CONF MA students' conference participation

CONF MA program students Pelin Baş, Ekin Ok
and Yevgeniya Ovsiyenko will be presenting their papers at the “Biennial
Conflict Studies Conference” at
University
of
Massachusetts Boston, which will be
held in

Boston,
USA on October 22-23, 2010.

The titles and abstracts of their works are below:

Ekin Ok

Title: The "Kurdish Question" in

Turkey: How has it become a 'Prisoner's Dilemma' ?

Abstract: This paper
takes an analytical approach to

Turkey's
most important and protracted internal conflict, namely “the Kurdish Issue”, by
attempting to explain it with regard to the well-known model of Prisoner’s
Dilemma. It illustrates how the escalation process of the conflict can be
explained with the nature of the Prisoner’s Dilemma by referring to specific
examples, and also employs the socio-psychological theories of conflict to
elucidate the reasons for its perpetuation.

Yevgeniya
Ovsiyenko

Title:  The
Sources Of Social Conflict: An Analytical Perspective

Abstract:
 The
question about the essential causes of social conflict is one of key debates in
conflict analysis and is the focus of the present essay. Two main thought
currents are specifically considered: the contingency and the inherency
theories. Both have considerable influence and are rooted in intellectual
traditions; at the same time, their findings can ontologically be combined to
increase their explanative power.

Pelin Baş

Title:

Turkey’s Kurdish Question from Conflict Resolution
Perspective  

Abstract: Ever since Kurdish question emerged in the process of
nationalization and independence movements in Ottoman Empire, it has been one
of the most challenging issues for

Turkey, by being associated with
different problems in different decades. In 1980s, it was a terrorism problem
for

Turkey.
By the end of 1990s, it started to be viewed as an issue of human rights and
cultural rights of minorities, especially with the recognition of

Turkey as a
candidate for European Union. Today, as the issue is being discussed under
“Turkish Opening”, referring to the democratization process, it is now being
considered as an issue of rights. Throughout this process, with the changing
identifications, the matter of discussion has also changed, evolved, and the
issues mushroomed. In this paper, along with the ongoing discussions about the
“opening process” by Turkish government, current situation of the Kurdish
question is also being examined.

In
order to be able to discuss the current process, this paper will identify the
key issues through historical process, actors and stages of the conflict from a
conflict resolution perspective.