Ontological security and support for peace processes

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2578314 _(Table of contents)

This thesis addresses the question of how ontological (in)securities affect public support for peace processes. For this purpose, the Kurdish Issue in Turkey is chosen as a case and the Wise People Committee members were interviewed about the participants of the meetings that they held during the second peace process in Turkey (2013-2015). The thesis establishes that ontological insecurities of the majority group are likely to have resulted in reservations about supporting the peace process among the Turkish groups while minority groups seemed to have remained highly supportive of the process despite also having significant ontological security challenges. Therefore, the thesis concludes that ontological security is an important determinant for the level of support to the peace process mostly among the minority groups, but it still affects the tendency of the majority group to quickly abandon the peace process.