Dating back to the Ottoman Empire, tensions between the Kurds and the state were apparent. As the Republic of Turkey developed, a strong sense of nationalism engulfed the country, which led to the oppression of many non-Turkish elements of society. Through this oppression we see attempts in the 1920’s and 1930’s at Kurdish autonomy with the eventual development of the PKK in 1978. With the first armed attack against Turkish soldiers in 1984 we see the issue gaining pace and becoming more severe. The Kurdish problem has claimed the lives of around 35,000 people, displaced even more, and has created economic and political problems not only domestically, but also internationally. Becoming one of Turkeys most important security issues, there have been attempts at peace on multiple occasions, but until now they were to no avail. This essay attempts to address various aspects of the Kurdish Problem; the domestic implications the Kurdish problem has created, such as the political disarray that develops when discussing the creation of pro-Kurdish parties, their opposition, and their inability to have any form of success within the government. The “terror problem.” The economic impact associated with regions most closely related to the Kurdish people. International implications dealing with Turkey, it’s neighbors, and the United States. Syria and Iraq are essential to discuss when dealing with the Kurdish problem because they add greater context to an issue that spans along the borders of multiple states. Furthermore, this essay will conclude with a discussion of the resolution attempts to the decades long dilemma such as recent developments, expectations by both sides, and prospects for the future.
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... power with Kurdish nationalists even at a local level.” (Tezcür, 2013) The major fear of the peace process not succeeding is due to the Kurds’ insistence of an official status instead of democratic reforms, which would preserve Kurdish identity. As the world has witnessed, once the PKK was able to take advantage of an opportunity such as the border-crossing stunt, the Turkish government didn’t hesitate in suppressing its political rivals. If the Kurdish movement doesn’t create reasonable goals the process will once again be in danger of coming to a stalemate. “While the entire society must play its part in the peace process, the greatest role belongs to negotiating parties– that is, the state and the Kurdish political movement. Particularly, leading actors must consider the reminder of society in mind instead of themselves and their constituency.” (Ensaroglu, 2013)
The purpose of this paper is to look for the relations between Turkey and America from the cold war to current issues I will study on the situations that are developed between America and Turkey starts from the end of the cold war such as “Truman doctrine”, “missile crisis” and “gulf war”.
... stated this famous quote, "voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country" (Mikkelson). This method is used any and every time to change the views of the public to that of the politicians.
Political violence is action taken to achieve political goals that may include armed revolution, civil strife, terrorism, war or other such activities that could result in injury, loss of property or loss of life. Political violence often occurs as a result of groups or individuals believing that the current political systems or anti-democratic leadership, often being dictatorial in nature, will not respond to their political ambitions or demands, nor accept their political objectives or recognize their grievances. Formally organized groups, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), businesses and collectives of individual citizens are non-state actors, that being that they are not locally, nationally or internationally recognized legitimate civilian or military authorities. The Cotonou Agreement of 2000 defines non-state actors as being those parties belonging to the private sector, economic and social partners and civil society in all its forms according to national characteristics. Historical observation shows that nation states with political institutions that are not capable of, or that are resistant to recognizing and addressing societies issues and grievances are more likely to see political violence manifest as a result of disparity amongst the population. This essay will examine why non-state political violence occurs including root and trigger causes by looking at the motivations that inspire groups and individuals to resort to non-conforming behaviors that manifest as occurrences of non-state political violence. Using terrorism and Islamic militancy on the one side, and human rights and basic freedoms on the other as examples, it will look at these two primary kinds of political violence that are most prevalent in the world ...
14?Narli, Nilufer. ?The Rise of the Islamist Movement in Turkey.? Middle East Review of International
Sixty-three percent of Iraq’s population is Shia Muslim, thirty-three percent is Sunni Muslim (Lunde, 2002). For the past five centuries the minority, Sunni Muslims, have held political power in Iraq. It was not until recently that the majority, the Shia Muslims, was able to experience political power. The tensions between Sunni and Shia in Iraq are not due to religious differences formed after Muhammad’s death 1,382 years ago and are not inevitable, as proven by the relationships between Sunni and Shia in other countries and in the past (Shuster, 2011). The state of unrest surrounding the Sunni and Shia Muslims of Iraq is due to politics, power, and privilege, caused by the change of attitude in Islamic leaders in government and the discrimination of the Shia by the Sunni minority. This has been partly due to the fact that early in their history Shias were not the majority and therefore lost political power. This unbalance and the differences between the two sects are most unstable and evident during times of political unrest (Hunter, n.d).
...y gaining more support, and are not naturally withering away. Political Scientist have proven that excluding these extremist parties from the political sphere not only reduces violence and dramatically reduces their political power, but also forces the parties to take on a less ideologically extreme position. There is a clear problem, a clear pattern for the problem, and clear proof that the problem is not solving itself. Excluding extreme parties form the political sphere not only limits there influence, but forces them to adapt less extreme positions. Given these facts, the recent arrest of Gold Dawn officials is not a narrative of a state exerting unnecessary force, but rather the long overdue action of a government to quell violence, promote democracy and exert necessary force to ensure that every Greek citizen feels safe and secure within the nation’s borders.
Conflict between Kurds and Turkish Forces "I would not wish on anyone what I went through that day." This is
The Assyrian Crisis in Judah appears, from the surface, as a time of great luck for the people of Jerusalem. However, by examining the situation with a more powerful lens, one can see the powerful religious infuence such an event could have on a resident’s theology. If I were a Judean during this time, my faith would have faced the toughest test of my life. Going into such a conflict with a nation as strong as Assyria, I could not help but be afraid. My bones would tremble at the thought of destruction of the Holy City of Jerusalem, of the people of Judah, and of my own being. Although I would have believed in God, I would still be filled with fear. This fear would escalate when I heard a messenger for the king of Assyria, as stated in Isaiah 36, mocking God, insulting His power and doubting His saving grace on Jerusalem. He goes on to try and convice us, the people of Jerusalem, that Hezekiah is not trustworthy, and that we will not find help in Egypt because they are not reliable. Finally, knowing the path of destruction that Assyria has already created, and their hunger for more, in addition to the messenger’s statement that the Lord has commanded Assyria to go and destroy Jerusalem, my feelings of fear and doubt would uncontrollably well up inside me. We are, after all, only human, and fear is a common feeling, despite where we stand with God. No man lives without fear, but though fear our faith is tested and strengthened.
27, 2015 Eric Edelman talks about a bargain between the United states and Turkey concerning US missions. For the past year the United States government and the Turkish government have been arguing. The US wanted the Turkey to let them conduct missions and let planes and other aircraft fly over their land for military purposes. Finally, an agreement was made that let the US fly the planes over Turkey. But this came at a cost Edelman says that too much was put on the table and that too much was sacrificed. He says this agreement is going to give problems “both for the success of America’s anti-Islamic State campaign and for the stability of Turkey” (Edelman 1) Erdogan the president of turkey wants to keeps the middle east out of Turkey. So he starts conduction missions to bomb some part and what this creates is tension. Taking out the Kurds may seem like a good thing in the present but is very bad in the future. This would allow some areas to actually be a safe place where these Islamist groups could hide and not be safe. Tukey taking out the Kurdish forces is a big problem says EDELMAN. There are some ways that Edelman thinks that we can somewhat control Turkey so they don’t make things worse. Edelman states that “restrict Turkey’s access to senior-level meetings, reduce intelligence cooperation and withhold American support” (1) is a way to deduce the amount of damage Turkey is doing.
Since March 2011, Syria had no longer experienced a situation called peace and harmony. Syrian’s daily life is filled with the events of killing, bombing and torturing of their brothers and sisters. This unresolved conflict began with a revolution to against the government for brook the promise to have betterment in political system (citation). However the government had responded by harsh action. Starting from this point, Syria had slide into Civil War. Based on the brief description about situation in Syria, I strongly believe that the best International Relation theory to describe this situation is constructivism. This is because the Civil War in Syria is socially constructed by some factors which will be discussed deeply in the next paragraph. In this essay, I will emphasize on the two factors that lead to Syria Civil War which are identity conflict in a state and the absence of shared norms of sovereignty; and provide a solution from constructivism perspective which is diplomacy negotiation and limitation to it.
...ve experienced the sometimes-difficult transition to a democracy; others are currently in that transition. For some countries this transition will take a matter of months, for others is can take years. Sustainable peace requires a reform of all agencies in any way connected to the government. One of the major areas is the Security Sector. The best way to affect sustainable peace through security sector reform is to allow the people to reform their own security sector. The key elements necessary for a successful reform of the security sector are a centralized democratic government willing to reform, the people’s support for a reform, strong leaders to push this reform through, the willingness to compromise, a striving for peaceful resolutions, and above all a strong want of Democracy. These elements result in the bringing the joys of freedom to the people. (1,500)
Imagine waking up one day to the thundering of blows given at the door telling you to “open up or be shot down.” It is the Serb police, and they are telling you that you and your whole family had to leave your home immediately. This is how it went for many Albanian people during what some Serb extremists called “demographic genocide.” This was the beginning of what many would call the Kosovo War, and it lasted from March to June 1999. After NATO’s intervention in Kosovo, something strange happened. Now the people being victimized were the Serbs and anyone who was “friendly” to them. In this paper, I will speak about what happened before and after the war in Kosovo.
The abrupt end of decade long dominating regime in three weeks had created a political vacuum, that is evident in shifting coalitions and divisions among religious groups, ethnic groups, regional groups and even classes (Barnett et al. 2003, 25). US did not realize, moreover, the depth of the hostility between Kurds and Arabs, Sunnis and Shiites, and the members of different tribes and local religious groups. Furthermore, to deal with destruction in Iraq new plan was decided by the US. The plan was to pull out all troops and hand over the responsi...
A refugee is defined as an individual who has been forced to leave their country due to political or religious reasons, or due to threat of war or violence. There were 19.5 million refugees worldwide at the end of 2014, 14.4 million under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), around 2.9 million more than in 2013. The other 5.1 million Palestinian refugees are registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). With the displacement of so many people, it is difficult to find countries willing to accept all the refugees. There are over 125 different countries that currently host refugees, and with this commitment comes the responsibility of ensuring these refugees have access to the basic requirements of life; a place to live, food to eat, and a form of employment or access to education. Currently, the largest cause of refugees is the Syrian civil war, which has displaced over 2.1 million people. As a country of relative wealth, the United States should be able to provide refuge for many refugees, as well as provide monetary support to the refugees that they are not able to receive.