Democratic Representation in Plurinational States

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

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2. Introduction

   • Ephraim Nimni, Elçin Aktoprak

   Pages 1-7

3. Theoretical Discussions

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9

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   2. Liberal Nation States and the Antinomies of Minority Representation: The Impact on the Republic of Turkey

      • Ephraim Nimni

      Pages 11-39

   3. In Search of an Alternative Perspective on Minority Rights and Minority Group Formation: Re-politicizing Non-territorial Autonomy

      • Ahmet Murat Aytaç, Zafer Yılmaz

      Pages 41-57

   4. Addressing the Kurdish Self-Determination Conflict: Democratic Autonomy and Authoritarianism in Turkey

      • Naif Bezwan

      Pages 59-82

4. Autonomy Models in Europe

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 83-83

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   2. National Cultural Autonomy in Central and Eastern Europe: Challenges and Possibilities

      • Federica Prina, David J. Smith, Judit Molnar Sansum

      Pages 85-111

   3. A Nation-State or a Multinational State? National Conceptions, Minorities and Self-Determination in Spain

      • Lucía Payero-López

      Pages 113-134

5. Autonomy Discussions in Turkey and the Kurdish Issue

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 135-135

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   2. Between Authoritarianism and Peace: The Kurdish Opening in Turkey (2013–2015)

      • Elçin Aktoprak

      Pages 137-158

   3. Kurdish Movement’s Democratic Autonomy Proposals in Turkey

      • Cengiz Gunes, Çetin Gürer

      Pages 159-175

   4. The Judiciary in Autonomy Arrangements: Lessons for the Kurdish Case

      • Derya Bayır

      Pages 177-209

   5. Rethinking Democracy and Autonomy Through the Case of Kurdish Movement

      • Dilan Okçuoğlu

      Pages 211-227

   6. Militancy, Reconciliation, Motherhood: A History of Kurdish Women’s Movements

      • Bahar Şimşek

      Pages 229-251

6. Back Matter

   Pages 253-255

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This book examines modalities for the recognition and political participation of minorities in plurinational states in theory and in practice, with a specific reference to the Republic of Turkey and the resolution of the Kurdish question. Drawing on the experience of Spain and Eastern Europe and other recent novel models for minority accommodation, including the Ottoman experience of minority autonomy (the Millet System), the volume brings together researchers from Turkey and Europe more broadly to develop an ongoing dialogue that analytically examines various models for national minority accommodation. These models promise to protect the state’s integrity and provide governmental mechanisms that satisfy demands for collective representation of national communities in the framework of a plurinational state.

• Turkish Republic
• incorporation of Kurdish minority
• democracy
• post-imperial Turkey
• non-territorial autonomy (NTA)
• Lund Recommendations (OSCE)
• representation
• pluralism
• citizenship

“How to resolve Turkey’s century-long Kurdish issue, which is the principle obstacle hindering the democratisation of the country? Self-determination, secession and statehood, federalism, territorialized or supra-territorial forms of autonomy, multi-national democracies…? This book revisits these political, administrative, juridical, cultural economics formulae, which were already vividly debated by the so-called Austro-Marxist school at the beginning of the twentieth century. The contributors to this volume do not suggest a ready-made road-map, but through the variety of readings they offer, they allow us to understand the consubstantiality of democratization and resolution of national questions in the world of the twenty-first century.” (Professor Hamit Bozarslan, EHESS, France)

“How best to achieve minority representation in plurinational states? In 2015 the contributors to this book conferred in Ankara as the second phase of the “Kurdish Opening” was coming to an end. Sincethen, several have been dismissed from their university posts by an increasingly authoritarian regime. The achievement of Nimni and Aktoprak is to have brought together interventions by scholars located in Turkey and in Western Europe, which provide penetrating insights and possible solutions not only for the Kurds, but for minorities everywhere.” (Professor Bill Bowring, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK)

• Centre for the Study of Ethnic Conflicts, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

  Ephraim Nimni

• Çankaya, Turkey

  Elçin Aktoprak

Ephraim Nimni is Visiting Fellow in the Centre for the Study of Ethnic Conflict at Queen's University Belfast, UK. He has published widely on minority rights, models of national self-determination that do not require separate nation states, multiculturalism and the applicability of the national cultural autonomy model to contemporary multination states, and on the Israeli Palestinian conflict.

Elçin Aktoprak was Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Ankara University, Turkey, until she was dismissed as per the emergency decree in February 2017. Her research interests are theories of nationalism, minority issues in Europe, the Kurdish question, conflict resolution and peace studies.    

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