"By regarding nationalism as a consequence of complex political spaces tied to nation-state-building processes, this book presents an image of center-periphery and intra-Kurdish relations that is not inherently hostile across space and time. Variations in Kurdayetî reveal that, contrary to popular theories, there is nothing natural about Kurdish national identity, Kurdish political behavior, or the relationships between Kurds and their central governments. Shi'a, Sunni, Christian, and Alevi groups do not have a natural hatred for one another, Kurdish nationalists are not inherently defiant towards the state, and Kurds have not consistently differentiated themselves from Arabs, Turks, or Persians.”
Denise Natali is a professor and researcher at the College of Political Science, University of Salahaddin, Arbil (Hawler), Kurdistan region of Iraq. Over the past thirteen years she has lived, worked, and conducted independent field research in the Kurdish regions of Iraq, Turkey, and Iran, publishing numerous articles on Kurdish politics and identity within and beyond Iraq. Her expertise in Kurdish affairs has won her postings as information officer for the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance in northern Iraq, the American Red Cross International Disaster Relief Services, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. For sixteen months, she also worked with Afghan refugees in Pakistan, where she served as liaison to the Afghan interim government’s Ministry of Public Health and as director of cross-border operations for a nongovernmental organization set up to train health-care workers.
Contents
Illustrations / ix
Abbreviations xi
Preface / xiii
Introduction: Reassessing - Uhnonationalism / xvii
1. Late Imperial Period: Large Political Space / 1 2. Iraq’s Transition to a Colonial State / 26 3. Iraq’s Transition to an Independent Republican State / 48 4. Turkey’s Transition to an Independent Republican State / 70 5. Turkey’s Transition to a Quasi-Democracy: Complex Political Space / 92 6. Iran’s Transition to a Constitutional Monarchy / 117 7. Iran’s Transition to an Islamic Republic / 140 8. Transnational Space: Reconfiguring Kurdayeti / 160 9. Conclusion: Rethinking Nationalism, Ethnicity, and the Kurdish Problem / 180
Glossary / 193
Works Cited / 197
Index / 227
Illustrations
1. Shaykh Mahmoud Barzinji with Major Noel and British officers, ca. 1925 / 31 2. Mullah Mustafa Barzani with Iraqi president Abd al-Karim Qasim, 1958 / 50 3. Front-page headline of Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet during Kurdish revolts in Kemalist period, 1930 / 80 4. Cover of clandesdne Kurdish nationalist journal published in Turkey, 1988 / 111 5. The cultural committee of the Mahabad Republic in Iran, 1946 / 126 6. Page from a school text in Islamic republic of Iran / 154 7. The Parliament building of the Kurdish regional government in Iraqi Kurdistan, ca. 1995 / 166
PREFACE
This book took root in emergent political processes in post-Gulf War Iraqi Kurdistan and evolved into a comprehensive analysis of the similarities, variances, and changes in Kurdish national identity across space and time. It was driven by my intention to change misperceptions of “wild Koordistan” and misleading images of Kurds as one large tribal community. The more time I spent in Kurdistan in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran, the more I realized the need to explain the asymmetrical nature of nation-state-building processes, their consequences on national-identity formation, and the complexities of the Kurdish issue outside its tribal component.
Edward N. Luttwak encouraged me to pursue this project from the outset in 1991, after I returned trom sixteen months of working with Afghan refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan, and turned toward the Persian Gulf War refugee crisis. Alongside the humanitarian relief demands of two million Iraqi Kurds stranded in the mountainous regions of Iraq, Turkey, and Iran was the unexpected outcome of the first democratic election in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1992. Massoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Jelal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) unexpectedly created a fifty-fifty power-sharing agreement.
The very idea that two traditional antagonists decided to share power and construct a democratic government was fascinating from a political science and conflict resolution perspective. Where there should have been hostility there was compromise. Where dictatorship had ruled for decades a commitment to democratic institutions arose. These unexplained outcomes, as well as Edward’s provocative insights, fed my curiosity and quest for further understanding die Kurdish issue. After several research trips, I returned to Iraqi Kurdistan as information officer for the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance for fourteen months, when most Iraqi Kurdish refugees had returned from the mountains and were just commencing their experiment in democracy. Upon completing my post, I was more convinced than ever of the need for a book that examined the complexities of the contemporary Kurdish problem.
During my subsequent doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania I had the benefit of working with Ian S. Lustick, whose constructive criticism and encouragement helped turn the Iraqi Kurdish power-sharing project into a comparative political analysis of Kurdish national identity in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. I am especially grateful to Ian for his vigorous theoretical guidance, as well as the critiques mad if on later drafts or articles by Thomas Callaghy, Rudra Sil, Vali Nasr, Henri Barkey, Hamit Bozarslan, Daniele Conversi, Brendan O’Leary, Eric Hooglund, Arif Engin, and two anonymous readers.
Most of the fieldwork, archival research, and writing could not have been completed without the support of the U.S. Institute of Peace, which provided me with two important research grants, one as a Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar and another as part of its Solicited Grant program. I thank the University of Pennsylvania, including its Department of Political Science and Middle East Center, and the U.S. Department of Education for fellowships to conduct fieldwork and language training while this project was still part of my doctoral work.
During my numerous trips to Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Syria, and the Kurdish regions over the past thirteen years, dozens of families and friends assisted me, and I can only thank them anonymously for their nonending hospitality. At a moment’s notice, they took me in, often for indeterminate time periods, fed me, served me chai, and ensured my personal security. I am grateful to Massoud Barzani and Jelal Talabani and their political party representatives for offering me housing, contacts, transportation, documents, security assistance, and interviews, all of which facilitated my research in Iraqi Kurdistan. Hoshyr Zibari, Muhammed Tawfik, Hussein Sinjari, Muhammed Ihsan, Avin Faiq, Barham Salih, Pershing Kareem, and Shaykh Muhammed Sargalo gave me detailed information and background histories during different conversations from 1992 to 2003. The villagers of Qishlaqh, Iraqi Kurdistan, and in particular Baji Miriem received me as one of their own during my fieldwork in the summer of 1995. I will never forget their generosity, nor the lessons learned from that experience.
I thank l’Institut Français de Recherche en Iran and its excellent library and administrative staff, which made every effort to accommodate my research demands during my several months’ stay in Iran. I am also grateful to an anonymous friend who gave me access to his personal library, contacts, and insights, which proved invaluable for the research.
As I moved the project to Europe to follow Kurdish diasporic communities, the Washington Kurdish Institute and l’Institut Kurde de Paris (IKP) offered administrative and technical support that enabled me to conduct extensive interviews with Kurds in different host-country settings. Dr. Kendal Nezan, president of IKP, and the IKP staff ensured me easy access to the institute’s resources during my seven years in Paris. Metin Achard and Arif Engin provided thorough research and translation assistance with Turkish texts. Halkawt Hakim offered valuable insight, encyclopedic knowledge, and fascinating discussions of Iraqi Kurdish political thought. I am also grateful to Joyce Blau, Abdulla Mardukh Kurdistany, Barzan Faraj Abdulla, Verya Nasri, Nezand Begikhani, Ibrahim Mamie, Mehmet Bagig, Khosro Abdollahi, Salih Yillik, and Michael Chyet.
I thank Oxford University Press, Taylor and Francis, and Blackwell Publishers for permitting me to reprint parts of chapters previously published.
Finally, I thank Ali Ayverdi for his patience, moral support, and nonending assistance in locating texts, arranging necessary contacts, and supporting my travel needs, all of which enabled me to remain deeply engaged in this project despite our family demands. Even when I was not in Kurdistan, Ali ensured that I was in touch with the political realities of the region, as well as the human components of being Kurdish in the homeland and in exile.
This book follows the transliteration style used by the International Journal of Middle East Studies. The ayn and hamza are used for Arabic and Farsi words, as well as necessary diacritics for Turkish works. Locations in Kurdistan are designated by the more commonly used Arabic, Turkish, and Farsi names, with Kurdish names in parentheses.
Introduction
Reassessing Ethnonationalism
Although some Kurds trace Kurdish civilization to the seventh millennium, the majority date their origins to the Median Empire in the sixth century B.C. Oral and written historiography shows how Kurds have attempted to preserve their culture, language, and territory despite efforts of central governments to prohibit or deny their identity. Bitlisi’s Sharafname, Khani’s Mem-u-Zin, Chamo’s Dimdim, and Kurdo’s Kurdish Civilisation emphasize the uniqueness of Kurdish identity; Kurds are the conquerors of Xenophon’s forces, survivors of Zohhak’s cannibalism, and children of the Jinn. Even after the demise of the Ottoman and Persian Empires and division of Kurdish territories into four main states, Kurds have tried to protect their identity by differentiating themselves from the dominant ethnic group. Kurds are Kurds because they are not Arabs, Persians, or Turks. Given their deeply rooted notions of Kurdishness, why then have Kurds expressed their unique ethnic identity at different time frames and in various ways?
This book explains why Kurdayetî, or Kurdish national identity, becomes ethnicized and the similarities and variations in its manifestation across space and time. It shows that given the repertoire of an ethnic group’s identities, politics affects how national identity becomes institutionalized and the various forms nationalism may assume. That is, although Kurdish communities have maintained some shared sense of nationalism, Kurdayetî has become part of a larger repertoire of identities based on the nature of the political space in each state. Shaped by the discourse and policies ...
Denise Natali
The Kurds and the State
Syracuse University
Syracuse University Press The Kurds and the State Evolving National Identity in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran Denise Natali
The Kurds and the State Modern Intellectual and Political History of the Middle East Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Series Editor
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Natali, Denise. The Kurds and the state: evolving national identity in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran / Denise Natali.—1st ed. p. cm.—(Modern intellectual and political history of the Middle East) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8156-3084—0 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Kurds—Politics and government. 2. Kurds—Iraq—Politics and government. 3. Kurds—Turkey—Politics and government. 4. Kurds—Iran—Politics and government. 5. Iraq—Ethnic relations. 6. Turkey—Ethnic relations. 7. Iran—Ethnic relations. I. Title. II. Series. DS59.K86N38 2005 320.54'089'91597—dc22 / 2005019612
