Perspectives on Ethno-National Conflict Among Kurdish Families With Members in the PKK |
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Authors: | Tahir Abbas Ismail Hakki Yigit |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Sociology, Fatih University, Istanbul, Turkey;2. Department of Sociology, Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi, USA |
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Abstract: | This article reports the findings of an ethnographic study of families with members involved in the armed struggle for Kurdish nationalism led by the Kurdistan Workers' Party. Based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews and observations with a theoretical sample of six families in the area of Yüksekova, detailed discussions were held with twelve members of families with children, partners, or siblings involved in the conflict. Ethno-national exceptionalism plays a significant role in determining the motivations of political violence among groups, but with the additional background of the perceptions and realities of systematic racialization, de-territorialization, disenfranchisement, and cultural exclusion that affect certain Kurdish groups. The findings in this article offer critical sociological and anthropological accounts of the localized drivers of ethno-nationalism, and the motivations for and the experiences of conflict among families with members involved in the armed conflict and the “Kurdish question” in Turkey. |
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Keywords: | conflict identity Kurdish question nationalism political violence Turkey |
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