Kurdish Movement Research Articles

The mother, the politician, and the guerrilla: Women's political imagination in the Kurdish movement By Nazan Üstündağ. New York: Fordham University Press, 2023. 272 pp.

The mother, the politician, and the guerrilla: Women's political imagination in the Kurdish movement By Nazan Üstündağ. New York: Fordham University Press, 2023. 272 pp.

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Multipronged Approach to the Repression of Kurds

Since the establishment of the modern Iranian nation-state in 1923, successive regimes and governments of Iran have pursued an intricate policy of suppressing and persecuting its Kurdish people, presenting a significant threat to the Kurdish national identity, culture, and society. The successive Iranian regimes have, along with military means, employed the state’s cultural, educational, religious, and economic institutions to accomplish their goals of assimilating and conquering the Kurds. An examination of Kurdish history and politics in Iran reveals that while the international community has some knowledge of the Iranian state’s extensive deployment of military force and explicit militarization of Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhelat/East Kurdistan), the broader psychological and nonmilitary (soft power) practices employed to suppress the Kurdish movement, identity, and culture are lesser known to the outside world. By focusing on mass media and policies of “divide-and-rule” as measures and mechanisms used by the Iranian state to subdue its Kurdish citizens, this article aims to provide an analysis of the post-1979 state-Kurdish relationships in Iran.

THEORETICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES TO THE KURDISH SEPARATIST MOVEMENT AFTER 2000

Due to the current economic and international balances in the world, instead of using direct military force against each other, states support illegal organizations within the hostile country and conduct operations on the hostile state through proxy wars. This method, which has been used in every period of history, aims to create civil war within the hostile state. In this context, the "Separatist Kurdish Political Movement", which started in the last century of the Ottoman Empire and has evolved into international terrorism over time, is the most commonly used terror method of imperialist states, although it has manifested itself in different forms. This study examines the change in the theoretical and philosophical approach of the Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization under the name of "Kurdistan Workers' Party" (PKK), which is the last form of the separatist Kurdish movement and was founded in 1978, with the international support it has received since the beginning of the 2000s with the Gulf War. In addition, the study will analyze the separatist Kurdish movement, which gained international support after 2000, increased its goals, and focused on the goal of "Greater Kurdistan" by taking advantage of the chaos in Syria, and will propose original solutions with theoretical and philosophical approaches to political actors and the academic world.

Collective resilience in diaspora groups: a study of Kurdish youth in Canada and Sweden

ABSTRACT For decades, oppressive state policies have forced some Kurds to leave Turkey and seek refuge in Western countries, including Sweden and Canada. We conducted semi-structured interviews with Kurdish youth living in Canada and Sweden (N = 15) to explore the role of identity-related grievances in their involvement in the Kurdish movement, a political movement comprised of an array of actors including an armed group, political parties, and civil society organizations. By implementing the Building Resilience Against Violent Extremism (BRAVE) tool, we investigated their collective resilience against calls for violence, extremist views, and challenges caused by repression. Findings indicated that the major factors in their involvement were the restrictions on their language, culture, and identity; the discrimination and injustices against them and their community; the traumatic events that they experienced or witnessed; and the involvement of their family and community members in the movement. The overall resilience scores of the participants were high (M = 58.67 out of a potential 14–70), but they scored lower when their relationship with Turkish authorities is considered (M = 53.13; SD = 5.65) than with their host countries after resettlement (M = 58. 67; SD = 6.25).

Kurdish Mobilization in Turkey and Syria: A Comparison on Action Repertoires

In this article, the collective action repertoires of nationalist Kurds in Turkey and Syria between the years 1918-2018 are compared. This comparison is conducted based on the levels and forms of mobilization. Examples span a broad spectrum including rebellion, protests, legal politics, and mass mobilizations. The findings of the research reveal distinct differences in the action repertoires of the Kurdish conflicts in Turkey and Syria, and the level of violence also varies between the two countries. Employing a qualitative approach, this study uses a multi-case strategy and thematic analysis method. The objective of the study is to provide researchers with a conceptual and empirical framework concerning the action repertoires of Kurdish movements. The results obtained aim to enhance understanding of the repertoire of contention in non-Western societies.

Coup (September 12, 1980) in Turkey

The internal situation in Turkey worsened at the end of the seventies due to the conflict and clash of the Turkish left and right, in addition to the development of the Islamic movement, the Turkish left movement, and the armed Kurdish movement, and the emergence of economic problems such as widespread unemployment, deteriorating living conditions, decline in personal income, sit-ins and demonstrations by workers and the niqab. At the level of internal reasons that led to a coup (12 September 1980). In terms of external reasons, major political transformations occurred within the countries neighboring Turkey, such as the coming of Saddam Hussein to power in Iraq, the outbreak of the Iranian peoples’ revolution or the Iranian Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, and finally the occupation of Afghanistan by Soviet Union forces. (1980) At that stage, there were concerns among the military establishment Turkish and protector of Kemalist principles.The concern of the United States of America about the weakness of the Turkish political system in the face of riots, violence, demonstrations and clashes in the streets, as well as American concerns about the dominance of Islamic and leftist movements over the reins of government in Turkey led to an agreement and a signal to the Turkish military establishment of the necessity of... a military coup and the restoration of political stability to the country. Therefore, the military establishment in Turkey carried out a military coup on the morning of September 12, 1980, with a military statement, taking control of government institutions and the reins of government, sending party leaders and politicians to prisons, and declaring a state of emergency in the country.In this research, we attempted to study the coup (September 12, 1980) in Turkey, especially its influential internal and external causes. We divided the research into two sections, the first section entitled (Internal causes of the coup on September 12, 1980) and the second section (External causes of the coup on September 12, 1980). We concluded the research with summary conclusions at the end of the research.

The Kurdish Movement’s Factor in US Politics at the Peak of Iran and Afghanistan Crises, 1979 – January 1981

At the close of 1979, the United States encountered a critical need to realign its Middle East strategy in the wake of the capture of the American Embassy in Tehran by supporters of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah R. Khomeini on November 4, and the subsequent deployment of Soviet troops in Afghanistan on December 25. Faced with the challenges presented by the Iranian and Afghan crises, the United States' analytical, intelligence, and military bodies navigated various resources in search of viable solutions.This study delves into the consideration of the Kurdish factor as a potential instrument in shaping the regional landscape. The National Security Council (NSC), State Department, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the US Department of Defense all scrutinized the Kurdish movement, evaluating its prospects for advancing American interests. Drawing from documents obtained from the State Department, National Security Council, and CIA, this article tracks the evolution of US policy concerning the Kurdish movement and its utility in realizing Washington's strategic objectives during the most critical phases of the Iran and Afghanistan crises.The analysis underscores the fundamental flaw in the initial evaluation of events in Afghanistan and Iran, misinterpreting them as a calculated move within a Soviet strategy to extend influence into the Persian Gulf region. This misconception was the primary cause of the Carter administration's failure in utilizing the Kurds as a counterforce against the Khomeini regime and its erroneous perceptions of the Iranian political regime's vulnerabilities. Inconsistencies in Washington's relationship with Tehran hindered the formulation of a coherent approach toward the Afghan-Iranian direction.

Kurdistan Parliament Elections 1992 and the Impact of the Results on the Popular Party

The Election of 1992 was an important result of the Kurdish movement, despite the confrontations and difficult circumstances that Kurdistan has gone through, the Kurdistan front was able to take desiccion about elections in order to establish a parliament and the Kurdistan Regional Government. The elections were the first democratic examination to add legitimacy to the Kurdish government to replace the Kurdish front. In fact, the process of election which had been done was not an easy decision because the Iraqi govemnemet imposed the siege on Kurdistan and on the other hand, regional pressures to prevent the existence of any other Kurdish region.
 Also, most of the political parties affiliated with the Kurdistan Front were not with the conduct of the elections, ultimately the elections were done. This research deals with the way of how the law of the elections was taken by the Kurdistan Front, then the conduct and completion of the elections, legal violations, and the lack of credibility of political parties when conducting the elections, finally, the results were decided in favor of Party and Yekiti, and the seats were divided equally between them. The results of the elections had a negative impact on the parties that did not excel, so they made preparations and thought about forming serious alliances between the parties (Kurdistan Democratic Popular party, Kurdistan Socialist party and Kurd Socialist Party) to form the Kurdistan Union Party in 1992, but it did not last long, The year after party was dissolved, and on August 16th 1993, in the eleventh conference, the party joined with the kurdistan Democratic Party.

Political Islamic Movement in The East of Kurdistan (1979-2001)

This research analyses the political Islamic movement in the East of Kurdistan between 1979-2001. In 1979, after the Iranian Nations revolution's success, a number of religious movements and organizations formed. A part of these organizations was working to establish a local Kurdish-Islamic authority. On the other hand, there were organizations working with Ayatollah Khomeini and the newly installed regime in Tehran, and others identifying themselves under the umbrella of international Muslim Brotherhood Organization. The method of this research is a history check and analysis relying on personal interviews, books, and scientific research related to this topic. The purpose of the research. We will intensely focus on the history and ideology of Maktabi Quran which is known as the special Kurdish movement. Also, the movement of the Muslim Brotherhood was under the impact of the internal Muslim Brotherhood and members of the same organization in the South of Kurdistan who is working under the name of Da’wa and Reform.

People vs. peoples: sacrifice and the foundations for sovereignty in 1640’s England and contemporary northeast Syria

ABSTRACT Engaging with state-centric perspectives on sovereignty, and particularly Giorgio Agamben's work, this article argues that despite sovereignty's permanence at the level of the state, the principles upon which it is built can change dramatically. Further, such change may in turn greatly transform the reach and power of the state itself. Using the trial of King Charles in 1649 as a case for of how divine right was replaced by embryonic popular sovereignty through an act of sacrifice, the article contends that several new revolutionary movements are now in turn aiming to overturn popular sovereignty in a similar way. Drawing on secondary material and fieldwork contextualization, the article contends that the Kurdish movement in Syria is currently struggling to disaggregate the state's people into a host of peoples, whose opportunities for political participation depend upon conforming to an ideologically construed vision of human nature. This, the article suggests, may set the frame for revolutionary resistance in the future.

Theorizing Power in Community Economies: A Women's Cooperative in Northern Kurdistan

ABSTRACTUnder the Democratic Autonomy project, Turkey's Kurdish Movement has pursued self‐governance since the mid‐2000s and promoted cooperatives and communal modes of production across Northern Kurdistan. Drawing upon the engagement of diverse and community economies studies with assemblage thinking, this article utilizes assemblage thinking to expand our understanding of power dynamics in community economies, and to reveal the power‐led processes involved in building and maintaining community economies. The article focuses on the case of a women's cooperative spearheaded by the Kurdish Movement, which managed to circumvent state oppression and stay in business, despite the turmoil that erupted in Northern Kurdistan after the collapse of peace negotiations between the Turkish state and the Kurdish Movement in 2015.

Projecting a Body Politic: Photographs, Time, and Immortality in the Kurdish Movement

Projecting a Body Politic: Photographs, Time, and Immortality in the Kurdish Movement

Under the Banner of Islam: Turks, Kurds, and the Limits of Religious Unity, by GÜLAY TÜRKMEN

Using the Kurdish conflict in Turkey as a case study, Gülay Türkmen’s book investigates why, in a “post-secular” world, religion often falls short as a means of resolving ethnic conflicts among coreligionists. More specifically, the book probes why the “Muslim fraternity” project launched by the Islamist-leaning Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) in the early 2010s was unable to bridge the ethnic divide between Turks and Kurds, both of whom are predominantly Sunni Muslims. Focusing on the role of religious elites as potential mediators in religiously homogeneous ethnic conflicts, Türkmen bases her work primarily on interviews with Turkish (n = 18) and Kurdish (n = 44) religious leaders. In addition, she utilizes analysis of newspaper articles and participant observation in “Civil Friday Prayers” organized by clerics affiliated with the Kurdish movement.1 Drawing on these data, Türkmen argues that the variation in how Turkish and Kurdish religious elites conceptualize religious and ethnic identities constitutes an important reason why they have failed to unite “under the banner of Islam” and mobilize mass support for the peace process.

Kurdish Statehood and Islamist Political Concept

The article is devoted to the situation in the international Kurdish movement in the context of the growing popularity of Islamist ideas and concepts. For a long time, the leftist doctrine was considered to be the prevailing trend among the Kurds, but after 2011 and the appearance on the regional arena of such major players as ISIS and other radical religious organizations based in Syria and Iraq, ultra-conservative parties and movements gained momentum. In fact, today there is a confrontation between the evolving leftist doctrine, represented by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and the Syrian Rojava, and the Islamic concept of the caliphate (the territory of universal social harmony, built on the principles of Sharia). During the period of the greatest power of ISIS, several Kurdish groups supported the Islamists and, being part of the extremist international movement, managed to seize signi fi cant territories in Northern Syria and Central Iraq. Later, however, left-wing organizations went on the o ff ensive and returned to their pre-war status. In this regard, it is important to understand exactly what socio-economic reasons led to the growth of the Islamists in fl uence and what the prospects for religious radicals within the international Kurdish movement are.

The Kurdish Case in Iraq 1958-1963

The Kurdish case considered one of the most important issues in the modern history of Iraq, and the problem of the Kurds is represented by their demand for rights that guarantee their national and linguistic distinction, and the inclusion of these rights in laws and constitutions, and most Iraqi governments have responded, these demands were rejected, and some of them were rejected, including the annexation of Kirkuk, the oil-rich region, to the Kurdish areas, which sparked a dispute between the two sides and led to bloody clashes. The research deals with the Kurdish case in Iraq from 1958-1963, which is the period of rule of Abd al-Karim Qasim, the leader of the July 14 revolution in Iraq, which ended the monarchy. The research was divided into three axes. The first axis is the position of the Kurds in support of the revolution and the privileges granted by Abdul Karim Qassem to the Kurds, including the approval of the new Iraqi constitution, some articles that include the national rights of the Kurds. For the Kurds and allowed the return of the exiles to Iraq, including Mustafa Barzani, and the release of Kurdish detainees in Iraqi prisons since the royal era. The second axis included bad relations between Abdul Karim Qasim and the Kurds. The last axis dealt with the armed clash between the two, which lasted from 1960 to 1963, the year in which the rule of Abd al-Karim Qasim ended after his overthrow, and the Kurds allied with the revolutionaries to achieve their demands for autonomy. The study relied on a set of sources, including published American documents, as well as books, including the book Northern Iraq 1985-1975 by the author Ammar Ali Al-Samar. And the book Political Currents in Iraqi Kurdistan, a reading in the files of the Kurdish movements and parties in Iraq 1946-2001, by the author, Salah Al-Khursan, in addition to theses, university theses, and a group of research and studies.

Palestinian and Kurdish nationalism: Understanding the ‘politics of the possible’

ABSTRACTThis article compares the efforts of the Palestinians and the Kurds – the two largest stateless nations in the Middle East – to obtain recognition. While Kurdish movements are spread across four countries in the region – Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran, with specificities dependent on the historical context and relations with the particular host state – in this article we focus on the Syrian Kurds as a contrast to the Palestinians. This is because these two communities arrive at different end‐points in their national liberation projects despite sharing similar self‐determination aims. These differences provide an opportunity to analyse and comment on the factors which impact on self‐determination trajectories. The article examines the emancipatory potential of nationalism while simultaneously reflecting on the limitations imposed by regional dynamics and intra‐group tensions. We compare the constraints faced by these two groups as non‐state actors in a region shaped by the realpolitik of powerful states, recognizing that both of them – as transnational actors – in turn impact on these states as well.

The Egalitarian King?

Abstract The Kurdish movement has often been touted as an egalitarian struggle, and, in many ways, rightly so. However, the movement's relation to its undisputed leader, Abdullah Öcalan, has remained relatively unexamined. This article seeks to rectify this oversight by investigating how Abdullah Öcalan informs the movement's egalitarian life. To do so, the article employs a frame of analysis that utilizes anthropological theory on kingship. Drawing on secondary sources and fieldwork in Turkish and Iraqi Kurdistan, the article argues that Öcalan works as and resembles a king for the movement in several key respects, greatly influencing the movement's structure. The article contends that applying this frame of analysis may bolster theoretical apparatuses for studying revolutionary movements and nuance polar understandings of hierarchy and egalitarianism.

Post-conflict Urban Renewal as an Ethnocratic Regime Practice: Racialized Governance of Redevelopment in Diyarbakir, Turkey

This paper explores the governance of a state-led urban renewal project in a politically contested area in the aftermath of a major armed conflict. Building on the ethnocratic regime theory, we explore the governance of the urban renewal process in the historic district of Suriçi by focusing on the political, spatial, and governmental underpinnings of displacement and dispossession in the context of the unresolved “Kurdish Question” of Turkey. We argue that this exclusionary and state-led urban renewal project is shaped around the ethnocratic state interests with limited real estate returns that aims to sanitize and dehistoricize the historic core of Diyarbakir given its political and socioeconomic significance for the Kurdish Movement. The rhetorical formation of a “renewed” historic core epitomizes the racialized governance that intensifies the race-class realities sitting at the center of the decades-old ethnic conflict in Turkey. The central government authority's use of gentrification in practice illustrates the ethnocratic regime's spatial, political, and economic repercussions for the Kurdish population as the country's largest ethnic minority. Suriçi‘s redevelopment illustrates that ethnocratic regime practices coexist with a democratic façade and militarization activates an ethnocratic urban regime. Our findings contribute to the literature on space and power by illustrating the incompleteness and paradoxical elements of settler-colonial urbanism.

The Political Function of Religion in Kurdish and Perso-Iranian Nationalist Confrontations after the 1979 Revolution

Abstract During the early years (1979–1982) following the 1979 revolution, because of the prevalence of a traditional society, religion was politically more functional. Religious discourse became hegemonic and most groups, including secularists, were forced to use such a discourse to promote their politics. The Persian politicians used Islam to make Perso-Iranian nationalism dominant over others, while non-Persian politicians appealed to it to gain their ethno-national rights. Using Qualitative Content Analysis to analyse the scattered texts of speeches, interviews, messages of the Persian and Kurdish leaders published in different publications at the time (which are available in some archives and databases), this article describes how they use religion in their confrontations. The findings show both marginalisation and resistance against it appealing to Islamic discourse. Ignoring those parts of Islam that are not in their interest, the Persian nationalists use Islamic brotherhood and unity to reinforce Islamic identity over Kurdish identity in order to marginalise the Kurdish nationalist movement, as well as to mobilise ordinary people against the Kurdish forces. Conversely, the Kurdish nationalists resist, and demand equality as Muslim brethren. In this regard, while religion has uniting, mobilizing and legitimating functions for the Persian government, enabling it to pursue nationalistic aims and to justify relevant measures, it also partly has a legitimating one for the Kurdish opposition.

The armed struggle of the 1980s in Iranian Kurdistan: a space for survival

ABSTRACT The armed struggle of the entire decade of the 1980s in Iranian Kurdistan is an understudied subject. It deserves scholarly attention for its significance for the continuation of the post-1979 Kurdish movement and the way militarization made violent forms of resistance attractive. The armed struggle was triggered by the remilitarization of Kurdistan, vigorously defying the new Islamic regime which had suppressed the opposition across Iran by the early 1980s. In contrast to powerful discourses and prevalent assumptions, armed struggle is not intrinsic to Kurdish political movements, nor does it constitute an integral part of the plan to achieve political and cultural rights. Based on the events following the 1979 Revolution, this article presents armed struggle as a space for the continuation of the Kurdish movement when de facto self-rule is terminated by militarization and dictatorship. It analyses several significant aspects of the armed struggle of the 1980s in order to make a connection between the past and the present. Methodologically, the article follows a comparative analysis of various forms of armed struggle around the world to analyse the characteristics of the Kurdish armed struggle.