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过程中的中心地位，但以受害者为中心的倡导和受害者代理作为一种政治力量仍然被忽视（Sajjad, 2016; Robins, 2017）。受害者作为政治行动者标志着过渡时期司法文献的缺失（Garcia-Godos, 2016），这构成了一个空白，反映了“受害者是被动的或非政治的”（Druliolle和Brett， 2018，第2页）。我的博士探索在土耳其和库尔德冲突过渡正义的未来方向，特别检查受害者和其他基层演员的观点，要求和经验。它通过从以受害者为中心的角度将库尔德冲突定位在过渡和变革正义领域内，做出了独特而新颖的贡献。尽管国家暴力和暴行的历史由来已久，但土耳其从未建立一个过渡时期的司法框架来处理这些过去的罪行，尤其是在库尔德地区。通过对基层行动者的实地访谈和在线访谈，本文表明，这些行动者使用过渡时期司法话语来追求真相、正义和问责。实证研究（包括对星期六母亲运动的案例研究）表明，尽管缺乏官方的过渡时期司法议程，或制定过渡时期司法战略的和平协议，但仍有可能为真相、正义、保证不再发生和纪念的过渡时期司法支柱做出贡献。调查结果还强调了民间社会如何利用正在进行和正在展开的进程，为社区主导的过渡司法进程制定路线图。该研究概述了从土耳其自下而上和面向机构的努力和方法的经验中吸取的教训。它认为，作为一个领域，过渡司法可以从吸收更多的基层声音中受益，使其超越规定性和精英驱动的努力，走向更具变革性的议程。过渡时期司法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在持续冲突期间程序如何发挥作用，或如何受到冲突的限制。有必要用一种细致入微的方法来捕捉冲突持续的背景，以及处理过去的几次尝试。我的博士研究有助于弥合这一差距，具体检查前景，挑战和机遇，过渡司法可能提供在持续的冲突。本文将草根阶层追求真理与正义的努力视为过渡时期的司法行动，并将土耳其作为个案进行反思，以了解在缺乏根本政治转型的情况下，如何实施过渡时期的司法。这对于记录受害者和其他基层行动者对受害者身份和过渡时期司法的看法也很重要。通过奖学金，我将巩固和准备我的下一阶段的学术生涯。该项目有三大目标：第一，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。其次，它的目的是使博士的研究结果可供从业人员使用，从而对长期以来在过渡司法领域被忽视的持续冲突的政策和实践产生强大的影响。第三，它寻求为建立在博士工作基础上的协作和参与性项目提供研究资助。总的来说，该奖学金将在弥合我的博士研究发现所确定的差距方面发挥至关重要的作用：产生的过渡正义理论与受害者团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.