The Emergence, Transformation and Functions of Paramilitary Groups in Northern Kurdistan (Eastern Turkey) in the 1990s

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on paramilitarism and the Turkish state during the armed conflict between the state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan, PKK) in the 1990s. In August 1984, the PKK launched an armed struggle against the Turkish state, leading to a full-blown war throughout the 1990s. During the conflict, the Turkish state established new coercive institutions, many of them having a paramilitary character. This dissertation investigates the ways in which these paramilitary groups emerged, functioned, and were deactivated. It analyzes the historical background, transformations and continuities of these paramilitary groups, and examines their violence against civilians in two regions of Northern Kurdistan: Batman province and Cizre district. The dissertation argues that the period between 1991 and 1996 was characterized by the 'paramilitarization of the state', due to the blurring of the boundaries between the state's official military units and bureaucrats, and the paramilitary groups.