Kurdish borderland conflict research begins at Aberystwyth University

The impact of the conflict in the Kurdish borderlands of Turkey will be the focus of new research at Aberystwyth University following the awarding of a prestigious fellowship.

Over the next two years, Dr Dilan Okcuoglu will study state-building and control in the war-torn region in the south-east of the Turkish state.

Hosted by the Department of International Politics in Aberystwyth, Dr Okcuoglu’s research is financed through the UK Guarantee funding for Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships.

Speaking about her project, Dr Okcuoglu said:

“My research examines the everyday lived experiences of people in the remote and mountainous Kurdish borderlands of Turkey, where decades of conflict between the Turkish government and Kurdish insurgents have imbued everyday life with a constant sense of threat.

“By gathering and analysing narratives gained through qualitative interviews with villagers, internally displaced people, activists, lawyers, and state officials in Turkey’s Kurdish borderlands with Iraq, Iran, and Syria, I hope to deepen our understanding of the complex formal and informal mechanisms that the state uses to control people and territories in these contested regions.”

“My research will shed light on how the Turkish state’s authority and legitimacy in its borderlands is shaped by the complex relationships between territorial control measures, competing claims over authority by different groups, and people’s everyday experiences. I also intend to map the gendered dynamics of the relationship between the state, people, and land, filling an important gap in the existing literature.”

The outcome of Dr Okcuoglu’s research will be of interest to policymakers, scholars, and practitioners committed to peace and conflict studies.

During her two-year Fellowship, Dr Okcuoglu will work under the mentorship of Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Professor of International Politics at Aberystwyth University.  Okcuoglu will also be seconded to the Global (In)Security Centre and the Centre for Advanced International Relations Theory at the University of Sussex.