseten iyi bir şeyler yapmak veya kötü bir şeyi engellemek için aşağıdaki işlemlerden herhangi birini yaptınız mı? " olarak sorulmuştur. Cevaplar ise bir siyasi parti yetkilisi ile görüşme, dilekçe verme, siyasi parti veya sivil toplum kuruluşu ile beraber çalışma, yasal bir eyleme katılma, bir boykota katılma, bildiri dağıtma ve diğerleri olarak belirlenmiş ve sırasıyla 1'den 7'ye kadar kodlanmıştır. Cevap vermeyenler ise 0 olarak kodlanmıştır. Cevaplardan elde edilen veriler Adıyaman ilinin bir katılımcı demokrasi ve seçmenlerinin ise aktif vatandaşlık örneği gösterip göstermediğini belirlemek için kullanılmıştır. Abstract This study is based on data obtained from the Adıyaman Political Behaviour Questionnaire. It was conducted with the aim of mapping impacts of seven factors (media, religion, family, ethnicity, political system, and environment) on political behaviour of electorates in Adıyaman province. In addition to this aim, it also contains the questions regarding to political activities which are operated by the electorates. The 38 th question is asking for " whether or not have you done anything to do something good or to prevent something bad in political sense? ". The answers are ranging from " contacting with politicians " , " signing a petition " , " working with a political party or non-governmental organization " , " attending to a legal protest " , " joining a boycott " to " others ". They are respectively coded from 1 to 7 and those who did not respond the question are coded as 0. The data extracted from the answers is employed in order to whether or not Adıyaman is participatory democracy and its electorates are active citizenry.

İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Kamu Yönetimi Bölümü ve CESRAN International (www.cesran.org) Türkiye Masası Direktörü rdag@adiyaman.edu.tr Öz Dış yardımlar günümüzde dış politikanın ayrılmaz bir parçası olarak değerlendiril-mektedir. Bu durum dış politika analizlerinin " yumuşak güç " (soft power) ve " sert güç " (hard power) kavramları üzerinden yapılmasına sebep olmuştur. Dolayısıyla, bir ülkenin dış yardım miktarı o ülkenin uluslararası politikadaki etkinliğini göstermesi açısından önem kazanmıştır. Aynı zamanda dış yardımda bulunma şartları söz konusu ülkenin dış politikasının temel dinamiklerini de ortaya koymaktadır. Bu makale, yu-muşak güç kavramının tarihsel dönüşümünü ortaya koyduktan sonra Türkiye'nin dış yardımlarının temel dinamiklerinin ne(ler) olduğuna " medeniyet " kavramı üzerinden odaklanmaktadır. Bunun nedeni ise Türkiye dış politikasının daha pro-aktif olmaya başladığı coğrafyalarda medeniyet kavramını kullanmasıdır. Bu minvalde, makalenin temel argümanı, Türkiye'nin dış yardımlardaki temel kuruluşu TİKA'nın faaliyetlerine bakarak dış yardımlarda kullanılan bu kavramının sınırlarını belirleyen bileşenlerinin " Etnisite, Etnisite ve İslam, ve Osmanlı Hinterlandı " olduğudur. Abstract Foreign aids have recently been considered as inseparable part of foreign policy. This situation directs foreign policy analysis towards the concepts of " soft " and " hard powers ". Therefore, amount of foreign aids of a given state indicate effectiveness of that state in international politics. In the same coin, the terms that are conditioned for foreign aids by a given state determine the dynamics of foreign policy of that state. In this sense, right after historical transformation of soft power, this paper focuses on Turkey's fundamental dynamics through the concept of " civilizati-YIL / YEAR 14, SAYI / ISSUE 27 (BAHAR / SPRING 2016/1) ss. 41-57

The last century of the Empire can be called a “Reform Century” since
throughout the 20th century, the Empire implemented radical reforms
covering its military, economic, social and administrative structures. In
particular, from 1514 to the beginning of the 19th century, the relationship
of Kurdish tribes with the Porte remained in balance and the agreed
autonomous status was protected. However, due to greater revenue
requirements to meet military expenditure, bureaucratic modernization
and an overt requirement for conscription to help support a new army
which was to substitute for the abandoned Janissaries units, when the
administrative reforms of the Empire were implemented all across the
Empire, the silent relationship was broken and the struggle between the
Kurdish tribes and the Porte commenced continuing, indeed until the end
of the Empire. From the reforms in administration, in other words, centralisation proved to be the most significant as it triggered events which encouraged Kurdish tribal leaders to rebel against the Centre, to protect their long enduring and established positions among their adherents and also against the Centre superseded by the Porte. My argument in providing this information is that the rebellions of the Kurdish Tribes during the 19th century should be considered as reactions towards reforms rather than a preliminary phase of Kurdish nationalism which had as its goal the establishment of a separate Kurdish state. I will consider the cases of the Abdurrahman Pasha Revolt in 1806, the Mir Muhammad Pasha of Rewanduz in 1834, the Bedirhan Pasha Revolt in 1840s and finally the Sheikh Ubeydullah Revolt in 1880 to support
this argument.

Civil-military relationship is generally examined through the use of an institutional approach or theories (concordance) that emphasise the salience of power struggles and social cohesion. These contributions are important but often exclude the role of contesting ideologies. To address this gap, this paper takes an ideological approach to address civil-military relations in Turkey. The analyses commence with the military reforms of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century and the Republican period. The paper argues that modernization projects of the Empire paved the way for military superiority which turned into being saviour and founders of the Republic. It then moves to consider the ideological parameters that coloured the military establishment, arguing that the target of modernization was itself systemized and internalized into Kemalist ideology and the duty to preserve this remains inculcated in the contemporary military establishment.

After a series of serious but uncompleted initiatives to solve the Kurdish question in Turkey, the AK Party government launched another peace process. What makes the last one crucial is that it is the first time majoritarian public support is obtained in this endeavour, and also the first time a legal framework has been put into operation for the sake of having a healthy process ending up with positive results.

The discourses articulated by those who sit around negotiation tables are full of humanitarian points as though nothing is more important than the lives that might be lost during the process or later. Whereas this mostly refers to Kurds, it also applies to other ethnicities. Assuming without admitting that each party totally agreed on the humanitarian goals of the process, then why has the process not finished whilst it is already employed as a political issue in the elections when it comes to getting concrete results?

From the public perspective, it might be just humanitarian but from the political party perspectives, it is not just a humanitarian issue but also a political issue which might exert a delicate impact on their existential legitimation. As human beings, nobody would want to oppose the peace process; however, this is not something people can just tackle amongst themselves without having political figures getting involved in the issue.

The underlying argument of the paper therefore, is that whilst the peace process seemingly has humanitarian undercurrents but in reality, it is shrewdly a political issue which political parties seek to take advantage of. On the one hand, pro-Kurdish entities ranging from PKK to HDP and the AK Party, on the other hand along with opposition political parties (CHP and MHP) are playing a political game that is at best, called a “peace process”.

The current agenda of international politics is full of headline-grabbing conflicts. This book focuses on one such conflict, namely the Kurdish question in Turkey, with recent peace negotiations between Turkey and the PKK having apparently failed.

The pro-Islamic ruling party of Turkey (the AK Party) and the ideologically leftist pro-Kurdish parties are the key determinants of this conflict. Their historical development since the inception of modern Turkey is discussed here to demonstrate the similarities and differences between these oppositional social and political groups. In this sense, the book claims that ideological rigidity is one of the core factors shaping the relationship between these parties. As such, the book provides a detailed investigation of the ideological perspectives of the key actors in the conflict in order to gain a better understanding of why the last initiative ended negatively.