The PKK: Coming Down from the Mountains

by Doctor Paul White, Anna Mdee (Editor), Nana Poku (Editor)

Overview

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is infamous for its violence. The struggle it has waged for Kurdish independence in southeastern Turkey has cost in excess of 40,000 lives since 1984. A less-known fact, however, is that the PKK now embraces a non-violent end to the conflict, with its leader Abdullah Öcalan having ordered a ceasefire and engaging in a negotiated peace with the Ankara government. Whether these tentative attempts at peacemaking mean an end to the bloodshed remains to be seen, but either way the ramifications for Turkey and the wider region are potentially huge.

Charting the ideological evolution of the PKK, as well as its origins, aims and structure, Paul White provides the only authoritative and up-to-date analysis of one of the most important non-state political players in the contemporary Middle East.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783600373
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/15/2015
Series:	Rebels
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Dr Paul White works as an independent consultant in Jakarta, Indonesia. He has taught Middle East Politics courses at Deakin University in Melbourbane; at Macquarie University in Sydney; and at the University of Sydney's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies. He is the author of Primitive Rebels or Revolutionary Modernizers? The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey (Zed Books, 2000). He was a member of the editorial board of the Jourbanal of Arabic, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and serves on the board of directors of the Kurdish Institute, Washington DC.
Dr Paul White works as an independent consultant in Jakarta, Indonesia. He has taught Middle East Politics courses at Deakin University in Melbourbane; at Macquarie University in Sydney; and at the University of Sydney's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies. He is the author of Primitive Rebels or Revolutionary Modernizers? The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey (Zed Books, 2000). He was a member of the editorial board of the Jourbanal of Arabic, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and serves on the board of directors of the Kurdish Institute, Washington DC.

Table of Contents

Glossary of organizations, cities and towns
Glossary of key figures
Chronology of significant events
Preface
1. Introduction: ‘The Time of Revolution has Started’
2. PKK Origins and Ideological Formation
3. Early Years of Struggle
4. From Ceasefire to All-out War
5. The Move Towards Peace
6. Democratic Confedaralism and the PKK’s Feminist Transformation
7. Coming Down from the Mountains
References

Editorial Reviews

At this most dramatic moment in the history of the Kurdish people, Paul White's timely book offers an indispensable guide to the PKK's organizational and ideological evolution, its years of bitter struggle with the Turkish state, and the prospects for a peaceful outcome.” —Bill Park, King's College London

“Turkey's politics and the Kurdistan Workers' Party have all changed a great deal in the last fifteen years, and Paul White elegantly and clearly traces these changes. Of interest to both academics and non-academics, his extremely timely and important book will help readers better understand the current context - and how it came to be.” —David Romano, author of The Kurdish Nationalist Movement

“A timely analysis of the evolution of the Kurdish national movement and the PKK over the last fifteen years, which reveals important insights into the complex history and dynamics of the conflict ... a key resource for anyone seeking an in-depth understanding of the Kurdish Question.” —Kerim Yildiz, director of Democratic Progress Institute

From the Publisher