For more than three decades now, the Kurdish question has continued as perhaps the most pressingissue of contemporary Turkey, fundamentally influencing the ebbs and flows of Turkish democracy,authoritarianism, foreign policy, economic development, law and order and societal peace. Withintermittently shifting patterns of peace and conflict, the political violence surrounding the Kurdishquestion continues to haunt the everyday lives of many in Turkey and neighboring territories such asIraqi Kurdistan and northern Syria.