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

Abstract

This article examines the concepts of “democratic confederalism” and “democratic autonomy” as developed by the mainstream Kurdish movement in Turkey. It primarily focuses on the type of self-government these concepts envision, and questions to what extent they can contribute to the resolution of the Kurdish conflict. While the concept of “democratic confederalism” acts as the key theoretical framework for the resolution of the Kurdish conflict, democratic autonomy functions as its modus operandi. The latter presents itself as a non-secessionist understanding of self-determination and thus as a mechanism for conflict transformation, which aims to achieve the democratic reconstruction of Turkey by establishing self-governing bodies in the Kurdish region and throughout the country. As such it entails elements of territorial and non-territorial self-government and shares some insights and features with the concept of National Cultural Autonomy.