News & events

04-12-2021

(Video) Democracy and Despotism in the Turkish Republic – An Interview with Dr Kumru Toktamış


Connor Hayes speaks with Kumru Toktamış, Associate Professor of Social Science and Cultural Studies at the Pratt Institute, about her work with Human Rights Watch in Turkey, the historical role of Kurdish mobilisations in the formation of the Turkish nation-state, the 2013 Taksim protest movement in Turkey, the current state of democracy in Turkey under the AKP-MHP regime and prospects for democratisation, and the violence against women and the women’s movement in Turkey.

Watch the interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwmrAxyxZ9Y

Dr Kumru Toktamış is an Associate Professor of Social Science and Cultural Studies at the Pratt Institute, where her work looks at topics including political violence, women in the Muslim world, democratization and de-democratization. Prior to this, she worked for Human Rights Watch documenting rights abuses in Turkey for more than a decade in the 1980s and 1990s, and the was a signatory of the 2016 statement of the Academics for Peace in Turkey. She has done research on the relationship between Kurdish mobilizations and the formation of the Turkish nation-state, and she is the co-editor of a book entitled Everywhere Taksim, published in 2015, about the 2013 protests in Turkey. She is also a contributor to the recently published collection entitled Ecological Solidarity and the Kurdish Freedom Movement Thought, Practice, Challenges, and Opportunities, edited by Stephen Hunt.

Connor Hayes is an activist, researcher, and a student of philosophy. He was a member of the 2019 International Peace Delegation to Imrali.

For further information, please see the following:

Everywhere Taksim: Sowing the Seeds for a New Turkey at Gezi: https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789089648075/everywhere-taksim

Ecological Solidarity and the Kurdish Freedom Movement Thought, Practice, Challenges, and Opportunities: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793633842/Ecological-Solidarity-and-the-Kurdish-Freedom-Movement-Thought-Practice-Challenges-and-Opportunities

This interview is sponsored by the Peace in Kurdistan Campaign (https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/) and the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (http://www.campacc.org.uk/).

For more information, please contact:
email: estella@gn.apc.org
mobile: +447846666804