From Terrorist to Repentant: Who is the Victim

This paper attempts to understand “truth making” conditions of terrorism in Turkey. Focusing on the effects of the Reinstatement into Society law—which is designed for members of illegal armed organizations who might turn into state witnesses—the article analyses the discourses and imagination surrounding the subject of “repentant” and in so doing demonstrates the dialectical relationship between the state discourses and the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) counter-discourses of terrorism. The article argues that both the state and the PKK affirm their sovereignty through their authority over constructing the category of victimhood and hence defining the terms of the conflict.