Trajectories of Justice in the Kurdish Conflict: Memory, Truth, and Official Recognition

CARA Research Fellow Dr Güneş Daşlı delivers a seminar on their research - 

This paper examines the trajectories of justice by civil society actors within the context of the protracted Kurdish conflict despite a lack of a formal transitional justice process. It explores the justice demands and needs of grassroots actors, particularly victims, through the lens of four key transitional justice measures: prosecutions, truth-recovery (in the forms of knowing what happens), closure of disturbed mourning (through exhumations and gravesite identification), and recognition (in the form of an official apology). The paper critically engages with these categories by analysing how each aligns with the principles and measures of transitional justice. It also provides a nuanced understanding of what "truth" means within the context of the Kurdish conflict, and how the differing demands of victims and civil society actors have been shaped by the political history of the conflict and recent government responses in Turkey.