Resolving Turkey’s Kurdish Issue: A Pathway to EU Membership

Turkey has been searching for a new Constitution, which is also a search for a new polity. Resolving the Kurdish issue and 'EU conditionality' have been the main motives behind this search. There exists, however, an “impasse” caused by a “nationalist” polarization in the political public sphere. That is to say that Turkey has been divided between Islamist-nationalism (AKP) and Kemalist-nationalism (CHP/MHP), both of which are not conducive for resolving the Kurdish issue on multiculturalist democratic grounds that will reinforce Turkey’s prospects for full EU membership. This talk will provide a critical examination of this situation of “nationalist impasse” and an evaluation of the key role of the Kurdish political movement on the way to constructing a new democratic polity in Turkey."