Pro-kurdiska politiska motståndsstrategier i
Turkiet: en diskursiv analys
av
Zelal Bal
Akademisk avhandling
Avhandling för filosofie doktorsexamen i statskunskap, som kommer att försvaras offentligt
fredag den 14 november 2014 kl. 10.15, Musikhögskolan Hörsal M, Örebro universitet
Opponent: Doktor Khaled Salih University of Kurdistan-Hewler
Örebro universitet
Institutionen för humaniora, utbildnings- och samhällsvetenskap
Abstract
Zelal Bal (2014): Pro-kurdiska politiska motståndsstrategier i Turkiet: en diskursiv analys (Pro-Kurdish Political Resistance Strategies in Turkey: a Discourse Analysis). Örebro Studies in Political Science 39, 223 pp.
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 of Turkey’s judicial system and international law.
The purpose of this thesis is to examine what kind of resistance strate-gies 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 mobi-lization in Turkey during the study’s time frame? In order to answer this question a theoretical framework is used that includes theories about eth-nopolitical 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 conse-quences of doing so. The resistance strategies reflected in the interviews with the activists also include efforts to build organizations and coopera-tions 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.
Keywords: Resistance strategies, Pro-Kurdish Activism, Ethnopolitical Mobilization, Opportunity Structures, Turkey, Kemalism, Diyarbakır Zelal Bal, Institutionen för humaniora, utbildnings- och samhällsvetenskap. Örebro University, SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden, zelal.bal@oru.se
