The Kurds A Contemporary Overview

The Kurds a contemporary overview [English, London, 1992]

The Kurds A Contemporary Overview [English, London, 2000]

The Kurds
A Contemporary Overview
Edited by Philip G.Kreyenbroek and Stefan Sperl

The position of the 19 million Kurds is an extremely complex one. Their territory is divided between 5 sovereign states, none of which has a Kurdish majority.

They speak widely divergent dialects, and are also divided by religious affiliations and social factors. It has taken the tragic and horrifying events in Iraq this year to bring the Kurds to the centre of the world stage, but their particular problems, and their considerable geo-political importance, have been the source of growing concern and interest during the last two to three decades.

There is a remarkable dearth of reliable and up-to-date information about the Kurds, which this book remedies. Its contributors cover social and political issues, legal questions, religion, language, and the modern history of the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and the Soviet Union. The Kurds will be an invaluable source of reference for students and specialists in Middle East studies, and those concerned with wider questions of nationalism and cultural identity. It also offers extremely useful background information for those with a professional concern for the numerous Kurdish immigrants and asylum seekers in Western Europe and North America.

Contents

List of contributors / viii
Editors' preface / ix
Introduction
Sami Zubaida / 1

1 The Kurdish question: a historical review
David McDowall / 8

2 Kurdish society, ethnicity, nationalism and refugee problems
Martin van Bruinessen / 26

3 On the Kurdish language
Philip G.Kreyenbroek / 53

4 Humanitarian legal order and the Kurdish question
Jane Connors / 65

5 Political aspects of the Kurdish problem in contemporary Turkey
Hamit Bozarslan / 74

6 The situation of Kurds in Iraq and Turkey: current trends and prospects
Munir Morad / 90

7 The Kurdish movement in Iraq: 1975±88
A.Sherzad / 105

8 The Kurds in Syria and Lebanon
Ismet Chériff Vanly / 112

9 The development of nationalism in Iranian Kurdistan
Fereshteh Koohi-Kamali / 135

10 The Kurds in the Soviet Union
Ismet Chériff Vanly / 152

Notes / 173

Bibliography / 187
Index / 194

Editors' preface

The aim of this volume, which contains articles about major aspects of the life and recent history of the Kurds by leading scholars, is to introduce the reader to the plight of the Kurdish people, and to generate greater understanding and support for the many Kurds who have been forced to abandon their homelands in recent years.

Most of the papers in this book were originally presented at an orientation seminar on the Kurdish problem organized in June 1989 for a group of United Nations Staff members by Dr Sperl and the External Services Division of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London (SOAS). The papers have since been revised and updated by the authors. Other contributions, in particular those on Turkey, Syria and the Soviet Union, have been especially commissioned for this volume.

In a book of this type transliteration is a major problem, as different conventions are normally used to transliterate Arabic, Kurdish, Persian and Turkish. The editors have sought to achieve some degree of consistency, but it proved impossible to reach complete uniformity. The use of diacritical signs has been kept to a minimum, and in some cases preferences of individual contributors have been respected.

The editors would like to extend their special thanks to Professor Tony Allan and to Ms Diana Matias, without whose help and encouragement the project would not have been realized. We also received much valuable help in editing the papers from Ms Jane Connors, and from Mr George Joffe, Dr Bengisu Rona and Mr Eralp Alişik. Some of the publication costs were met by the SOAS Research and Publications Committee and the SOAS Middle East Centre. The final typescript was compiled with the help of Ms Diana Gur and Ms Fiona McEwan of the Middle East Centre. We are very grateful for their expertise and for their unfailing good humour in dealing with the text.

NOTE
The material in this volume reflects the opinions of the contributors. Officials of the School of Oriental and African Studies, where the material appearing here was coordinated and edited, do not necessarily share the views expressed.

The Kurds
A Contemporary Overview

Edited by Philip G.Kreyenbroek and Stefan Sperl
London and New York

First published 1992
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Reprinted 1995, 1997, 2000
© 1992 Philip G.Kreyenbroek and Stefan Sperl
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
ªTo purchase your own copy of this or any of T aylor & Francis or Routledge's collecti on of
thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.º
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
The Kurds: a contemporary overview.
1. Kreyenbroek, Philip G., 1948±
II. Sperl, Stefan, 1950±
305.89159
ISBN 0-203-99341-1 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-415-07265-4 (Print Edition)
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of
Congress

Contributors

Hamit Bozarslan is a Member of the Equipe de Recherches sur la Turquie et l'Iran contempora in, CERI, Paris.
Martin van Bruinessen is a frequent visitor to Kurdistan and a well-known specialist on Kurdish affairs.
Jane Connors is a lecturer in the Law Department of SOAS, London. Kurdish affairs are among her special fields of interest.
Fereshteh Koohi-Kamali is an Oxford-trained specialist in the modern history of the Middle East generally, and of the Kurds in particular.
Philip G.Kreyenbroek is Lecturer in Modern Iranian Languages at SOAS; he is currently working on religious movements in Kurdistan, and on oral traditions in Iranian languages.
David McDowall is a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs, and author of several publications on the Kurds and the Palestinians.
Munir Morad is a Member of the Centre of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, SOAS.
A.Sherzad is a Kurdish researcher currently studying the influence of `modernity' on Kurdish culture and politics.
Stefan Sperl is currently Lecturer in Arabic at SOAS; he worked for UNHCR for ten years, and has a special interest in Kurdish refugees.
Ismet Chériff Vanly has represented the Kurdish people at an international level for many decades, and has published widely on Kurdish affairs.
Sami Zubaida, a well-known specialist in Middle Eastern affairs, lectures at Birkbeck College, London.