Kurdish Political Identity within the Realm of Turkish Politics and Kemalism

Kurdish political identity, their quest for recognition has been an everlasting issue in the Turkish politics since the establishment of Turkish Republic (1923). When the Republic was building by the Republican elite during the single-party regime, the Turkish identity and Mustafa Kemal’s principles became constituent elements of Republican agenda which was ideologically aimed to be a modern nation-state that showed no tolerance to those who stayed out of its scope (i.e Kurds). The frames of Turkish identity were firstly secularism, and secondly nationalism which required one language, one identity and territorial integrity. These frames which were copied from Jacobin French nationalism regulated the Turkification process and shaped the assimilationist policies towards non-Turkish ethnic groups. This paper examines the outlines of both Turkish politics and Kurdish resistance. While providing political consequences of reluctant policies toward Kurds and the Turkish perspective of Kurds as threats towards mainstream Turkish identity, the study also touches upon the ideological transition of Kurdish movement that appeared within the Justice and Development Party (AKP) reign. The evolution of Kurdish politics eventually utilized Kurds to emancipate from being a perception of threat to Turkish nationalism and finally offers a possible solution to the conflict