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THE KURDISH QUESTION AND TURKEY: AN EXAMPLE OP A TRANS-STATE ETHNIC CONFLICT
Kemal Kirisci and Gareth Winrow London: Frank Cass, 1997 237pp. $47.50
The arrest in Kenya by Turkish security agents in February 1999 of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan and the spectacular demonstrations by Kurdish supporters throughout Western Europe have focused international attention on the role of the Kurds in Turkey As the authors of this important study indicate, "The Kurdish question in Turkey is a highly complex, controversial and extremely politically sensitive issue. And because of its trans-state nature, developments in northern Iraq in particular are also causing additional complications for Turkish decision-makers." Kemal Kirisci has already written a useful study of the international relations of the PLO and so is familiar with a movement working in difficult conditions to create an independent state. Both Kirisci and Winrow teach political science at Bogazici University in Istanbul and so are close observers of the Turkish political scene. They are sensitive to the fact that expressions of concern for the position of the Kurds in Turkey "could incite Turkish nationalist extremists to resort to violence in order to pre-empt what they might fear to be the first steps toward the break-up of the state."
This study was written with a grant from the US Institute of Peace and is part of the Institute's on-going interest in nationalism and ethnicity. Thus, the study begins by reviewing the concepts of nation, ethnic group, ethnic nationalism, minority rights and selfdetermination....