Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T05:30:32.106Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

32 - A People beyond the State

Kurdish Movements and Self-determination in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

from Part VII - Transversal Dynamics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2021

Hamit Bozarslan
Affiliation:
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Cengiz Gunes
Affiliation:
The Open University, Milton Keynes
Veli Yadirgi
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Get access

Summary

Self-determination operated as an organizing principle for national liberation movements around the world in the twentieth century. This was no different for Kurdish political movements assuming the principle that a nation is entitled to a state which exercises exclusive territorial control. National self-determination became the grounding of the right they claimed to establish the independent state of Kurdistan. Since the constitutive power of the state relied for its justification on the existence of a self-determining nation, Kurdish political parties emerging after the Second World War framed their struggle in terms of state formation. However, in the course of the twenty-first century, the emphasis on the Kurds as a people without a state became one of the Kurds as a people beyond the state. In this chapter, these contemporary political developments are discussed within a historical context. The chapter looks at the relation of Kurds and Kurdish politics with the state as an object and objective of political struggle. In so doing, it distinguishes between two strong currents in Kurdish politics over the last decades.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahmed, M. M. A. (2013). Kurdish spring, Iraqi Kurdistan. In Ahmed, M. M. A. and Gunter, M. (eds), The Kurdish Spring: Geopolitical Changes and the Kurds (pp. 93133). Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers.Google Scholar
Akkaya, A. H. (2013). Kürt Hareketinin Örgütlenme Süreci Olarak 1970’ler. Toplum ve Bilim, 127, 88120.Google Scholar
Akkaya, A. H. and Jongerden, J. (2012). Reassembling the political: The PKK and the project of radical democracy. European Journal of Turkish Studies, 12, 156.Google Scholar
Akkaya, A. H. and Jongerden, J. (2013). Confederalism and autonomy in Turkey: The Kurdistan Workers’ Party and the reinvention of democracy. In Gunes, C. and Zeydanlioglu, W. (eds), The Kurdish Question in Turkey: New Perspectives on Violence, Representation and Reconciliation (pp. 186204). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Allsopp, H. (2014). The Kurds of Syria. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anczewski, A. (2017). ‘Kurdish independence vote: Status quo or powder keg?’ Foreign Brief, 27 August. www.foreignbrief.com/middle-east/kurdish-independence-vote-status-quo-powder-keg/.Google Scholar
Anderson, L. and Stansfield, G. (2005). The implications of elections for federalism in Iraq: Toward a five-region model. Publius, 35, 359–82.Google Scholar
Aziz, S. (2017). The economic system(s) of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Iraq. In Gürbey, G., Hofmann, S. and Seyder, F. I. (eds), Between State and Non-state: Politics and Society in Kurdistan-Iraq and Palestine (pp. 103–22). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Bajalan, D. R. (2009). ‘Pan-Kurdish nationalism: Theory or praxis?’. ASEN conference paper.Google Scholar
Bengio, O. (2006). Autonomy in Kurdistan in historical perspective. In O’Leary, B., McGarry, J. and Salih, K. (eds), The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq (pp. 173–85). Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Bookchin, M. (1991). Libertarian municipalism: An overview. Green Perspectives, October.Google Scholar
Bozarslan, H. (2004). Violence in the Middle East: The Political Struggle to Self-sacrifice. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers.Google Scholar
Bozarslan, H. (2012). Between integration, autonomization and radicalization: Hamit Bozarslan on the Kurdish movement and the Turkish left. Interview by Marlies Casier and Olivier Grojean. European Journal of Turkish Studies: Social Sciences on Contemporary Turkey, no. 14, 216. https://doi.org/10.4000/ejts.4663.Google Scholar
Burgess, M. (2017). ‘Federalism and federation: Putting the record straight’. 50 Shades of Federalism. http://50shadesoffederalism.com/theory/federalism-federation-putting-record-straight/.Google Scholar
Challiand, G. (1993). A People without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Chorev, M. (2007). Iraqi Kurdistan: The internal dynamics and statecraft of a semistate. Al-Naklah: The Fletcher School Online Journal for Issues Related to Southwest Asia and Islamic Civilization, Fall, 111.Google Scholar
Chulov, M. and Johnson, P. (2017). ‘Barzani on the Kurdish referendum: “We refuse to be subordinates”’. The Guardian, 22 September. www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/22/masoud-barzani-on-the-kurdish-referendum-iraq-we-refuse-to-be-subordinates.Google Scholar
Clastres, P. (1989). Society against the State: Essays in Political Anthropology. New York: Zone Books.Google Scholar
Danilovich, A. (2014). Iraqi Federalism and the Kurds: Learning to Live Together. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Entessar, N. (1984). The Kurds in post-revolutionary Iran and Iraq. Third World Quarterly, 6, 911–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eppel, M. (2008). The demise of the Kurdish emirates: The impact of Ottoman reforms and international relations on Kurdistan during the first half of the nineteenth century. Middle East Critique, 44 (2), 237–58.Google Scholar
Gellner, E. (1997). The Turkish option in comparative perspective. In Bozdogan, S. and Kasaba, R. (eds), Rethinking Modernity and National Identity in Turkey (pp. 233–44). Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Ghassemlou, A. R. (1965). Kurdistan and the Kurds. Prague: Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Gunes, C. (2012). The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey: From Protest to Resistance. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gunter, M. (2008). The Kurds Ascending: The Evolving Solution to the Kurdish Issue in Iraq and Turkey. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
HRW (Human Rights Watch) (1993). Genocide in Iraq: The Anfal Campaign against the Kurds. New York: Human Rights Watch.Google Scholar
International Crisis Group (2019). ‘After Iraqi Kurdistan’s thwarted independence bid’. Middle East Report 199.Google Scholar
Jongerden, J. (2016). Colonialism, self-determination and independence: The new PKK paradigm. In Gunter, M. (ed.), Kurdish Issues: Essays in Honor of Robert W. Olson (pp. 106–20). Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers.Google Scholar
Jwaideh, W. (2006). The Kurdish National Movement: Its Origins and Development. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Kane, S., Hiltermann, J. R. and Alkadiri, R. (2012). Iraq’s federalism quandary. The National Interest, March–April.Google Scholar
Karasu, M. (2009). Radikal Demokrasi. Neus: Wesanen Mezopotamya.Google Scholar
Katzman, K. (2010). The Kurds in Post-Saddam Iraq. Washington, DC: CRS Report for Congress.Google Scholar
Keitner, C. J. (2007). The Paradoxes of Nationalism: The French Revolution and Its Meaning for Contemporary Nation-Building. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knapp, M., Flach, A. and Ayboga, E. (2016). Revolution in Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women’s Liberation in Syrian Kurdistan. London: Pluto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knapp, M. and Jongerden, J. (2016). Communal democracy: The social contract and confederalism in Rojava. Comparative Islamic Studies, 10 (1), 87109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koehl, R. L. (1953). The politics of resettlement. The Western Political Quarterly, 6, 231–42.Google Scholar
Kohn, M. and McBride, K. (2011). Political Theories of Decolonization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kurdish Question (2015). ‘TEV-DEM announces project for a democratic Syria’. 18 March. http://kurdishquestion.com/oldarticle.php?aid=tev-dem-announces-project-for-a-democratic-syria.Google Scholar
Lenin, V. I. (1972 [1914]). The Right of Nations to Self-determination (Vol. 20, pp. 393454). Reprint. Moscow: Progress Publishers.Google Scholar
Lowe, R. (2014). The emergence of Western Kurdistan and the future of Syria. In Romano, D. and Gurses, M. (eds), Conflict, Democratization and the Kurds in the Middle East (pp. 225–46). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Maur, R. I. D. and Staal, J. (eds) (2015). Stateless Democracy. Utrecht: BAK.Google Scholar
McDowall, D. (2000). A Modern History of the Kurds. New York: I.B. Tauris.Google Scholar
Merrifield, A. (2006). Henri Lefebvre: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Munif, Y. (2017). ‘Participatory democracy and micropolitics in Manbij: An unthinkable revolution’. The Century Foundation, 21 February. https://tcf.org/content/report/participatory-democracy-micropolitics-manbij/.Google Scholar
Öcalan, A. (2010). Demokratik Uygarlık Manifestosu: Ortaduğu’da Uygarlik Krizi ve Demokratik Uygarlık Çözümü. Neuss: Mezopotamya Yayınları.Google Scholar
Öcalan, A. (2013). Liberating Life: Woman’s Revolution. Cologne: International Initiative Edition and Mesopotamian Publishers.Google Scholar
Öcalan, A. (2014). War and Peace in Kurdistan. London: Transmedia Publishing.Google Scholar
Öcalan, A. (2015). Manifesto for a Democratic Civilization: The Age of Masked Gods and Disguised Kings. Porsgrunn: New Compass.Google Scholar
Olson, R. (1989). The Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism and the Sheikh Said Rebellion, 1880–1925. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Park, B., Jongerden, J., Owtram, F. and Yoshioka, A. (2017). On the independence referendum in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and disputed territories in 2017. Kurdish Studies, 5, 199214.Google Scholar
PKK (1978). Kürdistan Devriminin Yolu.Google Scholar
RIC (2019). Beyond the frontlines: The building of the democratic system in north and east Syria. Rojava: Rojava Information Center.Google Scholar
Romano, D. (2006). The Kurdish Nationalist Movement: Opportunity, Mobilization and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schmidinger, T. (2014). Krieg und Revolution in Syrisch-Kurdistan. Wien: Mandelbaum Verlag.Google Scholar
Sherko, F. (2016). ‘Northern Syria’s new democratic federal system’. Fikra Forum, 27 May. www.washingtoninstitute.org/fikraforum/view/northern-syrias-new-democratic-federal-system.Google Scholar
Simkin, J. (2014). ‘Murray Bookchin’. Spartacus International. https://spartacus-educational.com/USAbookchin.htm.Google Scholar
Stansfield, G. (2006). Governing Kurdistan: The strengths of division. In O’Leary, B., McGarry, J. and Salih, K. (eds), The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq (pp. 195218). Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Stansfield, G. (2017). The Kurdish Experience in Post-Saddam Iraq. London: Hurst.Google Scholar
Stansfield, G. and Anderson, L. (2009). Kurds in Iraq: The struggle between Baghdad and Erbil. Middle East Policy, 16, 134–45.Google Scholar
Tejel, J. (2009). The shared political production of ‘the East’ as a ‘resistant’ territory and cultural sphere in the Kemalist era, 1923–1938. European Journal of Turkish Studies, no. 10, 160.Google Scholar
van Bruinessen, M. (1978). Agha, Shaikh and State: On the Social and Political Organization of Kurdistan. Utrecht: Proefschrift.Google Scholar
van Bruinessen, M. (1978). Genocide in Kurdistan? The suppression of the Dersim Rebellion in Turkey (1937–38) and the chemical war against the Iraqi Kurds (1988). In Andreopoulos, G. J. (ed.), Conceptual and Historical Dimensions of Genocide (pp. 141–70). Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
van Dam, N. (2017). Destroying a Nation: The Civil War in Syria. London: I.B. Tauris.Google Scholar
van Wilgenburg, W. and Fumerton, M. (2015). Kurdistan’s Political Armies: The Challenge of Unifying the Peshmerga Forces. Beirut: Carnegie Middle East Center.Google Scholar
Wolff, S. (2009). Complex power-sharing and the centrality of territorial self-governance in contemporary conflict settlements. Ethnopolitics, 8, 2745.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yeğen, M. (2017). Turkish nationalism and the Kurdish question. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30, 119–51.Google Scholar
Yildiz, K. (2004). The Kurds in Iraq: The Past, Present and Future. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Yoshioka, A. (2015). The shifting balance of power in Iraqi Kurdistan: The struggle for democracy with uninstitutionalized governance. International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies, 9, 2135.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×