Kurdish Identity Research Articles

Identity and collective action among European Kurds

This research investigated the role of group-based anger and efficacy in explaining the effects of subgroup (ethnic) and common (European) identity on collective action among Kurds in Europe responding to different types of disadvantage. Whereas stronger Kurdish identity positively predicted intentions for collective action (mediated by anger and efficacy), stronger common ingroup identity was negatively related to collective action intentions. This effect occurred primarily when structural disadvantage was salient, not when attention was drawn to a specific incident of disadvantage, and was mediated by anger but not efficacy. The findings complement recent work demonstrating that intergroup harmony can undermine social change, suggesting that stronger common-group identification reduces collective action by reducing minority-group members' sensitivity to potential bias against them.

Editorial

Almost a century ago, Memduh Selim wrote in the Kurdish magazine Jîn, which appeared in Istanbul, about the importance of festivals and commemorations for national awareness, and he urged the Kurds to follow the example of other nations and cultivate their national days. The mobilising potential of such celebrations and the various symbols associated with them has been amply proven in the case of the Kurds. As the major festivals to be celebrated, Memduh Bey mentioned Kurdish New Year (sersal) and the day of Kawa the Blacksmith, the hero who slew the tyrannical king Zahhak. He believed that the latter day was to be celebrated towards the end of summer. Later generations joined the symbol of Kawa’s uprising to the spring festival, making Newroz/Nowruz a festival of rebirth, resistance and liberation. Although other Iranian and Turkic peoples also celebrate Nowruz, the day has acquired a distinct symbolic meaning for the Kurds. The festival and the myth associated with it are shared by Kurds of all countries; it has become a core aspect of Kurdish identity as well as a symbol of the Kurdish struggle against oppression.

Explaining the PKK's Mobilization of the Kurds in Turkey: Hegemony, Myth and Violence

This article focuses on the PKK's (Kurdistan Workers' Party) nationalist mobilization of the Kurds in Turkey in the past 30 years. By drawing on the concepts of ‘hegemony’ and ‘myth’, it examines the constitution of Kurdish political subjectivity and the representation of Kurdish identity and difference in political discourse. It reflects on the ideological and political debates over strategy and the contestation over identity that numerous Kurdish political organizations took part in during the 1970s. It then examines the PKK's subsequent hegemony over Kurdish politics in Turkey from the 1980s onwards by highlighting the factors that have enhanced its appeal among the Kurdish communities. This is done first through tracing the growth of the PKK's organizational network, and second, analysing the representation of its struggle in political discourse and artistic form to its target groups.

The Kurdish Identity of Turkish Nationalist Thinkers: Ziya Gökalp and Ahmet Arvasi between Turkish Identity and Kurdish Ethnicity

This article purports to study the national identity of two influential ideologues of Turkish nationalism, Ziya Gökalp and Ahmet Arvasi, their approach to Kurds and their rejection of such affiliations regardless of their background in a predominantly Kurdish milieu. Their worldviews were strikingly different regarding social matters but they both shared a common view regarding the hegemonic position of Turkish identity even in a Kurdish-majority region.

A History of Violence: Ethnic Group Identity and the Iraqi Kurds

One of the more interesting aspects of world concern during “Operation Iraqi Freedom” was how to incorporate Iraq’s Kurdish population into an American military strategy. Furthermore, as the war was winding down, and the United States and Iraq began to construct a new Iraqi state, government, and Constitutional regime, the focus shifted on what role would the Kurds play in the new government, or even if they should be included in a government. But for most policy-makers, it was unclear who were the Kurds. How were they different than the other ethnic and religious populations of Iraq and the region generally? What was their history with the Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein? The purpose of this paper is to provide answers to these most important questions through the lens of Political Science. As Iraq continues to form its new identity, it is important to understand what constitutes the identity of one of its most prominent ethnic groups, the Kurds. In tracing and describing Kurdish ethnic attributes, it is also important to delineate the history between the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein, how Iraqi identity was constructed in opposition to Kurdish identity (often oppressing it), and to understand the tense relationship between the two, a relationship that is most aptly described as having a history of violence.

Şeref Xan's Sharafnama: Kurdish Ethno-Politics in the Early Modern World, Its Meaning and Its Legacy

This paper critically analyzes the Sharafnama, a history of the Kurds, written by the late sixteenth century ruler of Bitlis, Şeref Xan. Given the politically sensitive nature of the Middle East's “Kurdish Question,” the Sharafnama has become an extremely important resource through which Kurdish nationalists have sought to construct a coherent “national narrative.” This is due to the fact that Şeref Xan's book constitutes one of the few systematic histories of the Kurds written before the twentieth century. This paper moves away from nationalist inspired interpretations of the Sharafnama, which see the work as a “national(ist)” history. Instead, it posits that, although the piece can be regarded as a manifestation of Kurdish “ethno-politics,” it is necessary to look at it within the context of the relationship between the Kurdish tribal princes who ruled large areas of “Kurdistan,” on one hand, and the Ottoman and Safavid empires who competed for control of this region, on the other. In particular, it brings to the fore an often forgotten and/or ignored aspect of Şeref Xan's history, namely its pro-Ottoman bias. In this way, the article makes broader points relating to the nature of the Kurdish identity in the early modern period, and the influence of such conceptions on the later construction of the modern Kurdish identity.

The racialization of Kurdish identity in Turkey

Until the 1990s, the Kurdish issue in Turkey largely involved the Turkish state, an ethnic group and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The 2000s witnessed community-level clashes between Kurds and Turks, signalling the Turkish population's rise as an actor in the issue. This paper makes two claims. First, communal clashes indicate that Kurdish identity is not an ethnic identity alone, but is experiencing a racialization process, based on four indicators: emphasis on physical characteristics in the definitions of Kurds; linking Kurdish identity with the absence of certain moral characteristics; the increasing assignment, rather than self-assertion, of Kurdish identity; and discourses of racial extinction. Second, the racialization of Kurdish identity corresponds to historical change in conceptions of diversity. Racialization became possible after a distinct Kurdish identity was recognized but normatively unwelcomed.

Kurds and the state in Iran: the making of Kurdish identity

In early 1946, Kurds declared an independent republic in north-west Iran. The Mahabad Republic, as it became known, was the first time that the Kurds experienced self-rule in the modern era. Although short-lived, the Republic had a formative influence on the subsequent development of Kurdish nationalist movements in Iran and the wider region. Here, Abbas Vali disputes the conventional view that the Kurdish Republic was the result of a Soviet conspiracy to dismember Iran, a side-effect of the Cold War. Instead he emphasizes the diversity of the internal Iranian and Kurdish factors that led to the formation of the Republic, arguing that the Republic represents the culmination of a new and modern Kurdish national identity. This was an identity which emerged in response to the exclusionary effects of the political and discursive processes and practices of the construction of a modern Iranian nation-state and national identity since the Constitutional Revolution of 1906. With its analysis of the formation and effects of nationalism and ethnic identity, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the Kurds or the development of national and state identities in the Middle East.

‘Sold Out to the Enemy’: Emerging Symbolic Boundaries in Kurdish Politics and the Strategic Uses of Labeling Treason

Why do the pro-Kurdish activists selectively condemn renowned leftists of treason? Why are allegations of treachery so ubiquitous? Existing literature suggests that the Kurdish community would be particularly receptive to allegations of treason because of its tribal structure and strong cultural codes. Drawing on the niche theory, this article argues contrary that competition over Kurdish nationalism is the key to explain the growing symbolic politics. Especially in the past decade, the PKK’s monopoly over Kurdish identity has been challenged strongly by both Islamic and leftist groups. Analyzing recent contestations over Kurdish national identity, the article illuminates how the construction of external threats and symbolic boundary making appear in the form of labeling treason.

Rethinking the ‘Kurdish question’ in Turkey

It is not possible to make Turkish modernity multicultural, Turkish democracy consolidated, Turkish economy sustainable, Turkish society a society of living together, and Turkish foreign policy proactive, multidimensional, and effective, without resolving the Kurdish question. In this article I will suggest that the democratic solution to the Kurdish question lies in (a) a critical analysis of state-centric Turkish modernity and its recent crisis, as the Kurdish identity has always been constructed as the Other of Turkish national identity; and (b) an attempt aiming at a democratic reconstruction of the political in Turkey, which sees a multicultural and differentiated understanding of constitutional citizenship as a constitutive norm of ‘living together in diversity’. By doing so, it would be possible to seek a feasible and effective solution to the Kurdish question not in ‘ethnic terms’ but by exploring possible ways of ‘articulating identity-claims to citizenship rights with an emphasis on the practice of democracy’.

Representations of the ‘Kurds’ by the Turkish Judiciary

Although the tensions around Kurdish ethnic identity and the extent of human rights violations against Kurds throughout the history of the Turkish Republic are well-documented, little research exists about the role played by the Turkish judiciary in relation to the legal position, demands, and identity of the Kurds in Turkey. An analysis of the role of the judiciary is demanded especially given its position as one of the guardians of the foundational values of the Turkish state. This article analyzes how Turkey’s judiciary has navigated the demands of Kurdish people, how it has represented Kurds, and to what extent it has accommodated their alterity in its jurisprudence. Among its findings are that Turkish judges have participated in reproducing Turkish nationalism within their legal discourse, which continues to re-emerge in the case law at various points in time. Since the 1970s, the judiciary has represented Kurds as having no distinct existence and as being Turkish. Somewhat contradictorily, it has also acknowledged the Kurds while consistently rejecting Kurdism. Reproducing a legal orientalist discourse, the judiciary has constructed the Kurds as the ‘other’ to justify civilizing them by legal means. The lack of self-criticism of the dominant strain in the jurisprudence, based on the narrative of the Turkishness of the Kurds, indicates that the judiciary in Turkey has failed to produce a culturally pluralist jurisprudence which accommodates the demands of the Kurds. It has also produced an ethno-culturist jurisprudence with reference to the Turkish ethnie, and perpetuated the discourse of Turkish ethnic nationalism.

The Europeanization process and Kurdish nationalism in Turkey: the case of the Democratic Society Party

This study aims at analyzing the impact of the European integration process on Kurdish nationalism in Turkey by focusing on the Democratic Society Party (Demokratik Toplum Partisi, DTP) as the major pro-Kurdish political party in Turkey between 2005 and 2009. It argues that the Europeanization process in Turkey, which accelerated in the post-Helsinki period, has brought about some important consequences concerning the recognition and expression of Kurdish identity. The study examines Europe's impact on the DTP through analysis of party documents and interviews with party representatives, in order to investigate the meaning and use of the European integration process in the DTP's sub-state nationalist ideology. This analysis shows that, although the Europeanization process in Turkey has somewhat broadened opportunity structures for Kurdish sub-state nationalist politics, overall the EU's impact on the DTP's nationalist politics has remained indirect and limited.

Kurdish men's experiences of migration-related mental health issues

The migration process may impose stress on the mental health of immigrants. To describe the experiences of immigrant men of Kurdish ethnicity during and after migration to Sweden with regard to mental health issues. Using the grounded theory method, we conducted a focus group interview with four Kurdish men and in-depth individual interviews with 10 other Kurdish men. A model with two major themes and interlinked categories was developed. The themes were (1) protective factors for good mental health (sense of belonging, creation and re-creation of Kurdish identity, sense of freedom, satisfaction with oneself) and (2) risk factors for poor mental health (worry about current political situation in the home country, yearning, lack of sense of freedom, dissatisfaction with Swedish society). The study provides insights into the psychological and emotional experiences of immigrant men of Kurdish ethnicity during and after migration to Sweden. It is important for primary health care providers to be aware of the impact that similar migration-related and life experiences have on the health status of immigrants, and also to be aware that groups are comprised of unique individuals with differing experiences and reactions to these experiences. The findings highlight the common themes of the men's experiences and suggest ways to ameliorate mental health issues, including feeling like one is seen as an individual, is a full participant in society, and can contribute to one's own culture.

Obstacles and opportunities: recent Kurdish struggles for political representation and participation in Turkey

AbstractHaving gone through different phases of political action and facing various forms of suppression by the state, the Kurdish movement from 1990's persisted in establishing legal parties despite recurrent bans by the Constitutional Court. In the 2007 national elections DTP (after its ban the BDP) running as independent candidates formed a group in the Parliament which was followed by an extensive regional representation in eastern and southeastern Turkey in local elections of 2009. At the three levels of political activity (parliament, local government, civil society) the extent of women's presence exceeds well over the general percentage in Turkey while various civil society organizations at both the national and regional levels lend support for extension of minority/human rights. Although the new legal and political reforms as of early 2000's in line with Turkey's bid for accession to the EU have opened up a new venue for legitimization of Kurdish identity and recognition of various cultural, civil and cultural rights, strictness of the electoral law impedes fair representation and certain discriminatory attitudes and practices still persist in the civil and military bureaucracy, mass media and political parties in contention. Whether Kurdish participation in Turkey's politics will fare in 'normal' terms in the future is largely dependent on Turkey's democratization process in which the Kurdish politicians' claims to function as a non-regional Turkey party constitute an important but only one of the impacting factors, e.g., rehabilitation of the PKK, decentralization and empowerment of local government, extension of human rights, and a non-exclusionary definition of Turkish identity.

The Impact of the Kurdish Identity on Turkey's Foreign Policy from the 1980s to 2008

This article maintains that the Kurdish identity is determinant in almost all areas of Turkey's foreign policy. It discusses this significance by using in general the instruments of constructivism and in particular the instruments of rule-oriented constructivism of Nicholas Onuf. In this context, it puts forward three claims. First, Kurdish identity leads to the construction of a collective identity which determines Turkey's relations with its neighbours and near environment. Second, as the subject of a human rights question it causes a negative identification regarding Turkey and thus affects its relations with western states and institutions. And finally, involving the construction process of the Turkish national identity, it excites Turkish nationalism and hence inserts the foreign policy decisions and behaviours in a nationalist framework.

The Kurds of Damascus in the 1930s: Development of a Politics of Ethnicity

In the 1930s, certain Kurds in Damascus mobilized in support of Kurds from the Jazira, the remote north-east of Syria (then under French mandate), who were demanding the establishment there of a Kurdish autonomous zone. Why did they do this? Rather than assuming that it was a political action flowing from a self-evident sense of Kurdish identity, this article explores the micropolitics of Damascus under French rule, and the effect of the development of the nation-state form in Syria, to account for the origins of a new politics of ethnicity.

Identity, language, and new media: the Kurdish case

This paper draws on theories that describe interrelationships between identity, language and the media to investigate how the Kurds utilise two forms of electronic media—satellite television and the Internet—to construct their identities. The data for this study is generated from four sources: a Kurdish satellite television channel (Kurdistan TV), a variety of Kurdish Internet sites, literature reflecting on the place of the new media among the Kurds, and informal interviews and personal communications with Kurdish media producers and audiences. Strategies including participant observation and online ethnography have been used to select data. Data analysis is informed by a critical discourse analytic approach that calls for examination of data at three levels: discourse practices, text, and socio-cultural contexts (Fairclough in Media discourse. Arnold, London, 1995). Findings suggest that the Kurdish language is held as one of the most important and salient manifestations of Kurdish identity. Satellite television and the Internet have magnified the symbolic role of the Kurdish language in defining Kurdishness. In addition, these new media have enabled Kurds from different regions and all walks of life to share and discuss cultural, social and political ideas and issues publicly and dialogically, and to construct and reconstruct their identities discursively with relative freedom and ease. The study also underlines significant differences between these two forms of new media in relation to identity construction and language use. Whereas satellite television seems to foster mutual intelligibility among the speakers of different Kurdish varieties the Internet tends to further diversify the language across alphabet and regional lines.

Book Reviews

82 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. XXXIII, No.3, Spring 2010 Book Reviews Edited by Nadia Barsoum Middle East and North Africa THE FUTURE OF ISLAM, BY John Esposito, Oxford University press, New York 2010, 234pp. Here the author explores the major questions and issues that face Islam in the twenty-first century and that will deeply affect global politics. He introduces the reader to a new generation of Muslim thinkers. The book underscores the unexpected similarities between the Islamic world and the West and at times turns the mirror on the United States, revealing how we appear to Muslim. INDIA AND THE INDIANNES OF CHRISTIANITY, Essays on Understanding-Historical, Theological, and Bibliographical- in Honor of Robert Frykenbeg. Richard Fox Young, editor. William B.Publishig Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge,U.K., 283pp. The book features first-time studies on Christianity in a variety of unusual Indian settings, including tribal societies, and offers original contributions to an understanding of how India Christianity was perceived in the post independence period by India’s governing elite. Several essayists draw heavily on rare archival documentation in the UK, Germany, and India. The wealth of material and the perspective gathered here constitute a remarkable volume – a credit to the historian who inspired it. ENGAGING IRAN. By Nathan Gonzalez. Westport, CT: Praeger Security International, 2007, 180pp. Offers a new standpoint to the debate about U.S.- Iranian relations which is a reduction in tension with the Islamic Republic would be a good move. LOSING IRAQ. By Stephen C. Pelletiere. Westport, CT: Praeger Security International, 2007, 151pp. This explains that Iraq did not win a war of attrition through luck, persistence, and the use of chemicals. THE CITY’S PLEASURES: ISTANBUL IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. By Shirine Hamadeh. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2008, 350pp. This is an examination of the changes that addicted the fabric and architecture in Istanbul during the century after the decisive return of the Ottoman court to the capitol in 1703. 83 FIGHTING THE GREATER JIHAD. By Cheikh Anta Babou. Athens, OH, 2007, 294pp. This looks at the forging of Murid identity and teaching around the person and initiative of Amadu Bamba, as well as the ongoing refromation of this identity by current followers. LEAF OF ALLAH: KHAT & AND AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION IN HARERGE, ETHIOPIA 1875- 1991. By Ezekiel Gebissa. Athens, OH, 2004, 210pp. This study investigates the disadvantages of the new cash crop for the regional economy, farmer- state relations, the nature and balance of local social relations, as well as Harerge’s physical, socioeconomic and political landscapes. CONFLICTED ANTIQUITIES: EGYPTOLOGY, EGYPTOMANIA, EGYPTIAN MODERNITY. By Elliot Colla. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007, 345pp. Provides a rich cultural history of European and Egyptian interest in ancient Egypt and its material culture, from the early nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth. A MODERN HISTORY OF THE SOMALI, 4th ed. By I.M. Lewis. James Currey Ltd (Oxford, UK), Btec Books (Hargeisa, Somaliland) and Ohio University Press (Athens, Ohio). Explores the continuity of Somali forms of social organization and the ingeniousness with which the Somali way of life has adapted to all forms of modernity. THE CULTURAL ROOTS OF AMERICAN ISLAMICISM. By Timothy Marr. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 309pp. This book investigates the heritage of how Americans have used Islamic orientalist images to globalize the authority of domestic cultural power. HELL IN THE HOLY LAND: WORLD WAR I IN THE MIDDLE EAST. By David R. Woodward. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2006, 253pp. Explicit first hand accounts from written material such as diaries, letters and memoirs of British soldiers who fought were used to describe the fighting and dying in Egypt and Palestine. KURDISH IDENTITY: HUMAN RIGHTS AND POLITICAL STATUS . Edited by Charles G. MacDonald and Carole A. O’Leary. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2007, 336pp. Provides a basic understanding of the significance of the concept of Kurdish identity as it exists in the Middle East and elsewhere. THE ROAD NOT TRAVELED: EDUCATION REFORM IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 2008, 359pp. This report explains the triumphs and challenges the growth of education encountered in order...

Syria's Kurds: history, politics and society

Introduction 1. The Kurds During the French Mandate 1.1 Kurdish Populations under the French Mandate 1.2 The Mandate System and the Birth of the Syrian State 1.3 The Mandate and the Colonial Expertise 1.4 The Kurdish Cultural Movement in Syria and Lebanon 1.5 Fragmentation of the Kurdish Community: Politics in Jazira 2. Syria in Transition, 1946-63 2.1 Searching for New Political Horizons 2.2 The Triumph of Arab Nationalism and the United Arab Republic 3. The Ba'athist System and the Kurds 3.1 Ba'athism: an Exception in Arab Nationalism? 3.2 The Years of Ideological Purity (1963-70) 3.3 The Years of Exploitation (1970-2000) 4. The Kurdish Issue and Its Transnational Dimension 4.1 The emergence of Hafiz al-As'ad's Game 149 4.2 The Fall of Saddam Husayn And The Collapse of Syrian Strategy 5. The Kurdish Response and its Margins: Dissimulation of a hidden conflict 5.1 The Kurdish Parties at the Margins of the Legal System 5.2 Kurdish Identity at the margins of official islam 5.3 The Defense of Kurdish Culture 6. The Qamishli Revolt, 2004: The Marker of a new Era for the Kurds in Syria 6.1 The Activities Preceding the Kurdish Upheaval 6.2 The Qamishli Revolt 6.3 Toward a Radicalization of Ethnic Divisions? Conclusion

TOWARD KURDISH DISTINCTIVENESS IN ELECTORAL POLITICS: THE 1977 LOCAL ELECTIONS IN DİYARBAKIR

In December 1977 an independent candidate named Mehdi Zana was elected mayor of Diyarbakır, one of the biggest cities in Turkey's southeastern region. His election was a striking event, upsetting the troika of class, party, and state that had maintained a tight hold over the local political apparatus in Diyarbakır since the 1940s. Unlike most prior mayors of Diyarbakır, Zana did not come from a prominent family of local notables but was a working-class tailor with a middle-school education. He was one of only two independent candidates who won electoral contests in Turkey's sixty-seven big-city races; his election therefore flew in the face of a national trend that favored candidates from the country's two main political parties. Zana was well known for his left-wing, Kurdist politics, and at the time of his election he already had spent several years in jail for his activism. In a system that suppressed collective expressions of Kurdish identity, he was thus a clear ideological interloper.