Kurdish minority rights: What’s the problem represented to be?

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study was to investigate statements made by the leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (the PKK), Abdullah Öcalan. The selection of material and scope were motivated by a rhetorical shift of strategy of the historically violent PKK, proposing cooperation as a solution to the suppression of the Kurdish minority within the Turkish nation-state. Investigation of the statements was done using Carol Bacchi’s “What’s the problem represented to be?” approach. It was chosen as both methodological frame and theoretical approach. The primary objective is to interrogate problem representations. The “WPR approach” constitutes a reflective research practice enabling critical assessment of what presuppositions and assumptions constitute a particular problem representation. Critically investigating a problem representation and its proposed solution resulted in an advanced understanding of the conflict between the Kurdish minority and the Turkish nation-state. What showed most interesting in the conducted study was not merely investigating this representation, but rather unraveling its underlying and supportive components such as presuppositions, assumptions, dichotomies and categorisations. A central finding was the discovery of what was left unproblematic and silenced in this particular problem representation.