The Emergence of Communal Violence in Turkey

Given its duration and intensity, the decades old civil war in Turkey between the government and the PKK has resulted in relatively low levels of inter-communal conflict between Kurdish and Turkish populations. This is even more surprising as millions of Kurds were displaced by counter-insurgency measures to Turkish majority areas in the west of the Turkey. However, in the wake of the parliamentary deadlock after the June 2015 elections and the collapse of the peace negotiations, an unprecedented wave of anti-Kurdish violence swept across western Turkey. The violence targeted the HDP (People’s Democracy Party) offices, as well as businesses thought to be owned by Kurds, neighbourhoods with large Kurdish populations and individual Kurds. It resulted in a number of deaths and widespread injuries and property damage. The attacks were apparently spontaneously responses to the clashes in Kurdistan. Yet, thirty years of civil war had never previously provoked such violence, so what made 2015 different? What were the factors that underpinning this violence? Who were its perpetrators and what relationship did they have with political parties and right wing movements such as the Grey Wolves? The paper will analyse this phase of violence as an example of anti-civilian violence carried out by civilians, It will assess these events in relation to literature on communal riots. It will consider the impact of state led anti-Kurdish discourse and the growth of the HDP and the Kurdish movement’s consolidation in Northern Syria/Rojava.