En Turquie, la question de l’identité est au cœur de bien des problèmes. Après la période de Mustafa Kemal qui a tenté d’imposer une définition de l’Etat, laïc et turc, celle-ci n’a pas résisté à la disparition du fondateur de l’Etat-nation.Les années qui ont suivi ont vu l’arrivée du multipartisme au pouvoir et l’apparition d’une autre définition de l’identité turque, supposée créer un consensus au sein de la Nation turque : la synthèse turco-islamique. Les heurts et les tensions ont montré les limites de la définition étatique de l’identité turque et les années dites de plomb ont été dominées par deux forces nationalistes, l’Etat-profond et l’ultranationalisme des Loups gris, mouvement d’extrême-droite. L’affaire de Susurluk a permis de voir émerger une nouvelle tendance, le nationalisme des Ulusalcilik d’inspiration laïque, mais aussi le néo-ottomanisme, avec l’arrivée au pouvoir de l’AKP et l’émergence d’une nouvelle identité, plus large : Türkyeli (ou de Turquie). Mais les conflits au Moyen-Orient et le glissement de l’AKP vers un régime islamiste, brouille une fois encore l’identité nationale. / In Turkey, the Identity question is the crux of the issue. After the period of Mustafa Kemal who gave a definition of the State, secular and Turkish this one didn’t resist to the death of the founder of the Nation State. The year which followed, saw the emergence of the multiparty system to the power and the birth, of an another definition of the Turkish Identity, creating a consensus within the Turkish Nation: The Turco-Islamic Synthesis. The clashes and the tensions showed the limits of the State definition of the Turkish Identity during the “Lead Years” (1960-1970), a period dominated by two nationalist strengths, the Deep-State and the ultranationalism of the Grey- Wolves, the extreme-right movement. The Susurluk Affair allowed to see the birth of a new tendency, the nationalism of Ulusalcilik of secular inspiration, but also a neo-ottomanism, with the coming of the AKP and the emergence of a new wider identity: Tiirkyeli, that means “to be from Turkey”. But the conflicts in the Middle East and the sliding of the AKP towards Islamism, blurs once more the national Identity.

This study investigates the foreign policy re-orientation Turkey has undergone since the Islamist AKP came to power in 2002. The analysis is conducted by way of a case study and use of the congruence method. The aim of the study is to explain the outcome on the basis of two competing theories, which may also be complementary. The first theory supposes that the re-orientation is a result of external events, while the other supposes that the re-orientation emanates from the political leadership’s ability to deal with intrinsic constraints in the domestic political system. Conclusions show that the domestic political order and the external development are heavily intertwined and affect one another. The conclusions may apply for states whose politics are affected by strong ideologies, and additionally waver between traditionalism and modernization.

This thesis aims at defining and analyzing the positions of Kemalism and Islamism about the relationship between the European Union and Turkey, with respect to identity and political reform. The study is conducted by the usage of academic literature and examples of the writings of intellectuals from both positions / in order to analyze their discourses on the issue.With respect to the political dimension of EU - Turkey relations, the problems and EU demands on democracy, human rights, minority rights - with emphasis on the Kurdish problem - and Cyprus are explained. The viewpoint and discourses of the two positions on these issues are discussed in relation to their historical attitudes towards the West and the EU.

This thesis focuses on pro-kurdish activism in Turkey during 2005–2009. It is based on a large number of interviews conducted with activists within the Diyarbakır area. The form of activism that this study seeks to describe is civil and political activism conducted within the legal framework ofTurkey’s judicial system and international law.The purpose of this thesis is to examine what kind of resistance strategies are used by pro-Kurdish political activists in Turkey, focusing on how these strategies are reflected in the language used by the respondents. The main question posed in the thesis is: What resistance strategies are used within the pro-Kurdish movement in Turkey? Two additional questions were also posed in order to make it possible to answer the main question. The first of these is: What external conditions influence pro-Kurdish mobilization in Turkey during the study’s time frame? In order to answer this question a theoretical framework is used that includes theories about ethnopolitical mobilization and political opportunity structures. The second question is: What resistance strategies are reflected in the language used by the pro-Kurdish activists?An important resistance strategy used by the pro-Kurdish activists is to adapt the language used in public communication to the legal and political environment in which they find themselves. They make linguistic choices in order to convey political messages while minimizing the legal consequences of doing so. The resistance strategies reflected in the interviews with the activists also include efforts to build organizations and cooperations at different levels, ranging from the international to the local level. Resistance strategies also include choices regarding what medium and language to use in promoting pro-Kurdish politics.

The thesis examines the undergoing peace process in Turkey between the Turkish state and the PKK organisation and seeks to assess how this development is affected by one of the principles of the Turkish national state: territorial integrity. Examining the preservation of territorial integrity as a factor shaping the pacification is crucial to understanding the dynamics of the current peace process and how distant the prospect of achieving a long lasting peace is. I investigate the PKK peace process using the works of scholars developing on conflict resolution and the specificities of Turkish politics and I address the relevance of their theories to the case of the PKK.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of History / Michael Krysko / David Stone / Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who was a nationalist leader and founder and first president of the republic of Turkey, still remains an important figure in the Turkish political and social landscape. Kemalist historiography, which is based on Mustafa Kemal’s six-day speech (Nutuk) in October 1927, emphasizes the foundation of the Republic as central to Turkish history. While this historiography emphasizes that Mustafa Kemal had an explicit plan during his modernization efforts, this dissertation will cover how Mustafa Kemal was incoherent in his actions and changed his discourses over and over again during the change of the political structure of Turkey. Beyond that, this study will suggest that Mustafa Kemal was an opportunist and pragmatist who utilized every single event to establish a Jacobin style autocracy. This research will discuss how Mustafa Kemal succeeded in using every opportunity, such as the Law of Supreme Commander Act in August 1921, the abolition of Sultanate in 1922, the establishment of Republic in 1923, the abolition of Caliphate in 1924, and the elimination of opposition in 1925, to establish his personal autocracy. In particular, the records of Assembly debates, not sufficiently used by Turkish historians, will be helpful to understand the creation of this personal autocracy. While Kemalist historiography credits Mustafa Kemal Ataturk with the original and unique conception of the social, legal, and educational reforms of the early Republican period, this dissertation argues that this approach is not balanced. Although the Kemalist historiography asserts that Mustafa Kemal and his legacy represent carrying out Enlightenment ideals in an obsolete society almost totally ignorant of these principles, the Kemalist modernization got a great inheritance from its predecessors, the Young Turks. Therefore, the Kemalist overstatement of an idealist figure of Mustafa Kemal is wrong in some degree. This dissertation aims to scrutinize the contribution of the Ottoman reformers and contradictions, mistakes, and overstatements of the Kemalist modernization project in social, legal, and educational areas by the help of wide primary sources which include official reports of the Grand National Assembly, the Republican Era archives and a mass of periodicals which were published in 1920s in Turkey.

O artigo em questão trata da evolução das relações civis-militares na Turquia e de sua estreita vinculação com a política externa do país. A partir de uma análise sobre o desenvolvimento do kemalismo na Turquia, demonstramos como as Forças Armadas conseguiram institucionalizar suas prerrogativas, de forma a ter grande relevância para a formulação da política externa turca. Ao longo da Guerra Fria, então, o papel jogado pelos militares fez com que Ancara se mantivesse alinhado ao Ocidente, com receio da ascensão de movimentos contrários, como o marxismo, o islamismo e o curdismo. No entanto, a partir de 1999, observamos o processo contrário, com o afastamento das Forças Armadas dos centros de decisão da política turca. Esse fenômeno foi acentuado a partir de 2002, com a emergência do AKP, que levou os setores religiosos ao governo e intensificou o declínio dos militares enquanto agentes políticos. Em termos diplomáticos, verificou-se uma transformação significativa da política externa da Turquia, que abandonou a matriz de aliança com o Ocidente em favor de uma estratégia mais regionalista e assertiva. / This article deals with the evolution of civil-military relations in Turkey, and with its strict link with its foreign policy. With that spirit, we analyzed the development of Kemalism in Turkey and we showed how the Turkish Armed Forces managed to institutionalize their prerogatives, so they could play a paramount role to the formulation of Turkish foreign policy. During the Cold War, therefore, it meant the Ankara has always been a close ally to the West, especially because Army feared the rise of antagonist political movements such as Marxism, Islamism and Kurdism. However, from 1999, we can observe the exact opposite phenomenon, because the Turkish Armed Forces have been ostracized when it comes to the Turkish political process. This fact was deeply intensified since 2002, when the AKP won the general elections. The AKP victory brought some religious segments to the core of the government and that deepen the military decline as political actors. Diplomatically, we remarked a significant shift in Turkish foreign policy, once Turkey abandoned its unquestionable alliance with the West in favor of a more assertive and regionalist strategy.

O artigo em questão trata da evolução das relações civis-militares na Turquia e de sua estreita vinculação com a política externa do país. A partir de uma análise sobre o desenvolvimento do kemalismo na Turquia, demonstramos como as Forças Armadas conseguiram institucionalizar suas prerrogativas, de forma a ter grande relevância para a formulação da política externa turca. Ao longo da Guerra Fria, então, o papel jogado pelos militares fez com que Ancara se mantivesse alinhado ao Ocidente, com receio da ascensão de movimentos contrários, como o marxismo, o islamismo e o curdismo. No entanto, a partir de 1999, observamos o processo contrário, com o afastamento das Forças Armadas dos centros de decisão da política turca. Esse fenômeno foi acentuado a partir de 2002, com a emergência do AKP, que levou os setores religiosos ao governo e intensificou o declínio dos militares enquanto agentes políticos. Em termos diplomáticos, verificou-se uma transformação significativa da política externa da Turquia, que abandonou a matriz de aliança com o Ocidente em favor de uma estratégia mais regionalista e assertiva. / This article deals with the evolution of civil-military relations in Turkey, and with its strict link with its foreign policy. With that spirit, we analyzed the development of Kemalism in Turkey and we showed how the Turkish Armed Forces managed to institutionalize their prerogatives, so they could play a paramount role to the formulation of Turkish foreign policy. During the Cold War, therefore, it meant the Ankara has always been a close ally to the West, especially because Army feared the rise of antagonist political movements such as Marxism, Islamism and Kurdism. However, from 1999, we can observe the exact opposite phenomenon, because the Turkish Armed Forces have been ostracized when it comes to the Turkish political process. This fact was deeply intensified since 2002, when the AKP won the general elections. The AKP victory brought some religious segments to the core of the government and that deepen the military decline as political actors. Diplomatically, we remarked a significant shift in Turkish foreign policy, once Turkey abandoned its unquestionable alliance with the West in favor of a more assertive and regionalist strategy.

O artigo em questão trata da evolução das relações civis-militares na Turquia e de sua estreita vinculação com a política externa do país. A partir de uma análise sobre o desenvolvimento do kemalismo na Turquia, demonstramos como as Forças Armadas conseguiram institucionalizar suas prerrogativas, de forma a ter grande relevância para a formulação da política externa turca. Ao longo da Guerra Fria, então, o papel jogado pelos militares fez com que Ancara se mantivesse alinhado ao Ocidente, com receio da ascensão de movimentos contrários, como o marxismo, o islamismo e o curdismo. No entanto, a partir de 1999, observamos o processo contrário, com o afastamento das Forças Armadas dos centros de decisão da política turca. Esse fenômeno foi acentuado a partir de 2002, com a emergência do AKP, que levou os setores religiosos ao governo e intensificou o declínio dos militares enquanto agentes políticos. Em termos diplomáticos, verificou-se uma transformação significativa da política externa da Turquia, que abandonou a matriz de aliança com o Ocidente em favor de uma estratégia mais regionalista e assertiva. / This article deals with the evolution of civil-military relations in Turkey, and with its strict link with its foreign policy. With that spirit, we analyzed the development of Kemalism in Turkey and we showed how the Turkish Armed Forces managed to institutionalize their prerogatives, so they could play a paramount role to the formulation of Turkish foreign policy. During the Cold War, therefore, it meant the Ankara has always been a close ally to the West, especially because Army feared the rise of antagonist political movements such as Marxism, Islamism and Kurdism. However, from 1999, we can observe the exact opposite phenomenon, because the Turkish Armed Forces have been ostracized when it comes to the Turkish political process. This fact was deeply intensified since 2002, when the AKP won the general elections. The AKP victory brought some religious segments to the core of the government and that deepen the military decline as political actors. Diplomatically, we remarked a significant shift in Turkish foreign policy, once Turkey abandoned its unquestionable alliance with the West in favor of a more assertive and regionalist strategy.

Dans les quatre pays dominant le Kurdistan, (Turquie, Iran, Irak et Syrie), la question kurde se traduit avant tout sous forme de visibilité/ invisibilité, autour de la question de la reconnaissance des Kurdes en tant que Nation déniée. Notamment en Turquie, le premier des pays à avoir imposé aux Kurdes son modèle d'Etat-Nation, cette question renvoie aux politiques négationnistes étatiques menées contre la culture et l'identité kurdes, considérées dès 1924, comme des obstacles au processus de création d'une identité nationale turque. Dans ce rapport conflictuel entre le nationalisme turc et le nationalisme kurde, également fruit d'une mémorisation traumatique et d'une longue histoire de résistance kurde dans chaque partie du Kurdistan, l'imaginaire des Kurdes renvoie а une dimension historique devenue spontanément une référence essentielle du traitement cinématographique de la « kurdicité », sous forme d’interaction construite par les Kurdes eux-mêmes ou créée par leurs adversaires politiques.Notre thèse s'efforce de montrer cette influence durable du nationalisme sur le traitement cinématographique de la « kurdicité », principalement dans le cinéma turc traitant les Kurdes sans les designer en tant que Kurdes, puis dans le cinéma kurde au service de la « cause kurde » après les années 1990. / In the four countries dominating Kurdistan (Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria) the Kurdish question translates first and foremost under the concept of visibility/invisibility, around the problem of the recognition of the Kurds as a denied nation. This is especially apparent in the case of Turkey, the first of the countries which imposed its own nation-state on the Kurds : this question is associated with the negationist state policies on Kurdish culture and identity,which, since 1924, have been considered as obstacles on the path to the creation of a nationalTurkish identity. In this conflictual relation between Kurdish and Turkish nationalisms – the fruit, among others, of a traumatic memory and a long history of Kurdish resistance inrespective sections of Kurdistan – the imagery of the Kurds refers to a historical dimensionwhich has spontaneously become an essential reference of cinematographic treatment of« Kurdishness » under the form of interactions constructed by themselves or by their own political opponents. The present thesis aims at describing that permanent influence of nationalism on the cinematographic treatment of « Kurdishness » in the Turkish cinema which principally treats the Kurds without designating them as Kurds, then in the Kurdish cinema in the service of « Kurdish cause » following the 1990s.