The Effect of Conflict Dynamics on Ethnic Identities: The Example of The Syrian Civil War

Abstract

How do war-time dynamics affect the solidifications of ethnic identities in a civil war? The literature on ethnic conflicts mostly focuses on the role of manipulation by the elites in explaining the rising ethnicity in a civil war. However, it does a poor job of explaining why the masses follow the manipulations of the elites and how the ethnic identification process works. To reveal the casual mechanism of the process of ethnic identification, the Syrian Civil War, which broke out in March 2011, was investigated. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 41 participants in two cities, Istanbul and Gaziantep, where most of the Syrian refugees live. The findings of this study suggest that the masses do not follow the elite manipulation because it is deceiving them or because following them suits their material interest. Instead, as proposed by the uncertainty-identity theory, the war-time dynamics, such as rising uncertainty and fear, affect the decisions of the individuals caught in a civil war and force them to identify with co-ethnics to survive the conflict.