The state and violence in Kurdistan: A conceptual framework

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-36
Author(s):  
Naif Bezwan
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
State Violence ◽  
The State ◽  
Mass Violence ◽  
Republican Era ◽  
Ottoman Turkey ◽  
Colonial Violence ◽  
Early Republican

This article interrogates the use of state-organised violence against the Kurds by focusing on four major cases of mass violence conducted in the early republican era in the 1920s and 1930s. Through the examination of the key processes and major policies, the study explains state violence as historically and causally related to the logic and imperatives of imposing and maintaining direct rule over the predominantly Kurdish-inhabited territories in post-Ottoman Turkey. To better understand the nature of state violence, I present three mutually reinforcing and interconnected conceptual pathways: integral colonisation, incorporation by nation-destruction and colonial violence. The paper argues that the strategies of state formation and expansion into Kurdistan along with the coercive policies of creating a unitary and homogenous Turkish nation took the form of integral colonisation. This process, while laying the foundations for the politics of incorporation by nation-destruction, co-existed with and informed by the use of colonial violence. Disaggregated into ideological, ethnocidal and genocidal violence, colonial violence is thus referred to as underlying mechanism behind the recurrent use of state violence in Kurdistan. Abstract in Kurmanji Dewlet û şidet li Kurdistanê: Çarçoveyeke têgînî Bi vekolîna çar mînakên sereke yên tundiya girseyî ku di destpêka heyama komarî, yanî deheyên 1920ê û 1930ê de rû daye, ev nivîsar li ser bikaranîna şideta dewletê ya li dijî Kurdan radiweste. Di ber nirxandina pêvajoyên esasî û siyasetên bingehîn re, ez şideta dewletê wek diyardeyeke weha rave dikim ku, ji aliyê dîrok û egerên wê ve, têkildara mantiq û pêdiviyên ferzkirin û ragirtina hukmdariya rasterast a dewleta Tirkiya pişt-osmanî ye li ser erdên ku pirî nifûsa wan Kurd in. Ji bo ku çawaniya şideta dewletê bêhtir were fêmkirin, ez sê rêbazên têgînî pêşberî xwendevanan dikim ku girêdayî hev in û hev du jî xurt dikin : mêtingeriya tevahî, daxilkirin bi riya xirakirina neteweyî û şideta mêtinger. Di meqaleyê de, ez piştgiriya vî fikrî didim ku stratejiyên sazkirin û berfirehkirina dewletê ya li Kurdistanê, li gel polîtîkayên zordar ên avakirina neteweyeke tirk a yekpare û mitecanis, bi şikla mêtingeriya tevahî hatin meşandin. Vê pêvajoyê hem bingeha siyasetên daxilkirin bi riya xirakirina neteweyî danî, hem jî tev li bikaranîna şideta mêtinger hat xebitandin û vê şidetê bandor jî lê kiriye. Li nav şideta komkujî, nijadkujî û îdeolojîk dabeşbûyî, şideta mêtinger bi vî awayî wek alava binyadî ya bikaranîna mukerrer a şideta dewletê li Kurdistanê tê nîşandan. Abstract in Sorani Dewllet û tundutîjî le kurdistan: çwarçêweyekî têgeyiştin Ebistrakt: be serincdan leser çwar dosîyey gewrey tudutîjî ke leseretay qonaxî komarîda, le deyekanî 1920 û 1930 piyadekiran, em witare le bekarhênanî ew tundutîjîye ke dewllet le dijî kurd rêkîxistuwe. Twêjîneweke le rêgay hellsengandinî prose binerretîyekan û polesîye serekîyekan, ewe rûndekatewe ke tundutîjî dewllet wek mêjû û hokar peyweste be lojîk û binemakanî sepandin û parastinî hukmrranî rastewxo le turkyay post-'usmanîda beser ew herêmey ke zorîney danîştwanî kurdin. Bo baştir têgeyîştin le sruştî tundutîjî dewllet, min sê rêçkey têgeyîştinî yekgir û pêkewe grêdraw amade dekem: kollonîzekirdnî tewawkarî, girtinexo le rêgay wêrankirdnî-netewe we tundutîjî kolloniyallî. Witareke argumêntî ewe dekat ke stratîjî pêkhênanî dewllet û firawankirdnî bo kurdistan hawkat legell siyasetî serkutkerane bo pêkhênanî netewey turkî yekgirtû û çunyek forrmî kolloniyalîzey tewawkarî wergirtuwe. Em proseye, le katêkda berdî binaxey siyasetî girtnexo le rêgay wêrankirdnî-netewe, hawkat bû legell we denasrêtewe be bekarhênanî tundutîjî kollonyallî. Be polênkirdnî bo tundutîjîyekanî aydiyolojî, etnosayd û cînosayd, bemcore tundutîjî kollonyallî amajeye bo bûnî wek mîkanîzmêkî binerretî pişt bekarhênanî dûbarey tundutîjî dewlletî le kurdistan. Abstract in Zazaki The State and Violence in Kurdistan: A Conceptual Framework This article interrogates the use of state-organised violence against the Kurds by focusing on four major cases of mass violence conducted in the early republican era in the 1920s and 1930s. Through the examination of the key processes and major policies, the study explains state violence as historically and causally related to the logic and imperatives of imposing and maintaining direct rule over the predominantly Kurdish-inhabited territories in post-Ottoman Turkey. To better understand the nature of state violence, I present three mutually reinforcing and interconnected conceptual pathways: integral colonisation, incorporation by nation-destruction and colonial violence. The paper argues that the strategies of state formation and expansion into Kurdistan along with the coercive policies of creating a unitary and homogenous Turkish nation took the form of integral colonisation. This process, while laying the foundations for the politics of incorporation by nation-destruction, co-existed with and informed by the use of colonial violence. Disaggregated into ideological, ethnocidal and genocidal violence, colonial violence is thus referred to as underlying mechanism behind the recurrent use of state violence in Kurdistan.

The Routine and the Remarkable in State Formation

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-27
Author(s):  
David Nugent
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
State Formation ◽  
The State ◽  
Normal Operation ◽  
State Activity ◽  
The Everyday

The Introduction provides an overview of current theories of state formation and shows how the book contributes to those debates. It does so by developing a conceptual framework that incorporates crisis into theories of order. It treats crisis as something other than a temporary aberration from the normal operation of the state. Instead, it focuses on the ritual, bureaucratic and documentary practices undertaken in the name of the state that produce the illusion of the ordinary and the mundane. Chapter One also discusses why it is so important to maintain the illusion of the everyday and why it is so difficult to see behind the mask of the state. Central to the analysis are the mechanisms by which the delusional nature of state activity is rendered rational and routine. Equally important are the processes that undermine the effectiveness of these mechanisms.

The Self-Undermining State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arjun Chowdhury
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
Final Section ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
Central Authority ◽  
Interstate War ◽  
External Threats ◽  
Willingness To Sacrifice ◽  
The Cost

This chapter provides an informal rationalist model of state formation as an exchange between a central authority and a population. In the model, the central authority protects the population against external threats and the population disarms and pays taxes. The model specifies the conditions under which the exchange is self-enforcing, meaning that the parties prefer the exchange to alternative courses of action. These conditions—costly but winnable interstate war—are historically rare, and the cost of such wars can rise beyond the population’s willingness to sacrifice. At this point, the population prefers to avoid war rather than fight it and may prefer an alternative institution to the state if that institution can prevent war and reduce the level of extraction. Thus the modern centralized state is self-undermining rather than self-enforcing. A final section addresses alternative explanations for state formation.

The Developmental Trading State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex J. Bellamy
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
East Asia ◽  
National Economy ◽  
East Asian ◽  
The State ◽  
State Model ◽  
Principal Function ◽  
Mass Violence ◽  
The Way

This chapter demonstrates that the downwards pressure that state consolidation placed on mass violence was amplified by the type of state that emerged. Across East Asia, governments came to define themselves as “developmental” or “trading” states whose principal purpose was to grow the national economy and thereby improve the economic wellbeing of their citizens. Governments with different ideologies came to embrace economic growth and growing the prosperity of their populations as the principal function of the state and its core source of legitimacy. Despite some significant glitches along the way the adoption of the developmental trading state model has proven successful. Not only have East Asian governments succeeded in lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, the practices and policy orientations dictated by this model helped shift governments and societies away from belligerent practices towards postures that prioritized peace and stability. This reinforced the trend towards greater peacefulness.

scholarly journals The origins of the state: technology, cooperation and institutions

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Giacomo Benati ◽  
Carmine Guerriero
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Risk Sharing ◽  
Group Formation ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
Stable State ◽  
The State ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Production Conditions ◽  
Alternative Theories

Abstract We develop a theory of state formation shedding light on the rise of the first stable state institutions in Bronze Age Mesopotamia. Our analysis suggests that the mix of adverse production conditions and unforeseen innovations pushed groups favored by old technologies to establish the state by granting political and property rights to powerless individuals endowed with new and complementary skills. Through these reforms, the elite convinced the nonelite that a sufficient part of the returns on joint investments would be shared via public spending and, thus, to cooperate and accumulate a culture of cooperation. Different from the main alternative theories, we stress that: (1) group formation is heavily shaped by unforeseen shocks to the returns on both risk-sharing and innovation; (2) complementarity in group-specific skills, and not violence, is key determinant of state formation; (3) military, merchant and, especially, religious ranks favored state formation and culture accumulation.

scholarly journals The dark footprint of state violence: A synthetic approach to the American crime decline

2021 ◽  
pp. 136248062098423
Author(s):  
Aaron Roussell ◽  
Lori Sexton ◽  
Paul Deppen ◽  
Marisa Omori ◽  
Esther Scheibler
Keyword(s):  
Crime Rate ◽  
State Violence ◽  
The State ◽  
Synthetic Approach ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Lethal Violence ◽  
Crime Decline ◽  
Reported Crime ◽  
Criminal Legal System ◽  
Deaths In Custody

This project combines the conversation on the national crime rate with emerging discussions on the violence that the state perpetrates against civilians. To measure US lethal violence holistically, we reconceptualize the traditional definitional boundaries of violence to erase arbitrary distinctions between state- and civilian-caused crime and violence. Discussions of the “crime decline” focus specifically on civilian crime, positioning civilians as the sole danger to the health, wealth, and safety of individuals. Violence committed by the state—from police homicide to deaths in custody to in-prison sexual assault—is not found in the traditionally reported crime rate. These absences belie real dangers posed to individuals which are historical and contemporary, nonnegligible, and possibly rising. We present Uniform Crime Report data side-by-side with data on police killings, deaths in custody, and executions from sources such as Fatal Encounters, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and the Center for Disease Control to produce a robust discussion of deaths produced through the criminal legal system. We ground this empirical analysis in a broader conceptual framework that situates state violence squarely within the realm of US crime, and explore the implications of this more holistic view of crime for future analyses.

scholarly journals Seigneurial governance and the state in late medieval Guelders (14th–16th century)

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-59
Author(s):  
Jim van der Meulen
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
Cross Sections ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
The State ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Central Argument

AbstractThis article charts the long-term development of seigneurial governance within the principality of Guelders in the Low Countries. Proceeding from four quantitative cross-sections (c. 1325, 1475, 1540, 1570) of seigneurial lordships, the conclusion is that seigneurial governance remained stable in late medieval Guelders. The central argument is that this persistence of seigneurial governance was an effect of active collaboration between princely administrations, lords, and local communities. Together, the princely government and seigneuries of Guelders formed an integrated, yet polycentric, state. The article thereby challenges the narrative of progressive state centralisation that predominates in the historiography of pre-modern state formation.

Contested boundaries

Focaal ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (68) ◽  
pp. 105-123
Author(s):  
Jennifer Alvey
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
The State ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Representational Practices ◽  
Shared Language ◽  
Border Dispute ◽  
Land Privatization ◽  
State Actors

This article examines a 20-year border dispute between two adjacent southern interior municipalities in Nicaragua. The dispute acts as window into the politics of state formation and the consolidation of the dictatorship of Anastacio Somoza García (1936–1956). This conflict was waged by locally based “state actors” who contested each other's attempts to stake and extend spatially based claims to authority. Contending parties developed a shared language of contention that I call “administrative disorder”, which tracked closely with accusations of invasion and abuse of authority. Administrative disorder discourses were representational practices that contributed to the discursive construction of the state. They were also the means by which representatives of the state sought to justify or normalize their own activities. As such, these discourses concealed political tensions rooted in patronage networks, municipal formation, land privatization, and ethnic assimilation, which shaped the contours and longevity of the dispute, but remained lurking silences in administrative disorder discourses.

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