Kurdish Societies, Politics, and International Relations – serie

The main objective of this book is to understand the extent and the motives behind the shift in Turkey’s foreign policy towards the Kurdistan Regional Government (hereafter the KRG) from an alternative globalist perspective, and to do so it examines a ten-year period of Turkey’s foreign policy on the KRG, from 2003 to 2013. Despite the shadows casting by its history, Turkey has developed relations with the Kurdish government to the level of a strategic partnership within the last decade, following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The book identifies and analyses the factors that determine Turkey’s foreign policy towards the KRG by providing a historical account of Turkey’s approach towards a Kurdish polity, illuminating the extent of the shift in Turkey’s foreign policy by looking at some dislocatory moves, and identifying and analyzing regional and global motives behind the Turkey–KRG rapprochement that led Turkey to abandon its traditional policy temporally towards the Kurdish Region of Iraq within the period this work is focused on. The book brings the global dimension to the discussion and suggests that developments at the global level play a significant role in shaping the regional and internal contexts in which the partnership between Turkey and the KRG was established. And in conclusion it argues that Turkish foreign policy towards the KRG shifted between 2007 and 2013 due to the intersection of regional and global fault lines and competition between global power blocks, the United States, Russia and China over energy resources and strategic trade and transit energy routes.

The discussions on Kurds of Turkey mostly refer to them as if they are one homogeneous group, with different forms of being Kurdish mostly overlooked. Yet, Kurds have been scattered all across Turkey; they differ in terms of the language they speak; they have also been subject to different policies of the Turkish state in different periods. How can we take these factors into account when discussing Kurdishness in Turkey? That is, in which ways does a Kurd living in a small city in Southeast Turkey differ from a Kurd living in Istanbul? How does being a native Kurdish speaker play a role in forming Kurdishness? What about different state rhetoric in different periods? By focusing on these three main questions, this book offers a detailed account on the diversity of experiences of Kurdishness. Based on her fieldwork in five different field sites in Turkey, Dr. Sengül illustrates, through narratives of her respondents, how Kurdishness is exhibited in different, personalised, and customised forms across different contexts in Turkey. Each substantive chapter in the book analyses a different element that plays a role in constructing these different forms of Kurdishness: state rhetoric, localities, and the language use. By arguing that there is not one single way of exhibiting Kurdishness, this book challenges any standard definitions of Kurdishness, and defines it as the daily (re-)negotiation of state rhetoric and everyday practices individuals experience.

This edited volume presents thirteen contributions that reflect upon the practical, ethical, theoretical and methodological challenges that researchers face when conducting fieldwork in settings that are characterized with deteriorating security situations, increasing state control and conflicting inter-ethnic relations. More precisely, they shed light to the intricacies of conducting fieldwork on highly politicized and sensitive topics in the region of Kurdistan in Iraq, Syria and Turkey as well as among Kurdish diaspora members in Europe.This volume is multidisciplinary in its focus and approach. It includes contributions from scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds, ranging from sociology and political science to social psychology and anthropology. The complexity of security situations, and the atmospheres of distrust and suspicion have led the contributors to be creative and to adapt their research methods in ways that at times transcend disciplinary boundaries and conventions. Relatedly, the contributions also open the often-considered Pandora’s box of discussing the failures in what is often a “messy” research field, and how to adopt one’s methods to rapidly changing political circumstances. This necessitates greater reflexivity in existing power relations of the surrounding context and how those affect not only the interaction situations between the researcher and the participants, but also raise questions for the overall research process, concerning namely social justice, representation and knowledge production. The contributions unravel this by unpacking positionalities beyond ethnicities, discussing how gendered and other positionalities are constructed in fieldwork interactions and by illustrating how the surrounding structures of power and dominance are present in every-day fieldwork. What differentiates this book from the existing literature is that it is the first academic endeavor that solely focuses on methodological reflections aimed to the field of Kurdish Studies. It offers a comprehensive and multidisciplinary account of scholars’ fieldwork experiences in the Kurdish regions and as such, it is also of value to scholars conducting or about to conduct fieldwork in conflict regions elsewhere.

This edited volume presents thirteen contributions that reflect upon the practical, ethical, theoretical and methodological challenges that researchers face when conducting fieldwork in settings that are characterized with deteriorating security situations, increasing state control and conflicting inter-ethnic relations. More precisely, they shed light to the intricacies of conducting fieldwork on highly politicized and sensitive topics in the region of Kurdistan in Iraq, Syria and Turkey as well as among Kurdish diaspora members in Europe.This volume is multidisciplinary in its focus and approach. It includes contributions from scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds, ranging from sociology and political science to social psychology and anthropology. The complexity of security situations, and the atmospheres of distrust and suspicion have led the contributors to be creative and to adapt their research methods in ways that at times transcend disciplinary boundaries and conventions. Relatedly, the contributions also open the often-considered Pandora’s box of discussing the failures in what is often a “messy” research field, and how to adopt one’s methods to rapidly changing political circumstances. This necessitates greater reflexivity in existing power relations of the surrounding context and how those affect not only the interaction situations between the researcher and the participants, but also raise questions for the overall research process, concerning namely social justice, representation and knowledge production. The contributions unravel this by unpacking positionalities beyond ethnicities, discussing how gendered and other positionalities are constructed in fieldwork interactions and by illustrating how the surrounding structures of power and dominance are present in every-day fieldwork. What differentiates this book from the existing literature is that it is the first academic endeavor that solely focuses on methodological reflections aimed to the field of Kurdish Studies. It offers a comprehensive and multidisciplinary account of scholars’ fieldwork experiences in the Kurdish regions and as such, it is also of value to scholars conducting or about to conduct fieldwork in conflict regions elsewhere.

Kurds in Turkey: Ethnographies of Heterogeneous Experiences is the newest contribution to the bourgeoning Kurdish Studies literature. The edited volume unites eight junior scholars who offer ethnographic studies based on their latest research. The chapters are clustered around four main headings: women’s participation, paramilitary, space, and infrapolitics of resistance. Each heading assembles two chapters which are in dialog with each other and offer complementary and at times competing perspectives. All four headings correspond to the emerging domains of research in Kurdish studies. Authors share a micro-level focus and take extensive field work as the basis of their argument. In the wake of massive urban destructions and renewed warfare in the Kurdish region in Turkey, this volume also stakes a stance against the memoricide of the Kurdish municipal experience and cultural production.

In contemporary Turkey, discussions on the concept of ethnicity and religiosity continue to maintain their utmost importance in politics and daily social life. In this context, Alevi and Kurdish identities have come to the fore with mass representation marked by protests and violence. In spite of the importance of Kurds and Alevis for the history of Turkey, one specific group, namely the Kurdish Alevis, has escaped the attention of the international world. Although wide interest upon the topic in the international academic sphere, there are very limited academic works about Kurdish Alevis in general. Who are the Kurdish Alevis? What are the particular conditions for its association with the Kurdish identity, Alevi religion, and the history of Turkey? What has been the role of Dersim within Kurdish Alevism? The main purpose of this edited volume, the first of its kind, is to contribute to the understanding of these and other questions. Based on six perspectives from scholars from various disciplinary, this approach will present new insights on contemporary research and discussions on the issue.

This is a work of excavation of the modern history of Turkey, with the Kurdish question at its center, unearthed and exposed in Çandar’s captivating narrative.The founding of a Turkish nation-state in Asia Minor brought with it the denial of the distinct Kurdish identity in its midst, giving birth to an intractable problem that led to intermittent Kurdish revolts and culminated in the enduring insurgency of the PKK. The Kurdish question is perceived as a mortal threat for the survival of Turkey. The author weaves a fascinating account of the encounter between Turkey and the Kurds in historical perspective with special emphasis on failed peace processes. Providing a unique historical record of the authoritarian, centralist and ultra-nationalist—rather than Islamist—nature of the Turkish state rooted in the last decades of the Ottoman period and finally manifested in Erdogan’s “New Turkey,” Çandar challenges stereotyped and conventional views on the Turkey of today and tomorrow.Turkey’s Mission Impossible: War and Peace with the Kurds combines scholarly research with the memoirs of a participant observer, richly revealing the author’s first-hand knowledge of developments acquired over a lifetime devoted to the resolution of perhaps the most complex problem of the Middle East.

Shâmaran: The Neolithic Eternal Mother, Love and the Kurds covers one of the earliest ancient figures of Mother Earth, Shâmaran, of the Zagros Mountains, which is at the crossroads of Iran, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia, and has historically been a melting pot of diverse groups, contributing to the formation of the Kurdish nation. This unique convergence has played a pivotal role in shaping the rich history, culture, language, and the very essence of their homeland, Kurdistan.Shâmaran is the significant religiocultural symbol, serving as a poignant embodiment of this heritage. The book meticulously documents, deconstructs and interprets Shâmaran's myth and her Neolithic image, recognizing their profound significance as manifestations of the Mother Earth Goddess.The study details the philosophy and symbolism of her faith, deciphers the content in the region within the existing pre-Islamic Kurdish religions namely Alevism, Yarsanism, and Êzidism and Kurdish culture as a whole.

Shâmaran: The Neolithic Eternal Mother, Love and the Kurds covers one of the earliest ancient figures of Mother Earth, Shâmaran, of the Zagros Mountains, which is at the crossroads of Iran, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia, and has historically been a melting pot of diverse groups, contributing to the formation of the Kurdish nation. This unique convergence has played a pivotal role in shaping the rich history, culture, language, and the very essence of their homeland, Kurdistan.Shâmaran is the significant religiocultural symbol, serving as a poignant embodiment of this heritage. The book meticulously documents, deconstructs and interprets Shâmaran's myth and her Neolithic image, recognizing their profound significance as manifestations of the Mother Earth Goddess.The study details the philosophy and symbolism of her faith, deciphers the content in the region within the existing pre-Islamic Kurdish religions namely Alevism, Yarsanism, and Êzidism and Kurdish culture as a whole.

Social Media and Democratization in Iraqi Kurdistan assesses the implications of social media usage for democratization in the context of Iraqi Kurdistan. A considerable number of studies examine the impact of social media on the practice of democracy in liberal democratic contexts and on the democratization process in nondemocratic contexts. However, little is known about the rise and implications of using the Internet and social media platforms for democratization processes in a hybrid political system, like that of Iraqi Kurdistan, which combines elements of both democracy and authoritarianism. The author investigates the use of social media platforms by citizens, politicians, electoral candidates, and political parties, and its significance for political participation and political communication, which are selected as important elements of democratization. Based on original qualitative research, including interviews with activists, politicians, and party leaders, and an analysis of relevant social media content in the Kurdish language, especially on the social media platform, Facebook, the author argues that rather than the increase in online political participation and political communication contributing to the consolidation of democracy in the Kurdish nascent democracy, it is increasing political polarization, exacerbating incivility of political discourse and enabling monitoring of opposition forces by the authorities.

The Everyday Violence of Forced Displacement: Memory, Community and Identity Politics among Internally Displaced Kurds in Turkey is based on ethnographic research in four Istanbul neighborhoods in the early 2000s and after. Miriam Geerse focuses on individuals and families that tried to sustain meaningful lives in an urban context marked by political and structural violence. Geerse argues that forces, other than war and forced displacement, instilled in many forced migrants a pressing need and desire to keep hammering home the price and pain of displacement. Much of this book then bears witness to the formation of an oppositionalconsciousness. Geerse’s analysis of the mobilization of social capital in times of illness and social conflict offers an understanding of how a dispersed community of people who share the same stories function in an inhospitable urban environment. In laying bare the interconnections between experiences before, during and after forced displacement, and by focusing on people’s narratives and their experiences, Geerse provides insight to activists striving to improve the position of Kurds, to academics studying the impact of forced migration and other forms of political violence on civilians, and to all those who argue for a more balanced view of the recent history of Turkey.

A Critical Evaluation of “Territorial Separation” as a Method of Addressing Ethnic Conflicts focuses on the reasons that have contributed to ethnic conflicts in Kirkuk. In the book, Ako S. Jalal addresses geographic, economic, political, and social factors., He argues in the outcome of the research that the previous applied methods like power sharing and Constitution rewriting could not address ethnic conflicts effectively. Finally, Jalal proves through the research hypothesis that the basic method to address ethnic conflicts in Kirkuk is territorial separation.

The combination of the war in Syria and the rise of ISIS has increased the role of non-state actors in the Middle East politics. This is of particular concern for Turkey, on account of its long-standing concerns regarding Kurdish nationalism, particularly after the Syrian war, which provides Kurds with a significant role in regional security affairs. This book aims to examine the regional impacts of the Turkish government’s Zero Policy with Neighbors (ZPN) in respect to Iraqi Kurdistan. This has been achieved through an analysis of the impact on the ZPN policy of the following non-state actors between 2011 and 2016: The Syrian Kurdish group represented by the Democratic Union Party (PYD), ISIS, and the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK).

Dersim is a region within Turkey that has deep meaning for Alevis, Armenians, Kurds, and Zazas. Even the Hittites seemed to have had difficulty governing this mountainous region where today Turkish military drones target suspicious activity. Dersim as an Internal Colony: The Turkish Civilizing Mission (1927-1952) explores how the region had a deep history of autonomy and autarky that was challenged and then crushed by the forces of union and progress trying to keep together and perhaps give rebirth to a dying empire. It focuses on what happened after the Tertele of 1938, also known as the day on which the world ended, and what, was this so-called “Turkish civilizing mission” in action during the First Internal Colonial Period (1927-1952). Did the state in fact bring civilization to this region’s people that it had just terrorized? What were the achievements of this Turkish civilization in this historically independent land of high mountains, torrential rivers, oak forests, and goats? This book aims to answer these questions with a critical reading of reports written by the then representative of Tunceli in the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye.

The Discourse About Kurdishness and Indigeneity: Kurdish Political Movement in Turkey presents a comprehensive analysis of the self-identified Kurdish identity within the Kurdish political movement in Turkey, adopting an indigenous perspective. The analysis is mainly focused on the parliamentary politics of three distinct periods in Turkey, including the inception of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the emergence of other pro-Kurdish political parties since the 1990s, and the parliamentary politics through the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). In addition to the central perspective of indigeneity, the theoretical framework of the book, including internal colonialism and Orientalism within Orient perspectives, is also employed to critically investigate the relationship of post-colonial nation-states with multi-ethnic societies in the case of Turkey and the Kurdish struggle. The research consists of a mixed methods approach to explore the discourse on Kurdishness by analysing party programs, statements, and semi-structured interviews. The book utilises the Discourse-Historical Approach to analyse data and provide an interpretation of the concept of indigeneity within the discourse on Kurdishness. It sheds new light on the Kurdish political movement and other indigenous peoples in Mesopotamia, who were rendered invisible after the First World War due to the emerging political discourse in the Middle East.

Forms of Melancholy in Modern Kurdish Novels presents a critical literary analysis of narrative forms used in Kurdish novels that articulate loss, mourning, and melancholia. Based on a range of perspectives on questions of loss, mourning, and melancholia, this study elucidates how melancholy is appropriated as a multi-functional literary device by Kurdish novelists to articulate a broad spectrum of subjectivities often mediated by political and socio-cultural reality. Adapting an interdisciplinary approach, Ahmet Atas situates Kurdish melancholy narratives within broader scholarly discussions on loss and melancholia. Atas demonstrates how melancholy is utilized as an effective artistic device by Kurdish writers to stage not only the grief of an oppressed nation, but its political and cultural resistances. Providing an original case study, this book illuminates how melancholy literature acquires unique political and cultural functions, missions, and meanings in contrasting colonial and postcolonial settings.

The Kurdish Model of Political Community: A Vision of National Liberation Defiant of the Nation-State undertakes a task long due in Kurdish studies: addressing common misunderstandings about and outlining theoretical implications of Kurdish politics. Hanifi Baris develops his arguments with an historical examination and finds apathy towards and a resistance to state-building in Kurdistan. Accordingly, Baris argues, this tendency to establish self-government with distaste to state-building has enabled major Kurdish movements in Turkey and Syria to develop a form of political community that constitutes a viable alternative to those based on theocratic, imperial and national sovereignty. Thus, Baris concludes, rather than being a conflict between competing nationalisms, the current Kurdish conflict in Turkey and Syria is between competing visions of political community.

Media and Politics in Kurdistan studies the relationship between the media and politics in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). KRI is approached as a case study, as an example of the struggle between authoritarian and democratization efforts at the same time. The book contributes towards understanding the dynamics of the media systems in the KRI and attempts to participate in the theoretical discussion of media and politics in this region. The research outcomes show which parts of the press, how many of them and for what length of time the press in the KRI has been owned/controlled by political parties. This book also studies the system of political parties and particularly as related to the press.

A major common misconception in scholarship on Kurdish journalistic discourses is that Kurdish intellectuals of the late Ottoman period cannot be portrayed as Kurdish nationalists. This theory prevails because of the belief that they not only endorsed and promoted Pan-Islamism and Ottoman nationalism instead of Kurdish ethnic nationalism, but also because they allegedly eschewed political demands and instead concerned themselves with ethno-cultural issues to articulate forms of “Kurdism” rather than “Kurdish nationalism.” Refuting this underlying misconstruction of the nexus between Pan-Islamism, Ottomanism, and Kurdish nationalism, this book argues, based on empirical findings, that the Kurdish periodicals of the late Ottoman period served as a communicative space in which Kurdish intellectuals negotiated and disseminated an unmistakable form of Kurdish nationalism. It claims that hegemonic Ottomanist and Pan-Islamist political thought were used in pragmatic ways in the service of burgeoning Kurdish nationalism, but were rejected altogether when they were no longer useful to fostering Kurdish nationalism.

A major common misconception in scholarship on Kurdish journalistic discourses is that Kurdish intellectuals of the late Ottoman period cannot be portrayed as Kurdish nationalists. This theory prevails because of the belief that they not only endorsed and promoted Pan-Islamism and Ottoman nationalism instead of Kurdish ethnic nationalism, but also because they allegedly eschewed political demands and instead concerned themselves with ethno-cultural issues to articulate forms of “Kurdism” rather than “Kurdish nationalism.” Refuting this underlying misconstruction of the nexus between Pan-Islamism, Ottomanism, and Kurdish nationalism, this book argues, based on empirical findings, that the Kurdish periodicals of the late Ottoman period served as a communicative space in which Kurdish intellectuals negotiated and disseminated an unmistakable form of Kurdish nationalism. It claims that hegemonic Ottomanist and Pan-Islamist political thought were used in pragmatic ways in the service of burgeoning Kurdish nationalism, but were rejected altogether when they were no longer useful to fostering Kurdish nationalism.

While dramatic changes taking place in the Middle East offer important opportunities to the Kurdish century-long struggle for recognition, serious obstacles seem to keep reemerging every time the Kurds anywhere make progress. The large Kurdish geography, extending from western Iran to near the eastern Mediterranean, and a century of repression and denial have engendered various Kurdish groups with competing and at times conflicting views and goals. The Kurds in the Middle East: Enduring Problems and New Dynamics, with an emphasis on continuity and change in the Kurdish Question, brings together a group of well-known scholars to shed light on this complex issue.

In Home and Sense of Belonging among Iraqi Kurds in the UK , Ali Zalme explores how Iraqi Kurdish generations in the UK conceptualise home and belonging. Zalme challenges the essentialist and nationalist approach that often dominates discussions of diasporic community research, instead promoting perspectives from individuals’ experiences and their social practices. Home and Sense of Belonging investigates the Iraqi Kurdish community using a bottom-up approach, analyzing the new generation of Kurdish immigrants in the UK as a new culture with complex practices and rituals of their own.Throughout the book, Ali Zalme focuses on lived experiences from Iraqi Kurdish diasporic communities in the United Kingdom and acknowledges the diversity of both gender and generational distinctions. Using an autoethnographic approach and interviews with Iraqi Kurdish immigrants in the UK, Zalme questions the homogeneity of Kurdishness and examines its particularities in diaspora.

This book illuminates on the US strategy of proxy warfare in modern times with the Syrian Civil War as a case study. Spyridon Plakoudas and Wojtek Michnik fuse modern history with international relations and strategic studies in order to offer an up-to-date and critical analysis of this unique partnership between a state (USA) and a non-state actor (Syrian Kurds) against another non-state actor (ISIS) - amidst the wider Syrian civil war. They argue that this partnership ended up as a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it defeated ISIS at a minimum cost in money and blood in comparison to the Iraq War, but, on the other hand, it ensnared the USA into a tangled web of competition and conflict with other powers with no easy way-out. In other words, proxy warfare may prove a not-so-cheap investment in the end.

The author argues that a part of the history of nation building in Iraq through addressing its political characters, different communities, agreements and pan Arab ideology, including the Baath ideology and its attempts to seize power through nondemocratic methods. It is an attempt to approach the essence of the exclusion mentality of the ruling elite in order to understand the process of genocide against the Kurdish people, including all existing religious minorities. This essence of the process has been approached in the framework of the civilizing and de-civilizing process as a main theory of the German sociologist, Norbert Elias. Thus, this book may be considered as one of the comprehensive books to present a study of state-building in Iraq, along with identifying some of the political figures that had an essential impact on the construction. On the other hand, it is a comprehensive study of the genocide, in the sense of searching for the causes and roots of the genocide. The Anfal campaigns took place in 1988, but the process started as far back as the end of the sixties and the beginning of the seventies of the last century.

The author argues that a part of the history of nation building in Iraq through addressing its political characters, different communities, agreements and pan Arab ideology, including the Baath ideology and its attempts to seize power through nondemocratic methods. It is an attempt to approach the essence of the exclusion mentality of the ruling elite in order to understand the process of genocide against the Kurdish people, including all existing religious minorities. This essence of the process has been approached in the framework of the civilizing and de-civilizing process as a main theory of the German sociologist, Norbert Elias. Thus, this book may be considered as one of the comprehensive books to present a study of state-building in Iraq, along with identifying some of the political figures that had an essential impact on the construction. On the other hand, it is a comprehensive study of the genocide, in the sense of searching for the causes and roots of the genocide. The Anfal campaigns took place in 1988, but the process started as far back as the end of the sixties and the beginning of the seventies of the last century.

Previous researches examine how transnational ethnic ties impact the relationship between host states and diaspora and why states and ethnic minorities in the diaspora may occasionally support violent rebel organizations in the homeland. However, these previous studies do not really consider the relationships among co-ethnic organizations without a homeland government. This book tackles the following important questions: How and when do co-ethnic Kurdish organizations provide open support for each other during conflict-peace cycle events? Moreover, do external threats impact the relationship among co-ethnic organizations? The aim of this research is to identify the causal factors that influence the transnational networks between Kurdish organizations. Research findings reveal that political rationality and external threats seem to be stronger predictors of political behavior than ethnic ties in the Kurdish case. This study helps scholars and policy makers to evaluate the impact of transnational networks between co-ethnic Kurdish organizations in cases of civil war, which may play a crucial role in the escalation and de-escalation of international conflicts. In addition, this research helps to understand the role of co-ethnic organizations in building sustainable peace in areas of conflict.

Thriving in the context of political vacuums created by state weakness, the armed non-state actors in the Middle East, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Kurds increasingly demonstrate features of both state and non-state actors and act autonomously in their foreign policy. Rethinking State-Non-State Alliances: Change and Continuity in the U.S.-Kurdish Relationship investigates the growing influence of Middle Eastern non-state actors as agents of foreign policy through an analysis of the U.S.-Kurdish relationship. Ozum Yesiltas analyzes the underlying causes of increased U.S.-Kurdish cooperation since the early 1990s and addresses the extent to which existing approaches in international relations are adequate in explaining the changing political landscape in the Middle East that brought the U.S. and Kurds together in new ways. Yesiltas draws attention to the ways in which U.S-Kurdish interactions contributed to the escalation of Kurdish nationalism as a transnational phenomenon, and how the growing saliency of Kurdish transnational politics reshapes U.S. foreign policy and broader regional order.