MER Article Turkey's Death Squads The emergence of legal Kurdish parties and the frequent occurrence of death squad-style political assassinations were two developments in Turkey’s political life during the 1990s. For the first time in Turkey’s history, there was a group in the parliament that represented -- if only implicitly -- Ku Martin Van Bruinessen • 12 min read
MER Article Kurds, Turks and the Alevi Revival in Turkey Until a few years ago, Kurdish nationalism was the only movement in Turkey that openly defied the official doctrine that Turkey is a homogeneous nation-state. Informally, people would freely apply ethnic labels to their acquaintances, [1] but publicly most people were reluctant or afraid to define themselves as anything but Martin Van Bruinessen • 12 min read
MER Article Between Guerrilla Warfare and Political Murder The most spectacular development of the past several years in Turkey’s Kurdish provinces has been the resumption, in the late summer of 1984, of guerrilla activity. The attacks consist mainly of hit-and-run actions against military personnel and against Kurdish civilians considered “traitors” or “co Martin Van Bruinessen • 18 min read
MER Article Major Kurdish Organizations in Iraq Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Martin Van Bruinessen • 11 min read
MER Article Major Kurdish Organizations in Iran Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) Martin Van Bruinessen • 4 min read
MER Article The Kurds Between Iran and Iraq The news from Kurdistan is sad and grim. On both sides of the Iran-Iraq border, the central governments have been carrying out violent campaigns to bring the Kurdish districts under control and to wipe out the peshmergas (guerrilla fighters) of the various Kurdish organizations. This entails direct Martin Van Bruinessen • 31 min read
MER Article The Kurds in Turkey Traveling from western Turkey to its eastern provinces is like going to an entirely different country—more primitive, poorer, with starker social contradictions. Many peasants there still live in semi-feudal bondage, tribal loyalties are strong, and traditional concepts of honor find expression in v Martin Van Bruinessen • 20 min read
