The purpose of this study was to investigate statements made by the leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (the PKK), Abdullah Öcalan. The selection of material and scope were motivated by a rhetorical shift of strategy of the historically violent PKK, proposing cooperation as a solution to the suppression of the Kurdish minority within the Turkish nation-state. Investigation of the statements was done using Carol Bacchi’s “What’s the problem represented to be?” approach. It was chosen as both methodological frame and theoretical approach. The primary objective is to interrogate problem representations. The “WPR approach” constitutes a reflective research practice enabling critical assessment of what presuppositions and assumptions constitute a particular problem representation. Critically investigating a problem representation and its proposed solution resulted in an advanced understanding of the conflict between the Kurdish minority and the Turkish nation-state. What showed most interesting in the conducted study was not merely investigating this representation, but rather unraveling its underlying and supportive components such as presuppositions, assumptions, dichotomies and categorisations. A central finding was the discovery of what was left unproblematic and silenced in this particular problem representation.

Traditionally, war and peace have been approached as incompatible entities; where war and violence are present, peace has been assumed to be absent. Recent studies of peace in conflict have started to undermine this assumption, since expressions of peace and attempts at building peace have been found among individuals and communities entangled in violent conflicts.   This thesis explores peace in war via democratic confederalism, an ideology that is being implemented in northern Syria. An ideational analysis is used to approach the ideology, which is later compared with an analytical framework developed from liberal and critical peacebuilding to explore democratic confederalism’s similarities and deviations in regard to the two theories. Afterwards, the findings are analysed in the context of northern Syria.  The study shows that there are several intersections between aspects of critical peacebuilding and democratic confederalism. Discussed through the war in northern Syria and it is argued that the self-defence part of democratic confederalism has taken a prominent and necessary role, but one that might obscure the aspects of democratic confederalism that are peace-conducive. The research paper concludes that while this might make democratic confederalism as a whole appear less peaceful, it should be understood through the context of war and aspects that contribute to peace should be interpreted as expressions of peace in violent conflict.