Understanding of justice in Turkey: a comparative analysis of the Armenians and the Kurds in Istanbul

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1606894 (Table of Contents)

The aim of this study is to reveal the understandings of justice of the Armenians and Kurds living in Istanbul by discussing their current predicaments and their daily life experiences in Istanbul. In this way, considering the different features of Armenians and Kurds it becomes possible to compare their understandings of justice coming from their ethnic identities. To achieve this aim, participants with different features were interviewed in depth and their experiences were asked to comprehend their sense of injustice as being ethnically different from the dominant ethnic majority in Turkey. As a result of the study, the interconnectedness between the sub-categories of justice, between its outcomes and processes is revealed. In this sense, this research shows how different forms of justice constitute a totality and how the conflicts at the state level and societal level interact with one another. That is why whereas this study helps to reveal the root causes of conflict stemming from injustice, it also underlines the dynamics that lead to protracted ethnic conflicts, if not sustain them.