Democratic Representation in Plurinational States: The Kurds in Turkey

by Ephraim Nimni (Editor), Elçin Aktoprak (Editor)

Overview

This book examines modalities for the recognition and political participation of minorities in plurinational states in theory and in practice, with a specific reference to the Republic of Turkey and the resolution of the Kurdish question. Drawing on the experience of Spain and Eastern Europe and other recent novel models for minority accommodation, including the Ottoman experience of minority autonomy (the Millet System), the volume brings together researchers from Turkey and Europe more broadly to develop an ongoing dialogue that analytically examines various models for national minority accommodation. These models promise to protect the state’s integrity and provide governmental mechanisms that satisfy demands for collective representation of national communities in the framework of a plurinational state.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030011086
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	12/28/2018
Series:	Comparative Territorial Politics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Ephraim Nimni is Visiting Fellow in the Centre for the Study of Ethnic Conflict at Queen's University Belfast, UK. He has published widely on minority rights, models of national self-determination that do not require separate nation states, multiculturalism and the applicability of the national cultural autonomy model to contemporary multination states, and on the Israeli Palestinian conflict.

Elçin Aktoprak was Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Ankara University, Turkey, until she was dismissed as per the emergency decree in February 2017. Her research interests are theories of nationalism, minority issues in Europe, the Kurdish question, conflict resolution and peace studies.    

Table of Contents

1. Democratic Nation States and the Antinomies of Minority Representation: The Impact on the Turkish Republic.- 2. Re-Politicizing Non-Territorial Autonomy.- 3. Democratic Autonomy as a Means of Conflict Resolution and Self-Government?.- 4. National Cultural Autonomy in Central and Eastern Europe.- 5. Non-Territorial Autonomy and Western European Diversity Management Regimes: Lessons and Examples for the Turkish Republic.- 6. A Nation-State or a Multinational State? National Conceptions, Minorities and Self-Determination in Spain.- 7. The Kurdish Opening in Turkey: Between Authoritarianism and Peace.- 8. Are Non-Turkish Languages Banned in Turkey?.- 9. Kurdish Movement’s Democratic Autonomy Proposal in Turkey.- 10. Territorial Autonomy and Democratization in Turkey: Prospects and Predicaments.-11. Mapping Rojava: Ideas of Democratic Confederalism and Non-Territorial Autonomy.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“How to resolve Turkey’s century-long Kurdish issue, which is the principle obstacle hindering the democratisation of the country? Self-determination, secession and statehood, federalism, territorialized or supra-territorial forms of autonomy, multi-national democracies…? This book revisits these political, administrative, juridical, cultural economics formulae, which were already vividly debated by the so-called Austro-Marxist school at the beginning of the twentieth century. The contributors to this volume do not suggest a ready-made road-map, but through the variety of readings they offer, they allow us to understand the consubstantiality of democratization and resolution of national questions in the world of the twenty-first century.” (Professor Hamit Bozarslan, EHESS, France)

“How best to achieve minority representation in plurinational states? In 2015 the contributors to this book conferred in Ankara as the second phase of the “Kurdish Opening” was coming to an end. Sincethen, several have been dismissed from their university posts by an increasingly authoritarian regime. The achievement of Nimni and Aktoprak is to have brought together interventions by scholars located in Turkey and in Western Europe, which provide penetrating insights and possible solutions not only for the Kurds, but for minorities everywhere.” (Professor Bill Bowring, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK)