For or against the EU: discourses around Turkey's Kurdish conflict

Official URL: http://192.168.1.20/record=b1379355 (Table of Contents)

There is a broad literature on Turkey's Kurdish Question and its European Union (EU) accession process. However, these studies mostly do not speak to each other nor do they link international actors with those of the domestic. To fill this gap, in particular, this study focuses on the impact of the European Union accession process on Turkey's Kurdish Conflict during the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and the discourses of the domestic political actors to the requests and discourses of an international actor, namely the EU. Building on the effects of EU reforms on the Kurdish Question, this study argues that in addition to the actual progress that is reflected through the EU reforms in Turkey, the impact of the accession process is visible in the discourses of the political party leaders. Through analyzing the political discourses in Turkey between 2002 and 2010, this study demonstrates how the EU reforms that affect the Kurdish Question are reflected in the political discourses in Turkey and what affects the changes in the discourses of actors along with the variation over time.