Kurdish Question

The crystallising social polarisation between the ‘Turkish’ and Kurdish groups in Turkey since the mid-2000s carries with itself the risk of bringing the conflict in the context of the Kurdish question into the public sphere. With its ‘Encounters: ‘ project, the TESEV Democratization Program aims to create a space whereby groups that are becoming more and more strangers to each other due to social, cultural and political preconceptions as well as geographic constraints and inadequate/biased knowledge can come together so that they can discuss the similarities between them as well as their differences.

A phenomenal process of mass migration was experienced during the period of conflict between 1984-1999. The social, political and legal problems which emerged due to the internal displacement of more than one million Kurdish citizens still remain unresolved, despite the long time that has passed and various solid steps that have been taken for a solution. TESEV Democratization Program’s research in this field intends to generate knowledge and a solution, and to keep related concerns as constant topics of discussion for public opinion by examining all aspects of the problem and all the actors that are involved.

Publications

The filming of "Settlement" which was completed in partnership with SUFilm, questions the “Compensation Law” which aims to counter economic damages that citizens who were forced to migrate faced in the 1990s, with specific focus on the city of Van. The documentary seeks for answers to the following questions by considering together the views of the commissions which are responsible for the law to be enforced and Kurdish citizens as well as lawyers who have called upon the law: has the law reached the goal of providing social peace and justice? Has the law created a space for truth about the 1990s to be included in official records and for Turkey to face this past? How has the law affected the relationship between the government and Kurdish citizens and the relationship between forced migrants and their lawyers, and other Kurdish groups?

TESEV Democratization Program believes that a democratic solution process that is stripped off of violence towards the Kurdish question is only possible if Kurdish groups’ and the rest of the society’s perceptions, demands and hopes are visible and discussible in every way. In this light, the project’s recent work has focused on compilations of propositions made by Kurdish civil actors/society which have a very restricted visibility in the eyes of the Turkish public, and has tried to generate debate in order to make possible the end of armed conflict and the process whereby the PKK disarms itself.

Publications