Drawing on Austin’s speech act theory and on related theories of performativity and positioning, this article analyses the public confessions during the 1990s by three prominent state actors in Turkey about their direct involvement in state crimes against Kurds and left-wing political opponents. All three cases received significant media attention at the time. The aim of the article is not only to shed new light on those specific confessions by the perpetrators within the Turkish context, but also to develop further theoretical insights into the phenomenon of public confessions as such. Whilst confessions of this kind are often welcomed and portrayed as truth-statements that are cathartic and enable society to move forward, this analysis demonstrates that the reality is often more complex as the confessions in question tend to go hand in hand with a disavowal of individual responsibility by the perpetrators involved.

中文翻译：

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无罪自白：土耳其公开承认国家暴力

本文借鉴奥斯汀的言语行为理论以及相关的述行和定位理论，分析了 1990 年代土耳其三位著名国家行为者直接参与针对库尔德人和左翼政治对手的国家罪行的公开供述。这三起案件当时都受到了媒体的极大关注。这篇文章的目的不仅是在土耳其语境下对肇事者的具体供述提供新的认识，而且还对公开供述的现象进行进一步的理论洞察。虽然此类自白通常受到欢迎并被描绘成宣泄宣泄并使社会向前发展的真相陈述，