The Democratic Progress Institute (DPI) is pleased to publish this assessment report by Turkish economist Prof. Dr. Erol Katırcıoğlu, examining the Kurdish issue in Türkiye through the lens of horizontal inequality — inequality between identity groups, rather than between individuals. Published as part of DPI’s EU-funded Peace through Dialogue project, the report draws on the polarisation and conflict literature associated with Debraj Ray and Joan Esteban to explore regional economic patterns using data from the past two decades.
The paper builds on DPI’s ongoing research into the relationship between conflict and economic development in Türkiye, following earlier assessments by Katırcıoğlu (2017) and İzzet Akyol (2021). While inequality between individuals is well established in Turkish policy debates, analysis of inequality between groups remains comparatively underexplored — a gap this report seeks to help address.
As discussions on resolution continue to shape political and civil society debate in Türkiye, this report offers one of several analytical perspectives that can inform such conversations. DPI hopes it will be a useful resource for practitioners, researchers, and policy audiences engaging with these questions.
The views expressed in this report remain those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DPI or the European Union.