Now more than ever, political violence must be understood as a key concept for understanding the history of Turkey. By considering the political history of the Ottoman Empire through repertoires of political violence, Swords and Remains provides an alternative perspective of the history of modern Turkey based on the close relation between coercive actions in the transition from empire coupled with the economy of violence that has ccurred as a result of a national identity established by the Republic.

The authors analyze the coercion that has enabled the ruling class through historical events such as the Kurdish revolts since the ‘20s, youth and workers’ movements in the ‘60s, the violence akin to a civil war with in the '70s, and the revolt of PKK after the '80s amid the balance of state capacity and democratization and the civil violence that was built up against this coercion.

Swords and Remains may thus be read as a narrative of the Turkish state both generating and transforming a Schmittian political vision.