
Turkey's Mission Impossible
War and Peace with the Kurds
Cengiz Candar(Author)
Lexington Books (Publisher)
Published on 23. June 2020
Book
Hardback
348 pages
978-1-4985-8750-1 (ISBN)
Article exhausted; check different version
Description
This is a work of excavation of the modern history of Turkey, with the Kurdish question at its center, unearthed and exposed in Candar's captivating narrative.
The founding of a Turkish nation-state in Asia Minor brought with it the denial of the distinct Kurdish identity in its midst, giving birth to an intractable problem that led to intermittent Kurdish revolts and culminated in the enduring insurgency of the PKK. The Kurdish question is perceived as a mortal threat for the survival of Turkey. The author weaves a fascinating account of the encounter between Turkey and the Kurds in historical perspective with special emphasis on failed peace processes. Providing a unique historical record of the authoritarian, centralist and ultra-nationalist-rather than Islamist-nature of the Turkish state rooted in the last decades of the Ottoman period and finally manifested in Erdogan's "New Turkey," Candar challenges stereotyped and conventional views on the Turkey of today and tomorrow.
Turkey's Mission Impossible: War and Peace with the Kurds combines scholarly research with the memoirs of a participant observer, richly revealing the author's first-hand knowledge of developments acquired over a lifetime devoted to the resolution of perhaps the most complex problem of the Middle East.
The founding of a Turkish nation-state in Asia Minor brought with it the denial of the distinct Kurdish identity in its midst, giving birth to an intractable problem that led to intermittent Kurdish revolts and culminated in the enduring insurgency of the PKK. The Kurdish question is perceived as a mortal threat for the survival of Turkey. The author weaves a fascinating account of the encounter between Turkey and the Kurds in historical perspective with special emphasis on failed peace processes. Providing a unique historical record of the authoritarian, centralist and ultra-nationalist-rather than Islamist-nature of the Turkish state rooted in the last decades of the Ottoman period and finally manifested in Erdogan's "New Turkey," Candar challenges stereotyped and conventional views on the Turkey of today and tomorrow.
Turkey's Mission Impossible: War and Peace with the Kurds combines scholarly research with the memoirs of a participant observer, richly revealing the author's first-hand knowledge of developments acquired over a lifetime devoted to the resolution of perhaps the most complex problem of the Middle East.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Illustrations
17 b/w photos;
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
655 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4985-8750-1 (9781498587501)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
06/2020
1st Edition
Lexington Books
€40.99
Available for download
Persons
Cengiz Candar is a distinguished visiting scholar at the Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies.He is a scholar and journalist, is the leading expert in Turkey on the Middle East, the main architect of the Turkish-Kurdish rapprochement as President Turgut OEzal's advisor in the 1990s.
Content
Chapter1: Historical and Ideological Background
Chapter 2. Kurdish Uprisings
Chapter 3. The Longest Kurdish Insurgency
Chapter 4. OEcalan and the Birth and Evolution of the PKK
Chapter 5. OEzal, Talabani, OEcalan
Chapter 6. New Century, New Prospects, New Initiatives
Chapter 7. Road to Oslo, Contacts, and Back Channels
Chapter 8. Oslo, Talking on Secrecy
Chapter 9. Erdogan's Dance with OEcalan: Peace Process in Public
Chapter 10. Elusive Peace, Not Talking Turkey
Chapter 11. Battlefield Syria
Chapter 12. Neighboring Quagmire
Chapter 13. A Coup for a New Turkey
Chapter 14. Deep State
Chapter 15. The Pedigree of Turkish Autocracy
Chapter 16. New Turkey: A Reincarnation
Chapter 2. Kurdish Uprisings
Chapter 3. The Longest Kurdish Insurgency
Chapter 4. OEcalan and the Birth and Evolution of the PKK
Chapter 5. OEzal, Talabani, OEcalan
Chapter 6. New Century, New Prospects, New Initiatives
Chapter 7. Road to Oslo, Contacts, and Back Channels
Chapter 8. Oslo, Talking on Secrecy
Chapter 9. Erdogan's Dance with OEcalan: Peace Process in Public
Chapter 10. Elusive Peace, Not Talking Turkey
Chapter 11. Battlefield Syria
Chapter 12. Neighboring Quagmire
Chapter 13. A Coup for a New Turkey
Chapter 14. Deep State
Chapter 15. The Pedigree of Turkish Autocracy
Chapter 16. New Turkey: A Reincarnation