How Do Experts Differ from Politicians in Understanding a Conflict? A Comparison of Track I and Track II Actors

This article explores the conflict understandings of Track II actors in the Kurdish conflict context and compares them with conflict understandings of Track I actors to identify similarities and differences between these actors. The results highlight two different conflict understandings among Track II actors: a democracy and identity viewpoint, and a democracy and economy viewpoint. Integrating these results with previous results for Track I actors highlights four different conflict understandings across Track I and Track II actors: a Kurdish rights viewpoint, a democracy and freedom viewpoint, a conservative‐religious viewpoint, and a terror viewpoint.