Book | The Militant Kurds: A Dual Strategy for Freedom

Mavi Boncuk |
The Militant Kurds: A Dual Strategy for Freedom (PSI Guides to Terrorists, Insurgents, and Armed Groups) [Hardcover] Vera Eccarius-Kelly 


ISBN-10: 0313364680 | ISBN-13: 978-0313364686 | 
Publication Date: December 7, 2010 


The Militant Kurds: A Dual Strategy for Freedom explores the complexity of the 30-year guerrilla war of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) against the Turkish Republic, identifying longstanding obstacles to peace and probing the new dynamics that may lead to an end to the conflict. In doing so, the book provides fascinating insights into Turkey's national ethos, its dominant military culture, and civil society's struggle for increased democratization. The Militant Kurds offers an extensive analysis of the precarious position of the Kurdish minority, beginning with the establishment of the modern Turkish republic in 1923. Divided into five sections examining current political realities in Turkey, the book investigates the role of Islam and ethnicity, analyzes the rise of the PKK, discusses Turkish military culture, and explains the international dimensions of the Kurdish conflict. Comparative historical, political, and socioeconomic examples contextualize the long struggle for Kurdish self-determination. Each chapter offers an analysis of the underlying dynamics of the conflict and provides up-to-date explanations.


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Related PUBLICATIONS by
Vera Eccarius-Kelly | Siena College | Associate Professor of Political Science

316 Siena Hall  T: +1 518 782 6743 | veccarius-kelly@siena.edu

“Reframing the Nationalist Perspective: Kurdish Civil Society Activism in Europe,” in Symbiotic Antagonisms: Competing Nationalisms in Turkey, ed. Ayse Kadioğlu and Fuat Keyman (Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 2010), 289-318.


"Nationalism, Ethnic Rap, and the Kurdish Diaspora,” Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, 22.4 (2010): 423-431.


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"Interpreting the PKK's Signals in Europe," Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 2, no. 11 (2008): 10-14.


"Unresolved Questions and another Crossroads in Turkey," Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 2, no. 1 (2008): 3-6.


“The Kurdish Conundrum in Europe: Political Opportunities and Transnational Activism,” in Migration and Activism in Europe since 1945, ed. Wendy Pojmann (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 57-80.


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“Political Movements and Leverage Points: Kurdish Activism in the European Diaspora,” The Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 22. 1, 2002, 91-118.


“Radical Consequences of Benign Neglect: The Rise of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in Germany,” The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Vol. 24, No.1 (2000): 161-174.