Kurdish National Movement in Turkey

Cengiz Gunes holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Essex. His thesis examines the Kurdish national movement and the articulation of Kurdish identity in Turkey since the 1960s. His main research interests are in Identity and Nationalism, Democratic Theory and Contemporary Political Theory.

• Introduction: The Research Question 1. Deconstructing Kurdish Identity and Nationalism in Academic Discourses 2. Understanding Kurdish Identity and Nationalism in Turkey 3. The Organic Intellectuals and the Re-emergence of Kurdish Political Activism in the 1960s 4. The Emergence of the Kurdish Socialist Movement 5. The Kurdish National Liberation Discourse 6. "Becoming a Kurd": The National Liberation War and Mass Mobilisation 7. Dislocations and the PKK’s Turn to Democracy 8. Contesting Democracy and Pluralism: The Pro-Kurdish Political Parties in Turkey. Conclusion: Democracy, Pluralism and Kurdish Subjectivity in (Post)National Turkey

To the merit of the Kurdish National Movement in Turkey is its attempt to understand how subjectivation takes place and political actors give meaning to the world and themselves. In this sense, the book is a sharp and welcome turn away from analyses in which the PKK, or for that matter any political party, is treated as an expression of something else. The author is also among the first to have observed the articulation of Kurdish demands into a discourse of radical democracy and the profound importance of this for a development of the political struggle for self-determination and rights…Overall, The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey is a well thought out and welcome contribution to the study and understanding of identity politics and political struggle and a much needed textbook for students in Kurdish Studies." – Joost Jongerden, Wageningen University, The Netherlands