European Union and Kurdish Relations and the Transformation of Kurdish Identity within Turkey's Democratization Process The aim of paper is to explore the effect of external political dynamics, Kurdish-European Union relations and the European Union's ongoing criticism of Turkey on the social, political and cultural rights of Kurds in Turkey and the political transformation of Kurdish society. It also examines the construction of a new, vernacular Kurdish identity within the context of Kurdish political movements and everyday life which simultaneously influences Turkey's democratization process. The study will be divided in to two main parts: First, Kurdish and European Union relations, which are based on two different aspects: first Turkey's EU accession process and the lobby movements of Kurdish Diaspora. Second, the Europeanization of Kurdishness process, in which I argue that Kurdish political identity has been influenced by the EU"s liberal and democratic values and also affected the policy of Kurdish movements and Turkish political life. Further, this study will investigate the effect of the relationship between internal dynamics in the Kurdish movement, and an external context, specifically the European Union, on Turkeys" political and legal structures. The modern Kurdish nationalist movement that first emerged with the slogan of "Independent Socialist Kurdistan" has recently begun to take on a different tone, a discourse that has now grown beyond political life to vernacular, everyday life. Concepts heard among Kurds in Europe include the notion of common history, the collaboration of two publics in Turkey's "independence" war, and co-existence of them with human rights, cultural and linguistic rights, "Democratic Republic," and "Constitutional Citizenship." These ideas have become embedded and virtually replaced the idea of a monolithic Kurdishness and Kurdistan in everyday life. In other words, Kurdish political actors, as well as the ordinary Kurdish people, now pursue "equal rights" and "constitutional citizenship" by appealing to a universal birthright of Turkish citizens rather than a marginal and even "old fashioned" nationalist movement in eastern Turkey. This study will analyse the construction of Kurdish identity in terms of a "Turkification" processes carried out by Kemalist elites during several historical periods. It will deconstruct the formation of Kurdishness modern Kurdish identity, revealing it to have been influenced by a variety of ideological stages including Islamist/feudal, Marxist-Leninist, and democratic/Europeanization.