Kurds in Erdoğan’s Turkey

William Gourlay teaches politics and Middle East history at Monash University and is Research Associate at the Middle East Studies Forum at Deakin University. He has published analysis, book reviews, policy briefs and peer-reviewed research in a range of online forums and international media, including in the key journals Middle East Critique, Ethnopolitics, The British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Third World Quarterly and Ethnic & Racial Studies.

• Introduction: Eruption in DiyarbakırIdentity, ethnicity, politics: from Kemalism to ‘New Turkey’Conceiving Turkishness in the Republic of TurkeyKurdishness: long suppressed nationhood, or otherwiseCountenancing diversity: re-imagining national identityIdentity and difference in flux: the Gezi Park protestsInstituting ‘Yeni Türkiye’ Talking to Kurds about ‘Identity’Entering ‘the field’An Australian in Kurdish neighbourhoodsConceiving ‘identity’Being different, or how to spot a Kurd in TurkeyDemarcating Kurdish cultureLanguage: ‘ana dil’ or ‘zimanê me’Celebrating Newroz, or NevruzResisting managed diversityThe Kurds and Islam: defying hegemony and the ‘caliphate’Kurds & IslamIslam in the Republic of TurkeyThe AKP and Islam in the public sphereShifting Kurdish relationships with IslamKurds as ‘Others’Contesting Islam and asserting differenceContesting homeland(s): city, soil and landscape‘Toprak’: naming, claiming and relating to the landscapeDiyarbakır: symbolic cityAlternative labelsSpatial contestations: identity and politicsKurdayetî: Pan-Kurdish sentiment and solidarityKurdayetî: both ‘we’ and ‘us’Crises, cross-border movement and consolidating solidarityKurdayetî confronts ISISVictory over ISIS and its aftermathCross-border currentsOppression, solidarity, resistanceKurds in Turkey: a History of Oppression?Oppression Catalysing a Collective IdentityBerxwedan Jiyane: ‘Resistance is Life’Maintaining resistance in ‘New Turkey’? Kurds as citizensCitizenship as obligation, imposition, resignationWeight of circumstances: belonging, friends, relativesParticipating in politics: citizenship made manifestStruggling for democracy?Turning up – again – at the ballot boxThe ‘ideal’: retaining currency?Conclusion: reconciling ethnic identity, citizenship and the ‘ideal’ in Erdoğan’s Turkey?Whither the Kurds?Bibiliography

William Gourlay’s The Kurds in Erdogan’s Turkey: Balancing Identity, Resistance and Citizenship is a timely and welcome addition [...] A clear and well-written account of the complex Kurdish question and its manifestation at the micro-level during the region’s current period of drastic change.