Between Majority Power and Minority Resistance: Kurdish Linguistic Rights in Turkey
Aims of the Study
The problematisation or de-normalisation of minority rights and minority resistance constitutes the overall aim of this study. This problematisation is done in two parts, first of which includes a deconstructive analysis using three binary oppositions: the minority and the majority; the individual and community; and the public and private sphere with special reference to language, a significant component of nationalist discourse. These binary and hierarchical oppositions construct the majority, individual and the public sphere as superior to the minority, community and the private sphere. These oppositions are intrinsic to the liberal nation-state discourse, which aims to homogenise the public sphere that is supposed to be individually inhabited by the citizens, who are, in fact, members of the majority. The critical analysis of the liberal nation-state discourse through the deconstructive movement serves the problematisation and de-normalisation of minority rights. This movement also forms the basis of the second part, which critically examines the relationship between power and resistance by the help of post-structuralist understanding of power. The post-structuralist perspective provides a tool for the analysis of transformative resistance that conceives power in a productive manner and generates emancipatory politics...
Contents
Acknowledgements / 7
Acronyms / 9
c h a p t e r o n e
Introductory Words / 13
Aims of the Study / 14
Deconstructing Binary Oppositions: Minority and Majority / 18
Post-Structural Understanding of Power and Resistance / 22
The Art of Hearing / 24
c h a p t e r t w o
Linguistic Minorities in Majority Languages / 31
‘Language’ of Nationalist Discourse / 32
Deconstruction and Justice / 40
The Violence of Law / 46
Individual and Community / 49
Community Reconceptualised / 52
Public and Private Spheres / 55
Spheres Connected / 58
Injustice Deconstructed / 61
c h a p t e r t h r e e
Linguistic Rights in Inter-State Affairs / 63
League of Nations / 64
International and European Organisations / 68
United Nations / 69
Council of Europe / 72
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe / 75
European Union / 78
Linguistic Rights as a Non-State Affairs / 87
The Fallacy of Law / 94
c h a p t e r f o u r
Kurdish Language as a Reproof of Turkish Nationalism / 97
Nationalist History Writing / 98
The Rule of the Ottoman Empire / 101
State-Building in Turkey / 111
The Modernisation Project of Turkey / 117
Nationalism as Statecraft / 125
c h a p t e r f i v e
Dilemma of Being Kurdish in the Political Life of Turkey / 127
Democratisation in Turkey / 128
Kurdish Political Parties / 135
Turkey’s EU Expedition / 142
‘Kurdish’ Perceptions of the EU / 153
EU as a Quest for Recognition / 163
c h a p t e r s i x
Power and Resistance / 165
Conceptions of Power / 166
Scenes of Resistance / 169
Emancipatory Politics / 174
Diaspora as Trans-nationality / 179
Language and Trans-national Identity / 184
Trans-national Resistance / 188
c h a p t e r s e v e n
Kurdish Language: Power or Resistance? / 191
Kurdish Intelligentsia in the European Diaspora / 192
The Status Planning for the Kurdish Language as a Struggle for Power / 198
Political and Cultural Connotations of Linguistic Rights / 209
The PKK Movement: A Case of Pragmatism of Language / 214
Zazaki Movement: A Case of Linguistic Nationalism / 219
The Kurdish Intelligentsia in Turkey / 224
Kurdish: Language of Power and Resistance / 237
c h a p t e r e i g h t
Kurdish Intelligentsia in the European Diaspora: Trans-nationality? / 239
A Trans-national Kurdish Intelligentsia? / 240
Language and Identity: Kurdishness for Diaspora / 248
‘Kurdish’ Approaches in the European Diaspora / 255
Nationalist Approach / 256
Cultural Approach / 258
Trans-national Approach / 261
Kurdish Language as a Site of Struggle / 264
c h a p t e r n i n e
Concluding Remarks / 267
Deconstructive Movement / 268
Transformative Resistance / 272
Trans-national Outlook / 274
References / 279
Introductory Words
It is no coincidence that ‘the return of the political’ (Mouffe 1993) accompanies the return of the ignored, degraded, oppressed and subjugated. The ‘political’ that has been returning corresponds to the struggles for re-accommodating the voices of various minorities. Members of cultures, languages, religions and sexes different from those of the majorities that dominated the public sphere have started to speak not individually but collectively, transcending the private sphere to which they had been confined. The political does not only return via the encounter of minorities with the dominant discourses in the public sphere but also through what the former says and how it speaks. In this respect, they are invited to be a part of contemporary critical theories, which suggest that ‘it is from those who have suffered the sentence of history – subjugation, domination, diaspora, displacement – that we learn our most enduring lessons for living and thinking’ (Bhabha 2001: 172). Therefore, the call for the political invites those hitherto excluded to the stage, which is no more to be inhabited only by the ‘professional’ actors. In remembering Arendt (1998), action is the human condition of plurality, which is the conditio per quam (sufficient condition) of all political life. However, this sufficient condition has been deactivated through the weakening of plurality, which has undermined the basis of the political.
The political does not simply mean unique ‘national’ interests, a qualified majority of votes, or limited parliamentary seats. Determining state territories is not only about drawing lines on a piece of land, but also about fencing the living areas and minds of people. The minority question, in fact, simply makes the fences less invisible. This visibility helps question the dominant ontological and epistemological settings that not only restrict minority rights but also constrain the contemplation of majorities. As Horkheimer emphasises, ‘how this dehumanization of thinking affects the very foundations of our civilization can be illustrated by analysis of the principle of majority, which is inseparable from the principle of democracy’ (1974: 26). The principle of majority is embedded in the principle of democracy through the idea of the nation-state. In this respect, the return of the political can be analysed by examining the principle of the nationstate, which constructs the majority in opposition to the minority. The principle of majority becomes the operating tool of the nation-state, which uses majority power to dominate minorities.
As the most figurative asset of membership in a majority or minority and the most symbolic aspect of national authority, language is a major site of struggle for majority power and minority resistance. Therefore, the question of minority rights in general and the linguistic rights of minorities in particular constitutes one of the most appropriate frameworks within which this site of struggle can be analysed through the theoretical perspectives questioning the principles of majority and minority. For the purposes of this study, which focuses on the question of Kurdish linguistic rights in Turkey, the sites of struggle for majority power and minority resistance are as follows: the documents of international and European organisations on the linguistic rights of minorities, the impact of the modernisation and nation-state building process in Turkey on the Kurdish-speaking community and the resistance engendered by the Kurdish intelligentsia in the European diaspora and in Turkey against the majority power delimiting the Kurdish linguistic rights.
BETWEEN MAJORITY POWER AND
MINORITY RESISTANCE:
KURDISH LINGUISTIC RIGHTS IN TURKEY
Nesrin Uçarlar
Lund Political Studies
Department of Political Science
Lund University
Typesetting: Ilgot Liljedahl
Printed by Media-Tryck, Lund University, Lund, Sweden 2009
Coverpicture: Özlem Akgündüz
©Nesrin Uçarlar 2009
ISBN – 10: 91-88306-76-3
ISBN – 13: 978-91-88306-76-0
Lund Political Studies 157
ISSN 0460-0037
Distribution: Department of Political Science, Lund University, Sweden
http://www.svet.lu.se/lps/lps.html
