Publs. In Turkish on 2007, Toplum ve Bilim, no:108, s:239-261. STATE, BORDER, AŞİRET: Re-Construction of Aşiret as an Ethnic Identity Neşe ÖZGEN, Dr. Ege University Faculty of Letters Deaprtment of Sociology, Prof. Bornova/İzmir ABSTRACT: In this essay, I am going to talk about two koçer (nomadic) Kurdish aşiret’s gaining of their ethnic identities and defending themselves via the relations with the PKK and the state. Through their adventures of settlement and becoming an aşiret since the beginning of the Republic—perhaps before that—I will point out why and how their Kurdisness and ethnic gloves can be substituted for one another. Thirdly, I want to state that, apart from being nostalgia and taking its base from this very nature, how aşiret can be accepted as an ethnic arena and whether it can provide the possible grounds for a national identity. Hence, lastly, I can utter the disadvantages of including merely ethnicity under the frame of identity, or in contrast, the perception of ethnicity merely as an identity problem. 1