Making of Paramilitarism in Turkey

With a unique focus on the suppression of marginalized groups, including Armenians, Kurds, and Alevis, the book presents groundbreaking research on how paramilitarism has been instrumental in state violence, both domestically and internationally.

List of contents

Table of Contents
About the Book
Foreword:
U¿ur Ümit Üngör
PART I: The Origins of Paramilitarism in Modern Turkey
Chapter I: Modern Bandits of Purgatory in the Transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic: A Story of Property Transfer in Aintab from Warlords to Urban Elite - Ümit Kurt
PART II: Paramilitarism and Raison D'etat
Chapter II: Counterinsurgency in Turkey: Coloniality of Paramilitary Forces and Provocative Counterorganisation - Deniz Yonucu
Chapter III: At the Intersection of Domestic and Foreign Policy in Turkey: Transformation of the Capacity for Extralegal Violence and Kurdistan Issue - Çär¿ Kurt
PART III: The Functioning of the Paramilitarism Abroad and At Home
Chapter IV: Pro-Turkish State Vigilantism in Europe in the Post-1960s - Mazyar Khoojinian
Chapter V: The Politics of Violence and Exclusion: Paramilitary Groups and the Targeting of Alevi Communities in Turkey - Ozan Çavdar
PART IV: 1990s: The Heyday of Paramilitarism
Chapter VI: The Village Guard System: Socio-Anthropology of a Paramilitary Institution in Northern Kurdistan (Turkish Kurdistan) - Adnan Çelik
Chapter VII: Strategically Ambiguous and Deniable: Paramilitary Violence and Psychological Warfare in the 1990s - Ye¿im Yaprak Y¿ld¿z
PART V: Post-Truth Paramilitarism
Chapter VIII: The Contractual Functioning of Paramilitary Violence in Turkey: The J¿TEM Case - Özlem Has
Chapter IX: Disfiguring Public Reality: Televisual and Paramilitary Visions - Sidar Bayram

About the author

Özlem Has is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Defence Studies at King's College London. Her research interests include state formation, political violence, paramilitarism, and mercenarism. Her key publications include studies on paramilitaries in the Kurdish-Turkish conflict and private military companies.
Ayhan I¿¿k is an independent researcher and an interdisciplinary political historian specializing in 20th and 21st-century political violence, paramilitarism and Kurdish Studies. He is author of a book titled Turkish paramilitarism in Northern Kurdistan: State Violence in the 1990s that was published 2024.

Product details

• Authors: Ozlem (University of Copenhagen Has
• Assisted by: Özlem Has (Editor), Ayhan Işık (Editor)
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 18.08.2025
• EAN: 9781032435817
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3243581-7
• No. of pages: 192
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Geosciences > Geography; Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000, First World War, HISTORY / General, HISTORY / Modern / 21st Century, Nationalism, HISTORY / Middle East / Turkey & Ottoman Empire, Middle East, Social & political philosophy, social and political philosophy, Regional Studies, Middle Eastern history, Regional / International studies, History and Archaeology, Modern Period, C 1500 Onwards, HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / General