Turkish Studies ISSN: 1468-3849 (Print) 1743-9663 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ftur20 Artistic expression in times of peace and war: the case of Turkey’s Kurds from 2009 to the present Duygu Atlas To cite this article: Duygu Atlas (2018): Artistic expression in times of peace and war: the case of Turkey’s Kurds from 2009 to the present, Turkish Studies, DOI: 10.1080/14683849.2018.1481399 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14683849.2018.1481399 Published online: 31 May 2018. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ftur20 TURKISH STUDIES https://doi.org/10.1080/14683849.2018.1481399 Artistic expression in times of peace and war: the case of Turkey’s Kurds from 2009 to the present Duygu Atlas The Zvi Yavetz School of Historical Studies, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel ABSTRACT This article traces the effect of the ‘Kurdish opening,’ which led to an artistic surge among Turkey’s Kurdish minority, and the recent renewal of the conflict, which has significantly inhibited that surge. By juxtaposing these two periods, defined in terms of the state’s approach to the Kurds, and looking at the field of Kurdish arts as a space, practice, and discourse, it presents a more holistic picture of Kurdish responses to political turbulence in Turkey, where Kurdish cultural identity and its expression have always been an integral part of the Kurdish political struggle. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 6 September 2017; Accepted 29 March 2018 KEYWORDS Kurds; Kurdish conflict; Kurdish arts; cultural identity Turkey Introduction In 2009, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) launched the process known as the ‘Kurdish Opening/Initiative’ (also known as the ‘Democratic Opening/Initiative’) with the stated aim of resolving the decades-long conflict between the Turkish state and the country’s Kurdish minority. Although the initiative was an attempt by the AKP to contain the popularity of the Kurdish political movement and regain political control in the country’s southeast, the more open approach towards the Kurdish minority adopted during this period did allow for the emergence of a vibrant public sphere, where artistic creation flourished. The cities of Diyarbakır and Mardin became hubs for local as well as international artists. Kurdish publication houses such as Avesta broke records in Kurdish publishing, releasing up to one hundred titles a year while peace endured. Similarly, a new generation of Kurdish filmmakers explored the medium of cinema to an unprecedented level, bringing their community’s stories to a wider audience. However, since the breakdown of the peace talks between the Turkish government and the Kurdish political movement in the summer of 2015, violent CONTACT Duygu Atlas atlas.duygu@gmail.com School of Historical Studies, Tel Aviv University, 380 Gilman Building, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978 Israel © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group 2 D. ATLAS hostilities have resumed. The resurgence of the violent conflict has significantly affected the Kurdish art scene. The aim of this study is to trace the impact of the ‘Kurdish opening,’ which led to an artistic surge among the Kurdish minority in the realm of Kurdish artistic production, and the impact of the recent renewal of the conflict, which has significantly inhibited that surge. By utilizing the field of arts, a largely untapped reservoir for the study of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict, this study aims to present a more holistic picture of Kurdish responses to recent political developments and ensuing turbulence in Turkey, the accounts of which are often confined to state policies and responses of the political actors involved in the conflict. Looking at the field of arts as a space, practice and discourse, this article contends that Kurdish arts in Turkey serve as a medium through which Kurdish subjectivities and identities are defined and consolidated, and as such they emerge as sites for the assertion and the articulation of the Kurdish identity. As a result, regardless of the question of artistic intent, Kurdish arts in Turkey become politicized not only by their stylistic choices or subject matter, but as a result of the unique context within which they emerge and the way they are perceived by the audience as well as by the Turkish state. In this respect, the exponential growth of Kurdish artistic production during the peace process period attests to the importance of the field of arts for the Kurdish minority, as a channel for self-expression and transmission of experiences and traumas unique to the Kurdish case. Aspects of Kurdish-ness and Kurdish experience in Turkey as subject matter and/or source of inspiration, as well as the frequent use of artistic means to record Kurdish experiences, underline the difficulty in considering Kurdish arts independently of the wider historical and political context of which they voluntarily or involuntarily form a part. As such, they can be construed as an extension of Kurdish non-acquiescence to the cultural and political hegemony within which they are compelled to operate. The Turkish government’s curtailing of the Kurdish artistic sphere, simultaneously with the clampdown on the Kurdish political movement, attests to the fact that the Kurdish artistic sphere forms yet another modality and arena of struggle. Turning scholarly attention to the Kurdish artistic production, therefore, has the potential to broaden our understanding of the conflict and the possible arenas where it plays out beyond the realm of politics. In this article, ‘Kurdish arts’ refer to works of art produced in Kurdish and in Turkish by members of the Kurdish ethnic minority in Turkey. This is an important area of definition as what qualifies a specific work of art as Kurdish continues to be the subject of heated discussions. Although there is no simple or objective means of deciding which art forms deserve attention, this article looks into the fields of cinema, literature, music and theatre, merely due to the volume of works produced in each one of these respective categories. An aesthetic evaluation of works referred to in this article lies outside of its scope. TURKISH STUDIES 3 On the question of art and politics In his collection of essays, Imaginary Homelands, writer Salman Rushdie, referring to the field of literature, writes: Description is itself a political act. […] It is clear that redescribing a world is the necessary first step towards changing it. And particularly at times when the State takes reality into its own hands, and sets about distorting it, altering the past to fit its present needs, then the making of alternative realities of art, including the novel of memory, becomes politicized. ‘The struggle of man against power,’ Milan Kundera has written, ‘is the struggle of memory against forgetting.’1 Rushdie’s assertion regarding the political nature of art (literature in this case), and its power to create change, is one of many musings on the relationship between arts and politics. Examples abound as to the use of art forms and culture for the purposes of advancing political agendas and molding ‘national characters’ for fledgling new nation-states.2 Artistic and cultural productions that emerge in conflict environments similarly call for a consideration of politicization in the arts. In their work on the Palestinian cinema, for example, Nurith Gertz and George Khleifi portray it as ‘a national cinema,’ dedicated to the national struggle of the Palestinian people, constructing Palestinian memory and space, recounting Palestinian history and telling the stories of ordinary Palestinians.3 The same dialectic can be observed in the Kurdish case in Turkey, where artistic production is concerned primarily with cultivating narratives that have been excluded or ignored by the Turkish state. As such, Kurdish artistic productions serve as sites of resistance where dissent against dominant political and cultural hegemonies is displayed. As Stephen Duncombe argues, artistic production and culture can be ‘used as a means of resistance’ and provide the ‘frameworks through which to interpret reality and possibility.’4 Similarly, Laachir and Talajooy argue that as much as it can be utilized ‘to consolidate and perpetuate power relations in societies,’ artistic creation can also be used as the ‘site of resistance to oppression in its diverse forms.’5 Scrutinizing artistic production as a site of contestation, they argue, may therefore assist in unravelling ‘the interplay of power, resistance and cultural products.’6 However, research on political expression and mobilization of ethnic communities often neglects the aspects of artistic and cultural production, as the focus of most studies tends to be on more conventional forms of political action and participation. Nonetheless, literature on the cultural productions of minority communities in Turkey has been growing steadily in recent years.7 This has been in conjunction with the exponential growth of a corpus of alternative or counter narratives, which challenge the dominant Turkish nationalist discourse. Studies on the political relevance and importance of the arts (as a form of political expression) carry the potential 4 D. ATLAS to further disentangle official nationalist constructs, as well as to provide deeper insights on responses to the conflict. They form an alternative way to consider the society’s interpretation of past and current events and to identify the core sites of memory which form its collective identity and shape its political outlook. This observation is particularly apt in the case of the Kurds in Turkey. As a society, which has been subjected to conflict for decades, Kurdish arts and cultural activities are very often political. From the adoption of symbolism to refer to Kurdistan in songs, to the films and literature about collective traumas and major problems facing Kurdish society, the Kurdish arts render visible what the state and the majority society do not recognize.8 AKP’s ‘Kurdish Opening’ The ‘democratic opening’ (demokratik açılım) initiative, launched in mid2009 by Turkey’s ruling AKP symbolized a shift in the official Turkish stance on the issue, from the historical denial of Kurdish existence and assimilation attempts, to that of a limited recognition of the Kurdish reality. First termed the ‘Kurdish opening’ (Kürt Açılımı) and later re-named as the ‘National Unity and Brotherhood Project’ (Milli Birlik ve Kardeşlik Projesi) to deflect growing criticism, the AKP’s ‘democratic opening’ envisaged a solution via more comprehensive policies to address the political, economic and sociological dimensions of the conflict with the aim of ending terror. On a policy level, the AKP government first introduced initiatives regarding the use of the Kurdish language. As a first step, a state-run TV channel, TRT Şeş, which broadcasts entirely in Kurdish, was launched on January 1, 2009 with a message in Kurdish by the then Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that read, ‘TRT şeş bi xer be’ (May TRT Six be prosperous). Erdoğan stated that the new channel would ‘further solidify the unity and fraternity of the people’ and ‘strengthen [Turkish] democracy.’9 The TV initiative was followed by an announcement by the Turkish Board of Higher Education (Yükseköğretim Kurulu, YÖK) that courses in Kurdish language and culture would be allowed at universities.10 In October 2009, the Living Languages Institute (Yaşayan Diller Enstitüsü) for the study of regional minority-languages, including Kurdish, was established at Mardin Artuklu University for post-graduate students. The disappointment over the naming of the institute, in particular the avoidance of the word ‘Kurdish,’ was mitigated when YÖK gave its approval in March 2011 for the opening of an undergraduate Kurdish Language and Culture Department at the same university. In the 2011–2012 academic year, the department admitted its first twenty-one undergraduate students. Other regulations, introduced within the framework of the ‘democratic opening’ initiative and through an appeal to the Ministry of Interior, included the TURKISH STUDIES 5 reintroduction of original Kurdish place names and permission to give Kurdish names to children. In March 2010, the Parliamentary Constitutional Commission also accepted an amendment allowing for political propaganda in languages other than Turkish during election campaigns.11 Concurrently with these confidence-building measures, a peace process was launched in 2009 between the Turkish state and the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê, PKK). The ‘Oslo process’ brought Turkish state representatives, most notably the National Intelligence Service (Millî İstihbarat Teşkilatı, MİT) and the PKK into an intermittent dialogue, which was aborted twice in 2010 and 2011 respectively, and revived in early 2013 until its final collapse in the summer of 2015. It is important to note that the relative freedom, which allowed for greater expression and dissemination of Kurdish arts in this period, had its roots in the decade preceding the AKP’s ‘Kurdish Opening’ initiative. In the early years of the AKP, the party legislated and implemented general yet limited steps towards greater cultural freedom and protection of rights, mainly due to Turkey’s European Union (EU) accession bid and its efforts to meet the Copenhagen Criteria.12 Within this framework, the image of Turkey as a mosaic of cultures was continually promoted to emphasize a tradition of tolerance and peaceful coexistence of minorities in Turkey. Although this new politics, which continued into the ‘democratic opening’ period, was based more on the AKP’s embrace of ideas from Turkey’s Ottoman past rather than on its internalization of contemporary democratic norms, it nevertheless allowed for the expression of particularistic identities and a freer dissemination of artistic and cultural products. Even though the Turkish government’s ‘democratic opening’ initiative and the ensuing peace process were marked by rounds of violence and inconsistencies, they nevertheless led to two major developments within the Kurdish sphere. First is the significant strengthening of Kurdish political activities and the solidification of Kurdish national identity in Turkey. In a systematic and planned process of mobilization and organization, the Kurdish political movement succeeded in rallying its support-base around the tenets of their ethnic identity as a reaction to the AKP government, which built its program on the belief that an emphasis on Islamic and cultural unity would bring about a breakthrough in the Kurdish question. The Kurdish political movement, represented at that time by the Peace and Democracy Party (Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi, BDP) and its affiliates, thus consolidated their position through their reaction to the shortcomings of the ‘democratic opening’ process. Secondly, the relaxation of the restrictions on the markers of Kurdish ethnic identity, most specifically the use of Kurdish, and the emergence of a political atmosphere which allowed relative freedom to discuss the different dimensions of the Kurdish reality, engendered a surge in artistic and cultural production among the Kurds. 6 D. ATLAS Move towards peace invigorate the Kurdish artistic scene The most easily discernible rise in Kurdish artistic production during this period was in the field of filmmaking. Suncem Koçer argues that although Kurdish filmmaking increased most notably after 2009, it had been receiving greater international recognition since the early 2000s largely due to the success of Kurdish Iranian filmmaker, Bahman Ghobadi’s A Time for Drunken Horses (Zamani Barayé Masti Asbha), which won the Camera d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000.13 Ghobadi’s success served as an incentive for the Kurdish diaspora, which began engaging in activities in support of the development of the Kurdish cinema and establishing it as an ‘orienting framework for the production and reception of films by and about Kurds.’14 The first ever Kurdish Film Festival was thus held in London a year later. In Turkey, following the publication of the first book on the subject of Kurdish cinema in 2009, a volume edited by Müjde Arslan entitled, Kurdish Cinema: Statelessness, Border and Death (Kürt Sineması: Yurtsuzluk, Sınır ve Ölüm), the Metropolitan Municipality of Diyarbakır organized the First International Kurdish Cinema Festival in December 2009. The Municipality of Batman sponsored a Kurdish film festival in November 2010, which also featured a short-film competition, namely the First Yılmaz Güney Kurdish Short-Film Competition (1. Pêşbirka Kurte-Filmên Kurdî Ya Yılmaz Guney). In a manner that reflected the Turkish authorities’ contradictory approach to the Kurdish question, the mayor of Batman, Nejdet Atalay could not attend the festival that his municipality sponsored, as he had been arrested earlier in December 2009 and imprisoned as part of a government crackdown against the Union of Communities in Kurdistan (Koma Civakên Kurdistan, KCK), the alleged umbrella organization of the PKK. Nevertheless, the festival served as a platform to discuss the issues facing the Kurdish cinema in Turkey. The participants emphasized the importance of the use of Kurdish in films, director Ahmet Soner describing it as the criteria for determining the Kurdishness of a film.15 Similarly, director Kazım Öz stated that the use of Kurdish was ‘vital’ for the Kurdish cinema, arguing that while such a language-centric approach could be viewed as nationalistic sensitivity, it had profound importance in the case of Kurdish: For Kurdish, which is treated as an ‘unknown language’ in [Turkish] courts even today, subjected to intense assimilation efforts and banned in every field of life, this is a very sensitive issue. It is a matter of proving its existence.16 The centrality of the Kurdish language in discussions surrounding Kurdish cinema highlights the latter’s politicization. In this respect, Kurdish cinema emerges as an important form of cultural resistance, it functions as a means of self-representation and as a pathway to legitimization and political recognition. The political nature of Kurdish cinema is also present in its subject TURKISH STUDIES 7 matter, whose key themes include the conflict, its effects on everyday lives, and social and political inequalities endured by Kurds. As director Kazım Öz pointed out, ‘the Kurdish cinema cannot be thought as being independent of the Kurdish problem.’17 Similarly, young-generation Kurdish filmmaker Soner Sert noted that the Kurdish cinema and the Kurdish struggle for freedom have always fed from each other, the former having been shaped by the past and the present of the Kurdish people.18 A selection of examples from Kurdish films produced in this period aptly illustrates that the Kurdish cinema concerns itself first and foremost with the realities of Kurdish life and the political situation in Turkey. In his 2014 film, He Bû Tune Bû (Once Upon a Time), Kazım Öz exposes the economic exploitation of seasonal agricultural workers in Turkey, most of whom are Kurdish. Ferit Karahan’s 2010 awardwinning short film, Berîya Tofanê (Before the Flood) concentrates on the ongoing problem of landmines and child casualties. The film was dedicated to the memory of all child victims of war and Ceylan Önkol specifically, a twelve-year old girl from a village in the Lice district of Diyarbakır, who was killed by a mortar fired from a nearby military base in 2009. Ersin Çelik’s 2012 movie, Pêlîstok (Toy) tells the story of two ‘stone-throwing children’ in prison, sixteen-year-old Bişeng and fifteen-year-old Ronya. Under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, many Kurdish children were tried and convicted as adults for supporting terrorism. The unlawful treatment of Kurdish minors and the physical and moral violence to which they were subjected, were also the subjects of a 2010 documentary, Vijdanên Kevirî (Brutal Consciences) by Cenk Örtülü and Zeynel Koç. Sinan Yıldız’s first feature-length film, Kanîya Lîço (The Swamp) focuses on another reality of the Kurdish region, namely the experiences of Kurdish smugglers who risk their lives to make a living. The film was completed in 2011, only a few months before the Roboski Massacre took place, where thirty-four Kurdish smugglers, wrongly identified as PKK militants by the Turkish Armed Forces, were killed in the city of Şırnak. In a manner that matched the pace of production, the presence of Kurdish films and documentaries in film festivals across Turkey also continued to increase.19 Cinema associations and clubs sprang up in major Kurdish cities such as Diyarbakır and Mardin. One of the main goals of these initiatives was to make cinema available to a larger audience in the Kurdish region. The Mardin Cinema Association (Mardin Sinema Derneği), for example, launched its open-air cinema days in 2010 and admission was free of charge. The activities of these institutions were often supported and funded by the local Kurdish administrations, whose assistance played a central role in the flourishing of Kurdish artistic and cultural activities. The relative easing of restrictions on the use of Kurdish as part of the ‘democratic opening’ process led to a boom in Kurdish literary production as well. During this period, many Kurdish classics were translated into Turkish and many world and Turkish classics were translated into Kurdish 8 D. ATLAS by independent publishing houses. For its part, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism published the Turkish translation of Kurdish poet, Ehmedî Xani’s magnum opus, Mem û Zîn in 2010, making it the first-ever translation of a Kurdish literary work by a Turkish governmental body.20 The increase in Kurdish-language publishing in Turkey, especially over the last ten years, has facilitated the development and establishment of a modern Kurdish literature. Kurdish publication houses such as Avesta registered new records for Kurdish publishing, having released up to one hundred titles a year during the peaceful period. Kurdish publishing houses showcased their publications in major book fairs each year and reported a warm reception and increased interest from the public in Kurdish publications 21 According to Süleyman Çelik, the owner of the Kurdish publishing house Nûbihar, the positive environment created by the ‘democratic opening’ process and the ‘psychological relaxation’ that it induced among both Kurds and Turks, was the reason behind the increase in and positive perception of Kurdish publications: These steps [taken as part of the ‘democratic opening’ process] facilitated a psychological relaxation among the people. It is possible to observe this not only among the Kurds, but the Turks as well. Books in Kurdish are not seen as a crime anymore. Kurdish has gained a certain legitimacy, because the state itself is producing works in Kurdish. All these have a positive influence on the sale of Kurdish books.22 In addition to this exponentially expanding Kurdish publishing scene, various steps were taken to raise the profile of Kurdish writers active in Turkey and establish them as part of a larger literary world. The nomination of the prominent Kurdish poet from Iraqi Kurdistan, Abdulla Pashew, for the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature, by the Kurdish Writers Association of Diyarbakır and the establishment of the Kurdish PEN based in Diyarbakır should be considered as part of these efforts to shift the attention from the Kurdish diaspora to Kurdish authors living and producing in the region. The reforms that were introduced as part of the ‘democratic opening,’ which allowed for greater cultural rights for the Kurds, also contributed to the development of a diverse Kurdish theatre scene in Turkey. Following a statement by Ertuğrul Güney, the Minister of Culture and Tourism at the time, who expressed support for the staging of Kurdish plays, the Kurdish theatre company Destar staged the first-ever Kurdish play at a Turkish state theater. However, the preparations for the play were not without incident. Destar applied to stage the play with a Turkish translation of the title. Permission was therefore granted on the assumption that the play would be in Turkish. Yet, the group was still allowed to proceed even after learning that the play would be performed in Kurdish. Destar received a grant from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to stage a second play in 2010, which had no spoken text except for two words in Kurdish. Destar theatre company, TURKISH STUDIES 9 which was founded in 2008 with the aim of contributing to the development of Kurdish theatre, is among the many independent theatre companies that emerged at the time to create an alternative theatre scene in Turkey.23 With the addition of municipal theatres, founded and funded by Kurdish municipalities, and the established theatre groups of Kurdish arts and cultural associations, it is possible to speak of the emergence of a diverse and vibrant Kurdish theatre scene in Turkey during the ‘democratic opening’ period. Kurdish music had endured prolonged oppression, especially during the 1990s when speaking and performing in Kurdish was perceived as a terrorist act. In the relatively freer atmosphere of the early 2000s, which continued into the period of the ‘democratic opening’ initiative, innovative music records by Kurdish artists not only popularized Kurdish music in Turkey, but also commanded international admiration. The concurrent increase in the popularity of world music as a commercial category since the early 2000s also contributed to the visibility of Kurdish music. The first groundbreaking recording in Kurdish was Dersim-born Kurdish singer, Aynur Doğan’s Keçe Kurdan (Kurdish Girl). Upon its release in 2004, the album was banned by a court in Diyarbakır on charges that it encouraged separatism. The ban was lifted later that year and Aynur’s guest appearance in 2005 in the highly popular Turkish movie, Gönül Yarası (Lovelorn) marked the first time that a Kurdish song was performed onscreen in a movie filmed in Turkey. With an audience that crosses ethnic boundaries, Aynur has raised Kurdish folk music’s profile on the international stage and is credited with the modernization of traditional Kurdish music by exposing it to new influences alongside other prominent Kurdish musicians such as Burhan Berken, Rojîn and Mehmet Atlı. A similar surge has also been noted in the Zazaki-language (Dimîlî) music production.24 The emergence of street bands performing in Kurdish was another indicator of the change in the visibility of the language. Following Martin Stokes’ observation on the social role of music as a ‘means by which people recognize identities and places, and the boundaries which separate them,’ it is possible to argue that the performances by Kurdish bands like Koma Sê Bira, Kolan, Simurg, Grup Anemon and Bremen Mızıkacıları in urban centers have played a subtle role in raising awareness in the Turkish majority regarding Kurdish cultural markers, by placing them in direct proximity and increasing exposure and interaction.25 During the period when the ‘Kurdish opening’ was pursued, the fact that terrorism charges continued to be brought against Kurdish artists attests to the halfhearted commitment of the Turkish government to grant full freedom of expression to the Kurds. In perhaps one of the most ironic instances, Kurdish singer Rojda, who had been one of the 160 artists invited to a meeting summoned by the then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to discuss his party’s Kurdish initiative, was arrested days before the meeting on charges of ‘spreading propaganda for the outlawed PKK’ 10 D. ATLAS and was sentenced to twenty months in prison.26 Her trial coincided with the acceptance of an amendment by the Parliament’s constitutional commission, which made campaigning in Kurdish during election periods permissible. In another illustrative example, thirteen Kurdish artists, who were active in the music and theatre groups of the Bahar Cultural Center in the city of Batman, were banned from performing arts for five years and each sentenced to a ten-month prison term by the Diyarbakır Fourth Criminal Court.27 Kurdish street bands also spoke of being subjected to daily harassments and anti-Kurdish prejudice by Turkish police and nationalists for singing in Kurdish.28 Kurdish authors and the publishing world were not immune to the continuing acts of discrimination. Kurdish author İrfan Babaoğlu, who was the former chairman of the Kurdish Writers’ Association, was brought to trial on charges of distributing propaganda for the PKK and sentenced to a year and three months in prison, while the publisher of the book, Aram Publishing House, received a fine.29 The lawsuit was brought against Babaoğlu and the Aram Publishing House for the publication of Auschwitz’ten Diyarbakır’a 5 No’lu Cezaevi (From Auschwitz to Diyarbakır, Prison No. 5), a book based on Babaoğlu’s prison memoirs. Babaoğlu’s case illustrates the extent to which artistic and cultural freedom in Turkey hinges on political maneuvering. The first edition of Babaoğlu’s book was published before the June 12 general elections in 2011 and did not encounter government censure. However, its second edition was released at a time when the peace process between the Turkish state and the PKK had stalled and a crackdown against the Kurdish political movement was under way.30 Such instances attest to the inadequacies and discrepancies found in the Turkish government’s approach towards the Kurds, calling into question its commitment to effectively produce a solution to the conflict. The collapse of the peace process The fragile peace process between the Turkish government and the Kurdish insurgency ended in the summer of 2015. Although the official reason given by the Turkish authorities for its abandonment was the killing of two Turkish policemen by the PKK in the town of Ceylanpınar in the southeastern region of Şanlıurfa, there was a larger geopolitical as well as a domestic dimension to the renewal of the conflict. Tensions between the sides had been mounting since the Kurdish riots in October-November 2014, intended to show solidarity with the mainly Kurdish town of Kobanî in Syria, which was besieged at the time by ISIS militants. Kurds in Turkey staged largescale protests in Istanbul and major Kurdish cities in response to the Turkish government’s lack of military support for the Kurdish militia in Syria and its unwillingness to intervene to prevent a massacre of Kurds by ISIS. The crisis in Kobanî inflamed Kurdish civil unrest in Turkey, as over TURKISH STUDIES 11 thirty people were killed in pro-Kobanî protests across the country in October 2014. The Diyarbakır Rally bombing on June 5, 2015, in which an electoral rally of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (Halkların Demokratik Partisi, HDP) was targeted two days prior to the June 7 general elections, and the July 20 bombing in the Suruç district of Şanlıurfa, in which 33 students were killed, compounded Kurdish frustration with the Turkish government. Although the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for both attacks, Kurds interpreted the Turkish government’s refusal to take action against ISIS as a way to prevent the linking up of the Syrian Kurdish fighting forces, the People’s Protection Units (Yekîneyên Parastina Gel, YPG), and the PKK along its border. The Turkish government’s perceived reluctance to act against ISIS came to an end when the Turkish government finally decided to attack ISIS targets closer to its border with Syria on July 23, 2015. However, the aerial bombarding of PKK camps in northern Iraq, which began a day later, was on a far larger scale. The disproportionality of the attacks, that more attacks were focused on Kurds than ISIS, led to an outcry among the Kurds. After the bombing of PKK units in northern Iraq, the military wing of the PKK, the People’s Defense Forces (Hêzên Parastina Gel, HPG) announced that the cease-fire had ‘no more meaning.’31 Kurdish disappointment was further aggravated when the Turkish security forces embarked on large-scale raids against PKK operatives as well as members of the HDP, in twenty-two provinces on July 24–25, 2015. The HDP lambasted the AKP government for the political arrests and military operations against the Kurds. HDP co-chair, Selahattin Demirtaş stated that they found it ‘unacceptable to integrate a struggle against the Kurdish people into a struggle against ISIS.’32 The conflict entered a new stage in December 2015, as the Turkish security forces began military operations against the PKK’s urban warfare units in the Kurdish cities of the country’s southeast. The fighting in the cities resulted in a humanitarian crisis, as round-the-clock curfews were imposed, utilities such as electricity, water and communications were cut, and hundreds of thousands of civilians were displaced. Cities like Nusaybin and Şırnak, which had been severely damaged as a result of the fighting, were razed to the ground upon the completion of the operations. Soon after the end of the operations in the Kurdish region in the summer of 2016, Turkey was shaken by a coup attempt on July 15, 2016. The Turkish government has blamed Fethullah Gülen, the US-based Islamic cleric and the leader of the Hizmet Movement, for masterminding the coup. In a major display of solidarity, all four political parties represented in the Parliament, including the HDP, issued a joint declaration condemning the coup attempt. However, the HDP was excluded from both the post-coup talks, which President Erdoğan held with the leaders of the Republican People’s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party 12 D. ATLAS (Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP), as well as from the ‘Democracy and the Martyrs’ Rally’ (‘Demokrasi ve Şehitler Mitingi’), a massive gathering at Istanbul’s Yenikapı Square held on August 7, which marked the end of the weeks’ long ‘democracy watches.’33 Ostracized by the government, the HDP organized its own rallies to denounce the coup attempt (‘No to Coup! Democracy Now Rally’). In the aftermath of the failed coup attempt, President Erdoğan declared a state of emergency for three months and began an immediate purge in the military, judiciary and bureaucracy, in which the number of detainees reached a staggering 6000 in two days. However, the post-coup purge quickly spread beyond the followers of Gülen and became a pretext for clamping down on all opponents. Interpreted by many as a move to secure a smooth transition into an executive presidency, the purges targeted the Kurdish political movement as well. On November 4, 2016, HDP co-leaders Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ were arrested along with ten other HDP members of the Parliament, for failing to answer a summons to testify as part of a counter-terrorism investigation.34 On January 18, 2017, prosecutors announced that they were seeking a 142-year prison sentence for Demirtaş. Under the State of Emergency laws, elected mayors in largely Kurdish towns were also removed from office. As of November 29, 2016, government trustees have been appointed to a total of 35 Kurdish municipalities and 45 co-chairs of 29 municipalities have been jailed, including high-profile figures such as Ahmet Türk,35 the co-mayor of the city of Mardin, and Gülten Kışanak, the co-mayor of the city of Diyarbakır.36 The impact of the recent conflict on the Kurdish artistic and cultural scene As noted above, the Turkish government’s Syria policy angered most Kurds in Turkey, who closely identified with the struggle of their brethren from across the border. This Kurdish discontent also found its expression in the realm of the arts. In one of the most publicized reactions, the Third Mardin Biennial in 2014 was postponed to show solidarity with the people of Kobanî. In order to draw attention to the crisis, Kurdish artists organized a variety of protests including sit-ins in shopping centers and forming human chains on the Turkish side of the border with Kobanî. The Kurdish street band, Bremin Mızıkacıları (Bremin Harmonicists), founded in 2013 by four Diyarbakır-born Kurdish students in Istanbul, sang in the streets of Turkey’s major cities of Izmir and Istanbul to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Kobanî, and sent the proceedings from their performances to the cities’ residents.37 Li Qamişlo (In Qamishlo), the Kurdish folk song about a young bride who falls ill away from her beloved, achieved wide popularity among Kurds when the TURKISH STUDIES 13 Kurdish band, Koma Sê Bira released a remake of the song at a time when Qamishlo, the majority-Kurdish town in northeastern Syria (from which the song takes its name), was plagued by the Syrian Civil War with thousands of Kurdish refugees flocking to cross the border into Turkey.38 In his 2015 album Êş, renowned Kurdish singer Nizamettin Ariç dedicated three songs to the Kurdish plight across the border from Turkey.39 The strong solidarity and identification with Kobanî reflected the overall impact that the Rojava Revolution had on Turkey’s Kurds. Its political implications aside, the effect of the Syrian Kurds’ political experiment was also visible in the interaction between the Turkish and Syrian Kurds in terms of cultural and artistic exchange. As the conflict continued to intensify in Turkey, making it progressively more difficult to produce art, Kurds in Turkey turned to Rojava for inspiration. In December 2015, for example, the Mitanni Cultural Center (Navenda Çanda Mîtanî, Mitanni Kültür Merkezi) in Mardin’s Nusaybin district announced its decision to establish culture communes throughout the district. The idea was modeled on the Rojava Film Commune (Komîna Fîlm a Rojava, RFC), which was founded in the city of Dirbêsiyê in the Jazira Canton (Kantona Cizîrê) of the de facto autonomous Kurdish region of Rojava in Northern Syria. The Rojava Film Commune, a collective of filmmakers, was founded on July 14, 2015 with the aim of representing the voice of the Rojava Revolution.40 The Rojava Film Commune also served as an alternative platform for Kurdish filmmakers in Turkey. Director Kudbettin Cebe’s 2016 documentary Roza Welatê Du Çeman (Roza: The Country of Two Rivers) was produced by the Rojava Film Commune. However, this cross-border interaction was not immune to the political developments in Turkey. A theater company from Rojava (Rojava Koma Şehit Yekta Tiyatro Grubu), which was scheduled to take part in the Third Amed Theatre Festival, was refused entry to Turkey by the Turkish authorities.41 One of the cofounders of the RFC also noted that many in Turkey who had been in contact with the RFC for possible collaborations in the future, rescinded after the July 20, 2015 bombing in the Suruç district of Şanlıurfa.42 He stated that the developments in Turkey disrupted the interaction between the Kurdish artists in Syria and Turkey, though they did not lead to a complete halt. The formation of Danûk, an Istanbul-based band founded in May 2015 by four Kurdish musicians from Rojava and Turkey, can be seen as the continuation of such collaborative efforts in the field of music.43 While the connection to Rojava provided alternative channels for artistic production, the return of the conflict had crippling psychological effects on many Kurdish artists living and producing in Turkey. Kurdish novelist, Kemal Varol’s description of the war’s effect on his artistic creativity reveals a direct correlation between the escalation of war and his writing: 14 D. ATLAS The most beautiful neighborhoods of my city now lay in ruins. I finished my novel, which I had started two years ago, this summer, when a few people died every day … Now it is impossible for me to even form sentences.44 Prominent Kurdish author, Şeyhmus Diken also expressed the war’s debilitating impact on his creativity: It is as if we have forgotten how to write. […] It is as if writing has lost its meaning … I am supposed to finish the last touches on a book that I promised to deliver by the end of December. But I cannot bring myself to work.45 Similarly, the words of author and contemporary artist Şener Özmen point to a deep desolation shared by most Kurdish artists: ‘I cannot do anything. Not because I want to, but I can’t … Something is broken like a twig. I heard it breaking inside me.’46 The situation in the Kurdish artistic and cultural world worsened significantly after the July 15 coup attempt, which was followed by the implementation of laws under the state of emergency. Almost all of the Kurdish NGOs which were active in the fields of art and culture have been shut down by governmental decrees for alleged links to terrorist organizations. The list included many Kurdish culture and art associations in cities like Istanbul, Izmir, Diyarbakır, Mardin, Van, Siirt, Şırnak, Gaziantep and Şanlıurfa.47 The most notable among these are the Istanbul Kurdish Institute (Enstîtuya Kurdî Ya Stenbolê), one of the oldest institutions which conducted research on Kurdish language, culture and literature; the Kurdish Writers’ Association (Kürt Yazarlar Derneği); and Dicle Fırat Culture and Art Association (Dicle Fırat Kültür Sanat Derneği). The Seyr-i Mesel theatre company, which had been staging plays in Kurdish since 2002 in Istanbul, was also closed.48 As part of the intensified government crackdown on Kurdish institutions, the government dismissed more than 11,000 teachers suspected of activities in support of the PKK and affiliated organizations. They included many Kurdish writers who worked as teachers, such as novelists Kemal Varol, İlhami Sidar, Şener Özmen and Dilawer Zeraq; and poets Lal Laleş and Servet Üstün Akbaba.49 The government’s takeover of local Kurdish administrations, which had played an instrumental role in the burgeoning of artistic and cultural activities in the Kurdish region, dealt an additional blow to the Kurdish artistic and cultural scene. Among the first measures instituted by government appointed trustees to Kurdish municipalities in the post-coup period, was the disbanding of municipal theatre companies in the cities of Diyarbakır, Hakkâri and Batman. At the Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality City Theatre (Diyarbakır Büyükşehir Belediyesi Tiyatro Topluluğu) actors were first assigned to different positions within the municipality and then collectively fired. These municipal theatres run by local Kurdish authorities invigorated Kurdish theatre in Turkey and served to improve Turkey’s international image. Actor Ahmet Emin Yalçınkaya from the Diyarbakır Metropolitan TURKISH STUDIES 15 Municipality City Theatre stated the following: ‘This theatre was Turkey’s face in Europe […] It was such a source of prestige for Turkey that a municipality theatre in this country staged ‘Hamlet’ in Kurdish for five years.’50 The Fourth Amed Theatre Festival, which was scheduled to take place between November 21 and December 5, 2015, was also cancelled by the government appointed trustee. The theatre companies that were scheduled to participate in the festival were therefore forced to stage their plays in other cities.51 Kurdish publishing houses have been either closed or subjected to increasing restrictions. One of the oldest publication houses in Turkey, Evrensel Publishing House (Evrensel Basım Yayın), which was founded in 1988 and began publishing in Kurdish in 2006, was shut down by a government decree in October 2016. Three periodicals published by Doğa Publishing House, with which Evrensel is affiliated, were also ordered to close including the wellknown Kurdish-Turkish culture magazine Tîroj. The closure of Evrensel Publishing was condemned by the International Publishers Association (IPA). KurdîLit, the online network for Kurdish literature and publishing in Turkey, described Evrensel’s position vis-à-vis the Kurdish issue and publishing in Kurdish language in the following manner: Evrensel was an important part and pillar of support for the democratic forces in Turkey. In the context of the Kurdish question, it openly defended the rights of Kurds to speak and use their own language; it called for an end to forced village evacuations, disappearances, and torture; it spoke out against the use of special military units and state-sanctioned murders; and it stood up for the right of the Kurds to mother-tongue education. Naturally, its publications reflected this.52 The dissemination of the products of Kurdish publishing houses has been hampered by other official measures. An example of this end can be found in the police’s confiscation of books from the Aram Publishing House ahead of its scheduled participation in the Izmir Book Fair in April 2016.53 Despite such restrictions, the Fifth Diyarbakır Book Fair and the Second Van Book Fair, which was organized by the Municipality of Van under the slogan ‘Peace with Books’ (Kitapla Barış, Aştî Bi Pirtûkan Re), were held as planned in 2016. The banning and confiscation of books has further crippled the Kurdish publishing world. In June 2016, 53 books published by Aram Publishing House were removed from the shelves. The banned books included those authored by Musa Anter, a towering figure in Kurdish intellectual and political life; Sakine Cansız, a founding member of the PKK who was assassinated in Paris in January 2013; and Abdullah Öcalan, the incarcerated leader of the PKK. Turkish authors writing on the Kurdish issue were subjected to similar restrictions. In December 2015, journalist Hasan Cemal’s book, Delila: A Young Woman Guerilla’s Mountain Diaries (Delila: Bir Genç Kadın Gerillanın Dağ Günlükleri) and journalist Tuğçe Tatari’s book, 16 D. ATLAS Grandma, I Was Not Really in Diyarbakır (Anneanne, Ben Aslında Diyarbakır’da Değildim) were removed from shelves on court orders.54 Both books were found in the possession of people arrested on suspicion of being members of various outlawed Kurdish organizations. The selling and distribution of Cemal and Tatari’s books were banned altogether in January 2016.55 Physical attacks on Kurdish institutions also took place during this period. The offices of Kurdish PEN located in Diyarbakır’s historical district Sur, which was under around-the-clock curfew at the time, was attacked on February 2, 2016.56 The storehouse of the Avesta Publishing House in Diyarbakır was burned down. Violence also targeted individuals. In a manner that echoed the political atmosphere of the 1990s, incidents were reported in which Kurdish workers listening to Kurdish music were attacked. In this political atmosphere, Kurdish artists in all fields are confronted with the question of how to navigate their careers in a conflict-ridden environment. Three examples will illuminate the dilemma faced by Kurdish artists in Turkey today. Zeynel Doğan is the co-director of the much acclaimed 2012 film, Dengê Bavê Min (The Voice of My Father).57 Until recently, Doğan worked as an instructor at the Aram Tigran City Conservatory (Konservatuara Aram Tîgran) under the auspices of the Metropolitan Municipality of Diyarbakır. However, he left his position in an act of protest against the take-over of the municipality by a government appointed trustee. ‘No one can speak of [the existence of] arts, artists and freedom at a place where there is such an intrusion,’ he stated adding his concern that works produced under the new administration would not be in line with local demands.58 For Doğan, who stated that he could not touch his camera after witnessing the atrocities perpetrated against Kurdish civilians in the district of Cizre (Şırnak) during the last conflict in the period between December 2015 and March 2016, the Kurdish artist is inextricably linked to the realities of his surroundings and has a clear political position that he/she occupies. Besides his refusal to work under a government appointed trustee, Doğan expressed his reaction to the conflict and the Turkish government through protest activities. He was among 50 Kurdish activists, which included many other artists, who began an indefinite hunger strike in Diyarbakır to protest the lack of news about the jailed PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan. According to him, engaging in political activism offered ‘a more effective way than that provided by cinema to find a way out of the conflict.’59 The violent escalation of the conflict led others to more radical modes of action, as the example of Erkan Benli, the lead singer of the Kurdish street band, Koma Sê Bira, aptly demonstrates. Like many of its kind, Benli’s highly popular street band was a common sight in Istanbul during the years of relative quiet and peace, which began with the initiation of the peace process in 2009. At the height of the war in Turkey’s southeast in March 2016, Erkan Benli left his band and joined the Civil Protection Units TURKISH STUDIES 17 (Yekîneyên Parastina Sivîl, YPS) in his hometown Nusaybin in the city of Mardin, to fight Turkish armed forces. He explained his decision by stating that he realized that ‘music and arts lost their meaning’ with the return of war.60 Towards the end of May 2016, Benli was captured by the Turkish security forces during the evacuation of Nusaybin and is currently serving a prison sentence. Positioned on the opposite end of these various forms of political engagement is the example of Kurdish singer, Dodan Özer, who has recently found himself in the midst of a heated debate. Dodan, who has been in the music business for over twenty years with two successful records in Kurdish to his credit, participated in the Turkish version of the popular prime-time television show, ‘The Voice.’ In the show, he sang in Turkish and found himself in the uncomfortable position of explaining to the Turkish judges the meaning of his Kurdish name without explicitly stating its Kurdish origin. He was lambasted by most Kurds who criticized him for disowning his identity to gain popularity. In a piece published in defense of Dodan, his friends pointed out the dilemma faced by artists like Dodan, who have sided with the opposition and consequently have no outlet to disseminate their work.61 However, it seems that one of the primary reasons for making art, that is the satisfaction of the simply personal need to create, does not seem to have legitimacy in the current Kurdish context in Turkey. For Kurds, it seems at least in the meantime, arts can never be for arts’ sake. Conclusion The introduction of a series of reforms as part of the AKP’s ‘democratic opening’ initiative of 2009, especially the relaxation of Kurdish language regulations, led to a surge in Kurdish artistic and cultural production. Although the reforms were limited in scope and the initiative suffered from serious shortcomings and discrepancies as a whole, they nevertheless contributed to an increase in the visibility of Kurdish ethnic identity and allowed for its expression through arts and cultural activities. An overview of the artistic and cultural productions of this period reveals the extent of the impact of the decades-long conflict and political turmoil on Kurdish arts and culture. The insights provided by Kurdish artists across a range of artistic disciplines underline the ways in which arts have constituted a site of struggle against the hegemonic discourses of the Turkish state and the majority society. Although the renewal of the conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurds in the summer of 2015, and the clampdown against Kurdish institutions since the failed coup attempt of July 15, 2016, have significantly crippled the Kurdish artistic scene, it might only be some time in the future that we are exposed to the full variety of artistic responses to the recent conflict, expressing its effect on the lives of the 18 D. ATLAS Kurdish people and the region. The arts continue to harbor the potential to serve as identifiers for the core sites of memory and traumas that have been shaped during and as a result of the recent war. Evidence from Kurdish artistic activity demonstrates that a broader understanding of the conflict and its impact on Kurdish society in its historical context, is well facilitated through an analysis of its artistic and cultural production. Notes 1. Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands, 13–14. 2. For the utilization of arts in the Kemalist nation-building and modernization project, see Bozdogan, Modernism and Nation Building; Colak, “Nationalism and the State in Turkey”; and Ari, “The People’s Houses and the Theatre in Turkey.” 3. Gertz and Khleifi, Palestinian Cinema, 190. 4. Duncombe, Cultural Resistance Reader, 35. 5. Laachir and Talajooy, Resistance in Contemporary Middle Eastern Cultures, 4. 6. Ibid. 7. Scholarly works on various forms of Kurdish cultural production in Turkey, which have been published in recent years, include Galip, Imagining Kurdistan; Candan and Koçer, Kurdish Documentary Cinema; Çiçek, “The Fictive Archive”; Smets, “Cinemas of Conflict”; Smets and Akkaya, “Media and Violent Conflict”; Aksoy, “Music and Reconciliation in Turkey”; Aksoy, “The Politicization of Kurdish Folk Songs”; Hamelink, The Sung Home; Kuruoğlu and Hamelink, “Sounds of Resistance”; Scalbert-Yücel, “The Blurred Borders of Kurdish Literature”; and Scalbert-Yücel, “The Invention of a Tradition.” A new research direction has been comparative analysis of Armenian and Kurdish literature. See Mignon, “A Pilgrim’s Progress” and Esen, “Mıgırdiç Margosyan and Mehmed Uzun.” 8. This is not to argue, however, that all Kurdish artistic and cultural production is, or has to be, somehow political. Such an approach runs the risk of oversimplifying a vast domain, which also contains artistic currents that strive to free themselves from the overly political characteristics and constraints of Kurdish arts. In her study on the Kurdish literary field in Turkey, Clémence Scalbert-Yücel brings an example from within Kurdish literature. She points to the existence of a ‘progressive disaffection even for “Kurdish” and “social” themes’ among some Kurdish authors, who see the ‘art for art’s sake’ approach as the only way to create a Kurdish literature that can eventually participate in world literature. See, Scalbert-Yücel, “Emergence and Equivocal Autonomization,” 365. Yet, these elements tend to play a minimal role in the wider Kurdish artistic scene, which primarily feeds off Kurdish ethnic identity and the various aspects of the conflict with the Turkish state. 9. Quoted in Romano, “The Long Road,” 176. 10. “Erdoğan: Kürtçe TV başka adımlara da vesile olacak,” Radikal, January 2, 2009. Available at http://www.radikal.com.tr/politika/erdogan-kurtce-tvbaska-adimlara-da-vesile-olacak-915164/ (accessed May 20, 2018). 11. Despite these policy revisions, the focal point of the initiative for the Kurdish population remained the right to be educated in the mother tongue. For an analysis of the role of language in Kurdish national identity in Turkey and TURKISH STUDIES 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 19 the place it occupied during the years of ‘democratic opening,’ see Atlas, “The Role of Language.” The Copenhagen Criteria are a set of rules that define a country’s eligibility to become a member of the European Union. They require that the candidate country have ‘stable institutions that guarantee democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities; a functioning market economy’ and ‘the ability to assume the obligations of membership, in particular adherence to the objectives of political, economic and monetary union.’ See European Commission, “Accession Criteria.” Available at https:// ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/policy/glossary/terms/accessioncriteria_en (accessed May 20, 2018). Koçer, “Kurdish Cinema as a Transnational Discourse,” 473. Ibid., 486. The website for the film festival is http://www.kameraarkasi.org/festivaller/ festival/yilmazguney_01.html (accessed September 6, 2016). Ibid. Ibid. See Sert, “Kürt Sinemasının Kodları ve Gerçeklikle İmtihanı.”. For a detailed study on the development of the Kurdish documentary cinema, see Candan and Koçer, Kurdish Documentary Cinema in Turkey. Composed in the seventeenth century, Mem û Zîn is considered to be the most important Kurdish literary text and is called the national epic of the Kurds. For the importance of Mem û Zîn in the development of Kurdish nationalism, see van Bruinessen, “Ehmedî Xanî’s Mem û Zîn.” “Fuarda Kürtçe kitaplara okuyucu ilgisi,” TRT Haber, November 14, 2014. Available at http://www.trthaber.com/haber/kultur-sanat/fuarda-kurtce-kitaplaraokuyucu-ilgisi-151590.html (accessed September 12, 2016). “Kürtçe kitaplara ilgi artıyor,”Millî Gazete, November 7, 2013. Available at https://www.milligazete.com.tr/haber/765793/kurtce-kitaplara-ilgi-artiyor (accessed September 12, 2016). Kurpiewska-Korbut, “Modern Kurdish Theatre in Turkey,” 93–102. Besides Metin and Kemal Kahraman, who have been producing music since the mid-1980s, the new generation of artists singing in Zazakî include Mikail Aslan, Ahmet Aslan and Cemîl Qoçgîrî whose works further popularized Zazakî music in Turkey. For a study on the music of Metin-Kemal Kahraman, see Neyzi, “Zazaname.” Stokes, “Music, Ethnicity, Identity,” 5. “Turkey's Kurdish artist arrested after being invited by Erdogan,” Kurd Daily, February 12, 2010. Available at http://ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2010/2/ turkeykurdistan2519.htm (accessed December 7, 2016). “Mahkeme sanatı yasakladı!” Evrensel, April 10, 2010. Available at “https:// www.evrensel.net/haber/189511/mahkeme-sanati-yasakladi (accessed May 25, 2018) “Barışın ve ateşin çocukları: Koma Sê Bıra,” Bianet, May 11, 2013. Available at http://bianet.org/biamag/sanat/146520-barisin-ve-atesin-cocuklari-koma-sebira (accessed November 21, 2016). “Diyarbakır 5 Nolu'ya 'hapis cezası',” Bianet, June 1, 2012. Available at https:// m.bianet.org/bianet/ifade-ozgurlugu/138787-diyarbakir-5-nolu-ya-hapiscezasi (accessed November 21, 2016). 20 D. ATLAS 30. “İşkencecilere değil işkenceyi anlatana ceza,” Bianet, June 1, 2012. Available at https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/iskencecilere-degil-iskenceyi-anlatanaceza-61692.html (accessed November 21, 2016). 31. “HPG: Artık ateşkesin bir anlamı kalmamıştır,” T24, July 25, 2015. Available at http://t24.com.tr/haber/hpg-artik-ateskesin-bir-anlami-kalmamistir,303953 (accessed May 25, 2018). 32. “HDP'den operasyon açıklaması,” NTV, July 25, 2015. Available at https:// www.ntv.com.tr/turkiye/hdpden-operasyon-aciklamasi,thzXoazD8Em3735OwuVHg (accessed January 3, 2017). 33. Democracy watches were mass public vigils held across Turkey, during which protesters flocked to the streets on a nightly basis denouncing the coup attempt. They began on the night of the failed coup attempt, when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called supporters to take to the streets. 34. In May 2016, the Turkish Parliament voted to strip MPs of their immunity, making it possible to arrest and bring to trial MPs facing investigation. 35. A Turkish court ordered the release of Ahmet Türk on February 3, 2017 after two months in prison. 36. “35 BDP'li belediyeye kayyum atandı, 45 belediye eşbaşkanı cezaevinde,” Bianet, November 29, 2016. Available at http://bianet.org/bianet/siyaset/ 181218-35-dbp-li-belediyeye-kayyum-atandi-45-belediye-esbaskani-cezaevinde (accessed December 5, 2016). 37. “Bremin Mızıkacıları Kobanê için söyleyecek,”Evrensel, October 14, 2014. Available at https://www.evrensel.net/haber/93921/bremin-mizikacilari-kobanicin-soyleyecek (accessed May 25, 2018). 38. According to Bill Rolston, who coined the term, ‘lyrical drift‘ ‘occurs when the meaning of a song is taken out of the context in which it was originally produced and reinterpreted by an audience in a different political context.’ See Rolston, “‘This is not a Rebel Song’,” 55. 39. “Nizamettin Ariç: Acıların arkasında güzel günler saklı,” Evrensel, May 5, 2015. Available at https://www.evrensel.net/haber/111947/nizamettin-aric-acilarinarkasinda-guzel-gunler-sakli (accessed May 25, 2018). 40. Besides its filmmaking projects, the RFC aims to raise a new generation of filmmakers by providing classes on the history of cinema and filmmaking. 41. “Rojavalı tiyatro grubuna engel,” Mimesis, November 2015. Available at http://www.mimesis-dergi.org/2015/11/rojavali-tiyatro-grubuna-engel/ (accessed November 23, 2016). 42. “Rojava Film Komünü ile Söyleşi, II. Kısım,”Altyazı, September 7, 2015. 43. “’Kurdish people makes a new Kurdish history with music,’” Agos, July 15, 2016. Available at http://www.agos.com.tr/en/article/15921/kurdish-peoplemakes-a-new-kurdish-history-with-music (accessed December 7, 2016). 44. “’Şehrimin en güzel semtleri şimdi yerle bir,’” Radikal, December 26, 2015. Available at http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/sehrimin-en-guzel-semtlerisimdi-yerle-bir-1495582/ (accessed November 23, 2016). 45. “’Çocuklarınız 'O gün ne yaptin' diye sorduğunda çok geç olabilir,'” Radikal, December 23, 2015. Available at http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/cocuklarinizo-gun-ne-yaptin-diye-sordugunda-cok-gec-olabilir-1495120/ (accessed November 23, 2016). 46. “'Beyaz bayrakla taşıdıkları çocuğun ölümünü nasıl anlatacaklar?'” Radikal, December 24, 2015. Available at http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/beyaz- TURKISH STUDIES 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 21 bayrakla-tasidiklari-cocugun-olumunu-nasil-anlatacaklar-1495210/ (accessed November 23, 2016). “KHK ile 375 dernek kapatıldı: İşte kapatılan dernekler,” Bianet, November 22, 2016. Available at http://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/khk-ile-375-dernekkapatildi-iste-kapatilan-dernekler-136563.html (accessed November 23, 2016). “Faaliyetleri durdurulan dernekler kapatıldı,” Evrensel, November 22, 2016. Available at https://www.evrensel.net/haber/296650/faaliyetleri-durdurulandernekler-kapatildi (accessed May 25, 2018). “'Cadı avı'yla ödüllü yazarlar da açığa alındı,” Evrensel, September 10, 2016. Available at https://www.evrensel.net/haber/289965/cadi-aviyla-odullu-yazarlarda-aciga-alindi (accessed November 23, 2016). “Turkey’s State of Emergency Puts Kurdish Theatre in a Chokehold,”IFEX, January 5, 2017. Available at https://www.ifex.org/turkey/2017/01/05/ kurdish_theatre/ (accessed January 7, 2017). “İptal edilen 'Amed Tiyatro Festivali'ne tiyatro gruplarından destek,” T24, November 25, 2016. Available at http://m.t24.com.tr/haber/iptal-edilen-amedtiyatro-festivaline-tiyatro-topluluklarindan-destek,372885 (accessed November 28, 2016). “Evrensel Print and Publishing.” Kurdîlit. Available at http://www.kurdilit. net/?p=2565&lang=en (accessed November 23, 2016). “Kitaplar geceyi karakolda geçirdi,” Cumhuriyet, April 14, 2016. Available at http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/kultur-sanat/516558/Kitaplar_geceyi_ karakolda_gecirdi.html (accessed November 23, 2016). “Hasan Cemal ve Tuğçe Tatari’nin kitaplarına toplatma kararı verildi,” Evrensel, December 16, 2015. Available at https://www.evrensel.net/haber/267674/ hasan-cemal-ve-tugce-tatarinin-kitaplarina-toplatma-karari-verildi (accessed November 23, 2016). “Cemal ve Tatari’nin kitaplarının satışı yasaklandı,” Agos, January 5, 2016. http://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/13901/cemal-ve-tatari-ninAvailable at kitaplarinin-satisi-yasaklandi (accessed November 23, 2016). “Kurdish PEN Offices in South East Turkey Attacked,” PEN International, February 5, 2016. Available at http://www.pen-international.org/newsitems/peninternational-shocked-at-attack-on-the-offices-of-kurdish-pen-in-south-eastturkey/ (accessed November 23, 2016). The film tells the story of a Kurdish-Alevi family affected by the Maraş Massacre of 1978, during which more than one hundred Alevis were killed by Turkish nationalists. “Zeynel Doğan Diyarbakır Belediyesi bünyesinde çalışmayacak,” Evrensel, December 5, 2016. Available at https://www.evrensel.net/haber/298170/zeyneldogan-diyarbakir-belediyesi-bunyesinde-calismayacak (accessed May 25, 2018). “Ödüllü yönetmen de açlık grevinde,” Rudaw, September 6, 2016. Available at http://www.rudaw.net/mobile/turkish/kurdistan/06092016 (accessed January 7, 2017). “Koma Sê Bira’nın Erkan’ı YPS Saflarında,” Barış için Aktivite, March 10, 2016. Available at http://barisicinaktivite.com/koma-se-biranin-erkani-yps-saflarinda/ (accessed May 25, 2018). “'Dodan'ın arkadaşları'ndan 'Dodan'ı parçalayanlar'a yanıt,”Demokrat Haber, December 26, 2016. Available at https://www.demokrathaber.org/kultursanat/dodan-in-arkadaslari-ndan-dodan-i-parcalayanlar-a-yanit-h77388.html (accessed January 7, 2017). 22 D. ATLAS Acknowlegements I would like to thank the anonymous readers of Turkish Studies for their invaluable comments on earlier versions of this article, and my colleague Mesut Alp for his insights into the Kurdish arts scene in Turkey. 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