Constructive Resistance in Northern Kurdistan: Exploring the Peace, Development and Resistance Nexus

Abstract

Cultural and linguistic repression of Kurdish ethnic identity rests at the heart of the conflict between the Turkish state and the Kurdish movement in Turkey’s Kurdish region, also known as Northern Kurdistan. Inspired by Peet and Hartwick’s conceptualisation of alternative development, combined with Gandhi’s idea of the constructive programme and Galtung’s conceptualisation of positive peace, this article investigates intersections between peace, development and resistance. The discussion is informed and developed by illuminating two empirical cases of what will be argued should be seen as ‘constructive resistance’ conducted by the Kurdish movement. Both cases seek to undermine repressive Turkish assimilation policies. This article shows how social movements, through constructive resistance practices, can be understood as central actors in processes of social and political transformation, termed ‘self-organised development’.

Keywords:

• constructive resistance
• alternative development
• civil resistance
• the Kurdish movement
• the Kurdish question
• democratic autonomy

Notes

1 See Lundqvist (2015) for an elaborate discussion on the criticisms raised against the lack of local participation and perspectives in traditional approaches to peacebuilding.

2 The only exceptions are the non-Muslim religious minorities recognised in the Treaty of Lausanne, i.e. Armenians, Jews and Greeks.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Minoo Koefoed

MINOO KOEFOED is a PhD candidate in Peace and Development research at the School of Global Studies, Gothenburg University, Sweden. She researches resistance practices by the Kurdish movement in Turkey’s Kurdish region. Her research interests include resistance, social movements, emotions, prefiguration, and radical social change.