The 1987-1988 Anfal Campaign during which the Iraqi Baath regime massacred some 180,000 Kurdish Iraqis, 5,000 of whom killed by chemical weapons in the town of Halabja, is considered one of the major ...traumas in modern Kurdish history. Yet a few decades later, the Kurds appear to have risen from their proverbial ashes, embarking against great odds on an ambitious state building project in northern Iraq. With this story of "trauma and redemption" as background, this paper considers the lessons learned from this Kurdish experiment; lessons drawn not only by the Kurds themselves, but by all those who willy-nilly accompanied them on this journey; the Iraqi state, the international community, and the United States.
This article argues that Kurdish society historically enabled the rise of charismatic women. More recently, upheavals brought by the so-called Arab Spring have acted as a catalyst for Kurdish women ...to improve their social standing. Along with gains made by Kurds in creating new autonomous
spaces, the advancement of Kurdish women constitutes a "double revolution" that shows the feminist and nationalist agendas can be complementary, and not in conflict as they have for the greater part of modern history.
This article examines the triangular relationship between Jews, Israel and Kurds with a view to unravelling the myths that revolved around them. It argues that the millenarian relationship between ...Kurdistan's Jews and their non-Jewish neighbours notwithstanding, the myriad of 'positive' and 'negative' myths surrounding present-day Jewish-Israeli-Kurdish relations have flourished against the backdrop of a dearth of documented history of both Jewish and non-Jewish communities of pre-modern Kurdistan; the asymmetry of relations between a state actor - Israel, and a non-state ethno-national group - the Kurds; and the fact that both groups represent minorities within the larger Muslim milieu whose neighbours have delegitimized their right to national self-determination.
This article seeks to analyse the rise of Kurdistan in Iraq within the context of a panoramic picture of Iraq's history by contrasting two schools of thought regarding this country's failed system. ...One school of thought puts the blame on incompetent Iraqi rulers but mainly on the British colonialists who with their misdeeds, mismanagement and selfish interests brought Iraq to its present situation of a failed state. The other school of thought argues that Iraq's problems are structural, resulting from the fact that Iraq was an artificial creation; that Iraqi nationalism never struck roots in Iraqi soil; and that primordial loyalties have never disappeared so that in times of crisis they came to the fore. Indeed, there may be a middle ground between the two schools, suggesting that the combination of the unique nature of Iraq and the mismanagement by outside forces joined together to bring about the fatal outcome. My argument is that from the very inception of the Iraqi state there were two competing national movements, Iraqi and Kurdish, that could not coexist except by the central government's use of force. Once the latter weakened, the Kurdish national project could flourish and vice versa.
For many years the world used to hear about the Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK) terrorist actions in Turkey. Recently, however, a new factor entered the scene with great force-a popular uprising ...which resembles in some ways the Palestinian intifada and the other uprisings which have taken place since the end of 2010 in Arab countries. In the Kurdish lexicon it is called serhildan. The fusion between well-organized guerrilla activities and an open national movement has brought the Kurdish problem in Turkey into its most crucial phase ever. This essay will analyze the immediate and deeper causes for the Kurdish problem in Turkey and assess its impact on the stability and security of Turkey itself and on Ankara's foreign relations as a whole. The essay's main argument is that only a peaceful solution is likely to pull the rug from under the PKK's feet, thus enabling Turkey to cut the Gordian knot that ties this problem with its foreign relations and prevent Ankara's outside partners from using the issue as a weapon against Turkish interests.
This book explores issues of nationalism and intra-state conflicts in postcolonial nations. Drawing from international law, social anthropology, political science and strategic studies, peace and ...conflict studies, and memory studies, each chapter adopts a unique conceptual lens and discourse to understand the nationalism debate and its conflicts.
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