| ID | 090272 |
| Title Proper | Towards Kurdish distinctveness in electoral politics |
| Other Title Information | the 1977 local elections in Diyarbakir |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Dorronsoro, Gilles ; Watts, Nicole F |
| Publication | 2009. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | In December 1977 an independent candidate named Mehdi Zana was elected mayor of Diyarbak?r, one of the biggest cities in Turkey's southeastern region. His election was a striking event, upsetting the troika of class, party, and state that had maintained a tight hold over the local political apparatus in Diyarbak?r since the 1940s. Unlike most prior mayors of Diyarbak?r, Zana did not come from a prominent family of local notables but was a working-class tailor with a middle-school education. He was one of only two independent candidates who won electoral contests in Turkey's sixty-seven big-city races; his election therefore flew in the face of a national trend that favored candidates from the country's two main political parties. Zana was well known for his left-wing, Kurdist politics, and at the time of his election he already had spent several years in jail for his activism. In a system that suppressed collective expressions of Kurdish identity, he was thus a clear ideological interloper. |
| `In' analytical Note | International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol. 41, No. 3; Aug 2009: p.457-478 |
| Journal Source | International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol. 41, No. 3; Aug 2009: p.457-478 |
| Key Words | Kurdish ; Electoral Politics ; Local Elections ; Diyarbakir |