Abstract
Today, Kurds in Northern Iraq are employing a narrative of the Kurdish nation that bears strong ethnic roots and includes the memory of the victimization of the Kurdish nation. This essay examines the repurposing of the National Museum at Amna Suraka in Iraqi Kurdistan, from its former role as a Ba'ath site for detention, torture and execution, into a site for the preservation of Kurdish history and culture. In doing so, this essay locates the National Museum at Amna Suraka, and its role as a museum for Kurdish history and culture and as a national memorial,within the historical context of the Iraqi state. Such an examination, demonstrates the intersectional nature of the struggle for national identity within Iraqi Kurdish society, non-Kurds outside of Iraqi Kurdistan and for transnational Kurdish publics.
Highlights
This essay examines the repurposing of the National Museum at Amna Suraka in Iraqi Kurdistan, from its former role as a Ba’ath site for detention, torture and execution, into a site for the preservation of Kurdish history and culture
In this essay I will consider the National Museum at Amna Suraka located in Sulaimani, Iraqi Kurdistan
A thorough examination of this important museum considers the constituent parts of the dominant Kurdish nationalist narrative currently operating in Iraqi Kurdistan
Summary
In this essay I will consider the National Museum at Amna Suraka located in Sulaimani, Iraqi Kurdistan. Informed by the work of Van Bruinessen, Vali, Hassanpour, as well as Anderson and Barth, it seems reasonable to suggest that since the establishment of the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq, and the relative stability and freedom that has been encouraged there, there would be a boom in efforts, like the creation of the National Museum at Amna Suraka, that reclaim, preserve, and imagine Kurdish culture. The theme of violence, genocide, and dispersal as important and constitutive elements of the Kurdish national identity and memory dominate the Amna Suraka museum These elements serve to document social injustice on behalf of the Kurdish nation within the Iraqi state in a way that allows for the Kurds as a marginalized group within the Iraqi state to achieve recognition. “The Crossing Museum would become the permanent home for the art collection, act
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