Political Geography: Europe / Topic: Separatism

Author:: Toni Alaranta
Publication Date:: 11-2018
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:: The Kurds are an ethnic group of approximately 35 million people, half of whom live inside the Republic of Turkey, where the conflict between the state and the Kurdish separatist PKK organization has now lasted for over three decades. After a promising peace process in 2009–2015, the AKP government under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has now reduced Turkey’s Kurdish question to anti-terror operations, and marginalized the legal Kurdish HDP party, echoing the failed policy of the 1990s. Turkey is now a presidential system where power is tightly concentrated in the hands of President Erdoğan, a development directly opposed to Kurdish demands for greater local autonomy in the Kurdish-majority districts. Through the PKK network and transnational Kurdish sympathies, the fate of Syria’s and Turkey’s Kurds is now inextricably intertwined. The current way of building the new regime in Turkey is likely to produce more PKK attacks, but also widespread resentment among ordinary Kurds, including those opposing the PKK.
Topic:: Authoritarianism, Ethnicity, Separatism, and transnationalism
Political Geography:: Europe, Turkey, Asia, and Kurdistan

Author:: George Filatov
Publication Date:: 01-2018
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: Rethinking Russia
Abstract:: The Catalonian crisis is far from over. Despite the victory of the Catalonian separatists on the December 21 parliamentary election, there is no clarity about the future of the local government (the Generalitat). It remains to be seen if the incoming government will be able to come up with a compromise with official Madrid.
Topic:: Government, Elections, Crisis Management, and Separatism
Political Geography:: Europe, Spain, and Barcelona

Author:: Liam Hunt
Publication Date:: 11-2017
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Centre for the Study of Security and Development, Dalhousie University
Abstract:: Catalonia unilaterally declared independence from Spain on October 27, 2017, and with that, the fate of the European Union was briefly, once again, put in jeopardy. Since then, the international community, including Canada, the US, UK, Germany, and France, have all come forward to call for Spanish unity and quash the separatist tide. The Spanish Constitutional Court has ruled the results of the October 1 secession referendum illegal. In response, the Spanish Senate triggered Article 155 of the Constitution, which effectively gave Madrid direct rule over the region of Catalonia. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy then dissolved the Catalan Parliament and installed a caretaker government under the leadership of vice-premier Soraya de Santamaria before calling snap regional elections for December 21.
Topic:: Sovereignty, Elections, European Union, Separatism, and Secession
Political Geography:: Europe, Spain, and Catalonia

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