Assessment report on the Conflict in Turkey: Context, Applicable Law, and the Search for a Solution

This report was prepared by Dr Edel Hughes. The author is a lecturer in law at the National University of Ireland, Galway.The report provides an overview of the legal parameters of the Kurdish conflict in Turkey through outlining the applicable international humanitarian and human rights law. On addressing the conflict and applicable law, it then provides an outline of how the attempts at resolution have unfolded thus far. The author highlights the contested nature of both the legal and political parameters of the conflict, noting that even categorising the Kurdish issue in Turkey as a ‘conflict’, rather than as an ‘insurgency’ or as ‘terrorist’ violence, for example, is significant and would draw criticism from some quarters.

DPI wishes to thank the author for this engaging report, which provides a timely overview of the legal parameters of the Kurdish issue in Turkey, as well as of the attempts at a resolution to date. The views and opinions expressed in the report remain those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DPI.