This thesis examines the role of the media in the Kurdistan Region focusing on developments since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003 in order to identify the challenges which have faced journalists there, and the construction of national identity and the potential opportunities which this sector presents for shaping public opinion and strengthening the nascent democracy in the region. After tracing the history of the Kurdish media against the broader backdrop of Iraq, using an interdisciplinary approach, this thesis analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the Kurdish media, with particular reference to regulation, examining the Press Law (2008). It concludes with a series of recommendations regarding the growth and development of new opportunities in the Kurdish media. In addition, it will present arguments to support the urgent need to develop a legal and regulatory framework which is fit-for-purpose for the media in this style democracy.

Previous research about the acquisition of the case-marking systems of ergative languages suggests that children acquire ergative and accusative languages equally easily (Van Valin 1992), depending on the degree to which the case morphology is consistently ergative or accusative and the degree to which adults use the morphology (Pye 1990). However, split-ergative languages incorporate both accusative and ergative systems, some in the midst of a shift away from ergativity, thus providing variable and inconsistent input for children. Yet previous research suggests that children can acquire variable linguistic forms at early stages, reflecting frequencies in which the forms occur in caregiver input (Henry 1998, 2002, Miller 2006, 2007, Westergaard 2009). This study examines the acquisition of split-ergativity in Kurmanji Kurdish, where the direct case is used with both present-tense agents and past-tense patients and the oblique case is used with past-tense agents and present-tense patients. However, recent research suggests the weakening of ergativity in Kurmanji (Dorleijn 1996), resulting in variable use of case-marking. This study examines the acquisition of split-ergativity in Kurmanji when considering the split systems and inconsistent adult input. Data from children (n=12) and caretakers (n=24) include spontaneous speech samples and results from a modified Agent-Patient test (Slobin 1985). Four children from three age groups, 1;6, 2;6, and 3;6, were recorded interacting with caretakers every three months for one hour over a 12-month period. Statistical analyses were conducted focusing on adult patterns (input for children) and children’s production at different ages. Results suggest that Kurmanji may be shifting away from a split-ergative system, with the past tense extending to a double oblique pattern and nouns gradually losing oblique case-marking altogether, resulting in variable case-marking. Data show that children first use ergative case as early as 2;0 and show evidence of repeated use of split-ergative case-marking by 2;6. Even at these early ages, children use similar variability and frequency in case-marking as their caretakers, closer to usage of younger adults versus older adults. Thus children seem to use ergative case-marking early, and when faced with inconsistent input, they ultimately conform to the patterns modeled by the adult community. / text

This thesis reconsiders the theoretical and conceptual parameters of unrecognised entities and de facto independent territories which endure non-recognition and lack formal sovereignty in international law. These entities are traditionally assumed to represent “unrecognised states” and “de facto states” which endure in the international and interstate systems despite lacking legal recognition of their sovereignty. The following study examines anomalous conceptual features emerging from definitions, theories, frameworks, and discourses which situate these territorial entities alongside sovereign states in the international system. It challenges the equivalence with statehood which currently dominates mainstream thinking and assesses whether the concept of secession is still the most appropriate explanatory and causal dynamic in the emergence of unrecognised entities. The study engages with problematic areas of theoretical and conceptual discourse applied to unrecognised state-like entities. It examines how the case of Iraqi Kurdistan (as a de facto independent entity in the international system) deviates from long-standing assumptions on “unrecognised statehood” and existing conceptual frameworks designed for entities in different regional contexts. The discussion questions the appropriateness of using the unitary state as a theoretical reference point through which to understand ambiguous political systems of this type. The political and theoretical spaces occupied by these entities are examined not only in terms of international relations theory but also critical thinking on the production of power, ideology, and sovereignty. The discussion induces tensions into debates surrounding unrecognised states by arguing that it is inherently difficult to advance inquiry into unrecognised entities from a point of departure on sovereignty which is already embedded in state-centrism. The discussion examines how existing frameworks and approaches are open to critical revision and how the generalised assumptions of a small body of literature continue to circumscribe debates over unrecognised entities in academic analysis. The study frames the issue of de facto independent territories against a critical examination of approaches to sovereignty, secession, and the state. It also proposes an examination of these anomalous entities as Paretian systems – a theoretical perspective as yet unexplored within the field of study.

This study is based on the relationship between the Kurds and the Left in Turkey between 1960s and 1990 in Turkey. The question of identity is discussed in terms of the continuities and ruptures in the discourse(s) of the Left in Turkey on the 'eastern question' and 'Kurdish (national) question' in this period. The main question of the research is how the Kurdish identity was constructed in the discourses of Yön, TKSP (Türkiye Kürdistanı Sosyalist Partisi - Turkish Kurdistan Socialist Party), and the PKK (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê - Kurdistan Workers' Party). Three sample publications/organizations representative of the leftist discourse in the period were selected to show the Left's treatment of the Kurdish question by using periodical publications, memoirs, clandestine organizational documents and through discourse analysis.

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.

This dissertation concerns the disabled veterans of the Turkish army who fought against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) guerillas as conscripted soldiers. While being valorized as sacrificial heroes, “ghazis,” in the realm of nationalist politics, these disabled veterans also face socio-economic marginalization and demasculinization anxieties in Turkey, where discrimination against the disabled is rampant. In such a context, disabled veterans emerged as important ultranationalist actors in the 2000s, championing a conservative agenda around the issues of state sovereignty, democratization, and Turkey’s pending European Union (EU) membership. In this dissertation, I locate the disabled veteran body at the intersection of medical and welfare institutions, nationalist discourses, and cultural formations of gendered normativity to trace the embodied socio-cultural and political processes that constitute disabled veterans as ultranationalist political subjects. I approach the politicization of disabled veterans through the analytical lens of the body in order to understand how veterans’ gendered and classed experiences of warfare, injury, and disability are hardened into an ultranationalist political identity. Exploring the tensions between the nationalist construction of the disabled veteran body and veterans’ embodied experiences as lower-class disabled men, I show how the dialectic between political rites of consecration and everyday rites of desecration translates disability into a political force. By unraveling the ways in which disability caused by violence generates new forms of masculinity, embodiment, and political identity, I illustrate how the disabled veterans’ suffering is brokered into militarization and ultranationalist protest in contemporary Turkey. / text

From social realism and socialist cinema, to the Turkish 'new wave' and the nascent Kurdish cinema, this dissertation traces the mutual implication of the production of Turkish national space and of Doğu ("The East") as cinematic space. Doğu emerged as part of a discursive formation within the Turkish state's address to eastern Turkey; it entered national cinema as a result of the journey of social realism to the region in the aftermath of the military coup in 1960, which allowed for the bourgeoning of the socialist public sphere and enabled filmmakers to cinematically reflect on the region. However, the state's renewed security-oriented interests, triggered by the resurgent Kurdish movement within both Turkey and Iraq, permeated the region and enforced limits on the representation of Doğu as a new cinematic space. Although in its cinematic incarnation 'Doğu' was hardly a perpetuation of state ideology, a cartographic anxiety--informed by the desire for spatial modernization--shaped the politico-aesthetic parameters of the region's cinematic presence. In recent years, the representation of the region within the nascent Kurdish cinema can be understood as a deconstructive turn problematizing the foundation of Turkish national space and the cinematic Doğu. / text

The main topic of this thesis is the influence of the Kurdish Question on Turkey’s relations with Europe and the USA. Aiming to develop a triplex framework of (1) the Kurdish Question in Turkey, (2) Turkey’s Foreign and Security Policy, and (3) Turkey’s Relations with Western Society, this thesis specifically studies the international dimension of the Kurdish Question. It has two basic arguments: first, the Kurdish issue is the major cause of the deterioration in the relationship between Turkey and the West, in spite of alliances that go back over half a century. Second, Turkey’s Foreign and Security Policy is the main catalyst of that long-lasting troublesome relationship. The Kurdish Question is evaluated using empirical data that examines its impact on the relationship between Turkey and the West in the period 1989-2007. Within this the problem is examined by applying a normative approach and analyses that are carried out within a theoretical framework provided by a constructivist approach. In order to present research questions by empirical evidence, discourse analysis is used that goes in hand with the theoretical approach. Three Foreign and Security Policy norms are examined, namely “Sèvres Syndrome”- the suspicion of influence of external powers and interests on Turkey, the principle of “Status Quo” applicable in FSP and internal security arrangements, and finally, the “Westernism” that foresees being pro-Western in foreign policies and internal socio-political field. Findings suggest that those three norms played significant roles in shaping Turkey’s Foreign and Security Policy for decades, while important changes occurred within the recent years.

The issue of Kurdish self-determination within the highly centralized Republic of Turkey has been a controversial issue with its local, national and international dimensions over the years. Without solving this issue, Turkey might not reach the aims of joining the European Union (EU), economic sustainability, literal democracy, pluralism, and peace. After 40 years armed struggle between Kurdish and Turkish sides, two significant suggestions are currently being discussed: a provincial system similar to what the Ottoman Empire accepted with its own multicultural system; second, the current unitary system with more powerful local authorities. This paper analyzes the problem in an inductive method and takes the second approach to evaluate Turkish centralization, modernization, and transformation to French Republicanism. This evaluation concludes with the critique of the French universal citizenship understanding and requirement of more pluralistic, democratic citizenship and administrative model as a solution of minority rights and self-determination problem in Turkey.

The issue of Kurdish self-determination within the highly centralized Republic of Turkey has been a controversial issue with its local, national and international dimensions over the years. Without solving this issue, Turkey might not reach the aims of joining the European Union (EU), economic sustainability, literal democracy, pluralism, and peace. After 40 years armed struggle between Kurdish and Turkish sides, two significant suggestions are currently being discussed: a provincial system similar to what the Ottoman Empire accepted with its own multicultural system; second, the current unitary system with more powerful local authorities. This paper analyzes the problem in an inductive method and takes the second approach to evaluate Turkish centralization, modernization, and transformation to French Republicanism. This evaluation concludes with the critique of the French universal citizenship understanding and requirement of more pluralistic, democratic citizenship and administrative model as a solution of minority rights and self-determination problem in Turkey.