Transnational Diaspora Lobbying: Europeanization and the Kurdish Question

Abstract

Turkey's European Union (EU) negotiations are generally believed to positively affect the rights of ethnic minorities in Turkey. Through a detailed case study, this article examines how members of the Kurdish diaspora in Europe aim to influence this process through lobbying, and to what extent ‘Europeanization’ is channelling the organisation and strategies of the Kurdish lobby. We focus on three facets of transnational diaspora lobbying: political opportunity structures (understood as formal institutions), discursive opportunity structures and the organisational flexibility of activists to adapt to new opportunities. Drawing on interviews, EU documents and documentation from Brussels-based Kurdish organisations, we find the growing importance of European institutions to be both a boon and a bane for transnational diaspora lobbying on all three counts.