This book looks at Kurdish Nationalism in Iran and examines the links between the structural changes in the Kurdish economy and its political demands. Farideh Koohi-Kamali argues that the transition of the nomadic, tribal society of Kurdistan to an agrarian village society was the beginning of a process by which Kurds saw themselves as a community of homogenous ethnic identity. The political movements of Kurds in Iran are discussed to illustrate that the different phases of economic development of Kurdish society played a great role in determining the way in which Kurds expressed their political demands for independence.
Reflecting on seven decades of the Iranian Kurdish movement, this history of its development from 1947 offers a vivid and comprehensive analysis of the politicisation of national sentiments within Iran, and the connections the movement made and developed with Kurdish groups in Iraq.
The Iraqi Kurds have enjoyed de facto statehood in the north of Iraq for over a decade but Intra-Kurdish fighting, military incursions by Turkey and Iran and the constant threat posed by Saddam Hussein have plagued this 'democratic experiment'. In this book, Stansfield explores the development of the Kurdish political system since 1991. He examines the difficult and often violent relations between the two dominant powers, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and their relationship with the Kurdish Regional Government in order to understand the current state of Iraqi Kurdish politics and the operation of the state. This topical in-depth study identifies the main dynamics of Iraqi Kurdish politics, analyzes the record and potential of the 'Kurdish democratic experiment', and identifies the present and future Kurdish leaders.
The Cambridge History of the Kurds is an authoritative and comprehensive volume exploring the social, political and economic features, forces and evolution amongst the Kurds, and in the region known as Kurdistan, from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century. Written in a clear and accessible style by leading scholars in the field, the chapters survey key issues and themes vital to any understanding of the Kurds and Kurdistan including Kurdish language; Kurdish art, culture and literature; Kurdistan in the age of empires; political, social and religious movements in Kurdistan; and domestic political developments in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Other chapters on gender, diaspora, political economy, tribes, cinema and folklore offer fresh perspectives on the Kurds and Kurdistan as well as neatly meeting an exigent need in Middle Eastern studies. Situating contemporary developments taking place in Kurdish-majority regions within broader histories of the region, it forms a definitive survey of the history of the Kurds and Kurdistan.
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, which often excluded and attempted to override a Kurdish one. Vali contends that this process, largely due to the socio-economic and cultural impact of the rule of Pahlavis, in reality forced the Kurdish people of Iran to form and reinforce their own ethno-linguistic and ethno-national community. The expressions of this separate identity can be traced through the formation and dissolution of Kurdish national parties, such as the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI). 'Kurds and the State in Iran' offers an analysis of the formation and effects of the concepts of the state, the nation, nationalism and ethnic identity, which go beyond current ethnicist and constructivist theories, thus making it essential reading for anyone interested in the Kurds or the development of national and state identities in the Middle East.
This book investigates the forgotten years of Kurdish nationalism in Iran, from the fall of the Kurdish republic to the advent of the Iranian revolution. An original and path-breaking investigation of the period, it sheds light not only on the historical specificity of the phenomenon of nationalism in exile, but also on the political processes and practices defining the development of Kurdish nationalism in the post-revolutionary era. Although nationalist landmarks such as the Kurdish republic in 1946 and the resurgence of the movement in the revolutionary conjuncture of 1978-79 have attracted the attention of historians and social scientists in recent years, little is known about the three decades of Kurdish nationalism in exile between these two events. This analysis draws on contemporary poststructuralist theory to question the concept of the minority in democratic and constitutional theory, arguing that it is an effect of the discursive linkage between sovereign power and the dominant ethnic-linguistic identity in the nation-state. This text will appeal to a wide academic audience ranging from the fields of Kurdish, Iranian and Middle East Studies to ethnicity, nationalism, government, and political science.
Kurdish Politics in the Middle East analyzes political and social dimensions of Kurdish integration into the mainstream socio-political life in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. Its central thesis is that ethnic conflict constitutes a major challenge to the contemporary nation-state system in the Middle East. Long vanquished is the illusion of the "melting pot," or the concept that assimilation is an inexorable process produced by "modernization" and the emergence of a relatively strong and centralized nation-state system in the region. Perhaps no single phenomenon highlights this thesis more than the historical Kurdish struggle for self-determination. This book's focus is on Kurdish politics and its relationship with broader regional and global developments that affect the Kurds. It does not claim to cover everything Kurdish, and it does not promote the political agenda of any group, movement, or country.
Kurdish Awakening examines key questions related to Kurdish nationalism and identity formation in Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey. The world's largest stateless ethnic group, Kurds have steadily grown in importance as a political power in the Middle East, particularly in light of the "Arab Spring." As a result, Kurdish issues—political, cultural, and historical alike—have emerged as the subject of intense scholarly interest. This book provides fresh ways of understanding the historical and sociopolitical underpinnings of the ongoing Kurdish awakening and its already significant impact on the region. Rather than focusing on one state or angle, this anthology fills a gap in the literature on the Kurds by providing a panoramic view of the Kurdish homeland's various parts. The volume focuses on aspects of Kurdish nationalism and identity formation not addressed elsewhere, including perspectives on literature, gender, and constitution making. Further, broad thematic essays include a discussion of the historical experiences of the Kurds from the time of their Islamization more than a millennium ago up until the modern era, a comparison of the Kurdish experience with other ethno-national movements, and a treatment of the role of tribalism in modern nation building. This collection is unique in its use of original sources in various languages. The result is an analytically rich portrayal that sheds light on the Kurds' prospects and the challenges they confront in a region undergoing sweeping upheavals.
Are the Kurds a nation without history or the forgotten nation of the history?Are the Kurds Iranian or non- Iranian?Who are the Kurds? What do they want?Why did the beginning of history become the end of the Kurd and why the end of history is the beginning of Kurd?Why were the Kurds labeled as Jin (fiend), Satan and sometimes irrationals in religions and myths?Why do the researchers consider the Kurds as part of the history of Islam and Iran?Why do Iranians, Arabs and Turks, that have always been bloodthirsty hostile to each other, become intimate friends in contrast to the Kurds?What are the secret behind all these hatreds towards the Kurds which we saw its current example in flagrant violence of ISIS towards the Kurds?This book, not only, provides suitable answers for these questions, but also, utilizing reliable and valid resources and data, it proves that the Kurds are not Iranian and the Iranian Political Rationality, with all its components (myths, religions, and ideologies), has been developed and has continued in contrast to the Kurdish Identity. Furthermore, this book shows that the pivotal or axial period with the advent of philosophy and religion has been developed in contrast to the Kurdish Identity. The relationship between Iran and Kurd is the relationship of suppression and confiscation. Along with the historical severe suppression of the Kurds, the Kurdish-Mithraism symbols and concepts have been confiscated and their meanings have been transformed by the metaphysical religions (Jewish, Christianity and Islam) and by philosophers (Plato and sophists). If, based on Hegel and Nietzsche, history and metaphysics were developed with Iran and Zoroaster, we will find out in the current book that the Kurds were "the other" of the history and metaphysics since Zoroastrian and Iran were not developed except through the suppression and confiscation of the Mithra and Mede.
Amidst changing notions of religion and identity in the modern Middle East, this book uncovers the hidden story of Ahmad Moftizadeh, the nonviolent religious leader of Iran’s Kurds during the Iranian Revolution. The characters of Ayatollah Khomeini and a number of other prominent revolutionaries surface through never before heard first-hand accounts of that era’s events. The author further surveys the underlying causes of conflict and extremism today by placing this dramatic biography in the context of a rapidly-evolving region after the First World War. The author’s coverage of some of the twentieth century Middle East’s most defining events leads him to powerful policy arguments for a region in turmoil.
