Conflict, Insecurity and Mobility
Conflict, Insecurity and Mobility
Contributor(s): Ibrahim Sirkeci (Editor), Jeffrey H. Cohen (Editor), Pinar Yazgan (Editor)
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, History, Social Sciences, Geography, Regional studies, Governance, Sociology, Recent History (1900 till today), Security and defense, Military policy, Studies in violence and power, Migration Studies, Inter-Ethnic Relations, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment, Ethnic Minorities Studies, Geopolitics, Politics and Identity, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Turkey; Kurds; inter-ethnic relations; minorities; migrations; rights; identity; politics; conflict; borders; Turkish-Greek border; EU accession; Syria; military service; Shemdinli;
Summary/Abstract: Theories and models of contemporary migration often revolves around neofunctional models. They define migrants as rational actors who are focused on improving their economic, social, and political well-being which is enabled by access to opportunities that are not available in their origin communities and/or countries. Nevertheless, initiation of migration is largely driven by difficulties, discomfort, disagreements, tensions, and conflicts at the origin, while migration decision and destination choices are moderated by individual characteristics, cultural and social capital as well as by the local, national, and international context. In other words, people do not move when they are satisfied and comfortable with what they have and where they are. The number of movers around the world is relatively very small. The costs of migration and other moderating effects make international population movements an exception even today with an ever increasing mobility across the world. “The studies collected in this edited book offer evidence to our argument that migration does not provide an ultimate response to insecurities in the home countries or conflicts in traditional destinations; instead as hinted in some of the contributions, migration shifts the balance of power and security as insecurity and conflict are negotiated in the process of migration with particular reference to the Kurds and Kurdish migration.”
Series: Migration Series
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-1-910781-09-8
- Page Count: 184
- Publication Year: 2016
- Language: English
Marginalisation and Copenhagen gang wars
Marginalisation and Copenhagen gang wars
(Marginalisation and Copenhagen gang wars)
- Author(s):Pinar Yazgan, Therese Svensson
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Social differentiation, Studies in violence and power, Migration Studies, Inter-Ethnic Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies
- Page Range:7-18
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:Marginalisation; Copenhagen gang wars; ghettos; North of Copenhagen; migrants; conflicts; social exclusion;
- Summary/Abstract:In recent times, violent incidents have occurred between rival gangs in the so-called ‘ghettos’ of Copenhagen (Politiken.dk, 2008). These turf wars have mostly taken place between the local Hell’s Angels’ gang and various other gangs. Discussions related to the gang wars in Copenhagen first appeared in the media in 2007-2008, between the local MC gang ‘Hells Angels’ and the ‘Black Cobra’ gang, which consists mainly of ethnic minority members (Schmidt, 2009, 2011: 605). Gang wars have taken place in Nørrebro, which is an area in the North of Copenhagen, where the concentration of immigrants is the highest in the city. The encounters between gangs have had disastrous effects with severe impacts upon the general impressions of foreigners in Denmark (Nasser, 2010). This paper proposes that gang wars in Denmark can be explained by various levels of marginalisation through negative social capital and grounded political discourses preventing integration as opposed to promoting it. Specifically, this chapter highlights discourses in relation to the groups defined as deviant or ‘the minority group’ within the framework of marginalisation, and their integration into criminal capital as the negative side of social capital.
- Price: 4.50 €
Distance beyond the border: Kurds of Syria and Turkey in Istanbul
Distance beyond the border: Kurds of Syria and Turkey in Istanbul
(Distance beyond the border: Kurds of Syria and Turkey in Istanbul)
- Author(s):Souad Osseiran
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Geography, Regional studies, Migration Studies, Inter-Ethnic Relations, Politics and Identity, Peace and Conflict Studies
- Page Range:19-34
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:Turkey; Istanbul; Syria; Kurds; social and political relations;
- Summary/Abstract:This chapter explores the social and political relations of Kurds from Syria and Turkey, who were living together in a neighbourhood in Istanbul. Kurds from Qamishli in Syria have relatives across the border in Turkey. They are kin who have been separated in the creation of the two nation states. The border did not deter continued ties, marriage, movement and exchange between them. As a consequence of the conflict in Syria, many Syrian nationals came to Istanbul to make their lives there. For many of those with family on the Turkish side of the border, they chose to settle in areas where their Turkish relative are living. For many, it is their first extended encounter with the Kurds of Turkey- their kin from across the border- while others have continuously come and gone to Istanbul for various reasons.
- Price: 4.50 €
Border people’s border perception: The case of Shemdinli (Shemdinan)
Border people’s border perception: The case of Shemdinli (Shemdinan)
(Border people’s border perception: The case of Shemdinli (Shemdinan))
- Author(s):Ferhat Tekin
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Geography, Regional studies, International relations/trade, Migration Studies, Sociology of Politics
- Page Range:35-42
- No. of Pages:8
- Keywords:borders; peoples perception; Shemdinli; Nation-State borders; Gerdi Tribe; Middle-Eastern geography;
- Summary/Abstract:Whether it is territorial or sociopolitical, the border is a sociological factor that gains its significance and function from the people it divides. In other words, it functions as the main instrument for all types of categorizations (social, political, ideological etc.). There is no doubt that demarcating has been an act since the early history of humankind. Individuals, groups, societies or political entities marked borders in almost all periods in order to determine themselves. However, the determination of borders based on soil is completely a modern fact and the rigid and sharp lines are also unique to the modern nation-state.
- Price: 4.50 €
Development, security and the role of Frontex on the Turkish-Greek border
Development, security and the role of Frontex on the Turkish-Greek border
(Development, security and the role of Frontex on the Turkish-Greek border)
- Author(s):Burcu Toğral Koca
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Geography, Regional studies, Security and defense, Geopolitics
- Page Range:43-59
- No. of Pages:17
- Keywords:Frontex; borders; security; Turkish-Greek border;
- Summary/Abstract:Parallel to the intensification of the EU integration process, the discourses and practices governing the migration issue have significantly changed in Europe. Previously seen as an innocent economic activity, blessed with a vital role in the construction of European economies after World War Two, welcomed and encouraged by European states, dealt with through economic and humanitarian discourses, migration has been transformed into a security matter in that it ‘constitutes’ a threat to European societies. It has been increasingly linked to criminality, socioeconomic problems, ‘cultural deprivation’, and lately to terrorism. This transformation started mainly in the mid-1970s, but accelerated with the redefinition of security in the wake of the Cold War. To be more precise, the traditional security thinking of the Cold War years, which confined itself to state-centric and military-oriented conceptualizations, has shifted to include various issues ranging from environment and poverty to population movement. This widening of the security agenda to different areas and utilization of security language for non-military issues have had important repercussions for migration. In this transformation of security, migration has come to be increasingly framed, analyzed and governed through security lenses. In other words, migration has been securitized and this securitization process has increasingly appeared in public discourses and academic research.
- Price: 4.50 €
Contributor or barrier: The role of Kurdish Diaspora in Turkey’s European Union accession process
Contributor or barrier: The role of Kurdish Diaspora in Turkey’s European Union accession process
(Contributor or barrier: The role of Kurdish Diaspora in Turkey’s European Union accession process)
- Author(s):Sevin Gülfer Sağnıç
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Geography, Regional studies, Migration Studies, Inter-Ethnic Relations, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment, Ethnic Minorities Studies, Politics and Identity
- Page Range:61-75
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:Turkey; Kurdish Diaspora; EU accession; contributions; barriers; transnational revolution;
- Summary/Abstract:Castles and Miller explain the character of the international as a part of a “transnational revolution that is reshaping societies and politics around the globe” (1998: 5). Diaspora communities which form as the direct result of the international migration process constitute a driving force for restructuring world politics. Transnational activities of diaspora members change the meaning of local and global; and conflicts no longer stay in their national border but reach the international arena.
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Perspectives on conflicts and potentials in a changing neighbourhood: Berlin-Neukölln and the role of urban governance
Perspectives on conflicts and potentials in a changing neighbourhood: Berlin-Neukölln and the role of urban governance
(Perspectives on conflicts and potentials in a changing neighbourhood: Berlin-Neukölln and the role of urban governance)
- Author(s):Manuela Freiheit, Kristina Seidelsohn
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Governance, Policy, planning, forecast and speculation, Rural and urban sociology, Inter-Ethnic Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies
- Page Range:77-88
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:Berlin-Neukölln; urban governance; conflicts and potentials; neighbourhoods; social mixing;
- Summary/Abstract:Cities operate more and more like enterprises as they are confronted with an increasing global competition for investments, business locations, fairs and tourism, as well as scientific and creative excellence. On the other hand, economic, political and social changes since the late 1960s have caused mounting social and urban fragmentation which has led to upward revaluation or devaluation of some inner-city districts. Those neighbourhoods are characterized by a concentration of developmental, ecological, infrastructural and socio-economic problems as well as ethniccultural diversity (cf. Franke et al., 2000:244ff.). Based on the assumption that the process taking place in these areas reinforce themselves continuously, many American and European cities developed political programs in the early 1990s to counteract the 'downward spiral' by bringing different sectors of local government and civil society together.
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The Kurds: “A history of deliberate and reactive state-lessness”
The Kurds: “A history of deliberate and reactive state-lessness”
(The Kurds: “A history of deliberate and reactive state-lessness”)
- Author(s):Hanifi Barış
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Geography, Regional studies, Social development, Politics and Identity, Identity of Collectives, Peace and Conflict Studies
- Page Range:89-99
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:Turkey; Kurds; statelessness; nation state; identity;
- Summary/Abstract:I grew up listening to a story that did not strike me much at the time. My father, who was born in 1925, is a dengbêj (folk poet) and he told me a story explaining the reason for the statelessness of the Kurds in their ‘failure’ to unite under one leader and join a cause. It is a story about the famous Kurdish leader Cemil Çeto who prepared to fight the Kemalist movement. It was the moment when he saw an opportunity to call upon foreign powers to support the Kurds and assist them in founding a Kurdish state. He meets the leaders of seven tribal confederacies and claims that he can bring France’s air force to their help in seven days. Only, he insists that a leader must be chosen, either himself or someone else, who will represent the Kurdish coalition internationally and negotiate with the French. Eminê Ahmed, one of the leaders present, stands up and says that he will never relinquish his title or give his father’s legacy away to bow to anyone else. Others follow him in that decision. In short, according to the story the chance to establish a Kurdish state was missed because of the lack of unity among Kurdish leaders and such an opportunity was never obtained again.
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As if all life had vanished... The return of Kurdish villagers to their hometowns
As if all life had vanished... The return of Kurdish villagers to their hometowns
(As if all life had vanished... The return of Kurdish villagers to their hometowns)
- Author(s):Şemsa Özar
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Geography, Regional studies, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), Migration Studies, Politics and Identity, Peace and Conflict Studies
- Page Range:101-113
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:Kurds; Kurdish villages; migrations; 90s; armed conflict; Turkish security forces; Istanbul; Kavar;
- Summary/Abstract:In the early 1990s, more than a million Kurdish villagers had been forced to flee their villages in the course of the armed conflict between the Turkish security forces and the PKK (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan – the Kurdistan Workers’ Party). The inhabitants of thousands of villages and hamlets in the Kurdish region of Turkey had been evicted by the Turkish security forces primarily to deprive the PKK guerrillas of their rural environment and support from the villagers. In the literature it is known as four cuts. It means cutting off the sources of food, funds, intelligence and recruits to the rebel armies. Numerous studies and personal accounts that take up the issue of forced migration of Kurds from a variety of perspectives have been published (TMMOB, 1998; Kurban et al., 2006; Kışanak, nd.; Dinç, 2004; Kalkınma Merkezi, 2010; Demirler & Eşsiz, 2008; Çağlayan, Özar, & Doğan, 2011; Yağız et al., 2012), but to date very little has been written about people returning to their villages (Jongerden, 2008; Göç-Der, 2013). This article aims to elucidate the return of Kurds to their homeland, to those villages they once had been brutally driven out of. On the other hand, it is a known fact that the majority of Kurds have not yet returned to their villages. Kavar people, however, after living in Istanbul for almost a decade, in a metropolis that they had no initial intention to settle, decided to go back to their homeland. I will, thus, often use quotations from face-to-face interviews conducted with the returnees in the villages of Kavar, a region in the southwest of Lake Van, Behra Wanê (Van Sea) as Kurds name it. I attempt, in this article, to disclose the ways in which the Kavar people through all these years of struggle constructed their subjectivities expanding on political and ethical imaginaries.
- Price: 4.50 €
Negotiating identity and coping with urban space among young Kurdish migrants in Istanbul
Negotiating identity and coping with urban space among young Kurdish migrants in Istanbul
(Negotiating identity and coping with urban space among young Kurdish migrants in Istanbul)
- Author(s):Karol Kaczorowski
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Geography, Regional studies, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), Migration Studies, Ethnic Minorities Studies, Politics and Identity, Identity of Collectives
- Page Range:115-130
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:Turkey; Istanbul; Kurds; Kurdish migrants; identity; urban space; youth; 21st century;
- Summary/Abstract:Many existing studies on Kurdish migration concentrate on displacement and expulsion experienced by Kurds in various parts of Kurdistan and especially between 1970 and 1999 in Turkey. However it can be observed that since the beginning of the twenty-first century migration have also played a substantial role in the mobility of Kurds, owing to stabilization in Southern Kurdistan (i.e. Autonomous Kurdistan Region in Iraq) and improvement of minority rights in Turkey due to the accession process with the EU, the economic and educational needs became more influential in the decisions of Kurdish migrants in twenty first century. To my best knowledge, it appears that there is a shortage of studies examining economic migration and new spatial movements of the Kurds in the twenty-first century Turkey.
- Price: 4.50 €
Perspectives on communal violence against Kurds in Turkey
Perspectives on communal violence against Kurds in Turkey
(Perspectives on communal violence against Kurds in Turkey)
- Author(s):İmren Borsuk
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Geography, Regional studies, Studies in violence and power, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), Migration Studies, Politics and Identity, Peace and Conflict Studies
- Page Range:131-145
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:Turkey; Kurds; communal violence; perspectives; violence; identity; cultural and linguistic rights; reforms;
- Summary/Abstract:The second half of the 2000s saw an “expedited process” for the Kurdish question in Turkey as many reforms regarding cultural and linguistic rights were put into place by the AKP (Justice and Development Party, Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) government at an unprecedented speed compared to earlier governments. Moreover, the negotiations to disarm the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan), which were also unimaginable before, started in late 2012 and came to a halt after the elections on 7 June 2015. The reforms shattered the pre-existing relationship between Kurds and state authorities that viewed Kurdish identity as an existential threat to the unity of Turkish state. Ironically, the betterment of Kurdish rights coincided with the increase in communal violence incidents against Kurds. My study on communal violence against Kurds is compiled from the archives of Özgür Gündem and Dicle Haber Ajansı (Dicle News Agency) and it finds more than 600 communal violent acts against Kurds between 1999 and 2012. Communal violent acts can be described as violence in which one of the motives of mobilization is “communal” that targets the communal identity of certain persons or groups.
- Price: 4.50 €
Military service-migration nexus in Turkey
Military service-migration nexus in Turkey
(Military service-migration nexus in Turkey)
- Author(s):Ulaş Sunata
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Geography, Regional studies, Military history, Recent History (1900 till today), Military policy, Migration Studies
- Page Range:147-157
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:Turkey; military service; migration; 20th century; 21st century;
- Summary/Abstract:The engagement between military and migration calls to mind either migration of soldiers or migrations at the time of war or military coup. Military migrants and their families (Ware, 2012; Cooke & Speirs, 2005), as well as comparisons of veterans and non-veterans (London & Wilmoth, 2006: 135) have received attention since World War II in the literature, particularly from life course approaches (Wilmoth & London, 2013). Special interest has gone to experiences of American soldiers and their psychological and health problems. But this chapter is not related, in this sense, to military migration.
- Price: 4.50 €
References
References
(References)
- Author(s):Author Not Specified
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Geography, Regional studies, Security and defense, Migration Studies, Inter-Ethnic Relations, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment, Ethnic Minorities Studies, Geopolitics, Identity of Collectives, Peace and Conflict Studies
- Page Range:159-184
- No. of Pages:26
- Keywords:references; Turkey; Kurds; inter-ethnic relations; minorities; migrations; rights; identity; politics; conflict; borders; Turkish-Greek border; EU accession; Syria; military service; Shemdinli;
- Price: 4.50 €
