The representation of Kurds and Kurdish issue in new Turkish cinema

It can be said that from the 1980s onwards in Turkey, different ethnic, religious and cultural identity of the claim can be said to have become apparent in both political cultural areas. In the 1990s, when factors such as EU membership negotiations, ongoing conflicts with the PKK, and class inequality created by neoliberal policies in the economy were added, the 1990s had an environment where different identities became visible and demand a voice in the social and political sphere. In parallel with this historical context Turkish cinema also experienced similar transformations; the visibility of the films that host a common language, that shape around themes such as identity issues, belongingness. This new tendency is located with the expression of the New Turkish Cinema in the thesis and in this cinema, the representations of the Kurdish identity and the Kurdish Issue are focused on. From the films discussed that the movie I Saw the Sun that is involved in the part that forms the popular cinema side of the New Turkish Cinema and the movie Breath: Long Live the Homeland that can be said to be located between popular cinema and ''alternative cinema'' is important for examining how Kurdish identity is positioned against Turkishness within the framework of militarist-nationalist perspective. The movies Voice of My Father/Dengê Bavê Min (Orhan Eskiköy, Zeynel Doğan, 2012) and Song of My Mother/Klama Dayîka Min (Erol Mintaş, 2014) differentiate from the first two films with both narrative and formal features, allowing the audience to look at the Kurdish Issue from the ''inside''. These two films also take part in political cinema samples of the New Turkish Cinema. The representations in these four films which are in sample group, in which the Kurds and the Kurdish Issue are discussed around themes such as military and militarism, the nation-state, the construction of national identity and the "other'', the relationship between forced migration, language and identity, trauma and testimony.