The Role of Organised Victims in Transitional Justice in Turkey and Northern Ireland

尽管原则上承认受害者在过渡司法进程中的中心地位，但作为一种政治力量，以受害者为中心的倡导和受害者机构仍然被忽视(Sajjad，2016；Robins，2017)。受害者作为政治行为者标志着过渡司法文献中的缺失(加西亚-戈多斯，2016)，这是一个漏洞，反映了“受害者是被动的或不关心政治”的观点(Druliolle和Brett，2018年，第2页)。我的博士学位探讨了土耳其过渡司法和库尔德冲突的未来方向，特别是研究了受害者和其他草根参与者的观点、要求和经历。它从以受害者为中心的角度，将库尔德冲突置于过渡和转型司法领域，作出了独特和新颖的贡献。尽管国家暴力和暴行留下了长期的遗产，但土耳其从未制定出过渡司法框架来处理这些过去的罪行，特别是在库尔德地区。通过对基层行为者的现场访谈和在线访谈，本文发现这些行为者利用过渡司法话语来追求真理、正义和责任。经验性研究，包括星期六母亲运动的个案研究表明，尽管没有正式的过渡司法议程，也没有制定过渡司法战略的和平协定，但仍有可能为过渡司法的支柱--真相、正义、保证不再发生和纪念--作出贡献。研究结果还强调了民间社会如何利用正在进行的和正在展开的进程，为社区领导的过渡司法进程制定路线图。研究概述了土耳其自下而上和面向机构的努力和方法的经验教训。它认为，作为一个领域，过渡司法可以受益于纳入更多的基层声音，使其超越指令性和精英驱动的努力，转向更具变革性的议程。过渡时期司法的理论和实践也可以从土耳其的案例中受益，因为它可以更好地理解进程在持续的冲突期间如何运作，或如何受到持续冲突的限制。有必要采取一种微妙的办法来了解冲突继续发生的情况，同时也有几次试图处理过去的情况。我的博士研究通过具体研究过渡司法在持续冲突期间可能提供的前景、挑战和机会，有助于弥合这一差距。通过将基层争取真相和正义的努力作为过渡司法倡议，本文将土耳其重新思考为一个案例研究，以产生更多关于如何在没有根本的政治过渡的情况下实施过渡司法的知识。它对于记录受害者和其他受害者和过渡司法的草根参与者的看法也具有重要意义。通过团契，我将巩固和准备我的学术生涯的下一阶段。该项目有三个广泛的目标：第一，它旨在帮助弥合关于受害者机构和需求的经验数据与过渡时期司法奖学金之间的差距。第二，它的目的是使从业者能够获得和使用博士研究结果，从而对过渡司法领域长期忽视的持续冲突的政策和实践产生强有力的影响。第三，它试图让这位研究员领导一个建立在博士工作基础上的合作和参与性项目的研究拨款。总体而言，该奖学金将在弥合我的博士发现发现的差距方面发挥至关重要的作用：过渡时期司法理论与受害者群体和基层组织动员形成的实践之间的脱节。

Despite the acknowledgement of the centrality of victims in transitional justice processes in principle, victim-centred advocacy and the agency of victims are still ignored as a political force (Sajjad, 2016; Robins, 2017). Victims as political actors mark an absence in transitional justice literature (Garcia-Godos, 2016), and this constitutes a lacuna which reflects the view that "victims are passive or apolitical" (Druliolle and Brett, 2018, p.2). My PhD explores the future directions of transitional justice in Turkey and the Kurdish conflict, specifically examining the victims' and other grassroots actors' perspectives, demands, and experiences. It makes a unique and novel contribution by positioning the Kurdish conflict within the field of transitional and transformative justice from a victim-centred perspective.Although there is a long legacy of state violence and atrocities, Turkey has never developed a transitional justice framework to deal with these past crimes, particularly in the Kurdish region. Using locally grounded data from in-person and online interviews with grassroots actors, the thesis shows that these actors have used transitional justice discourse to pursue truth, justice, and accountability. The empirical research, including a case study of the Saturday Mothers movement, shows that despite the absence of an official transitional justice agenda, or a peace agreement that sets out a transitional justice strategy, it was still possible to contribute to the transitional justice pillars of truth, justice, guarantees of non-recurrence, and memorialization. The findings also highlight how civil society can use the ongoing and unfolding process to develop a roadmap for a community-led transitional justice process.The research outlines learnings from the experience of bottom-up and agency-oriented efforts and approaches in Turkey. It argues that transitional justice as a field can benefit from incorporating more grassroots voices to move it beyond a prescriptive and elite-driven endeavour toward a more transformative agenda. Transitional justice theory and practice can also benefit from the Turkish case by better understanding how processes can work during, or are limited by, ongoing conflicts. There is a need for a nuanced approach to capture the contexts where the conflict continues alongside several attempts to deal with the past. My PhD research contributes to bridging that gap, by specifically examining the prospects, challenges and opportunities that transitional justice could offer during an ongoing conflict. By, referring to the grassroots efforts for truth and justice as transitional justice initiatives, this thesis rethinks Turkey as a case study to produce more knowledge on how transitional justice could be implemented in the absence of a fundamental political transition. It is also significant for documenting the perceptions of victims and other grassroots actors of victimhood and transitional justice.Through the fellowship I will consolidate and prepare the next stage of my academic career. The project has three broad aims: First, it aims to contribute to the bridging the gap between the empirical data on victims' agency and demands and the transitional justice scholarship. Second, it aims to make the PhD findings accessible to, and used by, practitioners, thereby generating strong impact on policy and practice for an ongoing conflict that has been long neglected in the field of transitional justice. Third, it seeks to position the fellow for leading a research grant for a collaborative and participatory project that builds on the PhD work. Overall, the fellowship will play a vital role in bridging the gap identified by my PhD findings: the disconnect between the theory of transitional justice produced and the practice that is shaped by victim groups' and grassroots organisations' mobilisation.