An Illusory Unity: Understanding the Construction of Kurdish Political Identity

Authors

  • Author

  • Seevan Saeed

Keywords:

Kurds, Kurdishness, Political Identity, Identity Construction, Self-identification

Abstract

This article re-conceptualizes the notion of Kurdishness by distinguishing between two different political identities – "traditional" and "new" – within the Kurdish struggle. Each identity has crafted its own history, politics, social and cultural frameworks, and economic and diplomatic relations. I discuss the process of identity construction within both blocs, which has split political identity according to bipolar discourses and dichotomous labels: Good Kurds vs Bad Kurds, Old Kurds vs New Kurds, Submissive Kurds vs Subversive Kurds, Collaborator Kurds vs Terrorist Kurds, and, finally, Honourable Kurds vs Dishonourable Kurds. These form parts of a new divided Kurdish political identity based on the Kurds' own perspectives and self-identification, as well as their descriptions of one another, in the current political arena.

References

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  6. The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the USA, and the EU, was founded as a party in 1978 by Abdullah Ocalan ('Apo') and his comrades in Turkey. When the group launched its armed struggle in 1984, it boasted a huge following throughout Kurdistan, particularly in Turkey and Syria. It is the largest, most widely influential Kurdish political party in the Middle East.
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  10. Seevan Saeed, Kurdish Politics in Turkey: From the PKK to the KCK (New York: Routledge, 2017), p. 43.
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  17. The KDP may be viewed as the origin of modern Kurdish nationalism in Iraq. It was founded by Hamza Abdullah, Ibrahim Ahmed, and their comrades and led by the legendary Mullah Mustafa Barzani, who stood up against Iraq numerous times until being forced to flee in 1975 following the signing of the Iran-Iraq Algiers Agreement.
  18. Saeed, Kurdish Politics in Turkey , p. 24.
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  27. See: Ocalan, Liberating Life; Bengio (ed.); Xerib.
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  37. It is interesting to note that, not only for the Kurdish people, but also for the PKK leadership, and especially for Ocalan himself, it was difficult to get beyond the notion of the nation-state. This was due to the fact that for a long time in the history of the Kurds, their dreams and hopes for the future were entirely bound up with the idea of having a state as other nations did, and this despite the balances of power that militated against such an eventuality. See: Ocalan, Prison Writings II, p. 49.
  38. Saeed, Wercherxani Bizawti Netewiy Kurd, p. 258.
  39. Interview with Murat Karaylan," Sterk TV , 2019, accessed on 20/8/2019, at: https://bit.ly/37QJpLO
  40. Preliminary results showed approximately 92.73 percent of votes cast in favor of independence. Despite reporting that the independence referendum would be non-binding, the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) did characterize it as binding, and Iraq's federal government rejected the referendum as illegal. The referendum led to a military conflict with Iraq's federal government in which the KRG lost 20 percent of its territory and its main source of revenue, the Kirkuk oil fields.
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  43. The federal government had begun withholding funding from the Kurdistan Regional Government in January 2014. In response, the KRG had made moves to export oil via the northern pipeline into Turkey, but the Iraqi government lobbied international governments to block the oil's export and sale. See: Seevan Saeed, "Partiya Boykote Bi Ser Ket," [The Party of Boycott Had Victory] Yeni Özgür Politika , accessed on 28/10/2019, at: https://bit.ly/3OdVuLK
  44. Interview with Murat Karaylan."
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  46. Born in the Kurdish region of Iran in 1893, Qazi Muhammad was a Kurdish independence movement leader and the founder of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran. He later became president of the Republic of Mahabad, which lasted only from 1945 to 1946.
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2023-09-01

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Vol. 6 No. 012 (2023): Issue 012

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