The Other Iraq

The Other Iraq

Author: Orit Bashkin

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2008-11-20

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 0804774153

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The Other Iraq challenges the notion that Iraq has always been a totalitarian, artificial state, torn by sectarian violence. Chronicling the rise of the Iraqi public sphere from 1921 to 1958, this enlightening work reveals that the Iraqi intellectual field was always more democratic and pluralistic than historians have tended to believe. Orit Bashkin demonstrates how Sunni, Shi'i, and Kurdish intellectuals effectively created hyphenated Iraqi identities, connoting pride in their individual heritages while simultaneously appropriating and integrating ideas and narratives of Arab and Iraqi nationalism. Illustrating three developmental stages of Iraqi intellectual history, she follows Iraqi intellectuals' changing roles, from agents of democracy, to specialists who analyze the population, to deeply entrenched members of society committed to change. Based on previously unexplored material, this eye-opening work has significant contemporary implications.


The Kurds of Iraq

The Kurds of Iraq

Author: Michiel Hegener

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13:

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The Kurds of Iraq have been making headlines for many decades: in the eighties and early nineties mostly as victims of brutal suppression, in the mid-nineties as victims of each others heavy in-fighting, and since then mainly through their success in achieving a high degree of independence and prosperity within Iraq. The Kurds of Iraq is a book about the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, governed by the highly autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. The IKR has a 200,000-strong army, its own borders and border patrols, and even its very own stamps. In stark contrast with its volatile past, the IKR, often referred to as The Other Iraq, enjoys a high degree of safety and a booming economy. While most books about the Kurds of Iraq focus solely on military, political and humanitarian issues, this book provides unique insights into their farming methods, the position of women, journalism, telecommunications, life in the villages, leisure and, not least, the magnificent archaeological treasures to be found there.


The Kurds of Iraq

The Kurds of Iraq

Author: Mahir A. Aziz

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9780755692835

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"Over ninety years since their absorption into the modern Iraqi state, the Kurdish people of Iraq still remain an apparent anomaly in the modern world - a nation without a state. In 'The Kurds of Iraq', Mahir Aziz explores this incongruity, and asks the pertinent questions, who are the Kurds today? What is their relationship to the Iraqi state? How do they perceive themselves and their prospective political future? And in what way are they crucial for the stability of the Iraqi state? In the wake of the Gulf War of 1991 in the face of the Iraqi state, the Kurds endeavoured to create a de facto state and to concretise and stabilise the institutions that would enable this. 'The Kurds of Iraq' thus examines the creation, evolution and development of Kurdish nationalism despite the suppression of its political and cultural manifestations. Through extensive interviews in the field, Aziz assesses the impact of recent history on the complex process of identity formation amongst Kurdish students at three of the nation's leading universities. He provides an in depth examination of students' socio-economic backgrounds, and their thoughts on and experiences of what it means to be Kurdish in the modern Iraqi state, and the impact this has on their perception of their language, culture and religion. Aziz's invaluable and extensive field research furthermore serves as a point of departure for an investigation into the relationship between national identity and historical memory in Iraqi Kurdistan and beyond. He thus analyses wider issues of the intersection and interdependency of national, regional, ethnic, tribal and local identities. He thus constructs an intimate portrait of the Kurds of Iraq, which will provide an important insight for students and researchers of the Middle East and for those interested the important issues of nationalism and ethnic identity in the modern nation state, and the impact these issues have on the stability of Iraq itself."--Bloomsbury Publishing.


New Babylonians

New Babylonians

Author: Orit Bashkin

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2012-09-12

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 0804782016

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Although Iraqi Jews saw themselves as Iraqi patriots, their community—which had existed in Iraq for more than 2,500 years—was displaced following the establishment of the state of Israel. New Babylonians chronicles the lives of these Jews, their urban Arab culture, and their hopes for a democratic nation-state. It studies their ideas about Judaism, Islam, secularism, modernity, and reform, focusing on Iraqi Jews who internalized narratives of Arab and Iraqi nationalisms and on those who turned to communism in the 1940s. As the book reveals, the ultimate displacement of this community was not the result of a perpetual persecution on the part of their Iraqi compatriots, but rather the outcome of misguided state policies during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Sadly, from a dominant mood of coexistence, friendship, and partnership, the impossibility of Arab-Jewish coexistence became the prevailing narrative in the region—and the dominant narrative we have come to know today.


A Poisonous Affair

A Poisonous Affair

Author: Joost R. Hiltermann

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2007-06-18

Total Pages: 15

ISBN-13: 0521876869

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In March 1988, during the Iran-Iraq war, thousands were killed in a chemical attack in a remote town in Iraqi Kurdistan. In the aftermath of the horror, confusion reigned over who had carried it out, each side accusing the other in the ongoing bloodbath of the Iran-Iraq war. As the fog lifted, the responsibility of Saddam Hussein's regime was revealed, and with it the tacit support of Iraq's western allies. This book, by a veteran observer of human rights in the Middle East, tells the story of the gassing of Halabja. It shows how Iraq was able to develop ever-more sophisticated chemical weapons and target Iranian soldiers and Kurdish villagers as America looked the other way. Today, as Iraq disintegrates and the Middle East sinks further into turmoil, these policies are coming back to haunt America and the West.


The Kurds in Iraq

The Kurds in Iraq

Author: Kerim Yildiz

Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780745322285

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Up-to-the-minute account of Kurds in Iraq: what they want and what we can do to help.


Iraq Then and Now

Iraq Then and Now

Author: Karen Dabrowska

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 9781841622439

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Unlike other publications since the downfall of Saddam's regime, Iraq: Then & Now traces the history of the country from ancient times until the present. Supplementary boxes, many written by Iraqis themselves, reflect on life today as compared with life in Saddam's Iraq and even earlier, describing their experiences, hopes, fears, ambitions and visions for the future.The book self-consciously avoids making any judgement on the political debate surrounding the 2003 war and subsequent occupation; instead it presents the varying views, and offers a rounded, balanced picture.Published to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the change, this guide to the country and its people, provides information on Iraq's culture and archaeology, the south, Baghdad and the Sunni Triangle. The northern region of Iraqi Kurdistan stands apart as a success story and the travel appendix provides essential information for the increasing numbers of visitors to this region.


The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq

The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq

Author: Brendan O'Leary

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2006-08-11

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 9780812219739

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The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq appraises the consequences of the U.S.-led intervention in Iraq for its most neglected region.


The Miracle of the Kurds

The Miracle of the Kurds

Author: Stephen Mansfield

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2014-10-14

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1617955116

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New York Times best-selling author Stephen Mansfield was witness to much of the modern history of the Kurds. In this riveting account, Mansfield movingly tells the stories of the people who have fashioned one of the greatest economic and cultural resurrections in human history. They are the largest people group in the world without a homeland of their own. Despised and persecuted the world over, they even call themselves "the people without a friend." Saddam Hussein tried to wipe them from the face of the earth, killing several hundred thousand of them in the attempt. Their sufferings have become legend. They are the Kurds, descendants of the ancient Medes best known today from the pages of the Bible -- inhabitants of what the world now calls Northern Iraq. Yet today the Kurds are rebuilding so brilliantly from war and oppression that even their enemies call it "a miracle." Six star hotels stand where bombs once fell, shopping malls and gleaming schools rise where massacres once occurred. National Geographic and Conde Nast have listed modern "Kurdistan" as a "must-see" tourist destination.