Kurdish Issue Research Articles

THE KURDISH PROBLEM AS A LEGACY OF THE VERSAILLES SYSTEM OF THE WORLD ORDER

The article analyzes the roots and origins of the Kurdish problem. The author puts forward the thesis that the unresolved Kurdish issue is closely related to the unfair redistribution of the borders of the Ottoman Empire by the victorious countries after the First World War. The Treaty of Sevres in 1920 and the subsequent Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, in fact, divided the borders of three new states of ethnic Kurdistan. Thus, the Kurds were deprived of the opportunity to create their own national state and found themselves in the position of oppressed minorities in Turkey, Iraq and Syria, as well as in Shah Iran. Having received a League of Nations mandate to govern Iraq and Syria, Great Britain and France cared least of all about the rights and freedoms of the Kurds. The so-called neo-colonizers relied in their rule on the comprador bourgeoisie from among the Arab tribal nobility and the military. The national liberation movement of the Kurds was brutally suppressed by local nationalists and the colonial troops supporting them. The problem of self-determination of Kurdish communities in the region is still relevant. At the level of an age-old dream and idea, the Kurds are unlikely to give up broad autonomy, a nation-state or a confederation.

ISSUES OF DEVELOPMENT OF CHINA-TURKEY RELATIONS

The article considers the process of formation and development of diplomatic relations between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Turkey. It is believed that the relations between the two countries have been characterized differently in historical periods, depending on the domestic and foreign policies of China and Turkey, as well as changes in the system of international relations. The development of politics, diplomacy, trades, economics and other relations between the two countries will be discussed. Even with the political differences between China and Turkey, bilateral relations are proving to be a common development process. The two countries will analyze the historical unresolved Uyghur issue in Xinjiang and the impact of the Kurdish issue in Turkey on state relations.The current place and role of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Turkey in international relations were measured, their national interests covered, and the parties have not yet been able to take full advantage of various opportunities. However, it is concluding that there is a solid basis for the development of future diplomatic relations.

Authoritarian Use of Religion to Delegitimize and Securitize the Opposition

This article examines the use of religion by an authoritarian ruling party to delegitimize political opposition through securitization. The case study presented is the ruling AKP in Turkey, which initially promised to desecuritize the Kurdish issue to co-opt the Kurdish opposition but eventually resorted to the demonization narratives and repressive policies of the secular Turkish state; however, in addition to labeling the Kurdish opposition as terrorists, the AKP deployed religion to legitimize its repressive policies on religious grounds. The Turkish case shows that not in legitimizing (via desecuritization), but in delegitimizing opposition (via securitization) religion has been the main tool deployed by the ruling party. This finding needs to be tested in other contexts and cases. Additionally, since this paper only focuses on the narrative of the AKP’s religious delegitimization, further research is needed to measure its efficacy and impact.

The Establishment of The Kurdish National Council

The establishment of the Kurdish National Council was the prominent event of the Historic movement for the Kurds in Syria. That has been gathered all the Kurdish fractions under one umbrella، unified their political stance and their legal National demands in Syria. Which is the recognition of Kurds in the permanent Constitution of Syria، and removing all the racism projects against Kurds، removed its effects and compensate the affected people; as well as considering the Kurdish language as the second official language in the country. Syria demanded a federal pluralistic democratic republican state، and for the Kurds granted their own unified region. The Kurds and for the first time، were able to meet formally with the official Arab opposition when the Kurdish National Council joined the National Coalition of opposition forces and the Syrian Revolution and for the first time they recognized the existence of the Kurdish question in Syria and the need to be tackled in justice peacefully. The Kurds were able to participate and through Kurdish National Council to take part in Geneva negotiations through Syrian opposition coalition delegation، and therefore، for the first time the Kurds involved to discuss their country's future in an international conference seeking at the future of Syria. Kurdish National Council was able to aptly represent the Kurds in international forums as the legitimate representative of the Syrian Kurds، and won the recognition from local، regional and international powers. The Kurdish National Council turned to symbol of existence of the Kurdish issue and its address in Syria، as the legitimate representative of this issue.

Kurdish Issue in Iraq and Justifications of Kurdistan Region’s Independence Referendum in 2017

The right of self determination is an internationally endorsed right of nations, especially those nations affected by suppression and assimilation campaigns on their own land. Therefore, nations suffering from economic, political, cultural, and in extreme cases religious and historical marginalization have the right to establish their own independent states. One way to achieve this goal is holding public referendum. Referendums provide the oppressed nations with the opportunity to express their will in a democratic manner and ask for implementation of their inalienable right of self-determination.
 Since the establishment of the state of Iraq, Iraqi Kurds have been repeatedly oppressed and marginalized by successive Iraqi governments. Brutality of governments in Baghdad pushed Kurds to seek independence to no avail. The region’s geopolitical realities and ongoing conflicts and rivalries over controlling the natural resources of the region have played a major part in Kurdish failure in establishing an independent state. This research explores the diverse aspects of the Kurdish issue in Iraq with the aim of signifying the role geopolitics has played in creation and continuation of problems between the Iraqi government and Kurdistan Region.
 In order to achieve its stated goal, the research is divided into the following sections: First, an introduction, followed by a section dedicated to emergence and evolution of the Kurdish issue in Iraq. The third section discusses the justifications of Kurdistan’s independence referendum, which is followed by the conclusion section that presents the findings and recommendations of the study.

Reflections on Şerif Mardin’s center-periphery thesis

ABSTRACT It would be an understatement to say that Şerif Mardin’s center-periphery thesis (CPT) has been influential on contemporary understandings of Turkey. This essay reflects on the impact of the CPT, considers the challenges from both critics and a changing empirical reality, and discusses whether it still has something to offer us today. It argues that some of the criticisms levied at Mardin’s thesis are based on a misunderstanding of the role of simplification in social science, while others point to important shortcomings of the theory without presenting an alternative framework. However, the article suggests that the anomalies in the CPT have by now amassed to the point that it no longer serves as a meaningful approximation of key dynamics in Turkish politics, primarily because it fails to capture the importance of the Kurdish issue and the consolidation of the ruling AKP at the center.

President Erdogan’s Discourse on the Kurdish Issue

The article analyzes Turkey's changing regime of ethnicity between 2004 and 2019. Turkey is a multiethnic republic that used assimilation as the key policy in its early days to create the nation-state. The Kurds, as the most populous ethnic minority, had suffered the most. The ethnic anti-minority regime was reflected in the discourse of state officials. The ethnicity regime changed only after the Justice and Development Party came to power. The state authorities acknowledged Kurds as a distinct ethnic minority, admitted the previous human rights violations, and tried to make up for past mistakes. The article reviews the evolution of the ethnicity regime through analysis of its official discourse from initially being anti-minority and through tumultuous changes to the current inclusive one. It focuses on analyzing President Erdogan's public speeches in Diyarbakir. The main finding of the article is that when the state moved away from anti-minority policies towards the Kurds, President's discourse became more inclusive. Previous studies acknowledged the agency of the state as the determining power behind changing the regime of ethnicity. The second significant contribution of this study is that organized minority groups have an independent agency; their actions significantly contributed to changing the regime of ethnicity.

Iraqi Neighbors’ Stance on Kurdish Independence Referendum of 2017: Iran and Turkey

This paper is to evaluate the stance of both Iran and Turkey on the independence referendum of the Iraqi Kurds, 2017. This has been done by reviewing several articles that have, partly, highlighted the stance of Iraqi neighboring countries on the issue. It is, therefore, a survey-like study to find out why and how these states were against the step. While the Kurdish attempt for independence was backed by several historical reasons and realistic opportunities, it faced failure. Iran and Turkey, as two Iraqi neighbors that have a considerable number of Kurdish populations inside their borders, played a crucial role in defeating the step. The point here is that, globally, while Western powers were against Iran’s behavior, agreed with it in facing the referendum. Besides, regionally, while Iran and Turkey had lots of issues regarding the Syrian crisis, they agreed on taking joint steps against the referendum. This means that the regional powers and the international community agreed on protecting Iraqi territorial integrity by violating the Kurdish right to self-determination. The fact is that Iran and Turkey’s fear of spillover effects of the referendum on their population was a realistic one, to an extent. However, the unaddressed question is that nulling the referendum did not solve the Kurdish dilemma in the Middle East. Additionally, the referendum has become another issue to challenge the new world order which, in theory, is based on international law and principles; and, in practice, it is based on the interest of great powers. The Kurdish issue, in both theory and practice, is a problematique one for the international community. Here, the conflict of interests is between the stateless nations who want to become independent and the current states who want to protect their territorial integrity.

The Iraqi Kurds’ Desire for Statehood and the Role of Israel

The paper analyzes the Kurdish issue in present-day Iraq and how it affects today’s constellation of forces in the Middle East. Emphasis is placed on Israeli-Iraqi Kurdish relations and ties. First, how the state of Israel has supported the Iraqi Kurds in their struggle to gain greater autonomy within Iraq, and finally independence, since its inception. Secondly, it shows the history of Israeli-Iraqi Kurdish relations and how they developed. Namely, what role did the Iraqi Kurds once play in Israels conflict with the Arab states, what role do they have now and what role can they play in the future. At the end of the paper, predictions are made about the future of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, whether as an independent state or within a confederated Iraq.

Middle East Conflicts with a Comprehensive Approach Toward Stability and Sustainable Cooperation

In this paper, two major ethnic conflicts in the Middle East region are considered, namely, the Kurdish issue in Iraq and Syria, as well as recent conflicts in Syria. Three main theoretical perspectives on identity divides and conflicts are discussed in the context of the Middle East region. The considered conflicts are then analyzed separately, giving a brief overview of the main sources of conflicts in the ethnic context, including the influence of international factors and the current situation on the global scene. A comprehensive strategy for regional socio-economic integration is proposed with possible directions for establishing sustainable peace and stability in the Middle East region. The aim is to interconnect the particular directions toward a unified regional integration approach for solving the problems which cause significant instability in this region. The solution needs to be obtained by combining an appropriate external factor influence and mediation fostering regional cooperation with the forms of institutional engineering. Based on the theoretical and extensive empirical analysis, the European Union is chosen as an external factor having a great capacity and multiple interests in providing stability which will lead to the collaboration with this region.

‘Hybridity by Design’: Between Liberal Norms and Illiberal Peace in Turkey

Abstract This article investigates the interplay between liberal norms, hybridity, and illiberal peace by proposing ‘hybridity by design’ as a framework for understanding domestic agency of political actors in ‘homegrown’ peace processes. Hybridity by design refers to strategies used in peace processes that are not guided by external third parties for selectively adopting norms and practices associated with the liberal peace model while maintaining an illiberal peacemaking approach. The study focuses on the case of Turkey’s recent experience in peacemaking regarding the Kurdish conflict in two periods. First, the 2009–2015 period is analyzed as a ‘homegrown’ peace process during which ‘hybridity by design’ was the primary strategy used by the government to promote peacemaking combining liberal and illiberal norms and practices. In the post-2015 period, the government emphasized the ‘authentic’ aspects of the Kurdish issue, adopting a friend/enemy discourse, delegitimizing opponents, and rejecting negotiations as a means for solving the conflict.

Ideological base for genocide committed against the Iraqi Kurdistan region’s

The study deals with the ideological base of genocide crimes, and trying to identify the nature of the intellectual foundations for the crimes of genocide committed against the Iraqi Kurdistan region, especially Anfal, depending on the method of historical analysis in order to realize the Baathist strategy that produced those crimes. We assume that the commission of such offenses came to meet the growth requirements and the development of ideas for the establishment of the expansionist Baathist nationalism empire. In First dim and; studied Iraqi political thought and its impact on the national issue in the general framework of the Iraqi Kurdistan. In Second requirement: we studied the Kurdish issue in the Baathist political thought, either in the Third demand; studied strategic objectives of the resurrection of committing crimes of genocide against the Kurds and in the Fourth requirement; we have to clarify the effect geostrategic for those crimes on Kurdistan and show us that the genocide of the Kurdish people of crimes in the Anfal operations but came by evoke intellectual advance and orderly.

Strategy of Balancing in Turkish Foreign Policy

The new offensive approach of Turkey's foreign policy is the sign of President Erdogan's ambitions to redistribute power in the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean and a way to legitimize his own regime. On the one hand, this can be seen as the ambitions of «neo-Ottomanism», on the other hand, there is a new attempt to solve five foreign policy problems: the «Kurdish issue», the «Aegean dispute», the return of territories mentioned in the “National Oath” (Misak-i Milli), breakthrough from disillusionment with integration with the EU and overcoming inequality in allied relations with the United States to satisfy antiAmerican nationalism.The article examines Turkey's foreign policy since Erdogan gained full control of power and intervened in the civil war in Syria in 2014-2015. The aim is to determine the reason for Turkey's offensive strategy from the perspectives of Neorealism theory of International Relations and Bargaining model of war. The main findings are as follows. Erdogan's policy of power redistribution has focused on relations with the United States, the EU, and Russia as well as regional powers and has employed dominance in bargaining power as the main tool. A show of Turkey's force makes counterparts more compliant and serves as a tool to convince that the cost of deterring Turkey will be greater than the cost of concession.The main feature of Erdogan's policy is the use of contradictions between partners. According to Neorealism, if a state becomes too powerful, the balancing coalition occurs. But Turkey's offensive policy does not face a balancing coalition (or an international system, especially on the NATO and the EU directions), because there are many contradictions between potential opponents, which Erdogan masterfully uses. At some point, Turkey balances each of them by the threat to move closer to its opponent thus creating a balancing lever in “balancing triangle”. In this way Erdogan uses a series of “balancing triangles” to put pressure on Russia, the US, and the EU simultaneously.

The US Congress and the Issue of Beginning the Iraq War: the Kurdish Factor in 2002-2003

The political discussions in the US Congress on the start of the war in Iraq and the fate of the Kurdish minority in this country are being explored. The arguments of supporters and opponents of the war in Iraq are analyzed through the prism of the Kurdish factor based on the transcripts of the US Congress, as well as materials from hearings in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It emphasizes the insignificance of the Kurdish issue in the initial period of discussion (the discussion on giving the US President the right to start military operations in Iraq), and the growing interest of legislators in the fate of the Kurdish population in January-March 2003. It is concluded that for the supporters of the invasion the Kurdish factor became the main one and the stake was placed on the need to overthrow Saddam Hussein because of his cruel attitude towards his own people, and in the camp of the opponents of the war the stake is placed on the thesis that the fate of the Kurds was known in 1980s but no one then decided to provide them with military support. The problem of double standards in American foreign policy towards both the Kurds, US allies in the region, and Saddam Hussein was first identified by the US Congress in 2003.

News Coverage of Syrian Kurdish Issues on Arab Satellite Channels

News service is one of the basic constants provided by television، as satellite channels are very concerned to produce news bulletins، thanks to live service via satellite، the world today can live the event at the moment of happening.
 One of the Arab channels that have been proceeding in covering events through its news programs، is Al-Arabiya Al-Hadath satellite channel، which، since its founding in 2012، it has sought to develop its human and technical capabilities، in a way that enables it to be distinctive and attract a largest number of audiences، in light of the frantic competition between Arab satellite channels، to win the lead in this field
 In his study، the researcher addressed، covering news of Syrian Kurdish issues on Al-Arabiya Al-Hadath channel، taking from the main news bulletins about Syrian issue، as a matter for his research (study).
 This research is descriptive، it adopted a content analysis form to reach the goals it seeks to achieve، and the collection of this research is all news materials in news bulletins of Al-Arabiya Al-Hadath channel regarding the Syrian issue، the Syrian revolution and Syrian Kurds issues، after 2011، which consists of (142) articles، from 19-10-2020 to 19-01-2021، that is، for a period of three consecutive months.

Reverse Discourse, Queering of Self-Determination, and Sexual Ruptures: Abdullah Öcalan, the Kurdistan Workers Party, and the Problem of the Nation-State

ABSTRACT The idea of self-determination through independent state formation served as a crucial political principle for groups and organisations resisting colonial domination and the capitalist world system during the post-World War II era. Kurdish political movements and parties were no exception. They embraced the idea that, as a nation, they were entitled to a state that exercised exclusive territorial control. One of these parties was the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which emerged in the context of Turkey’s Kurdish issue and developed into one of the most important political actors in Kurdistan of the last 40 years. In the 2000s, the PKK started to question whether or not self-determination ought to be conceptualised and practiced through state construction. As a result, self-determination became redefined in terms of societal self-organisation, an idea beyond that of the centralised nation-state. This article shows how the PKK has shifted the concept of self-determination away from the idea of the state and towards the self-organising and self-administering capabilities of all people. This queering of self-determination has enabled a radically new understanding of resistance: the building of a post-capitalist, post-state, and post-patriarchal society.

Turkey and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Relations: A Soft Power Approach towards Kurdish Question

Turkey has long regarded Kurds as a homogenous entity that could threaten its territorial integrity and national security. There is ‎animosity by the Turkish government towards the Kurds. ‎This article attempts to analyze why there has been a paradigm shift and enhancement in Turkey-KRG relations, especially during AKP tenure, while analyzing the extent to which the ‎effectiveness of the Turkey-KRG relationship can help Turkey resolve its Kurdish ‎issue in peaceful ways. This research uses offensive realism as an analytical tool while deploying qualitative methods through ‎explanatory and descriptive approaches in answering the problems raised. The ‎study shows that the paradigm shift and the enhancement in Turkey-KRG relations can occur because Turkey seeks to pursue its goal, ‎being a regional hegemon. In this way, Turkey can guarantee its survival, increase ‎welfare, and preserve its political doctrine. However, the enhancement of Turkey-‎KRG relations shows less significant effectiveness in overcoming the Kurdish ‎issue. As the Kurdish question is a domestic issue, it is Turkey itself that must find ‎a solution‎ to

Kurdish students’ perceptions of stigma and their destigmatization strategies in urban contexts in Turkey

ABSTRACT Contemporary literature has chiefly studied the Kurdish issue from a macro-political perspective. In this paper, we focus on ordinary Kurdish youth’s everyday responses to stigma and discrimination from the majority Turkish group and connect them to the macro-political context. Drawing on 29 qualitative in-depth interviews with Kurdish students in Izmir, we document that this group seeks to negotiate their belonging in the face of their characterizations as backward, terrorist, and disloyal. The findings suggest that these youth respond to stigmas, depending on contextual dynamics, by specific destigmatization strategies such as confronting, managing the self, assuming individual responsibility, and avoiding. We argue that ongoing armed conflict stigmatizes Kurds as separatists, and invisible markers between Kurds and Turks make hiding ethnicity the primary destigmatization strategy for Kurds.

Стан “курдського питання” та процес його врегулювання в сучасній Туреччині: новітні тренди в англомовному науковому дискурсі

The article analyzes the main trends presented in the English-language scientific discourse of the 2000’s – 2020’s on the Kurdish issue in modern Turkey and the policy of the Turkish government aimed at its resolving. There is an attempt to systematize a huge array of English-language studies devoted to the Kurdish issue, published from the late 1990’s to 2021, in several problem-thematic areas. It is substantiated that modern English-language scientific discourse on the Kurdish issue in Turkey is represented by studies of M. Gunter, D. McDowall, W. Wyndham, N. Berlatsky, F. Bilgin, A. Sarihan, M. Gurses, D. Romano, K. Mckiernan, L. Riamei, M. Rubin, G. Stansfield, and M. Shareef. The discursive space for this historiography is mainly determined by: 1) conducting researches on the history of the population of the South-Eastern provinces of Turkey, the genesis of the Kurdish issue and its geopolitical dimension; 2) studies of socio-political processes in the South-Eastern provinces of Turkey, primarily the relationships between the government and the population of the region; 3) studies of socio-anthropological, ethnic, gender, humanitarian aspects of life of the population of the South-Eastern provinces of Turkey; 4) studies of the “Turkish-Kurdish Peace Process” of 2010’s, associated with a whole-scale change in the relations between the government and the people of the South-Eastern provinces in the direction of a peaceful settlement of the Kurdish issue, in particular in the context of fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria related to Turkey’s European integration aspirations.

Turkey's foreign policy and the repercussions of the Kurdish issue on it For the period from (1918 - 2015 )

The Kurdish movement began to emerge before the establishment of the modern Turkish Republic led by the fall of the Ottoman Empire, as the Kurdish region was shared by four countries, namely Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, and this movement developed after the groups calling for independence and self-rule, became armed movements As a reaction to the modern policy pursued by Turkey with them, which aimed to dissolve the Kurdish identity in the Turkish identity, which was the emergence of the armed Turkish "PKK", which demanded the secession of the Turkish region of Kurdistan in southern Turkey and demanded the rights of the Turkish Kurds, which made the Turkish Kurdish issue a part of The internal problems in Turkey, including the security aspects, which were reflected on its foreign policies, as they take a regional and international dimension.