Rival Kurdish movements in Turkey

'Rival Kurdish Movements in Turkey: Transforming Ethnic Conflict' by Mustafa Gurbuz (Amsterdam University Press, 206 pages, $99)

In June 2004 the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) returned to its insurgency against the Turkish state, ending a five-year ceasefire. The ceasefire had been declared after the arrest of PKK head Abdullah Öcalan in 1999, and the next few years passed largely without violence. Popular theories about why the PKK returned to arms ranged from nationalist criticism of the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) EU-demanded reforms to conspiracy theories about U.S.-inspired Kurdish separatism after the invasion of Iraq. 

It now seems clear that the PKK's ending of the ceasefire was largely a result of internal factional squabbling. In May 2004, a number of high-ranking commanders split from the PKK, criticizing its authoritarian culture and blind submission to Öcalan. Facing internal challenges and the AKP's growing electoral appeal among Kurds, the PKK likely returned to fighting in a bid to save its organizational strength and reputation. Some observers claimed that the radicalization of the PKK - despite government reforms (however incomplete) and a tangible improvement in the atmosphere - discredited the notion that democratization is the coffin of revolutionary movements.

The idea that conflict is shaped and changed by internal dynamics is central to "Rival Kurdish Movements" by Mustafa Gurbuz, a policy fellow at George Mason University and adjunct lecturer at the American University in Washington DC. The book examines the process of how civil society competition between various Kurdish actors can transform seemingly intractable violent conflict into civic politics. It is based on a variation of political...