Dani Rodrik: belief

Transcript context

…Is that resolved? They’re not asking for independence. There’s not terrorism in the streets every day. I think in that way, I think, it’s been . . . in that sense it’s been resolved. Whereas the Kurdish problem right now in Turkey is terrible. Violence has flared up again and so forth. We’re back to some of the worst kind of conflict. But I don’t think that there is something deeply structural that prevents the kind of compromise. I think the Kurdish nationalists are, in Turkey at least, are very clear-sighted in understanding that full independence is neither in their interests nor something that they are likely to get. The kinds of things that they do want realistically are not things that the Turkish national government could not give up. There’s no fundamental problem as to why that cannot be resolved. If it not being exploited for political reasons. Right now, for example, what’s happening is that Erdoğan is exploiting the Kurdish problem as a way of building up his own nationalist base. That’s being used, that particular cleavage is being used for a political purpose. But one can imagine other political strategies, other winning strategies that would involve compromise. Orhan Pamuk, by far the most famous Turkish author today. Overrated or underrated? What’s your take?…

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