This paper examines Turkish courts’ approach to honor killings in predominantly Kurdish provinces as a foray into several broader questions about state power, gender, and national identity. First, how do conceptions of ethnic, national, or “cultural” difference translate into structures of authority at the local level? Under what conditions do states recognize or reject the norms and power structure of communities they regard as “different,” particularly when such difference is integrally linked with competing claims to sovereignty? Second, what norms of sexuality and meanings of gender are inscribed into national identity through state practices, such as court decisions and legal discourse on honor killings? This paper attempts to examine these questions through a systematic study of criminal court decisions in Turkey from 1970 on.