Turkish-Kurdish Conflict Event Database: Technical Overview

This repository centers on an event database manual documenting the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. The primary artifact is a PDF manual that presumably details the methodology, coding scheme, and structure for cataloging conflict events. This resource is intended for researchers and analysts working on conflict data collection and political violence studies.

Motivation

The Turkish-Kurdish conflict is a complex and protracted political and ethnic conflict with significant implications for regional stability and human security. Systematic data collection on conflict events is essential to understand patterns, causes, and consequences. This project aims to provide a rigorous, replicable framework for event data collection specific to this conflict.

Problem Addressed

Conflict event data often suffers from inconsistency, lack of transparency, and methodological opacity. By producing a detailed manual, this project addresses the need for standardized coding procedures that ensure data reliability and validity. This enables comparative analysis and supports empirical research in political science and conflict studies.

Implementation Details

• The core deliverable is a PDF manual, likely containing:

  • Definitions of event types and actors
  • Coding rules and protocols
  • Data entry templates or schemas
  • Guidelines for source evaluation and event verification

• The repository currently lacks raw data or code, indicating a focus on methodological documentation rather than software or datasets.

• The presence of two similarly named PDF files suggests either versioning or duplication; clarification is needed.

Technical and Practical Considerations

• The manual format facilitates wide accessibility but limits automation; future iterations could benefit from accompanying machine-readable data or codebooks.

• Integration with data processing pipelines or visualization tools would enhance usability for engineers and analysts.

• Clear version control and updates to the manual will be critical to maintain relevance as the conflict evolves.

Summary

This project provides a foundational resource for systematic event data collection on the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. It fills a methodological gap by codifying event definitions and coding schemes. While currently limited to documentation, it lays the groundwork for rigorous empirical analysis and future technical development in conflict data science.