Spoils and treasures

On war economies, citizenship, and exceptional governance in Turkish Kurdistan

Bibliographic Data

ID2951404
AuthorsAlice Von Bieberstein (0000-0002-4249-2862, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume2025
Issue102
Pages44-56
Publication date2025-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFocaal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0920-1297 • E-ISSN: 1558-5263
PublisherBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/fcl.2025.1020104
OpenAlexW4411369117
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited13

This article examines the intertwining of war economies in eastern Turkey across different historical periods. It explores the connection between the Turkish state's war on the Kurdish freedom movement and the practice of hunting for "Armenian" treasures, highlighting war's role in creating new accumulation opportunities. The article looks at forms of intimacy that emerge between state representatives and local Kurds and analyzes them as sites of condensation of the region's history of sovereign violence and resulting social relations. Considered a temporal hinge, this intimacy returns us to World War I's war economy, particularly the dispossession of Armenians. By examining the intersection of treasure hunting and war economies, the article investigates the broader history of citizenship and governance of difference during the transition from Ottoman Empire to Turkish nation-state

Art · Political science · Islamic Studies and History · Turkey's Politics and Society · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact

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