Ethnic or political cleansing?  Demographic engineering and identification bundles in the Turkish-occupied territories of northern Syria

Davide  Grasso

doi:10.13135/2611-853X/10572

Davide Grasso University of Turin https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0897-0297

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13135/2611-853X/10572

Abstract

The paper analyses the military invasions and demographic engineering perpetrated by the Republic of Turkey
in the Syrian Arab Republic from 2016 to 2024. In particular, it focuses on the lasting effects of the 2018 and
2019 invasions to address the following question: Which identification process is more relevant to understan-
ding the Turkish operations and the related demographic change? To support this analysis, the study utilises
documentary and ethnographic qualitative resources. After outlining the sources and their limitations, the
paper sets forth the methodological, theoretical and terminological tools used, later clarifying the historical
context of the ongoing conflict between the Syrian national army, supported by Turkey, and the Syrian demo-
cratic forces that Turkey aims to neutralise. Grounded in processual-relational thinking (p-rt), this study seeks to
provide a new and original categorisation of the relevant identification bundles. It proposes moving beyond
the categories of “culture” and “ethnicity”, which are often vague and reductionist, and instead distinguishes
between “ancestral” and “hermeneutic” identification bundles. The former is defined by normative horizons tied
to inherited commonalities that relate to language, customs and religious denominations, while the latter
encompasses unique interpretations of these legacies through political programs and legal commitments.
Based on the gathered evidence, the research assesses which of these bundles is more relevant to defining the
conflict between the SNA and the SDF and the ensuing demographic engineering process. While both bundles
prove relevant, the hermeneutic bundle emerges as preponderant.

Keywords: Demographic Engineering, Identification bundles, Ethnicity, Rojava, Turkey

Author Biography

Davide Grasso, University of Turin

Davide Grasso holds a Ph.D. in Moral, Theoretical Philosophy and Philosophical Hermeneutics at the University of Turin and a EHESS/IMéRA Research Chair at the Aix-Marseille University. He teaches Law and Ethics in Time of War at the International University College of Turin and is research fellow in General Sociology at the University of Turin. He spent research periods at the Columbia University of New York and at the EHESS-ENS in Paris, working for the CNRS in the Paris Region. A founding member of the Italian Network for Kurdish Studies, he has conducted field research, involving participant observation, in Syria, Turkey, Palestine, Iraq and Ukraine. Beside multiple research articles in peer-reviewed journals, he wrote books about the confederal revolution in north-eastern Syria (Hevalen, Alegre, 2017, currently under translation in Kurdish; Il fiore del deserto, Agenzia X, 2018, translated in Arabic and Kurdish) and on social struggles in eastern Europe before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall (La città e il fantasma, Castelvecchi, 2019). He obtained a MSCA Seal of Excellence from the European Commission in 2024. A member of the Centre for Inter-University Research in Socio-Ecological and Sustainability Studies, he worked for and co-signed Horizon projects focusing on policy evaluation, political participation and environmental sociology.