What was the ‘Kurdish opening’ all about? A qualitative text analysis of parliamentary group speeches in Turkey

Abstract

This study explores the use of four discourses – socio-economic, relative deprivation, pro-Islamist and terrorism oriented – used by political parties in Turkey to address the Kurdish issue and the resulting political party strategies during the Kurdish opening in Turkey. Although the factors that influence the Kurdish issue have drawn attention, no research has analysed Turkish political parties’ perspectives on the Kurdish issue in primary political documents. By examining 188 parliamentary group speeches delivered during the Kurdish opening process with qualitative text analysis, this study reveals that the mainstream parties in the Turkish Parliament employ socio-economic, relative deprivation and regional terrorism approaches, while the ethnic parties use either regional terrorism and pro-Islamist approaches or the relative deprivation approach. Due to the overlap in their discourses, the mainstream parties have developed a new strategy: compartmentalization of the ethnic issue by creating sub-ethnic categories. This research contributes to revealing political parties’ approaches to the Kurdish question and their strategies for mobilizing the ethnic median voter.