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

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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.