Activists in office : Kurdish politics and protest in Turkey / Nicole F. Watts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Watts, Nicole F.

Series:

Studies in modernity and national identity.

Studies in modernity and national identity

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kurds--Turkey--Politics and government.

Kurds.

Turkey--Politics and government--1980-.

Turkey.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxiv, 214 pages) : map

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Seattle : University of Washington Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Thousands of Kurdish politician-activists have been prosecuted and imprisoned, and hundreds have been murdered for espousing Kurdish political and cultural rights over the past twenty years. The risks are high, yet Pro-Kurdish political parties have made significant gains, as resources afforded by the political system have allowed them to challenge state rhetoric and policies to exercise power at the municipal level, which has helped legitimize and advance the pro-Kurdish movement. "Activists in Office" examines how these parties, while sharing many of the goals expressed by armed Kurdish groups, are using the legal political system to promote their highly contentious Kurdish national agenda in the face of a violent, repressive state. Nicole F. Watts sheds light not only on the particular situation of Kurds in Turkey, but also on the challenges, risks, and potential benefits for comparable movements operating in less-than-fully democratic contexts. The book is a result of more than ten years of research conducted in Turkey and in Europe, and it draws on a wide array of sources, including Turkish electoral data, memoirs, court records, and interviews. -- Publisher description

Contents:

Other routes of resistance

Early routes : conditions of Kurdish electoral mobilization

New collective challengers : the institutional trajectory of Turkey's first pro-Kurdish party

Resources of the system

Characteristics of coercion : obstructing access to resources

Producing competing truths

Creating a new Kurdish subject

Conclusions : assessing a challenger's impact.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9780295800820

0295800828

OCLC:

744362084