The Political Economy of the Kurds of Turkey
From the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic

An examination of the link between the economic and political development of the Kurds in Turkey, and Turkey's Kurdish question.

Veli Yadirgi (Author)

9781316632499, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 July 2017

320 pages, 4 b/w illus. 10 maps 47 tables
22.7 x 15.3 x 1.9 cm, 0.48 kg

'Yadirgi successfully demonstrates the historical background of the ESA's economic development as well as the transformation of the Kurdish question over time … Yadirgi's book is an invaluable contribution to the field both in terms of its methodology and the well-researched, empirical data it offers the reader.' Nationalities Papers

In recent years, the persecution of the Kurds in the Middle East under ISIS in Iraq and Syria has drawn increasing attention from the international media. In this book, Veli Yadirgi analyses the socioeconomic and political structures and transformations of the Kurdish people from the Ottoman era through to the modern Turkish Republic, arguing that there is a symbiotic relationship between the Kurdish question and the de-development of the predominantly Kurdish domains, making an ideal read for historians of the region and those studying the socio-political and economic evolution of the Kurds. First outlining theoretical perspectives on Kurdish identity, socioeconomic development and the Kurdish question, Yadirgi then explores the social, economic and political origins of Ottoman Kurdistan following its annexation by the Ottomans in 1514. Finally, he deals with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the subsequent foundation and evolution of the Kurdish question in the new Turkish Republic.

1. The Kurds, the Kurdish question in Turkey and economic development in ESA: an exploration of the central theoretical debates and outline of the methodological resources
2. The formation of Ottoman Kurdistan: social, economic and political developments in Ottoman Kurdistan before the nineteenth century (1514–1799)
3. The transformation of Ottoman Kurdistan: underdevelopment in Ottoman Kurdistan in the age of centralisation, Westernisation and crisis (1800–1914)
4. The deformation of Ottoman Kurdistan and bordering regions: dedevelopment in ESA from the First World War until the 1980 Coup (1914–80)
5. Turkey's Kurdish question in the era of neoliberalism: from the 1980 coup to the AKP's Kurdish overture (1980–2010s)
6. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Political economy [KCP], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]