Turkey's shifting policies toward the Kurdish issue 1984--2004: Applying punctuated equilibrium and multiple streams models of policy change

A number of strands in the political science literature seek to explain the motivation for and course of changes in domestic policy. This dissertation is positioned within policy change literature and focuses on a specific area of domestic policy in documenting and analyzing policies implemented by Turkey in response to the Kurdish issue. Utilizing Baumgartner and Jones' (1993) "Punctuated Equilibrium" and Kingdon's (1995b) "Multiple Streams" models of the policy change this dissertation presents a qualitative case study that tracks changes in policy and explains the major shift in Turkish policy toward the Kurds from 1984 to 2004.;The work explores the transformation of Turkish ethnic policy paying particular attention to the events of 1999 when the PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured and Turkey achieved candidate country status for entry into the European Union at the Helsinki Summit. These two important events punctuated the equilibrium in the Kurdish issue and led to open a "windows of opportunity" for policy entrepreneurs to move away from the status quo of Turkey's dominant security discourse and hard-line ethnic policy toward the Kurds.;In order to document and explain why attempts to define the Kurdish issue as a cultural rights and democratization problems initially failed and then succeeded, the Problem Stream, in this case, demonstrates the initial failure and ultimate success of the struggle for cultural rights and democratization. The Policy Stream reveals why the hard-line approach to Kurdish demands and actions dominated the policy debate and why the pro-change policy solutions to the Kurdish issue failed and then succeeded. The Politics Stream shows change in the political climate and the course of Turkey's major policy change in the definition of the Kurdish issue and response to the Kurds with the new government of Turkey. According to John Kingdon when the three streams come together a windows of opportunity opens and the political system experiences major policy changes.;I analyze debates and statements concerning the Kurdish issue in the Turkish Grand National Assembly, press releases, declarations and interviews from political and military elite, written reports, the EU progress reports, published articles, journals and decisions made by the Turkish Courts.