Thesis
State of emergency and depopulation policy in Southeastern Turkey: forced displacement and resettlement of ethnic Kurds in the context of civil war (1990–2002)
- Alternative title:
- Resettlement of ethnic Kurds in southeastern Turkey (1990–2002)
- Abstract:
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This thesis investigates the Turkish state's extensive displacement policy from 1990 to 2002 during the Kurdish-Turkish conflict. Under President Turgut Özal, the government established the OHAL (Olağanüstü Hâl Bölge Valiliği), a special administrative region designed to counter insurgency through extraordinary measures. This period marked a significant transformation in Turkey's political and cultural landscape, characterized by the mass evacuation and resettlement of rural Kurdish populations into urban areas. Using historical archives, official state documents and decrees, the thesis will make the case that (1) Turkey’s depopulation policy in the 1990s was primarily motivated by ethno-nationalist aims; and (2) the OHAL-state of emergency enabled the Turkish state to more effectively pursue these goals by allowing the state to do things it usually would not be able to do under regular, ‘non-emergency’ circumstances – such as deploying special state-funded militias or granting judicial immunity for regional governors.
While some scholars have focused on the spatial aims of Turkey's policy - depriving insurgents of critical environmental resources -this thesis contends that an overarching ethno-nationalist ideology also played a crucial role. This perspective is supported by theories from Mann (2005), Lichtenheld (2019), and Straus (2015), which suggest that strategic displacement often occurs in ethnic conflicts where the state adopts an exclusionary elite ideology. The association of the Turkish state with a dominant ethnicized Turkish identity and the historical marginalization of Kurds as an ethnic out-group bolster this argument.
Despite significant contributions to understanding forced displacement, there is a gap in the literature concerning the integration of both ethno-nationalist and spatial factors within Turkey's OHAL policies. This thesis addresses this gap by demonstrating how the OHAL state of emergency facilitated the Turkish state's ethno-nationalist goals by enabling actions otherwise restricted under normal circumstances, such as deploying state-funded militias and granting judicial immunity to regional governors.
Ultimately, the thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of Turkey’s depopulation policy, its ideological motivations, and its impact on the Kurdish population, offering new insights into the dynamics of forced displacement in civil-conflict contexts.
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(Preview, Dissemination version, pdf, 548.8KB, Terms of use)
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Authors
Contributors
- Institution:
- University of Oxford
- Division:
- SSD
- Department:
- Politics & Int Relations
- Role:
- Supervisor
- DOI:
- Type of award:
- MSc
- Level of award:
- Masters
- Awarding institution:
- University of Oxford
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Subjects:
- Deposit date:
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2025-06-07
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Lorin Bozkurt
- Copyright date:
- 2024
- Rights statement:
- Copyright © Lorin Bozkurt 2024. All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author. This thesis may be freely cited and referenced with appropriate credit to the author.
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