Title: Turkish Paramilitarism in Northern Kurdistan
Author: Ayhan Işık
Place of publication: U K
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Release date: 2024
$About this book$
. Examines violence against Kurdish civilians by state-sponsored paramilitary forces in Turkey in the 1990s
. A historical and political analysis of the paramilitary groups in Turkey that were mobilised against Kurdish civilians in the 1990s
. Analyses the formation, organisational structure and violent acts of paramilitary groups in Turkey, with a particular focus on two local cases: Cizre and Batman
. Draws on 41 in-depth interviews with the relatives of those whose disappearances remain unsolved; people who were tortured by Turkish paramilitary forces; former soldiers who served in Kurdish cities; researchers, journalists, politicians, lawyers and human rights activists who worked in the region in the 1990s
. Uses court and state documents on Turkish paramilitary forces, as well as secondary sources such as memoirs, journalistic works and NGO reports.

This book focuses on paramilitary groups and the Turkish state relations during the armed conflict between the state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan, PKK) in the 1990s. In August 1984, the PKK launched an armed struggle against the Turkish state, leading to a full-blown war throughout the 1990s. During the conflict, the Turkish state established new armed groups, many of them having a paramilitary character. This research investigates the ways in which these paramilitary groups emerged, functioned, and were deactivated. It analyses the historical background, transformations and continuities of these paramilitary groups, and examines their violence against civilians particularly in two regions of Northern Kurdistan: Batman province and Cizre district.
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