Explaining the PKK's Mobilization of the Kurds in Turkey: Hegemony, Myth and Violence

Abstract

This article focuses on the PKK's (Kurdistan Workers' Party) nationalist mobilization of the Kurds in Turkey in the past 30 years. By drawing on the concepts of ‘hegemony’ and ‘myth’, it examines the constitution of Kurdish political subjectivity and the representation of Kurdish identity and difference in political discourse. It reflects on the ideological and political debates over strategy and the contestation over identity that numerous Kurdish political organizations took part in during the 1970s. It then examines the PKK's subsequent hegemony over Kurdish politics in Turkey from the 1980s onwards by highlighting the factors that have enhanced its appeal among the Kurdish communities. This is done first through tracing the growth of the PKK's organizational network, and second, analysing the representation of its struggle in political discourse and artistic form to its target groups.

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