Kurdish Studies Network

Ofra Bengio explores the dynamics of relations between the Kurds of Iraq and the Iraqi state from the inception of the Baath regime to the present. Bengio draws on a wealth of rich source materials to carefully trace the evolution of Kurdish national identity in Iraq. Dissecting the socioeconomic, political, and ideological transformations that Iraqi Kurdish society has undergone across some five decades, she focuses on the twin processes of nation building and state building. She also highlights the characteristics of the Kurdish movement in Iraq relative to Kurdish communities elsewhere in the region.

This narrative of the profound vicissitudes of Iraqi Kurdish fortunes illuminates not only the complexities of politics within Iraq today, but also the influence of Iraqi Kurdistan on the geostrategic map of the entire Middle East.

“The most up-to-date and detailed account of Iraqi Kurdish politics available in English.”—Library Journal

“Without a doubt one of the best books to come along on the Kurds of Iraq….  Exceptional.”—Charles G. McDonald, Florida International University

Ofra Bengio is lecturer in the Department of Middle East Studies at Tel Aviv University and senior research fellow at the university’s Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. Her previous publications in English include Saddam’s World: Political Discourse in Iraq and the coedited Minorities and the State in the Arab World.

Click here to read the books introduction

Contents

The Evolution of Kurdish Nationalism.
THE KURDS AND THE IRAQI STATE, 1968-1980.
The Long Road to Kurdish Autonomy.
Paved with Good Intentions.
Unholy Alliances.
Deteriorating Relationships.
Marginalizing the Kurds.
An Imposed Autonomy.
A Time for War.
Interregnum.
CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE, 1980-1998.
“One War Begets Another”: The Iran-Iraq War.
Rising from the Ashes.
The Birth Pangs of Kurdish Self-Rule.
Uncivil War in Kurdistan.
A KURDISH ENTITY IN THE MAKING, 1998-2010.
The Foreign Relations Imbroglio.
From Victims to Victors.
The Great Leap Forward in Post-Saddam Iraq.
CONCLUSION.
“No Friends but the Mountains” Reconsidered

Edited by Christian Christensen and Miyase Christensen

To Be Published July 1st 2012 by Routledge.

Discourse (both popular and academic) surrounding Turkey has leaned toward the reductionist and the de-contextualized, framing Turkish media, culture and politics in polarized terms such as East vs. West, Modern vs. Traditional or Muslim vs. Christian. The objective of this new volume is to move away from such essentialist dichotomies and to provide scholars with a well-written, comprehensive and much-needed investigation into media and culture in Turkey.

Three themes, “Structures,” “Spaces” and “Voices,” make up the core structure of the book, providing an intellectual and epistemological arc. Following an introductory chapter written by the co-editors, the first section, “Structures,” provides critical examinations of the structural underpinnings of contemporary Turkish media and culture through analyses of, for example, journalism, cultural policy, Information Society and citizenship. The second section, “Spaces,” connects Turkish media and culture to spatial/locational factors: Turkey’s role and place in Europe; the Turkish diasporic space; representations of the Turkish “East;” and Istanbul as urban/social space. In the final section, “Voices,” the book turns toward chapters that address central issues in contemporary Turkish media—for example, Islam, arabesk music and the presentation of Kurds on national television—from a cultural perspective.

The text will be essential reading for scholars within, for example, Middle and Near Eastern Studies, Media Studies, Sociology who wish to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between media, politics and culture in this complex and increasingly important country.

Contents

1. Re-contextualizing Turkey: Beyond the East-West Divide

Christian Christensen (Karlstad University, Sweden) & Miyase Christensen (Karlstad University, Sweden)

Section I: Structures

2. Articulating Identity and Citizenship in Turkey

E. Fuat Keyman (Koc University, Turkey)

3. The Development of Commercial Broadcasting in Turkey

Cem Pekman (Marmara University, Turkey)

4. The Passing of Traditional Hegemony and the Rise of Islamic Media: Structural and Ideological Change in the Turkish Media Since 1990

Haluk Sahin (Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey)

5. Shifting Cultural Policy Discourse in Turkey Today

Asu Aksoy (Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey)

6. Between Laughter, Tears and Nationalism: The Rise of a New Popular Cinema in Turkey

Asuman Suner (Sabanci University, Turkey)

7. The State of the Information Society in Turkey: A Multi-Dimensional Approach

Kursat Cagiltay (Middle East Technical University, Turkey) & Mete Yildiz (Hacettepe University, Turkey)

8. Access Denied: Video-Sharing, the State and Censorship in Turkey

Christian Christensen (Karlstad University, Sweden)

Section II: Spaces

9. Europe and Turkey: Why Such a Bad Relationship? And What New possibilities?

Kevin Robins (City University-London, UK)

10. Between Silence and Recognition: Popular Constructions of ‘East’ and ‘Eastern People’ in Contemporary Turkey

Ayse Öncü (Sabanci University, Turkey)

11. A Showcase for the Global City: The Neighborhood of Tesvikiye in Istanbul

Leyla Neyzi (Sabanci University, Turkey)

12. Media Used and Created in the Diaspora: From the Time of the European Recruitment of Turkish Workers Until Today

Christine L. Ogan (Indiana University, USA)

13. Mapping the City on a Billboard: Visual Marketing of Istanbul for a Contemporary Agenda

Özlem Unsal (City University-London, UK)

Section III: Voices

14. The Irresistible Rise of the Spectacle: Hegemony and Resistance in Turkish Media

Mahmut Mutman (Bilkent University, Turkey)

15. Culture and Women’s Voices

Nuket Kardam (Monterey Institute of International Studies, USA)

16. The Subjugating Power of the Media and the Public Gaze: Secularism and the Islamic Headscarf

Alev Cinar (Bilkent University, Turkey)

17. The Melancholic Cosmopolitanism of Muslum Gurses

Martin Stokes (Oxford University, UK)

18. Interrupted Voices in Turkey’s Contentious Public Sphere

Miyase Christensen (Karlstad University, Sweden)

19. Love (and Hate) Thy Neighbour: The Construction of Kurdishness in Turkish TV Serials

Author info

Christian Christensen is Associate Professor in the Department of Informatics and Media at Uppsala University in Sweden. He is the author of numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed articles on media and communication in Turkey, journalism, media, new technology and conflict. His research has been published in journals such as Media, War & Conflict, The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, Global Media & Communication, The British Journalism Review and Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture.

Miyase Christensen is Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communication Studies at Karlstad University in Sweden. In addition to the books mentioned below, Christensen has published numerous international articles and book chapters and her research areas include: globalisation processes and the political economy of media; media and information society policies (with an emphasis on the EU and Turkey); media, identity, citizenship and politics. Her current projects include and international collaborative work on new media communities, transnationalization and citizenship.

After nearly a year since we as a group of intellectuals and businessmen began organising a foundation in honour of Ismail Besikci, that our labour gave fruit with the Official Gazette date issued 29 November 2011 alongside the registration statement from the General Directory of Foundations.

Our prime goal is to pass the conscience of humanity, honour of science Ismail Beşikçi’s legacy to next generations to make them know his proud and determined stance on the side of democracy and peoples through this foundation.

In a world where humanistic, scientific, cultural and ethic codes are degenerated, concepts of law, justice, democracy, human rights are denied and such demands are silenced by the official ideology through its administrative and punitive sanctions, ethic and religious values are abused for the State’s benefit, money is worshipped as a god and to whom people are sacrificed; we hold such profound responsibilities of sharing his thoughts with the World and conveying his works to next generations

As Ismail Besikci Foundation we aim to cherish Ismail beşikçi’s name, thoughts, works and legacy through conducting researches in scientific, social and cultural fields, founding archives, documentation and culture centres, institutes and a museum. ― Likewise, we hope to organise contests in a variety of fields to give Ismail Besikci awards and carry out media and publishing activities.

In the process of organising the foundation we established Ismail Besikci Research Library as well. This rich, wide-ranging library is Ismail Besikci’s collection of books, magazines and newspapers which he laboriously accumulated throughout the last 60 years. The library will soon be ready to serve students and researchers.

We are sure that the establishment of this foundation will stir excitement among all those who recognise Ismail Besikci as a value and believe that science and art cause social progress. We call upon everybody who supports scientific, cultural progress in new social horizons and experiences to aid and become volunteers for Ismail Besikci Foundation.

ISMAIL BESIKCI FOUNDATION

Board of Trustees        Board of Directors

İsmail Beşikçi                    Ismail Beşikçi – Director

İbrahim Gürbüz                 İbrahim Gürbüz – Deputy Director

İshak Tepe                        İshak Tepe – Accountant

Talat İnanç                        Ruşen Arslan – Member

Abdullah Baran                  Ahmet Önal – Member

Address: İsmail Beşikci Vakfı

Kuloğlu Mah. Ayhan Işık Sok.

No : 21/1 Beyoğlu/İstanbul

Nazand Begikhani

13 October 2011

The term “gender” does not exist in Kurdish and is sometimes seen as a synonym for homosexuality.

Yet gender issues are at the heart of the conflict between traditionalist and progressive forces in Iraqi Kurdistan, according to Nazand Begikhani, a senior research Fellow at the University of Bristol’s Centre for Gender and Violence Research.

It is with this in mind that she helped to establish the pioneering Gender and Violence Studies Centre at the University of Sulaimaniya.

The centre, set up as one of the British Council’s Development Projects in Higher Education (DelPHE-Iraq), aims to capitalise on the gains made by the recent Violence against Women Act.

Dr Begikhani’s involvement began when she was doing fieldwork on honour-based violence in her native Iraqi Kurdistan in 2010. She was asked to participate in a collaborative human rights project and decided to help create the centre at Sulaimaniya.

Funding from the UK’s Department for International Development was matched by the Kurdistan Ministry of Higher Education and continues until March 2012.

Comprising more than 30 projects, the DelPHE-Iraq programme aims to “strengthen the capacity of Iraqi higher education institutions to deliver professional skills to support Iraq’s development”, partly by improving opportunities for women.

Bristol academics collaborating on the project are due to make five visits to Kurdistan.

The goals of the new centre, said Dr Begikhani, were “to provide robust evidence and recommendations to government”, to adapt Western theoretical work on gender to local realities such as female genital mutilation, forced marriage and honour killing, and to win over those who claimed, Dr Begikhani said, that “promoting gender equality would destroy Kurdish society”.

A unit on gender and violence is now a compulsory part of all sociology degrees at Sulaimaniya. Many graduates are employed as social workers, by non-governmental organisations and in family courts. Resistance has been countered by the support of the minister for higher education and scientific research, Dlawer Ala’Aldeen, who also holds a chair in clinical microbiology at the University of Nottingham.

Four women from the centre visited the UK last month to meet academics and community and women’s groups and take part in panel discussions. They were led by Najat Mohammed Faraj, head of Sulaimaniya’s sociology department.

Speaking in the House of Lords, she said that as Iraqi Kurdistan is now semi-independent, it is “time for the regional government to work for its own citizens”.

The centre, continued Dr Faraj, could be “a platform for awareness-raising, to support campaigns against domestic violence and to act as an umbrella organisation for many separate women’s groups.

“Our work is scientific, paving the way step by step for the acceptance of the new idea of gender studies in Kurdistan. Every new initiative, as we know as sociologists, faces challenges and resistance. We are ready for the challenges.”

matthew.reisz[at]tsleducation.com.

Times Higher Education

The Kurdish Reader by Khanna Omarkhali comprises an exciting collection of texts in Kurmanji, the northern dialect of the Kurdish language. It is designed to help students with a basic knowledge of the Kurdish language to enhance their fluency by studying a variety of texts ranging from literary and folklore to non-narrative prose works.The first part of the book focuses on the literary works, both prose and verse, from all parts of the Kurmanji speaking countries. Many of the texts were produced in Armenia where the dialect evolved its written tradition. This is the first collection incorporating material from this important literary and cultural heritage. As the first part of the book presents the development of written tradition, part two introduces the reader to a range of variants of Kurmanji from Turkey, Armenia, Russia, Syria, Iraqi Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenia, and Khorasan, each conveying the richness of their forms. This part of the Reader is of interest for Kurdish Oral History Studies too for it consists of various recordings of historical information, based on the personal experience of the speakers. The Reader contains two Kurdish-English glossaries and a grammar section. This constitutes a comprehensive outline of the subjects under study along with a fundamental description of the cornerstones of Kurmanji grammatical categories, and explanations of the main discrepancies between the local Kurmanji variants and the literary language with examples taken from the selections. Additionally, the book offers English translations of selected texts with an English-Kurdish dictionary of linguistic terms.

For more information about this book and to order it see the website of the publisher:

Harrassowitz Verlag

Turkey, at the very intersection between Europe and the Middle East, comprises a plethora of ethnicities and minority groups. There is however very little official data about many of its chief minorities. The Zazas are one such group: a Kurdish people speaking the Zaza dialect, and living as a distinct people in the eastern Anatolian provinces. Mehmet S. Kaya here investigates all aspects of Zaza life: kinship, economy, culture, identity, gender relations, patriarchy and religion. His fieldwork among local communities in the Zaza area sheds light upon the ways in which this Middle Eastern minority has maintained its way of life and cultural identity in today’s globalised society. This book provides valuable insights into a little-known people, and will be of interest within the fields of Middle East Studies, Islamic Studies, Minority Studies and Diaspora Studies.

[This] is an original and significant contribution to a field of study that is in dire need of [attention]… The book is a timely description which, from an ethnographic perspective, addresses aspects of traditional Kurd society in a modern transition period. It…describes themes that are rarely addressed when modern regional developments are discussed [such as] kinship, trade relations and the interface between traditional and modern forms of social and political organization. Other important areas that are addressed include religion, gender and modern social relationships… The book makes a significant contribution to these research themes by providing a view of the interrelations and challenges that Zaza Kurds face today.
– Leif Selstad, Associate Professor, University of Stavanger, Norway

Mehmet S. Kaya is Associate Professor at Lillehammer University College, Norway. He received his PhD in Sociology and Social Anthropology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim.

Imprint: I.B.Tauris
Publisher: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd

Hardback
ISBN: 9781845118754
Publication Date: 30 May 2011
Number of Pages: 240

A letter was released by MTSU at the end of August announcing further development of the institution’s budding Kurdish Studies programme. Last August MTSU announced that it would begin teaching Kurdish. MTSU is only one of three universities in the US where Kurdish is taught. The other two are the University of Arizona and Portland State University. Here is the text of that letter:

By Cengiz Gunes

This book provides an interpretive and critical analysis of Kurdish identity, nationalism and national movement in Turkey since the 1960s. By raising issues and questions relating to Kurdish political identity and highlighting the ideological specificity, diversity and the transformation of Kurdish nationalism, it develops a new empirical dimension to the study of the Kurds in Turkey.

Cengiz Gunes applies an innovative theoretical approach to the analysis of an impressively large volume of primary sources and data drawn from books and magazines published by Kurdish activists, political parties and groups. The analysis focuses on the specific demands articulated by the Kurdish national movement and looks at Kurdish nationalism at a specific level by disaggregating the nationalist discourse, showing variations over time and across different Kurdish nationalist organisations. Situating contemporary Kurdish political identity and its political manifestations within a historical framework, the author examines the historical and structural conditions that gave rise to it and influenced its evolution since the 1960s. The analysis also encompasses an account of the organisational growth and evolution of the Kurdish national movement, including the political parties and groups that were active in the period.

Bringing the study of the organisational development and growth of the Kurdish National Movement in Turkey up to date, this book will be an important reference for students and scholars of Middle Eastern politics, social movements, nationalism and conflict.

Contents

Introduction: The Research Question 1. Deconstructing Kurdish Identity and Nationalism in Academic Discourses 2. Understanding Kurdish Identity and Nationalism in Turkey 3. The Organic Intellectuals and the Re-emergence of Kurdish Political Activism in the 1960s 4. The Emergence of the Kurdish Socialist Movement 5. The Kurdish National Liberation Discourse 6. “Becoming a Kurd”: The National Liberation War and Mass Mobilisation 7. Dislocations and the PKK’s Turn to Democracy 8. Contesting Democracy and Pluralism: The Pro-Kurdish Political Parties in Turkey. Conclusion: Democracy, Pluralism and Kurdish Subjectivity in (Post)National Turkey

Cengiz Gunes holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Essex. His thesis examines the Kurdish national movement and the articulation of Kurdish identity in Turkey since the 1960s. His main research interests are in Identity and Nationalism, Democratic Theory and Contemporary Political Theory.

To Be Published 2nd December 2011 by Routledge – 256 pages

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.

Abbas Vali is professor of political science at Bosphorus University.

Imprint: I.B.Tauris
Publisher: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
Series: International Library of Iranian Studies

Hardback
ISBN: 9781848857889
Publication Date: 30 Sep 2011
Number of Pages: 232

Reviews: ‘Gendered Experiences of Genocide is a valuable resource and a compelling account of Saddam Hussein’s war against the Kurds. Dr Hardi’s thorough study illuminates this under-researched subject with clarity and restraint, and her command of the facts and analysis of survivors’ narratives make for gripping reading. It is a must read for anyone interested in gender and genocide.’

Click to read the introduction

By Dennis B. Chapman

Mazda Publishers, Jan 2011

Bibliotheca Iranica: Kurdish Studies Series #10

Description

Since 1991 the Kurdistan Region has enjoyed autonomy within Iraq. Despite upheavals and setbacks, the Kurds of northern Iraq have established viable government institutions including legally constituted legislative, executive, judiciary, and security entities. These structures were the only state elements in Iraq to remain intact after the 2003 U.S. invasion, and have continued to develop during the intervening years. Their existence and authority were ratified on an interim basis by the Transitional Administrative Law and permanently by the terms of the 2005 Constitution on Iraq.

This book examines in depth the organization, administration, command structure, legal basis, legitimacy, and other key features of the security sector of the Kurdistan Regional Government Iraq, to include military forces (Peshmerga), police, security agencies (Asayish), intelligence services (Parastin and Dezgay Zenyari), paramilitary security services (Zerivani), as well as the Judiciary and penal systems. The book also examines the relationship between the Kurdistan Region security apparatus and that of the Government of Iraq, both within and without the borders of the Kurdistan Region.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
List of Maps, Tables, Figures and Illustrations
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Security Sector of the Kurdistan Regional Government
Chapter 2: The Kurdistan Regional Government
Chapter 3: The Peshmerga
Chapter 4: Peshmerga: The Classical Period
Chapter 5:Peshmerga: The Interim Period
Chapter 6: The Contemporary Peshmerga
Chapter 7: Peshmerga Unification
Chapter 8: Peshmerga Transformation
Chapter 9: Asayish
Chapter 10: Police
Cpater 11: The Intelligence Services: Parastin and Dazgay Zanyari
Chapter 12: Judiciary
Chapter 13: Penal System
Chapter 14: Extraterritorial Operations by KRG Forces
Chapter 15: Women and Minorities in the KRG Security Services
Chapter 16: Security Sector Integration in the KRG
Chapter 17: Behavior and Conduct of Iraqi Kurdistan Forces
Chapter 18: Conclusion. The Serpent and the Wolf
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Dennis P. Chapman is a native of Lansing, Michigan. He holds degrees from the United States Military Academy at West Point and Thomas M. Cooley Law School, and completed a U.S. Army War College Fellowship at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC, where he completed much of the work on this book. A career Soldier, Mr. Chapman has served in Somalia, Iraq, and various other assignments in the United States Army, both Regular and Army National Guard. His interest in Iraqi Kurdistan began when he served as the chief of a U.S. military advisory team working with the all-Kurdish 3rd Brigade, 4th Iraqi Division, based at Sulaymaniyah.

Johanna Nykänen

Summary

The Kurdish question in Turkey is one of the most pressing issues facing the EU in its near neighbourhood. It has the potential to destabilise the region, with ramifications for the EU.

The EU has failed to facilitate a solution to the Kurdish question in the framework of Turkey’s EU accession process. This is due in part to its non-conclusive policies towards Turkey in general and the Kurdish question in particular.

The Turkish government is currently leading the mediation process on the Kurdish question, but lacks adequate legitimacy across the whole political spectrum to find a holistic and lasting solution.

By taking a more active role in finding a solution to the Kurdish question, the EU could breathe new life into EU-Turkey relations and enhance its global role.

The EU can either take a passive approach and apply stricter conditionality with clear goals, or an active role and offer to take part in the mediation process.

Applying more conditionality is a politically viable but ineffective option. To give it the maximum boost, it would have to be coupled with strong EU support for enhancing political legitimacy in Turkey.

Mediation is an effective yet politically ambitious option. It would allow the EU to use its post-Lisbon competences, and offer the EU a more prominent role in peace mediation activities. But finding a mandate that would satisfy all sides within the EU and in Turkey would be a challenge.

Click to read the briefing paper

The Kurds of Iraq: Ethnonationalism and National Identity in Iraqi Kurdistan
By Mahir Aziz

I.B.Tauris, 30 Jan 2011

Over ninety years since their absorption into the modern Iraqi state, the Kurdish people of Iraq still remain an apparent anomaly in the modern world – a nation without a state. In ‘The Kurds of Iraq’, Mahir Aziz explores this incongruity, and asks the pertinent questions, who are the Kurds today? What is their relationship to the Iraqi state? How do they perceive themselves and their prospective political future? And in what way are they crucial for the stability of the Iraqi state? Through extensive field research, examining the complex process of identity formation amongst Kurdish students, Aziz analyses wider issues of the intersection and interdependency of national, regional, ethnic, tribal and local identities. He thus constructs an intimate portrait of the Kurds of Iraq, which will provide an important insight for students and researchers of the Middle East and for those interested in the vital issues of nationalism and ethnic identity in the modern nation state, and the impact these issues have on the stability of Iraq itself.

The Kurds and US Foreign Policy: International Relations in the Middle East since 1945

By Marianna Charountaki, Routledge, 320 pp. £75.00

This book provides a detailed survey and analysis of US–Kurdish relations and their interaction with domestic, regional and global politics. Using the Kurdish issue to explore the nature of the engagement between international powers and weaker non-state entities, the author analyses the existence of an interactive US relationship with the Kurds of Iraq.

Drawing on governmental archives and interviews with political figures both in Northern Iraq and the United States, the author places the case study within a broader International Relations context. The conceptual framework centres on the inter-relations between actors (both state and non-state) and structures of material and ideational kinds, while the detailed survey and analysis of US–Kurdish relations, in their interaction with domestic, regional and global politics, forms the empirical core of the study. Stressing the intertwining of domestic and foreign policy as part of the same set of dynamics, the case study explains the emergence of the interactive and institutionalized US relationship with the Kurds of Iraq that has brought about the formation, within an Iraqi framework, of an undeclared US official Kurdish policy in the post-Saddam era.

Filling a gap in the literature on US–Kurdish relations as well as the broader topic of International Relations, this book will be of great interest to those in the areas of International Relations, Middle Eastern and Kurdish Politics.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. The Multi-faceted Nature of the Kurdish Issue 3. US Foreign Policy: Structures, Determinants and Pressures 4. US Foreign Policy Towards the Kurds, 1945-1990 5. US Foreign Policy Toward the Kurds, 1991-2003 6. US and the Kurds in the Post-Saddam Era (2003-2009) 7. Conceptual Implications and General Conclusions

Marianna Charountaki completed her PhD in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter. Now an independent scholar working in Athens, Greece, her research interests range from International Relations and foreign policy analysis to the international relations of the broader Middle East.

Since 1984, an estimated 40,000 civilians, soldiers, security personnel, and Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) combatants have died as a result of the Kurdish conflict. Yet, as a consequence of the Iraq war in 2003, interactions between the United States, Turkey, and the Kurdish minority in Turkey and the KRG (Kurdish Regional Government) changed significantly. Could a resolution be in sight?

The Militant Kurds: A Dual Strategy for Freedom explores the complexity of the 30-year guerrilla war of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) against the Turkish Republic, identifying longstanding obstacles to peace and probing the new dynamics that may lead to an end to the conflict. In doing so, the book provides fascinating insights into Turkey’s national ethos, its dominant military culture, and civil society’s struggle for increased democratization.

The Militant Kurds offers an extensive analysis of the precarious position of the Kurdish minority, beginning with the establishment of the modern Turkish republic in 1923. Divided into five sections examining current political realities in Turkey, the book investigates the role of Islam and ethnicity, analyzes the rise of the PKK, discusses Turkish military culture, and explains the international dimensions of the Kurdish conflict. Comparative historical, political, and socioeconomic examples contextualize the long struggle for Kurdish self-determination. Each chapter offers an analysis of the underlying dynamics of the conflict and provides up-to-date explanations.

Features
• Quotes from numerous sources reflect the many different perspectives on how to resolve the conflict with the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK)
• Offers a glossary of Turkish language terms, abbreviations, and acronyms, such as KRG (Kurdish Regional Government)
• Includes a brief Turkish pronunciation guide

Highlights
• Analyzes the rise of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) for a broad readership, addressing issues of international security, transnational threat, and regional instability
• Explains the Kurdish communal response to Turkish policies of assimilation since the 1920s
• Offers insights from Diaspora Turks and Kurds involved in searching for a resolution to the Kurdish conflict

The Kurdish Conflict: International Humanitarian Law and Post-Conflict Mechanisms

 

Reviewed by Hannes Artens for the Times Higher Education – 16 September 2010

// The world’s 40 million or so Kurds are routinely referred to as “the largest group of stateless people in the world”. Their homeland straddles one of the most explosive geopolitical regions – the triangle between Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria – and yet their fate and struggle for self-determination evoked little international attention until the 1991 Gulf War. Since then, and since the stability and territorial integrity of Iraq has become indissolubly tied to the status of the autonomous (and oil-rich) Kurdish quasi-state in its north, the number of books on the Kurds has mushroomed. With few exceptions, though, reading one of these works on Kurdish nationalism is like having read them all – too often, the reader is left with a been-there-heard-that impression. This is not quite the case, however, with The Kurdish Conflict by Kerim Yildiz and Susan Breau, who approach the issue from a road less taken: the localisation of the conflict in international and human rights law.

Yildiz, a prolific Kurdish human rights campaigner based in London, and Breau, a professor in international law at Flinders University in Australia, can speak on the subject with authority and, in the case of Yildiz, with lifelong on-the-ground expertise.

Moreover, to the book’s unquestionable gain, the duo wisely chose to confine themselves geographically while thematically going beyond the narrow focus on a people’s right to self-determination and its grounding (or lack of grounding) in international law. This allows them to discuss the legal dimension of the very issue that is most pressing for the international community at some (if ultimately not satisfactory) depth: the civil war in south-eastern Turkey between Turkish security forces and the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and how this conflict spills over into and destabilises neighbouring Iraq.

To many readers, this may seem at first a moot point of discussion, for if truth is the first casualty of war, law surely is the second. No doubt the dirty war raging in eastern Anatolia since 1984 – which has cost more than 40,000 lives – defies all notions of jus in bello, and the Turkish military in its approximately 60 incursions into northern Iraq operates on a very peculiar interpretation of jus ad bellum.

Yet Yildiz and Breau make a compelling case for why a legal perspective matters. For example, they demonstrate how the designation of the PKK as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the US complicates their possible role as mediators. They also unmask the hypocrisy in Turkey’s treatment of the PKK as an internal security threat on the international stage, consequently denying any interference from international bodies, while internationalising the conflict by routinely attacking PKK bases in northern Iraq.

Yet a legal perspective alone is not enough. At this complex stage it becomes apparent that the authors’ chosen lens is not sufficient to understand the Kurdish conflict in Turkey and its escalation into Iraq. It needs to be supported by a critical analysis of the political realities on the ground, such as the ambivalent relationships between the Kurdish parties in northern Iraq and the PKK, and that between the Kurdish quasi-state and Turkey (which happens to be the former’s biggest foreign investor). Also required is a discussion of the status of the Kurdish quasi-state within Iraq beyond what is written in the constitution.

This takes on even further importance when discussing, as the authors do in the second part, possible scenarios for conflict resolution. Yet Yildiz and Breau’s work only marginally addresses these issues, leaving their legal analysis and prescriptions if not somewhat suspended in mid-air then at least insufficiently put into context. This deficit weighs heavier than their clear pro-Kurdish bias and attenuates a theoretically worthwhile contribution.

Hannes Artens is doctoral researcher and assistant lecturer at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter.

Press release issued 8 December 2010

Research into ‘honour-based’ violence (HBV) and killings in Iraqi Kurdistan and the UK by Professor Gill Hague and Dr Nazand Begikhani from the University’s School for Policy Studies, together with colleagues from the University of Roehampton, has earned plaudits from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the UN.

HBV, in which violence is carried out against family members (most often women) by other family members (most often men) in the name of honour, has been identified internationally as a distressing crime and an abuse of human rights.

The study (‘An investigation into honour-based violence and honour-based killings in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora in the UK’) assessed the nature and extent of honour-based violence (HBV) and honour killings in Iraqi Kurdistan and the UK Kurdish Diaspora, and evaluated the impact of these practices on women’s experiences in Kurdish communities. This included both attention to cultural and family traditions, and to the representations that appear in the media of Kurdish ideas and values in relation to gender relations and family honour.

The Kurdistan Regional Government supported the study in order to get a better understanding of the nature and consequences of this violence and abuse.

The study, the first of its type in the UK and across Iraqi Kurdistan, has already led to interventions in Iraqi Kurdistan, namely through the passing several notable legal amendments to reduce violence against women and crimes in the name of honour.

Speaking at the launch of the report, Minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt, said:

‘Honour crimes have no place in a modern society and I have been heartened by the Kurdistan Regional Government’s efforts to crack down on them. This report marks an important step. The recommendations offer a roadmap to combating honour-based violence in Iraqi Kurdistan. The UK will continue to work with the Kurdistan Regional Government in realising this goal.’

Details of the project in both English and Kurdish are available from the School of Policy Studies website.

Please contact Dara O’Hare for further information.

Cenk Saracoglu

The role of the Kurds in Turkey has long been a controversial issue, although discussion has generally been focused around the political and cultural rights and activities of the Kurds. This book aims to bring a new approach to this contentious subject by shifting attention to the changing popular image of the Kurds in Turkish cities. It focuses particularly on the ways in which the middle-class in Turkish cities develop an exclusionary discourse against the Kurds. Cenk Saracoglu investigates the social origins of such a perception by bringing into focus how neoliberal economic policies and Kurdish migration have transformed urban life in Turkey.

Imprint: I.B.Tauris
Publisher: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd

Hardback
ISBN: 9781848854680
Publication Date: 30 Oct 2010
Number of Pages: 248
Height: 216
Width: 134

Cenk Saraçoglu teaches Political Science and International Relations at the Middle East Technical University, Northern Cyprus Campus. He holds a PhD from The University of Western Ontario.