Understanding Turkey's Kurdish Question

This edited volume, comprising chapters by leading academics and experts, aims to clarify the complexity of Turkey’s Kurdish question. The Kurdish question is a long-standing, protracted issue, which gained regional and international significance largely in the last thirty years. The Kurdish people who represent the largest ethnic minority in the Middle East without a state have demanded autonomy and recognition since the post-World I wave of self-governance in the region, and their nationalist claims have further intensified since the end of the Cold War. The present volume first describes the evolution of Kurdish nationalism, its genesis during the late nineteenth century in the Ottoman Empire, and its legacy into the new Turkish republic. Second, the volume takes up the violent legacy of Kurdish nationalism and analyzes the conflict through the actions of the PKK, the militant pro-Kurdish organization which grew to be the most important actor in the process. Third, the volume deals with the international dimensions of the Kurdish question, as manifested in Turkey’s evolving relationships with Syria, Iraq, and Iran, the issue regarding the status of the Kurdish minorities in these countries, and the debate over the Kurdish problem in Western capitals.

Hugh Pope is based in Istanbul with the International Crisis Group. Previously he was a staff correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and has been engaged in the broader Middle East for three decades. He has lectured widely on the Turkic world, including at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Pope is the author of Sons of the Conquerors, one of The Economist's Best Books of the Year, and Turkey Unveiled, a New York Times Notable Book.