Network-Building, Ethnicity and Violence in Turkey
Auteur : Hamit Bozarslan
Abu Dhabi
Publishing: ECSSR
1999
Parliamentary Inquiry Commission and twoofficial reports, prepared respectively by this Commission and by Kutlu Savas, an inspector charged by the Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz to investigate the allegations, brought quantities of evidence on the links between radical-right wing militants, the state and Mafiosi groups. Theyhave also shown how during the 1990’s the radical-right militants were used by the state asdeath squadrons. As far as social scientists are concerned, these rich data have prompted many newperspectives on the comprehension of Turkish political life and the state coercion and civilviolence which have dominated it for the past two decades. They allow also a better understanding of the Turkish policy making processes as well as the structuration of Turkishpolitical life at different levels (local, nation-wide, regional and international). Finally, they shednew light on the country’s ethnic relations, disclosing the link between ethnicity and violence,and at the some time, revealing the limits of ethnicity as the sole criterion of network building or policy making. Among many research directions suggested by these new data, I will explore
two,developed in the final section of this article. The first one concerns State and power relations in Turkey -and in many Middle-Eastern countries-. While admitting fully, thatState-coercion remains efficient in the management of the social issues, I will arguethat the state-based sociology is of mediocre utility in explaining the Middle Easternsocieties. Furthermore, I will suggest that in the understanding of the Middle-East, theresearch should move from the analyze of the state towards that of the power structuresand relations. The second research direction concerns the
network-building process asa constant production and re-construction of modern, nation-wide power structuresand relations in Turkey
. The analysis of the formation and in some cases, the decline of solidarity networks, their transformation and their reactivation by competition to access toeconomic, political, and military resources constitutes, to some extent, the focus of the other above-mentioned political processes and phenomena, such as the state’s coercion and civilviolence as well as ethnic relations.
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