Kurdish identity and political Islam under AKP rule

Abstract

In this paper, I analyse the interaction between Kurdish identity and political Islam under the rule of the AKP (Justice and Development Party). Relying on field research carried out in the Kurdish regions of Turkey, I argue that the uneasy relations between Kurdish national and religious groups constitute the main dynamic in the construction of Kurdish identity. Due to the state’s infrastructural and despotic powers, AKP rule has been a determining factor in the formation of Kurdish identity in the Kurdish region in Turkey since 2002. This process has functioned as a mutual learning process for different Kurdish groups, and resulted in a remarkable ideational transformation and convergence of various Kurdish groups and their political and ideological orientations. The result has been a more pluralistic Kurdish identity with different secular, pro-Islamist and Alevi perspective and societal supports under the pro-Islamist AKP rule.