Murat Öztürk*

The ownership of private land in Turkey has numerous legal, political, economic, and ethnic dimensions, both individually and collectively necessitating discussion. Legally, the transition of the right of land use from state ownership (demesne) to private ownership began with the Ottoman Land Regulation Law of 1858 and was further fortified and safeguarded by the republican-era constitutions and other legal measures during the twentieth century. Legal regulations alone do not determine the nature of the distribution of land to individuals and groups, but they are a strong indicator. Other political and social aspects, such as population exchange, forced migration and displacement, and subsequent land allocation, as well as the influence of the Kurdish agha system in southeast Anatolia, indicate the political aspects of the determination of land ownership in the country. Considering all these factors, the Turkish experience reveals that the distribution of land ownership and usage rights cannot be explained by a single factor and that political considerations need to be taken into account.

Necmettin Türk*

Control and access to land and related natural resources have been systematically used against Kurds by the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish state as key disciplinary tools to consolidate state presence and to advance its colonial exploitation and assimilation processes. The Kurdish Freedom Movement (KFM, Tevgera Azadiyê ya Kurd) has developed an ecological struggle against these policies as an essential element of its politics to decolonize the state’s control mechanisms over land and resources through commitment to ecological and democratic principles with the objective of creating a new ethic and aesthetic of national liberation.