Grasshoppers, Kurds and the State-Revisiting the Early Republic Period

Grasshoppers, Kurds and the State-Revisiting the Early Republic Period Book Description

The present review is based on the observation that most of the existing social science research deals with the social, political, cultural and economic life of Turkey in the early Republican period, often with approaches that do not take nature into account. It aims to intervene in the historiography of Türkiye in the early Republican period from the framework of "environmental history". Since the Kurds were often perceived as a "problem" by the centralist nation-states established after the First World War, academic studies on the Kurds were mostly shaped within the framework of nation-state building and nationalism discussions. However, this social and political “problem” of the nation-state does not recognize the political borders being drawn in the Middle East. Therefore, it was coded in a discursive framework parallel to another cross-border “problem”: locust epidemics. The most original and fundamental contribution of this study is that it shows that the nation state struggles with both "problems" with similar strategies. Grasshoppers, Kurds and the State will attract readers interested in the subject as well as those working in this area.

“This original work, which critically examines the parallel discourse of the state in its fight against locusts and Kurds and meets with readers as a book called Grasshoppers, Kurds and the State, reveals the intellectual curiosity, investigative spirit and critical courage of its author and will be greatly benefited by researchers, especially those working in the field of social sciences.” "It is a 'first academic study' that I believe in."

Metin Yüksel (Hacettepe University)