PoliticsAugust 18, 2026

partition

par-TIH-shun

Definition

The formal separation or division of a country or territory into distinct political or administrative entities.

Etymology

Derived from the Latin 'partitio', meaning 'a sharing or distribution.' It entered English in the 15th century to describe the act of dividing something into parts.

In the news

Turkish nationalists fear that the new peace deal with the Kurds is a first step toward the territorial division and subsequent collapse of the Turkish state. The term captures the anxiety that the political bargain could lead to the fragmentation of national sovereignty.

Turkey’s scrambled alignments: the PKK dissolution law and the politics of partial amnesty

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