Turkey’s Kurdish Conflict and Retreat From Democracy

The relationship between conflict resolution and democratic consolidation is a puzzle. It is tempting to assume that in the spirit of 'all good things go together', the two move hand in hand—that resolving civil conflict helps consolidate democracy, while progress on democratic consolidation facilitates the resolution of conflict. Yet in practice, complexities and contradictions abound.

So, it might be expected that prospects for resolving Turkey’s Kurdish conflict depend on progress in the country’s attempted democratic consolidation of recent decades. But in fact, the record shows otherwise. Examining the conflict-democracy link in Turkey reveals interesting lessons that cast doubt on the simplistic assumption of a natural relationship between conflict resolution and improvements in democratic quality.

ESO: Background information: Detention of Turkey's HDP party members and the reaction from the European Commission http://www.europeansources.info/record/detention-of-turkeys-hdp-party-members-and-the-reaction-from-the-european-commission/

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