Nation Building in Turkey and Morocco

Why do some ethno-national groups live peacefully with the states that govern them, whereas others develop into serious threats to state authority? Through a comparative historical analysis, this book compares the evolution of Kurdish mobilization in Turkey with the Berber mobilization in Morocco by looking at the different nation-building strategies of the respective states. Using a variety of sources, including archival documents, interviews, and memoirs, Senem Aslan emphasizes the varying levels of willingness and the varying capabilities of the Turkish and Moroccan states to intrude into their citizens' lives. She argues that complex interactions at the ground level - where states have demanded changes in everyday behavior, such as how to dress, what language to speak, what names to give children, and more mundane practices - account for the nature of emerging state-minority relations. By taking the local and informal interactions between state officials and citizens seriously, this study calls attention to the actual implementation of state policies and the often unintended consequences of these policies. 'Senem Aslan demonstrates through comparative historical analysis of the Kurds in Turkey and the Berbers in Morocco that intrusive nationalizing projects can undermine rather than increase the strength of a state. The research is exemplary and imaginative, the contribution to our general understanding of states and nations in the contemporary world fundamental.' John A. Hall, James McGill Professor of Comparative Historical Sociology, McGill University 'Nuanced and insightful, historically grounded and theoretically informed, this first-ever comparative study of Turkish and Moroccan state policies toward their respective ethnic Kurdish and Berber minorities is a masterpiece, and a timely one at that. Scholars and policy makers alike would do well to consider its findings.' Bruce A. Maddy-Weitzman, Marcia Israel Principal Research Fellow, The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University 'Nation-Building in Turkey and Morocco is elegant, compelling and utterly readable. Aslan's comparative analysis of the different ways local communities responded to state plans for their integration into the nation-state offers a fascinating corrective to the way we typically think about central authority and fills a critical gap in studies of nationalism and state-society relations. It is impossible to read this work and to ever think about state power the same way again.' Nicole F. Watts, San Francisco State University1. Governing areas of dissidence; 2. Policies of extreme makeover: state-Kurdish relations in the early Turkish republic; 3. State building and the politics of national identity in Morocco; 4. The making of an armed conflict: state-Kurdish relations in the post-1950 period; 5. The rise of the Amazigh movement and state co-optation in Morocco; Conclusion.