Kurdish asylum seekers from Turkey to France: from a negotiated welcome to a pushback out of French soil (1980-2010)

Following the coup on September 12th 1980 in Turkey, led by Kenan Evren, who view the “Kurdish nationalism as a disease [to be cured]” (Bozarslan 2013, 368), Kurdish people were faced with a choice either to being assimilated into the standards of “Turkisness”, resisting and fighting, or leaving. At their arrival in France, the Kurds had to fill in numerous forms and letters in the framework of their application for asylum. As they struggled through this settlement process, these men and women had to meet the expectations of the French Administration (Noiriel 2001). They had to prove by any means that their personal situation did actually fall under the Art. #1 of Geneva Convention (1951) and New York Protocol (1967). Some were dismissed and expelled, other did get the refugee status, however under various designations, thus questioning their ability to be recognized as “Kurd refugees” in France. These qualifications, as well as the dismissed files, will be analysed in light of the balance of power between asylum seekers and administration, the networks involved and the strategies developed in order to remain on French soil