"Providing a unique record of the authoritarian, centralist and ultra-nationalist nature of the Turkish state manifested in Erdoğan's "New Turkey," Çandar challenges stereotyped and conventional views on Turkey and details account of the encounter between Turkey and the Kurds in historical perspective with special emphasis on failed peace processes"--.

• Cover
• Turkey’s Mission Impossible
• Series page
• Turkey’s Mission Impossible: War and Peace with the Kurds
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Foreword
• Notes on Spelling and Transliteration
• Writing Turkey’s Mission Impossible
• Introduction
• Part I: Intractable Conflict
  • Chapter 1
  • Historical and Ideological Background
    • Turkish Social Darwinism
    • Turkishness: The Driving Force for Nation-Building
    • The Roots of the Kurdish Question
    • The Sèvres Treaty
    • Sèvres Syndrome
    • The Trilogy of Evil: Sèvres, Kurds, West
    • Turkification: Making Kurds “Mountain Turks”
    • Kurdistan: A Taboo for Turkey, a State (Eyalet) for the Ottoman Empire
    • Yes to Mustafa Kemal, No to Atatürk
    • Kurdish Autonomy: Forever Impossible
    • Notes
  • Chapter 2
  • Kurdish Uprisings
    • Kurdish Rebellion Shaping Turkish Domestic Politics
    • The Sheikh Said Rebellion and the Mosul Question
    • The British “Betrayal”
    • Kemalist Realpolitik on Mosul: Dividing Kurdistan
    • Autopsy of the First Kurdish Rebellion
    • Syria: New Political Headquarters
    • France in Syria: Different from Britain in Iraq
    • Ararat: The Second Big Revolt
    • Dersim: The Alevi–Zaza’s Turn and the Massacre
    • The Fourth Revolt or the First All-Kurdish Insurgency
    • Notes
  • Chapter 3
  • The Longest Kurdish Insurgency
    • The Insurgency That Ended the Silent Decades
    • War for Decades
    • Urban Warfare Failed
    • PKK’s Trepidation: The Sri Lankan Model
    • Distant Cousins: PKK, LTTE, FARC
    • Top Commander on the Military Situation and Rojava
    • Turkey’s Repression: Back to Square One
    • Notes
  • Chapter 4
  • Öcalan and the Birth and Evolution of the PKK
    • Personality Cult
    • Why Öcalan?
    • PKK: Born in Ankara University, Descendant of the Turkish Left
    • Foundation and Formation
    • Reconstruction
    • Third World: The Cradle of the PKK
    • Evolution: From Marxism-Leninism to a Sui Generis Organization
    • No More “Independent Kurdistan”: Struggle for “Democratic Autonomy”
    • Murray Bookchin: An Unusual Ideological Godfather
    • The Revolutionary Feminist
    • The Perpetual Perception: PKK the “Terrorist”
    • Notes
• Part II: Exploring Peace
  • Chapter 5
  • Özal, Talabani, Öcalan
    • The First Cease-fire with Talabani
    • Meeting Öcalan for Özal
    • With Özal on Öcalan
    • Advocating Turkish-Kurdish Unity
    • Özal: A Lonely President in a Minefield
    • Missionary on the Road
    • Tracing the President in Central Asia
    • Özal’s Testimony to End the Kurdish Conflict
    • Notes
  • Chapter 6
  • New Century, New Prospects, New Initiatives
    • Öcalan Believes Özal Assassinated
    • The Worst-Case Scenario: The Bloodbath
    • What If Özal Were Still Alive?
    • Erdoğan: Stronger than His Predecessors
    • Gates of Europe Opened
    • The End of the “Lost Decade”
    • A New Decade of Opportunities
    • Notes
  • Chapter 7
  • Road to Oslo, Contacts, and Back Channels
    • Secret Revealed
    • Power Struggle of the “Moderate Islamists” to Control the State
    • Talabani on Secret Contacts
    • Secret Talks before Oslo
    • Abdullah Gül’s Unrecorded Peace Effort
    • The Milestone
    • Norway: The Traditional Mediator and Host
    • Two Parallel Tracks
    • Notes
  • Chapter 8
  • Oslo, Talking in Secrecy
    • Norwegian Shuttle and Genevan Involvement
    • The Third Party: The Centre in Geneva
    • Uncovering Oslo
    • The Failure
    • Shortcomings and Lessons
    • The Turkish Revelation
    • Reasons for Failure: Reciprocal “Sins”
    • Erdoğan Won, Peace Process Lost
    • Notes
  • Chapter 9
  • Erdoğan’s Dance with Öcalan
    • Working with Öcalan as a Peacemaker
    • Three Reasons for Launching the Peace Process
    • The Mandela Case: Inspiration for Öcalan
    • Öcalan on Mandela
    • Misleading Signs for Optimism
    • Similar Failures in Sri Lanka and Colombia
    • Foreseeing the Failure
    • The End for the Peace Process
    • Notes
• Part III: Prioritizing War
  • Chapter 10
  • Elusive Peace, Not Talking Turkey
    • Acknowledging the Kurdish Question
    • Passing on Özal’s Legacy to Erdoğan
    • Erdoğan’s Track Record of Backtracking
    • The Insufficiency of AKP Ideology
    • Peace Process or a Scheme for Elections
    • Why Release the Bird in the Cage?
    • No Third Party, No Compromise
    • Disengagement from Peace Process: Rejecting American Mediation
    • Notes
  • Chapter 11
  • Battlefield Syria
    • Ser Xat, Bin Xat
    • In Damascus
    • Muslim Brotherhood of Turkey?
    • On Syria with Barzani and Talabani
    • Kurdish Question Intertwined
    • Revolution for PKK, Nightmare for Turkey
    • Crossing Red Lines
    • Geopolitical-Strategic Outlook versus Wishful Thinking
    • “Kurdish Stalingrad”: Separating Ankara and Washington
    • Blaming Turkey on ISIS
    • Gross Errors
    • Notes
  • Chapter 12
  • Neighboring Quagmire
    • East of the Euphrates: The Pursuit of a Turkish Safe Zone
    • Displacing Kurds, Resettling Syrian Refugees
    • Erdoğan’s Good Fortune, Kurds’ Misfortune
    • “Erdoğan Wanted to Wipe Out the Kurds”
    • Volte Face: Endorsing Turkey in Syria
    • Operation Adjourned
    • Operation Peace Spring
    • Kurdish “Red Lines” Erased
    • A Kurdish Gamble
    • The Kurds: The World’s Lost Nation
    • A Betrayal That Led to Alternative Choices
    • A Postmortem for Kurdish Autonomy
    • Northeastern Syria: A Potential Vietnam or Afghanistan for Turkey
    • A New Turkey in a New Syria
    • Notes
• Part IV: History of the Future
  • Chapter 13
  • A Coup for a New Turkey
    • Eurasianist Bedfellows
    • Dugin, the Russian Role, and the Coup
    • “Blood Money” Paid to Moscow
    • More Questions than Answers
    • Why Did the Coup Fail?
    • Speculations and Baffling Amateurishness
    • Turkey’s Reichstag Fire
    • Seeking Legitimacy: The New Turkey
    • Notes
  • Chapter 14
  • Deep State
    • The Historical Roots of the “Deep State”
    • Special Organization for “Dirty Jobs”
    • Precursor of the “Deep State,” Predecessor of MİT
    • The Military as the “Deep State”
    • Ergenekon: Grandchild of the Special Organization
    • The Islamist Civil War and Erdoğan’s “Faustian Pact”
    • Reinforcing the “Deep State” against the Kurds
    • Notes
  • Chapter 15
  • The Pedigree of Turkish Autocracy
    • The Tale of Three Titans
    • Power Struggle in the 1920s and 2010s
    • Revisiting Abdülhamid
    • Predicament in History: Erdoğan and Atatürk
    • Comparing Atatürk and Lenin
    • Erdoğan’s Peace with Atatürk
    • Kurds: Unifying Element for Turkish Nationalists
    • Notes
  • Chapter 16
  • New Turkey
    • Three Fathers for One Nation
    • Anti-Kurdish Nationalism: An End to “Clash of Civilizations”
    • Neo-Hamidians and Neo-Unionists: An Un-Catholic Marriage
    • United in Creating a Pure Muslim Nation
    • The Great Emperor and the “Master”: Sources of Inspiration for Erdoğan
    • New Historiography on New Turkey
    • Zeitgeist of the 2010s, Populist Nationalism and Authoritarianism
    • Turkey and the Kurds: An Uncertain Future
    • Notes
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Timeline—Late Ottoman andModern History of Turkey
  • Bibliography
  • Index
  • About the Author