An examination of the CHP's Kurdish identity politics: From 1960 to present

Republic of Turkey, as many other modern states in the globalising world, is a country that includes divergent ethnicities within its territories. The issue of ethnic identities has long been debated in Turkish politics and has also come to the forefront especially after 1980s. Viewpoints, policies, discourses and actions of the political parties on ethnic identities in the Turkish political life have significantly differed during this period. In this context, the aim of this thesis is to (i) examine the identity politics, in general, and the Kurdish identity policy, in particular, pursued especially from 1960 to present by the Republican People's Party (CHP) as a founder political party of Republic of Turkey, one of the most dominant political parties and the representative of the center-left political tradition in the Turkish politics and (ii) to analyse the effects of changing policy preferences of the party regarding the Kurdish identity on the general election results in the Eastern and South-eastern Anatolian provinces where the citizens of Kurdish origin mostly live. The purpose of examining the general election results is to determine to what extent the changing policies of the CHP on the Kurdish identity have affected the voters' preferences. The scope of the thesis is limited to the transformation of the CHP after 1960s and the effect of this transformation especially on the party's Kurdish identity politics. A qualitative research method is applied in the thesis with the aim of realising the aforementioned purposes. In particular, not a theoretical and normative perspective, but a descriptive and discourse/context analysis method is adopted focusing on an examination of primary sources; such as party programmes, election manifestos and reports of the CHP on the Kurdish question. The main reason for focusing especially on the written sources is that while they mostly reflect the official policy of the parties and are relatively more objective; non-written sources, such as the speeches given or comments made by the party leaders or leading members, may be considered subjective and less permanent. In this sense, the main argument raised in this thesis is that CHP's policy on the Kurdish identity since 1960s has remarkably changed as a result of changing political conditions, social movements and terrorism in Turkey and of changing perspectives embraced by the party's elite-cadre and leaders. This policy change in the CHP's Kurdish identity from 1960s to present exemplifies an evolution from embracing a policy approach that deals with the issue with reference to underdevelopment and feudalism into embracing an approach that aims to address the issue from a democratic perspective especially after 2010. Keywords: Kurdish identity, Kurdish problem, identity politics, Republican People's Party.