A “normal” day under authoritarian rule: An ethnographic account of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict

Abstract

This article examines how a “normal” day passes under a conflicted and authoritarian governmentality in an ethnically diverse city in Turkey. When there is no space or tolerance for different ethnic and religious practices, where oppression against Kurds and other minority groups has become almost normal, pluralism is pushed underground. In this article, the examination of the state and understanding everyday life is mainly derived from ethnographic field research among regular people in the city of Mardin. The perspectives of the oppressor and oppressed in people’s voiced accounts are not just a reflection of the political climate and lives being lived, but also offer a historical account of how future generations will see the politics of our current times.