Divergent Paths: The Statal Securitization of the Kurdish Question and the Struggle for Kurdish Societal Security in Türkiye

Ibrahim Has

World Affairs, 2025, vol. 188, issue 1

Abstract: This article revisits the Kurdish Question and Kurdish struggle offering a fresh examination through the societal securitization perspective of the Copenhagen School. There is insufficient analysis of the struggle between the statal and societal conceptions of security and (de)securitization regarding the Kurdish Question. I therefore identify a gap in the literature on the securitization of the Kurdish Question—which adopts a state‐centric approach without paying attention to the highly understudied societal security of the Kurds. Extant literature tends to reduce the Kurdish Question to debates concerning minorities and terrorism, usually ignoring or legitimizing racist statal securitization through counterterrorism. Instead, I emphasize the intertwined relations between the (de)securitization of the Kurdish Question and the struggle for Kurdish societal security. The article discusses the dialectics of the Kurdish Question—which are as societal as they are territorial—that cannot be analyzed in isolation or independently from one another. Following key elements of the Copenhagen School approach, it constructs the Kurdish movement as the securitizer of societal security, claiming that the realization of societal security is a milestone in desecuritization and the path to a solution to the Kurdish Question. 本文重新审视了库尔德问题和库尔德人的斗争, 并通过哥本哈根学派的社会安全化视角进行了新的分析。我认为, 在库尔德问题方面, 需要更多的分析聚焦于国家和社会分别对安全和 (去) 安全化所持的观念之间的斗争。我接着指出了库尔德问题安全化文献中的空白, 即文献采用了以国家为中心的方法, 而没有关注“库尔德人社会安全”这一研究不足的方面。现有文献倾向于将库尔德问题简化为少数民族和恐怖主义问题, 通常忽视或通过反恐的方式使“种族主义国家安全化”合法化。相反, 我强调了库尔德问题的 (去) 安全化与库尔德社会安全斗争之间的相互交织关系。因此, 本文讨论了库尔德问题的辩证法 (既是社会的, 也是领土的), 其不能被孤立分析或独立分析。本文将库尔德运动建构为社会安全的保障者, 认为社会安全的实现是去安全化和解决库尔德问题一事的里程碑。 Este artículo revisa la cuestión kurda y la lucha kurda ofreciendo un nuevo examen a través de la perspectiva de securitización social de la Escuela de Copenhague. Sostiene que hay un análisis insuficiente de la lucha entre la concepción estatal y social de la seguridad y la (des)securitización de la cuestión kurda. Identifica una brecha en la literatura sobre la securitización de la cuestión kurda que adopta un enfoque estadocéntrico sin prestar atención a la seguridad social de los kurdos, poco estudiada. Esta literatura reduce la cuestión kurda a una cuestión minoritaria y al terrorismo, normalmente ignorando o legitimando la securitización estatal racista a través del contraterrorismo. El artículo analiza las relaciones entrelazadas entre la (des)securitización de la cuestión kurda y la lucha por la seguridad social kurda. Se analiza la dialéctica de la cuestión kurda, tanto social como territorial, que no puede analizarse de forma aislada o independientemente una de otra. Construye el movimiento kurdo como el seguritizador de la seguridad social, afirmando que la realización de la seguridad social es un hito en la desecuritización y la solución a la cuestión kurda.

Date: 2025
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