Kirkuk in Iraqi Narratives of Victimization and the Victimizer

المؤلفون

  • المؤلف

  • Khalil Fadl Osman

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31430/almuntaqa.1.3.0040

الملخص

Narratives of victimization are a principal element in the making of subnational identities in societies afflicted by divisions and communal disputes. It is little wonder then that narratives of victimization abound in Kirkuk province, which lies at the heart of Iraq's “disputed internal areas” problem. This paper starts off by analyzing the nature of narratives of victimization and how they make use of the past in service of political projects spearheaded by political elites. It then turns to surveying and deconstructing the contending narratives propagated by communal elites in Kirkuk regarding the victimization, whether real or imagined, endured by the province's main demographic groups - Kurds, Turkmens, Arabs and Christians. By analytically surveying the narratives of victimization of these four communities, this paper seeks to ascertain the workings of these narratives and to explicate the role they play.

المراجع

  1. This study was originally published in Issue 28, September 2017 of the bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal Siyasat Arabiya
  2. Lebanese researcher who specializes in International Relations, Comparative Politics and Middle East Studies, senior advisor to the United Nations. 1 - 4 (1997), pp. 169 - 176.
  3. Mark Freeman, “Why Narrative? Hermeneutics, Historical Understanding, and the Significance of Stories,” Journal of Narrative and Life History, vol. 7, no.
  4. Margaret R. Somers, “The Narrative Constitution of Identity: A Relationship and Network Approach,” Theory and Society, vol. 23, no. 2 (October 1994),
  5. Yassin al Haj Saleh: “aẓ-Ẓalimūn al-ʿĀdilūn: min Sardiyyāt al-Maẓlūmiyyah ilā Muqāwamat aẓ-Ẓulm” [Just Oppressors: From Victimization Narratives to
  6. Ibid. 3177, 17/05/2017, http://bit.ly/2gJbhTY (accessed 17/05/2017). Social Psychology, vol. 44, no. 4 (2005), pp. 537 - 556. 862-896; James V. Wertsch, “The Narrative Organization of Collective Memory,” Ethos, vol. 36, no. 1 (March 2008), pp. 120 - 135.
  7. Hossam Matar, “Tafkīk al-Ḥikāya al-Madhhabiyya: al-Ghazāʾir al-Qātila” [Deconstructing the Confessional Narrative: Fatal Instincts], al-Akhbar , Issue
  8. James H. Liu & Denis J. Hilton, “How the past weighs on the present: Social representations of history and their role in identity politics,” British Journal of
  9. Ronald Grigor Suny, “Constructing Primordialism: Old Histories for New Nations,” The Journal of Modern History, vol. 73, no. 2 (December 2001), pp. pp. 605 - 660. Fighting Oppression], al-Jumhūriyya , 07/09/2015, http://bit.ly/2wKe5b3 (accessed 06/04/2017).
  10. Neera Chandoke, “Narratives of memory: narratives of narcissism,” India International Centre Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 3 (2000), p. 76.
  11. Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society, translated by W. D. Halls (New York: The Free Press, 1984), pp. 38 - 39.
  12. Jerome Bruner, “Life as Narrative,” Social Research, vol. 54, no. 1, Reflections on the Self (Spring 1987), p. 12.
  13. Kan’an Makiya, Hawāmish ʿalā Kitāb al-Fitna [Commentary on Al-Fitna / The Rope], (Beirut: al-Jamal Publications, 2016), p. 9.
  14. Al-Haj Saleh. Henrik Ronsbo, (eds.), Histories of Victimhood (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), p. 240. pp. 75 - 103.
  15. Sofie Danneskiold-Samsøe, “Victims in the Moral Economy of Suffering: Narratives of Humiliation, Retaliation, and Sacrifice,” in: Steffen Jensen and
  16. Phillip L. Hammack and Andrew Pilecki, “Narrative as a Root Metaphor for Political Psychology,” Political Psychology, vol. 33, no. 1 (February 2012),
  17. Francesca Polletta, “Contending Stories: Narrative in Social Movements,” Qualitative Sociology, vol. 21, no. 4 (December 1998), pp. 419 - 446. International Relations, vol. 15, no. 1 (2009), pp. 67 - 93. Press, 2009), p. 13.
  18. Khaled Fattah & K. M. Fierke, “A Clash of Emotions: The Politics of Humiliation and Political Violence in the Middle East,” European Journal of
  19. Ahmad Mahmoud Khalil, “Dirāsāt fī’t-Tārīkh al-Kurdī ‘l-Qadīm: Kurdistān Tārīkhiyyan wa-Jughrāfiyyan” [Study in Ancient Kurdish History: Historical and Geographical Kurdistan], Kulilk , 27/11/2012, http://bit.ly/2yD7vmV (accessed 25/03/2017); Nuri Talabani, “Kirkūk Madīnatan Kānat Juzʾan min Imāratay Ardalān wa-Bābān” [Kirkuk as a City that was Part of the Ardalan and Baban Emirates], Part 1, al-Jaras , 2 July [no year], http://bit.ly/2j4FP70 (accessed 02/05/2009); Liam Anderson & Gareth Stansfield, Crisis in Kirkuk: The Ethnopolitics of Conflict and Compromise (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Various Turkmen writers have refuted Şemseddin Sami’s assertions regarding Kirkuk. See for example: Arshad al-Harmazi, at-Turkumān wa’l-Waṭan al-ʿIrāqī
  20. See for example Qays Qaradaghi, “Kurdiyyat Kirkūk fī Ahamm Wathīqa Kurdiyya”, Kurdistan Regional Government website, 02/07/2005, http://bit. ly/2vO6zOR (accessed 01/02/2017). [Turkmen and the Iraqi Nation], 3rd ed. (Kirkuk: Kirkuk Waqf Institute, 2003), p. 157; Necat Kevseroğlu, “Shamsuddīn as-Sāmī Ṣāḥib Qāmūs al-Aʿlām wa- Kirkūk” [Şemseddin Sami, Author of Kâmûsü’l-Aʿlâm , and Kirkuk], Mawsūʿat Turkumān al-ʿIrāq [Encyclopedia of Iraqi Turkmen], 24/04/2013, https://archive. li/pOwXl (accessed 01/02/2017).
  21. Jalal Talabani, Kurdistān wa’l-Ḥaraka al-Qawmiyya al-Kurdiyya [Kurdistan and the Kurdish National Movement], 2nd ed., (Beirut: Dār aṭ-Ṭalīʿa, 1971
  22. See for example Nuri Talabani, Minṭaqat Kirkūk wa-Muḥāwalāt Taghyīr Wāqiʿihā al-Qawmī [The Kirkuk Area and Attempts to Change its Demographic
  23. Maad Fayadh, “Kirkūk… Quds al-Akrād” [Kirkuk… The Jerusalem of the Kurds], al-Sharq al-Awsaṭ , Issue 10986, Friday 26 December 2008, http://bit.
  24. It should be noted that the Kurdish parties took part in these elections as a unified body under the Fraternal List, while the various Arab and Turkmen lists [1963]), p. 36. Character], 3rd ed. (Erbil, Aras Publications, 2004). ly/2xQRj0Y (accessed 01/04/2017). took part against a backdrop of strong calls for a boycott among Arab Sunni circles in Kirkuk.
  25. “ Al-Anfāl Jarīma Lā Taghtafir” [The Anfal is an Unforgivable Crime], KRG Website, 16/04/2006, http://bit.ly/2xQaNTw (accessed 01/02/2017).
  26. Nechirvan Barzani, “Why Kurdistan insists on Kirkuk,” Financial Times, 15/08/2005, http://on.ft.com/2eN50JI (accessed 31/03/2017).
  27. Fayadh. presented at the Conference Arabs and Kurds: Interests, Fears and Commonalities, Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, Doha, 29 April – 1 May 2017. Kirkuk In Prehistory And History (In Short)], Naḥnu ‘t-Turkumān website, 08/04/2017, http://bit.ly/2y8hlPP (accessed 04/10/2017).
  28. Suphi Nazım Tevfik, “Wāqiʿ aṣ-Ṣirāʿ ʿAlā Kirkūk wa’l-Manāṭiq al-Mutanāzaʿ ʿAlayhā” [The Reality of the Conflict over Kirkuk and the Disputed Areas], paper
  29. See for example Erşat Hürmüzlü , pp. 13-16; Hasan Uzman, “Turkumāniyyat Kirkūk Qabl wa-Mā Baʿd at-Tārīkh (bi’Khtiṣār)” [The Turkmen-ness Of
  30. Hürmüzlü , p. 15 - 16.
  31. See for example Ata Terzibaşı, Tārīkh aṭ-Ṭibāʿa wa’ṣ-Ṣiḥāfa fī Kirkūk [The History of Printing and the Press in Kirkuk], translated to Arabic by Mevlüt Taha Kayacı (Kirkuk: Turkmen Front, 2008); Nusret Mardan, “al-Wujūd at-Turkumānī fī Kirkūk ka-Namūdhaj li’t-Taʾākhī al-Ithnī Tārīkhan wa-Ḥāḍiran” [The Turkmen Presence in Kirkuk as an Model of Ethnic Fraternity, Historically and Today], Turkumān al-ʿIrāq Issue 3, Year 1 (March-April 2004), http:// bit.ly/2wIm2ig (accessed 02/07/2017); Yavuz Nurettin Sabır Ağaoğlu, “Shawāhid ʿAlā Turkumāniyyat Kirkūk” [Evidence that Kirkuk is Turkmen], Naḥnu ‘t-Turkumān website, 16/04/2010, http://bit.ly/2vNSssV (accessed 02/07/2017); Avni Ömer Lütfi, “al-Huwwiyya at-Turkumāniyya wa-Mā Jāwazahā… Fī
  32. Hürmüzlü , pp. 56 - 93. It should be noted that the Turkmen narrative ignores the attacks by Turkmen on Assyrian and Christian households in Kirkuk the
  33. C.f. ibid, pp. 117 - 121. Conceptualizations and Opinions], Iraqi Turkmen Human Rights Research Foundation website, http://bit.ly/2xQFs38 (accessed 10/01/2017).
  34. Tahsin Kahya, “al-Mādda 140 min ad-Dustūr ad-Dāʾim: Qirāʾa wa-Taṣawwurāt wa-Ārāʾ” [Article 140 of the Permanent Constitution: A Reading, Māḍīhā wa-Ḥāḍirihā” [Turkmen Identity and Beyond… Past and Present], al-Minbar at-Turkumānī website, http://bit.ly/2wLgwdo (accessed 02/07/2017). day after this incident, resulting in many deaths, in revenge for the killing of their compatriots the previous day.
  35. Fayyadh. Tribal Conference], Naḥnu ‘t-Turkumān website, 30/07/2008, http://bit.ly/2vNJ6NH (accessed 04/05/2009). the Constitution, for the public good of Iraq and of the Turkmen people.” at: http://bit.ly/2j4PLgC
  36. “ Naṣṣ al-Kalima Allatī Alqāhā as-Sayyid Anwar Bayraqdār fī Muʾtamar ʿAshāʾir al-ʿIrāqiyyah” [Text of speech given by Mr. Enver Bayraktar at the Iraq
  37. Note the first Turkmen Conference, held on 11 February 2008 in Irbil with representatives of various small Turkmen parties, whose officials demanded the implementation of Article 140 in the course of the Conference. İrfan Kerküklü, General Secretary of the Turkmen People’s Party and a member of the Kirkuk Provincial Assembly on the Kurdish-led Kirkuk Fraternal List, is quoted as saying that “the conference aims to support efforts made to implement Article 140 of See “Bidʾ Aʿmāl al-Muʾtamar at-Turkumān al-Awwal fī Irbīl” [Turkmen Conference Begins in Irbil], KRG Website, 11/02/2008, http://bit.ly/2wIYxFU (accessed
  38. Sumedha Senanayake, “Iraq: Ethnic Tensions Increasing In Oil-Rich City,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, November 2, 2006, accessed on 6/3/2017,
  39. Kahya. Munīriyya, 1344 AH; Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya) p. 55.
  40. Abū Zakariyā Muḥyīddīn Ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī, Tahdhīb al-Asmāʾ wa’l-Lughāt [Education in Names and Terms], p. 2. (Cairo: Idārat aṭ-Ṭibāʿa al-
  41. “100 Alf ʿĀ ʾ ila ʿArabiyya ‘Tujbaru’ ʿAlā Mughādarat Kirkūk” [100,000 Arab Families ‘Forced’ to Leave Kirkuk], al-Ghad (Jordan), republished in the It is clear that the number of families that al-Abboudi claims have left Kirkuk – 100,000 families – is very high indeed. Assuming the average number of members in one Iraqi family is 5 people, this means that approximately 500,000 people left Kirkuk in early 2007, which is difficult to imagine because it would have
  42. The author has copies of threats signed by the “Kirkuk Youth Movement” and addressed to Arab migrant families in Kirkuk in September/October 2010. He
  43. Al-ʿIrāq al-Yawm news broadcast, Alhurra Iraq, 29/09/2010. Fayyadh. However, this proportion is dubious, and its source is unknown. Minister of Planning and Development Coordination Ali Ghalib Baban to Minister of Justice Hashim al-Shibli, Th S/274 , 3 October 2006.
  44. For example, Deputy Governor of Kirkuk Rakan Sa’id al-Jubouri states that “in 1998 the Arabs constituted 58% [of the population] of Kirkuk.” Cf. In 1997, according to estimates given in 2006 by the Minister of Planning Ali Ghalib Baban, the percentage of the city’s inhabitants who were Arabs was 72%. See Republic of Iraq, Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, Central Organization of Statistics and Information Technology, communication from
  45. Fayyadh. Demand Political, Administrative and Security Positions Be Shared], al-Hayah , 23/12/2008, http://bit.ly/2xcB5SS (accessed 09/05/2009).
  46. Muhammad al-Tamimi, “ʿArab al-Muḥāfaẓa Yuṭālibūn bi-Taqāsum al-Manāṣib as-Siyāsiyya wa’l-Idāriyya wa’l-Amniyya” [The Arabs of the Governorate
  47. Fayyadh. Ali Tamim: Little-Known Facts about the Arabs of Kirkuk!], al-Ḥiwār al-Mutamaddin , 08/02/2008, http://bit.ly/2xsW3wy (accessed 09/05/2009).
  48. Saleem Matar, “Ḥiwār Hāmm Maʿ an-Nā ʾ ib Muḥammad ʿAli Tamīm: Ḥaqā ʾ iq Majhūla ʿAn Arab Kirkūk!” [An Important Discussion With MP Muhammad digital newspaper al-ʿIraq , 04/10/2007, http://bit.ly/2gOzlbK (accessed 19/07/2017). created an obvious demographic vacuum. also has a copy of a handwritten complaint sent by one Hasan Fannah Hammoudi to Deputy Governor Rakan Sa’id al-Jubouri on 5 October 2010.
  49. Sheikh Abdullah Sami al-Asi, leader of the Arab group in the Kirkuk Provincial Council, one of the Sheikhs of the Ubayd tribes in Kirkuk, in conversation, Kirkuk, 11/05/2009.
  50. Sheikh Ali Hamdani, leader of the Būḥamdān tribe in Iraq, in conversation.
  51. Ibid; Sheikh Abdullah Sami al-Asi, in conversation.
  52. Adil Abdulkarim al-Hakim, “Kirkūk, Aṣlan Wa’sman” [Kirkuk: Origin and Name], in various authors, Mawsūʿat Kirkūk Qalb al-ʿIrāq [Encyclopedia of See also: Khaldun S. Husry, “The Assyrian Affair of 1933 (I),” International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 5, no. 2 (April 1974): 161-176; Khaldun S.
  53. Yusuf Malek, The British Betrayal of the Assyrians, (Kimball Press: New Jersey, 1936), Chapter XVIII, Pp. 116 - 128. Husry, “The Assyrian Affair of 1933 (II),” International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 5, no. 3 (June 1974), pp. 344 - 360. 05/08/2016, https://bit.ly/2Pq4ySK (accessed 04/02/2017). (accessed 04/02/2017).
  54. Terry Botros, “Summayl ar-Ramz al-Abadī Li’ḍṭihād al-Āshūriyyīn” [Simele, the Immortal Symbol of the Oppression of the Assyrians], Elaph website,
  55. William Warda, “Democracy in Iraq or Ethnic Cleansing of the Assyrians?” Assyrian International News Agency, 25/12/2015, http://bit.ly/2gJIO05 Kirkuk, Heart of Iraq], (Beirut: Dār al-Kalimah al-Ḥurrah), pp. 39-40, http://bit.ly/2wJuPkk (accessed 04/02/2017).
  56. Lisa Söderlindh, “Assyrians Face Escalating Abuses in 'New Iraq,'” Inter Press Service, 03/05/2006, http://bit.ly/2eNZHdd (accessed 05/02/2017).
  57. “ al-Muṭrān Mār Nīqūdīmus Yakshifu ʿAn as-Saby al-Masīḥī Fī’l-Mawṣil” [Metropolitan Mar Nicodemus Uncovers Christian Slavery in Mosul], Addiyar, 11/08/2014, http://bit.ly/2w9Zzas (accessed 05/02/2017).
  58. Gerald Butt, “Don't flee Kirkuk, Iraqi Christians are urged,” Church Times, 06/05/2009, http://bit.ly/2wLzwZ8 (accessed 23/07/2017).
1إجمالي الاستشهادات
0من دوريات المركز
1من مصادر خارجية

مقالات مُستشهِدة من مصادر خارجية (1)

  1. Emin Salihi (2020) Dış Politika Yapımında Akraba Devlet ve Akraba Azınlık İlişkilerinin Yeri: Türkiye-Irak Türkmenleri İlişkileri Örneği. Marmara Üniversitesi Siyasal Bilimler Dergisi, 8(2), 297 https://doi.org/10.14782/marmarasbd.733568

المصادر: Crossref Cited-by، ومراجع مقالات دوريات المركز (الهوامش وقوائم المراجع)

Cover of العدد 3, Almuntaqa

التنزيلات

PDF (مستضاف) (الإنجليزية)
HTML (الإنجليزية)

منشور

2018-09-01

إحصاءات الاستخدام

33 مشاهدة 69 تنزيل

إصدار

مجلد 1 عدد 003 (2018): العدد 3

القسم

المقالات

الرخصة

الحقوق الفكرية (c) 2018 المنتقى

Creative Commons License

هذا العمل مرخص بموجب Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.