1 Turkey’s Kurdish Question: Dilemmas of War and Peace* Cengiz Gunes Abstract: This paper analyses the difficulties that Turkey has been experiencing in accommodating Kurdish political and cultural demands and in doing so paving the way for a peaceful resolution of its Kurdish conflict. The reduction in violence during the early 2000s moved the Kurdish question off the public agenda and this has been interpreted falsely among the mainstream Turkish society as the end of conflict. With the return of the pro-Kurdish representation in the parliament in 2007, the Kurdish question and the debate on finding proposals to solve the conflict started to occupy the public discussion once more; however, these have revealed the widespread disagreement and high level of polarisation in Turkey The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government vowed to resolve the conflict through peaceful means and with the declaration of ‘Democratic Initiative’ in August 2009, indicated that it was willing to pursue a political solution. However, the public debate that followed has brought to the fore the ideological rigidity of Turkish nationalism and its hesitancy to accept the legitimacy of Kurdish political demands. Following the general election in June 2011, the government changed its attitude to follow the entrenched security paradigm, which has lead to the resurgence in violence in recent months. This paper highlights the key factors that have so far prevented a conflict resolution process taking root and what steps can be taken to overcome the impasse. It will evaluate the reasons behind Turkey’s failure to institute a new framework and overarching ‘common identity’ to manage diversity and pluralism. It will highlight the position of the major political parties in Turkey to elucidate the above mentioned ideological difficulties. Dr. Cengiz Gunes holds a PhD in Politics from the Ideology and Discourse Analysis Programme (IDA), Department of Government, University of Essex, UK. He is the author of The Contemporary Kurdish National Movement in Turkey: From Protest to Resistance (London: Routledge, 2012). His main research interests are in conflict studies, critical security studies, and the politics and international relations of the Middle East. Currently he is an Associate Lecturer at the Open University. Email address: cgunes07@gmail.com *An updated version of this paper will be published as ‘Political Reconciliation in Turkey: Challenges and Prospects’ in Gunes, C. and Zeydanlioglu, W. (eds) Kurdish Question in Turkey: New Perspectives in Violence, Representation and Reconciliation (Routledge, 2013). Please do not quote this version.