Table of Contents

1. The Kurds, the Kurdish question in Turkey and economic development in ESA: an exploration of the central theoretical debates and outline of the methodological resources; 2. The formation of Ottoman Kurdistan: social, economic and political developments in Ottoman Kurdistan before the nineteenth century (1514–1799); 3. The transformation of Ottoman Kurdistan: underdevelopment in Ottoman Kurdistan in the age of centralisation, Westernisation and crisis (1800–1914); 4. The deformation of Ottoman Kurdistan and bordering regions: dedevelopment in ESA from the First World War until the 1980 Coup (1914–80); 5. Turkey's Kurdish question in the era of neoliberalism: from the 1980 coup to the AKP's Kurdish overture (1980–2010s); 6. Conclusion.

Promotional Information

An examination of the link between the economic and political development of the Kurds in Turkey, and Turkey's Kurdish question.

About the Author

Veli Yadirgi is a Research Associate and a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He has previously worked as a political correspondent and editor in a variety of European media companies, and is a member of the London Middle East Institute and the Centre for Ottoman Studies, and Neoliberalism, Globalisation and States (all at SOAS).

Reviews

'This is an important book that is exceedingly well written and thus deserves a wide audience. Employing unpublished and published primary documents from British archival sources, published Turkish/English-language primary sources, interviews, and a large number of secondary sources, Veli Yadirgi traces the political economic history of the Kurdish provinces of Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia (ESA) from Ottoman times to the present. In so doing he deconstructs the generally accepted thesis that the autochthonous, feudalistic tribal structure and resulting primitive economic conditions it fostered basically caused the backward economic underdevelopment/de-development that continues to retard economic progress in ESA and plays such a huge role in Turkey's Kurdish question.' Michael M. Gunter, International Journal of Turkish Studies

'Yadirgi successfully demonstrates the historical background of the ESA's economic development as well as the transformation of the Kurdish question over time … Yadirgi's book is an invaluable contribution to the field both in terms of its methodology and the well-researched, empirical data it offers the reader.' Nationalities Papers