Nicholas J. Wheeler
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- April 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780199267217
- eISBN:
- 9780191601118
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199267219.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Argues that we are witnessing the development of a new norm of military intervention for humanitarian purposes in contemporary international society. Since the end of the Cold War, the United Nations ...
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Argues that we are witnessing the development of a new norm of military intervention for humanitarian purposes in contemporary international society. Since the end of the Cold War, the United Nations Security Council has been more active in the realm of intervention, extending its Chapter VII powers into matters that had previously belonged to the domestic jurisdiction of states. Without the material power of Western states, this activism would not have been possible. However, a purely materialist explanation for this development fails to consider the changed normative context within Western states that permitted, and in some cases encouraged, intervention. While normative evolution has occurred, it is also limited in its scope, specifically over the question of whether military intervention must have Security Council authorization.Less
Argues that we are witnessing the development of a new norm of military intervention for humanitarian purposes in contemporary international society. Since the end of the Cold War, the United Nations Security Council has been more active in the realm of intervention, extending its Chapter VII powers into matters that had previously belonged to the domestic jurisdiction of states. Without the material power of Western states, this activism would not have been possible. However, a purely materialist explanation for this development fails to consider the changed normative context within Western states that permitted, and in some cases encouraged, intervention. While normative evolution has occurred, it is also limited in its scope, specifically over the question of whether military intervention must have Security Council authorization.
Denise Natali
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199244904
- eISBN:
- 9780191600050
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199244901.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Denise Natali analyses 20 years of state‐reshaping projects in Iraq as an attempt by the Iraqi elite to draw Kurds into the state and to recognize the existence of a Kurdish ethnicity and region, ...
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Denise Natali analyses 20 years of state‐reshaping projects in Iraq as an attempt by the Iraqi elite to draw Kurds into the state and to recognize the existence of a Kurdish ethnicity and region, while maintaining the idea of Kurds as ‘Iraqis first’ and of ‘Kurdistan’ as an internal part of sovereign Iraq. The author traces Iraq's transition from a colonized country to a modern welfare state to a military dictatorship, and shows how centre–periphery relations swung as a result of elite politics in Baghdad. The author unearths the complexity behind the national identity formation process, particularly under the uncertainty of economic transition and the centre's asymmetric relations with different ethnic groups at the periphery.Less
Denise Natali analyses 20 years of state‐reshaping projects in Iraq as an attempt by the Iraqi elite to draw Kurds into the state and to recognize the existence of a Kurdish ethnicity and region, while maintaining the idea of Kurds as ‘Iraqis first’ and of ‘Kurdistan’ as an internal part of sovereign Iraq. The author traces Iraq's transition from a colonized country to a modern welfare state to a military dictatorship, and shows how centre–periphery relations swung as a result of elite politics in Baghdad. The author unearths the complexity behind the national identity formation process, particularly under the uncertainty of economic transition and the centre's asymmetric relations with different ethnic groups at the periphery.
Nicholas J. Wheeler
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199253104
- eISBN:
- 9780191600302
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199253102.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Charts how the Western powers came to intervene in Iraq after the Gulf War to protect Kurds in the north and Shiites in the south. Charts how the Security Council adopted in Resolution 688 a new ...
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Charts how the Western powers came to intervene in Iraq after the Gulf War to protect Kurds in the north and Shiites in the south. Charts how the Security Council adopted in Resolution 688 a new understanding of Chapter VII of the UN Charter that provided the legitimating ground for Western action in the form of the safe havens and no‐fly zones.Less
Charts how the Western powers came to intervene in Iraq after the Gulf War to protect Kurds in the north and Shiites in the south. Charts how the Security Council adopted in Resolution 688 a new understanding of Chapter VII of the UN Charter that provided the legitimating ground for Western action in the form of the safe havens and no‐fly zones.
Ofra Bengio
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195114393
- eISBN:
- 9780199854523
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195114393.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This chapter addresses the internal weaknesses and the true motives of the Baʿths in using the concept of unity. They used the concept to help strengthen their position at the cost of other Iraqi ...
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This chapter addresses the internal weaknesses and the true motives of the Baʿths in using the concept of unity. They used the concept to help strengthen their position at the cost of other Iraqi groups. As the threat of partition arose, presumptuousness turned into anxiety. Husayn himself addressed the problem and compared Iraq to a “huge ship for Iraqi, Kurds and Arabs” and warned that he would not allow anyone to “drill a hole in his ship”. His opposition to the plan that might help Iraqi particularists and secessionists is also discussed here. The Shiʿi and Kurdish uprising is also detailed.Less
This chapter addresses the internal weaknesses and the true motives of the Baʿths in using the concept of unity. They used the concept to help strengthen their position at the cost of other Iraqi groups. As the threat of partition arose, presumptuousness turned into anxiety. Husayn himself addressed the problem and compared Iraq to a “huge ship for Iraqi, Kurds and Arabs” and warned that he would not allow anyone to “drill a hole in his ship”. His opposition to the plan that might help Iraqi particularists and secessionists is also discussed here. The Shiʿi and Kurdish uprising is also detailed.
William Gourlay
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781474459198
- eISBN:
- 9781474491242
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474459198.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This book examines the circumstances of the Kurds in 21st-century Turkey under the hegemony of the AKP government and presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan. Recording Kurdish voices from Istanbul and ...
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This book examines the circumstances of the Kurds in 21st-century Turkey under the hegemony of the AKP government and presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan. Recording Kurdish voices from Istanbul and Diyarbakır, it highlights the elements of Kurdish ethnic identity and the dimensions of Kurdish political aspirations in Turkey. Kurds have long occupied a troubled position in Turkey’s political landscape – where once their very existence was denied, now there is grudging acceptance of their presence and political organisations. Within the context of Turkey’s troubled trajectory towards democratisation, the book documents Kurdish narratives of oppression and resistance and enquires how Kurds reconcile their distinct ethnic identity with their citizenship in modern Turkey. Recent geopolitical changes in the Middle East have seen Kurdish political actors win global recognition and support, the effects of which have reverberated through Turkey. The book argues that although they may still mobilise and operate under pressure from state and military authorities, the Kurds form a key constituency in Turkey. It further argues that as long as political processes remain free and open then Kurds will continue to recognise and value their citizenship of Turkey.Less
This book examines the circumstances of the Kurds in 21st-century Turkey under the hegemony of the AKP government and presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan. Recording Kurdish voices from Istanbul and Diyarbakır, it highlights the elements of Kurdish ethnic identity and the dimensions of Kurdish political aspirations in Turkey. Kurds have long occupied a troubled position in Turkey’s political landscape – where once their very existence was denied, now there is grudging acceptance of their presence and political organisations. Within the context of Turkey’s troubled trajectory towards democratisation, the book documents Kurdish narratives of oppression and resistance and enquires how Kurds reconcile their distinct ethnic identity with their citizenship in modern Turkey. Recent geopolitical changes in the Middle East have seen Kurdish political actors win global recognition and support, the effects of which have reverberated through Turkey. The book argues that although they may still mobilise and operate under pressure from state and military authorities, the Kurds form a key constituency in Turkey. It further argues that as long as political processes remain free and open then Kurds will continue to recognise and value their citizenship of Turkey.
Adeed Dawisha
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157931
- eISBN:
- 9781400846238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157931.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This chapter discusses the efforts to create a nation out of Iraq's disparate communities. One of the most urgent and important tasks that was undertaken by the new Iraqi state was to mold disparate ...
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This chapter discusses the efforts to create a nation out of Iraq's disparate communities. One of the most urgent and important tasks that was undertaken by the new Iraqi state was to mold disparate communities, divided by ethnicity, sect and tribe, lacking social and cultural connections, into one viable nation. This was no easy task for the King and his government. The state that the British assembled in 1921 had major fissures between Arab and Kurd, Sunni and Shi'ite. These fault lines overlapped with, and indeed were cemented by, the cultural and economic disparities that existed between the urban and rural areas. Of the rural population, much of which was abjectly poor and illiterate, 65 percent was Shi'ite and only 16 percent was Arab Sunni. These communal divisions would prove to be some of the most obstinate hurdles to social and political integration in Iraq during the first decade and a half of the country's life, and even beyond.Less
This chapter discusses the efforts to create a nation out of Iraq's disparate communities. One of the most urgent and important tasks that was undertaken by the new Iraqi state was to mold disparate communities, divided by ethnicity, sect and tribe, lacking social and cultural connections, into one viable nation. This was no easy task for the King and his government. The state that the British assembled in 1921 had major fissures between Arab and Kurd, Sunni and Shi'ite. These fault lines overlapped with, and indeed were cemented by, the cultural and economic disparities that existed between the urban and rural areas. Of the rural population, much of which was abjectly poor and illiterate, 65 percent was Shi'ite and only 16 percent was Arab Sunni. These communal divisions would prove to be some of the most obstinate hurdles to social and political integration in Iraq during the first decade and a half of the country's life, and even beyond.
Adeed Dawisha
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157931
- eISBN:
- 9781400846238
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157931.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This chapter analyzes the growing divide between political elites in the wake of the military coup. In fact, the aftermath of the Bakr Sidqi coup can be seen as an effort by the out-group to move ...
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This chapter analyzes the growing divide between political elites in the wake of the military coup. In fact, the aftermath of the Bakr Sidqi coup can be seen as an effort by the out-group to move into the center not just politically, but ideationally as well. The ideational orientation of the new political order was immediately evident in the composition and policies of its political elite. The three pillars of the policy-making group were Sidqi (a Kurd), Sulayman (a Turkomen), and Abu al-Timman (a Shi'ite). The government's first statement to the Iraqi public focused almost exclusively on the country's problems, promising to foster national unity and overcome communal divisions. The government's policies aroused the ire of “Arab” nationalists who objected to the seemingly purposeful distancing of Iraq from what they considered to be its natural habitat.Less
This chapter analyzes the growing divide between political elites in the wake of the military coup. In fact, the aftermath of the Bakr Sidqi coup can be seen as an effort by the out-group to move into the center not just politically, but ideationally as well. The ideational orientation of the new political order was immediately evident in the composition and policies of its political elite. The three pillars of the policy-making group were Sidqi (a Kurd), Sulayman (a Turkomen), and Abu al-Timman (a Shi'ite). The government's first statement to the Iraqi public focused almost exclusively on the country's problems, promising to foster national unity and overcome communal divisions. The government's policies aroused the ire of “Arab” nationalists who objected to the seemingly purposeful distancing of Iraq from what they considered to be its natural habitat.
Aysegul Aydin and Cem Emrence
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801453540
- eISBN:
- 9780801456206
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801453540.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Security Studies
How do insurgents and governments select their targets? Which ideological discourses and organizational policies do they adopt to win civilian loyalties and control territory? This book suggests that ...
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How do insurgents and governments select their targets? Which ideological discourses and organizational policies do they adopt to win civilian loyalties and control territory? This book suggests that both insurgents and governments adopt a wide variety of coercive strategies in war environments. The book integrates Turkish–Ottoman history with social science theory and unveils long-term policies that continue to inform the distribution of violence in Anatolia. It shows the astonishing similarity in combatants' practices over time and their resulting inability to consolidate Kurdish people and territory around their respective political agendas. The Kurdish insurgency in Turkey is one of the longest-running civil wars in the Middle East. This book demonstrates how violence in this conflict has varied geographically. Identifying distinct zones of violence, the book shows why Kurds and Kurdish territories have followed different political trajectories, guaranteeing continued strife between Kurdish insurgents and the Turkish state in an area where armed groups organized along ethnic lines have battled the central state since Ottoman times. The book presents the first empirical analysis of Kurdish insurgency, relying on original data. It argues that both state agents and insurgents are locked into particular tactics in their conduct of civil war and that the inability of combatants to switch from violence to civic politics leads to a long-running stalemate. Such rigidity blocks negotiations and prevents battlefield victories from being translated into political solutions and lasting agreements.Less
How do insurgents and governments select their targets? Which ideological discourses and organizational policies do they adopt to win civilian loyalties and control territory? This book suggests that both insurgents and governments adopt a wide variety of coercive strategies in war environments. The book integrates Turkish–Ottoman history with social science theory and unveils long-term policies that continue to inform the distribution of violence in Anatolia. It shows the astonishing similarity in combatants' practices over time and their resulting inability to consolidate Kurdish people and territory around their respective political agendas. The Kurdish insurgency in Turkey is one of the longest-running civil wars in the Middle East. This book demonstrates how violence in this conflict has varied geographically. Identifying distinct zones of violence, the book shows why Kurds and Kurdish territories have followed different political trajectories, guaranteeing continued strife between Kurdish insurgents and the Turkish state in an area where armed groups organized along ethnic lines have battled the central state since Ottoman times. The book presents the first empirical analysis of Kurdish insurgency, relying on original data. It argues that both state agents and insurgents are locked into particular tactics in their conduct of civil war and that the inability of combatants to switch from violence to civic politics leads to a long-running stalemate. Such rigidity blocks negotiations and prevents battlefield victories from being translated into political solutions and lasting agreements.
William Gourlay
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781474459198
- eISBN:
- 9781474491242
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474459198.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This chapter examines Kurds’ participation in the electoral process and the impact of Kurdish actors – and voters – in Turkey’s political framework. The chapter views the Kurds’ enthusiastic ...
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This chapter examines Kurds’ participation in the electoral process and the impact of Kurdish actors – and voters – in Turkey’s political framework. The chapter views the Kurds’ enthusiastic participation in elections as an instance of Renan’s ‘daily plebiscite’, and argues that this is an affirmation of their citizenship of Turkey. The Peoples’ Democracy Party’s (HDP) strong performance in the June 2015 election created a wave of optimism amongst Kurds about Turkey’s political future. The chapter argues the Kurds’ assertion of a political identity represent an acceptance of their place in Turkey, not a repudiation of the Turkish political system. The chapter confirms Doǧu Ergil’s findings from 1995, namely that Kurds desire a place within Turkey, and examines the extent to which this is possible in the AKP’s Turkey, focusing on a succession of elections from 2015 until 2019.Less
This chapter examines Kurds’ participation in the electoral process and the impact of Kurdish actors – and voters – in Turkey’s political framework. The chapter views the Kurds’ enthusiastic participation in elections as an instance of Renan’s ‘daily plebiscite’, and argues that this is an affirmation of their citizenship of Turkey. The Peoples’ Democracy Party’s (HDP) strong performance in the June 2015 election created a wave of optimism amongst Kurds about Turkey’s political future. The chapter argues the Kurds’ assertion of a political identity represent an acceptance of their place in Turkey, not a repudiation of the Turkish political system. The chapter confirms Doǧu Ergil’s findings from 1995, namely that Kurds desire a place within Turkey, and examines the extent to which this is possible in the AKP’s Turkey, focusing on a succession of elections from 2015 until 2019.
Neophytos Loizides
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780804794084
- eISBN:
- 9780804796330
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804794084.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Chapter 4 focuses on Turkey and the Kurdish question particularly in relation to the country’s neighbors. It highlights the 1998 Öcalan incident when hundreds of thousands of Turkish citizens joined ...
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Chapter 4 focuses on Turkey and the Kurdish question particularly in relation to the country’s neighbors. It highlights the 1998 Öcalan incident when hundreds of thousands of Turkish citizens joined mass nationalist mobilizations to protest against third countries (Syria, Italy and Greece) (allegedly) supporting the PKK (Kurdistan’s Workers Party). It examines how Turkish elites framed foreign governments and the PKK as the parties solely responsible for the Kurdish uprising, making any potential compromise unimaginable for the next two decades. At the same time the chapter examines the progress made by Turkey in reaching better relations with Greece leading to the Helsinki compromise in 1999. The chapter looks at parliamentary records and political discourse in the years preceding this crucial 1998-9 period to identify the framing of Turkey’s foreign policy, explain variation in foreign policy outcomes and Turkey’s subsequent reactions to the civil wars in Iraq and Syria.Less
Chapter 4 focuses on Turkey and the Kurdish question particularly in relation to the country’s neighbors. It highlights the 1998 Öcalan incident when hundreds of thousands of Turkish citizens joined mass nationalist mobilizations to protest against third countries (Syria, Italy and Greece) (allegedly) supporting the PKK (Kurdistan’s Workers Party). It examines how Turkish elites framed foreign governments and the PKK as the parties solely responsible for the Kurdish uprising, making any potential compromise unimaginable for the next two decades. At the same time the chapter examines the progress made by Turkey in reaching better relations with Greece leading to the Helsinki compromise in 1999. The chapter looks at parliamentary records and political discourse in the years preceding this crucial 1998-9 period to identify the framing of Turkey’s foreign policy, explain variation in foreign policy outcomes and Turkey’s subsequent reactions to the civil wars in Iraq and Syria.
Necati Polat
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474416962
- eISBN:
- 9781474427098
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474416962.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This book explores the transformation of Turkey’s political regime from 2002 under the AKP rule. Turkey has been through a series of major political shifts historically, roughly from the mid-19th ...
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This book explores the transformation of Turkey’s political regime from 2002 under the AKP rule. Turkey has been through a series of major political shifts historically, roughly from the mid-19th century. The book details the most recent change, locating it in its broader historical setting. Beginning with the AKP rule from late 2002, supported by a wide informal coalition that included liberals, it describes how the ‘former’ Islamists gradually acquired full power between 2007 and 2011. It then chronicles the subsequent phase, looking at politics and rights under the amorphous new order. This highly accessible assessment of the change in question places it in the larger context of political modernisation in the country over the past 150 or so years, covering all of the main issues in contemporary Turkish politics: the religious and secular divide, the Kurds, the military, foreign policy orientation, the state of human rights, the effective concentration of powers in the government and a rule by policy, rather than law, initiated by Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian populism. The discussion at once situates Turkey in the broader milieu of the Arab Spring, especially in terms of Islamist politics and Muslim piety in the public sphere, with some emphasis on ‘Islamo-nationalism’ (Millî Görüş) as a local Islamist variety. Effortlessly blending history, politics, law, social theory and philosophy in making sense of the change, the book uses the concept of mimesis to show that continuity is a key element in Turkish politics, despite the series of radical breaks that have occurred.Less
This book explores the transformation of Turkey’s political regime from 2002 under the AKP rule. Turkey has been through a series of major political shifts historically, roughly from the mid-19th century. The book details the most recent change, locating it in its broader historical setting. Beginning with the AKP rule from late 2002, supported by a wide informal coalition that included liberals, it describes how the ‘former’ Islamists gradually acquired full power between 2007 and 2011. It then chronicles the subsequent phase, looking at politics and rights under the amorphous new order. This highly accessible assessment of the change in question places it in the larger context of political modernisation in the country over the past 150 or so years, covering all of the main issues in contemporary Turkish politics: the religious and secular divide, the Kurds, the military, foreign policy orientation, the state of human rights, the effective concentration of powers in the government and a rule by policy, rather than law, initiated by Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian populism. The discussion at once situates Turkey in the broader milieu of the Arab Spring, especially in terms of Islamist politics and Muslim piety in the public sphere, with some emphasis on ‘Islamo-nationalism’ (Millî Görüş) as a local Islamist variety. Effortlessly blending history, politics, law, social theory and philosophy in making sense of the change, the book uses the concept of mimesis to show that continuity is a key element in Turkish politics, despite the series of radical breaks that have occurred.
Anne Sofie Schøtt
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781474491709
- eISBN:
- 9781399509275
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474491709.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This book examines how the Kurdish diaspora in Denmark supported the Kurdish struggle in Syria from the battle of Kobane (2014) to the defeat in Afrin (2018). It contributes to our understanding of ...
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This book examines how the Kurdish diaspora in Denmark supported the Kurdish struggle in Syria from the battle of Kobane (2014) to the defeat in Afrin (2018). It contributes to our understanding of mobilisation and identity formation in the periphery of the Kurdish diaspora by examining the small but well-established community in Denmark. Arguing that the diaspora is treated differently by Danish authorities – in comparison to neighbouring Sweden and Germany – the book examines the political lobbyism, the courtroom activism and the humanitarian actvism of the various Kurdish diaspora groups. Drawing on social movement theory, the book introduces strategic interactionism to the study of diaspora mobilisation, which exposes ambiguous aspects of the interaction between the diaspora and political decision-makers. The book also provides new knowledge on transnational actors in war by examining how the Kurdish diaspora engaged in the war against Islamic State, like Danish military forces were engaged, but on different terms. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork among Kurdish groups and organisations, the book uncovers the rivalry between the two main Kurdish movements, called the Öcalan movement and the Kurdistan movement. Moreover, the book zoom in on the position of the Syrian Kurds within the diaspora who, like the Kurds in Syria, have been largely ignored until recently. Finally, the book coins the term ‘alter-territorial’ identification to describe identifying with political entities in other parts of the homeland than the area of origin.Less
This book examines how the Kurdish diaspora in Denmark supported the Kurdish struggle in Syria from the battle of Kobane (2014) to the defeat in Afrin (2018). It contributes to our understanding of mobilisation and identity formation in the periphery of the Kurdish diaspora by examining the small but well-established community in Denmark. Arguing that the diaspora is treated differently by Danish authorities – in comparison to neighbouring Sweden and Germany – the book examines the political lobbyism, the courtroom activism and the humanitarian actvism of the various Kurdish diaspora groups. Drawing on social movement theory, the book introduces strategic interactionism to the study of diaspora mobilisation, which exposes ambiguous aspects of the interaction between the diaspora and political decision-makers. The book also provides new knowledge on transnational actors in war by examining how the Kurdish diaspora engaged in the war against Islamic State, like Danish military forces were engaged, but on different terms. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork among Kurdish groups and organisations, the book uncovers the rivalry between the two main Kurdish movements, called the Öcalan movement and the Kurdistan movement. Moreover, the book zoom in on the position of the Syrian Kurds within the diaspora who, like the Kurds in Syria, have been largely ignored until recently. Finally, the book coins the term ‘alter-territorial’ identification to describe identifying with political entities in other parts of the homeland than the area of origin.
Joshua Castellino and Kathleen A. Cavanaugh
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199679492
- eISBN:
- 9780191758539
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199679492.003.0004
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration, Public International Law
This chapter seeks to examine and analyse the history and legislative provisions to protect minorities in Iraq. It situates Iraq’s minority communities (Kurds, Kaka’i, Shabak, Yezidi, Marsh Arabs, ...
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This chapter seeks to examine and analyse the history and legislative provisions to protect minorities in Iraq. It situates Iraq’s minority communities (Kurds, Kaka’i, Shabak, Yezidi, Marsh Arabs, Christian, Armenian, Assyrian, Sabean Mandaeans, Baha’i, Black Iraqi, Circassians, Jews, Roma and Palestinian) within a socio-legal framework and includes a critique of the fragile unfolding constitution-building process and the conceptual frameworks upon which it has been built. The ‘liquid’ democracy that was meant to accompany the 2003 intervention has proved illusory for Iraqi communities inside and outside Iraq. There can be no other reading of the 2003 US and coalition forces’ intervention in Iraq other than that of a ‘transformative occupation’, which has operated outside the constraints dictated by the laws of occupation. The language of occupation may have been displaced, but the transformation of the political and demographic landscape in Iraq continues and this chapter examines the implications of this for the groups who continue to feel vulnerable within Iraq.Less
This chapter seeks to examine and analyse the history and legislative provisions to protect minorities in Iraq. It situates Iraq’s minority communities (Kurds, Kaka’i, Shabak, Yezidi, Marsh Arabs, Christian, Armenian, Assyrian, Sabean Mandaeans, Baha’i, Black Iraqi, Circassians, Jews, Roma and Palestinian) within a socio-legal framework and includes a critique of the fragile unfolding constitution-building process and the conceptual frameworks upon which it has been built. The ‘liquid’ democracy that was meant to accompany the 2003 intervention has proved illusory for Iraqi communities inside and outside Iraq. There can be no other reading of the 2003 US and coalition forces’ intervention in Iraq other than that of a ‘transformative occupation’, which has operated outside the constraints dictated by the laws of occupation. The language of occupation may have been displaced, but the transformation of the political and demographic landscape in Iraq continues and this chapter examines the implications of this for the groups who continue to feel vulnerable within Iraq.
Sarah D. Shields
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195393316
- eISBN:
- 9780199894376
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195393316.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History, European Modern History
The government of Turkey claimed that the population of the Sanjak of Alexandretta was Turkish and insisted that the territory could therefore not become part of the predominantly Arabic-speaking ...
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The government of Turkey claimed that the population of the Sanjak of Alexandretta was Turkish and insisted that the territory could therefore not become part of the predominantly Arabic-speaking Syria. This connection between language, identity, and state reflected new European ways of thinking about communities that were inconsistent with the historical experiences of the people of the multi-linguistic, multi-religious, even multi-“national” Ottoman empire of which the Sanjak had been part for the preceding four centuries. Saydo’s argument illustrates the irony of European statesmen’s insistence that Sanjak residents were composed of mutually exclusive identity groups: as onlookers watched, Saydo and his neighbor argued, gestured, and brandished their weapons as each shouted about whether the other should register as a Turks or an Arab, all the while speaking in Kurdish.Less
The government of Turkey claimed that the population of the Sanjak of Alexandretta was Turkish and insisted that the territory could therefore not become part of the predominantly Arabic-speaking Syria. This connection between language, identity, and state reflected new European ways of thinking about communities that were inconsistent with the historical experiences of the people of the multi-linguistic, multi-religious, even multi-“national” Ottoman empire of which the Sanjak had been part for the preceding four centuries. Saydo’s argument illustrates the irony of European statesmen’s insistence that Sanjak residents were composed of mutually exclusive identity groups: as onlookers watched, Saydo and his neighbor argued, gestured, and brandished their weapons as each shouted about whether the other should register as a Turks or an Arab, all the while speaking in Kurdish.
Ugur Ümit Üngör
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199603602
- eISBN:
- 9780191729263
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199603602.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
For centuries, the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire had been a multi‐ethnic region, where Armenians, Kurds, Syriacs, Turks and Arabs lived together in the same villages and cities. The ...
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For centuries, the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire had been a multi‐ethnic region, where Armenians, Kurds, Syriacs, Turks and Arabs lived together in the same villages and cities. The disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and rise of the nation state would violently alter this situation. Nationalist elites intervened in heterogeneous populations which they identified as objects of knowledge, management, and change. These often violent processes of state formation destroyed historical regions and emptied multicultural cities, clearing the way for modern nation states. This book highlights how the Young Turk regime, from 1913 to 1950, subjected Eastern Turkey to various forms of nationalist population policies aimed at ethnically homogenizing the region and incorporating it into the Turkish nation state. It examines how the regime utilized technologies of social engineering such as genocide, deportation, spatial planning, forced assimilation, and memory politics, to increase ethnic and cultural homogeneity within the nation state. Drawing on secret files and unexamined records, the author demonstrates that concerns of state security, ethnocultural identity, and national purity drove these policies. The eastern provinces, the heartland of Armenian and Kurdish life, became an epicentre of Young Turk population policies and the theatre of unprecedented levels of mass violence.Less
For centuries, the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire had been a multi‐ethnic region, where Armenians, Kurds, Syriacs, Turks and Arabs lived together in the same villages and cities. The disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and rise of the nation state would violently alter this situation. Nationalist elites intervened in heterogeneous populations which they identified as objects of knowledge, management, and change. These often violent processes of state formation destroyed historical regions and emptied multicultural cities, clearing the way for modern nation states. This book highlights how the Young Turk regime, from 1913 to 1950, subjected Eastern Turkey to various forms of nationalist population policies aimed at ethnically homogenizing the region and incorporating it into the Turkish nation state. It examines how the regime utilized technologies of social engineering such as genocide, deportation, spatial planning, forced assimilation, and memory politics, to increase ethnic and cultural homogeneity within the nation state. Drawing on secret files and unexamined records, the author demonstrates that concerns of state security, ethnocultural identity, and national purity drove these policies. The eastern provinces, the heartland of Armenian and Kurdish life, became an epicentre of Young Turk population policies and the theatre of unprecedented levels of mass violence.
Mushirul Hasan
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198063117
- eISBN:
- 9780199080199
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198063117.003.0049
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
The caravan enters the Kurd country, on the borders of the desert. The author describes the desert and narrates how the caravan was detained. He also presents an account of the tribe of Senjar, a ...
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The caravan enters the Kurd country, on the borders of the desert. The author describes the desert and narrates how the caravan was detained. He also presents an account of the tribe of Senjar, a race of mountaineers, and his journey over the desert. The author arrives at Mousul, is courteously received by Mohammed Pasha, visits the tomb of St George of England, describes Mousul and its inhabitants, leaves Mousul, and is hospitably entertained by some Christian Arabs. He also describes Kirkook and Karutapa. The author arrives at Bagdad and estimates the distance from Constantinople to Bagdad.Less
The caravan enters the Kurd country, on the borders of the desert. The author describes the desert and narrates how the caravan was detained. He also presents an account of the tribe of Senjar, a race of mountaineers, and his journey over the desert. The author arrives at Mousul, is courteously received by Mohammed Pasha, visits the tomb of St George of England, describes Mousul and its inhabitants, leaves Mousul, and is hospitably entertained by some Christian Arabs. He also describes Kirkook and Karutapa. The author arrives at Bagdad and estimates the distance from Constantinople to Bagdad.
Timothy Bruce Mitford
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780192843425
- eISBN:
- 9780191926051
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780192843425.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Greek and Roman Archaeology, Archaeology of the Near East
An account, primarily academic, of the eastern Roman frontier extending from northern Syria to the western Caucasus, across a remote and desolate region 800 miles from the Aegean. This is the product ...
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An account, primarily academic, of the eastern Roman frontier extending from northern Syria to the western Caucasus, across a remote and desolate region 800 miles from the Aegean. This is the product of solo exploration of sensitive territory in challenging conditions over four decades, to discover the material remains of Rome’s last unexplored frontier. Barely visited and until now effectively unknown, it followed the Euphrates valley, passed over and through two great ranges, and penetrated the harsh mountains, ‘cleansed’ of Armenians and Greeks, of Armenia Minor and south of the Black Sea. From Trapezus a chain of forts stretched along the Pontic coast to the foothills of the Caucasus. The geographical framework introduces frontier installations as they occur: fortresses and forts, roads, bridges, signalling stations, and navigation of the Euphrates. It is illustrated with large-scale maps, observations of consuls and travellers, memories of Turkish and Kurdish villagers, notes and photographs of a way of life little changed since antiquity, and encounters with the modern world. The process of discovery was mainly on foot, with local guides and staying in villages, following ancient tracks, and conversing with great numbers of people – provincial and district governors, village elders and teachers, police and jandarma, farmers and shepherds, and everyone else. So there are encounters with treasure hunters and apparent bandits; arrests and death threats; Armenian massacres and crypto-Christians; memories of saints, caravans and the Russian advance in 1916; tensions between Kurds and Turks; the menace of the PKK; escorts and village guards; birds, bears and wild boars; rafts and fishing; earthquakes.Less
An account, primarily academic, of the eastern Roman frontier extending from northern Syria to the western Caucasus, across a remote and desolate region 800 miles from the Aegean. This is the product of solo exploration of sensitive territory in challenging conditions over four decades, to discover the material remains of Rome’s last unexplored frontier. Barely visited and until now effectively unknown, it followed the Euphrates valley, passed over and through two great ranges, and penetrated the harsh mountains, ‘cleansed’ of Armenians and Greeks, of Armenia Minor and south of the Black Sea. From Trapezus a chain of forts stretched along the Pontic coast to the foothills of the Caucasus. The geographical framework introduces frontier installations as they occur: fortresses and forts, roads, bridges, signalling stations, and navigation of the Euphrates. It is illustrated with large-scale maps, observations of consuls and travellers, memories of Turkish and Kurdish villagers, notes and photographs of a way of life little changed since antiquity, and encounters with the modern world. The process of discovery was mainly on foot, with local guides and staying in villages, following ancient tracks, and conversing with great numbers of people – provincial and district governors, village elders and teachers, police and jandarma, farmers and shepherds, and everyone else. So there are encounters with treasure hunters and apparent bandits; arrests and death threats; Armenian massacres and crypto-Christians; memories of saints, caravans and the Russian advance in 1916; tensions between Kurds and Turks; the menace of the PKK; escorts and village guards; birds, bears and wild boars; rafts and fishing; earthquakes.
Gülay Türkmen
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197511817
- eISBN:
- 9780197511848
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197511817.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
How do religious, ethnic, and national identities interact in religiously homogenous ethnic conflicts? Is it possible for religion to act as a resolution tool in such conflicts? Why? Why not? In ...
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How do religious, ethnic, and national identities interact in religiously homogenous ethnic conflicts? Is it possible for religion to act as a resolution tool in such conflicts? Why? Why not? In search for answers to these questions, Under the Banner of Islam focuses on the ambivalent role Sunni Islam has played in Turkey’s Kurdish conflict—both as a conflict-resolution tool and as a tool of resistance—in the last two decades. Relying mainly on participant observation in Civil Friday Prayers and 62 interviews conducted in three different cities in Turkey (Istanbul and the majority-Kurdish Diyarbakir and Batman) between June 2012 and June 2013, it demonstrates that Sunni Islam has had a very limited impact as a conflict-resolution tool in Turkey. Blending interview data with a detailed historical institutional analysis that goes back as early as the nineteenth century, it argues that the strength of Turkish and Kurdish nationalisms, the symbiotic relationship between Turkey’s religious and political fields, religious elites’ varying conceptualizations of religious and ethnic identities, and the recent political developments in the region (particularly the establishment of an autonomous Kurdish region, Rojava, in Syria) have all contributed to this outcome. The resulting narrative is not only a record of religion, ethnicity, and nationalism in Turkey’s Kurdish conflict, but also an investigation of how ethnic and religious identities are negotiated in conflict resolution and how symbolic boundaries are drawn in ethnic conflict zones.Less
How do religious, ethnic, and national identities interact in religiously homogenous ethnic conflicts? Is it possible for religion to act as a resolution tool in such conflicts? Why? Why not? In search for answers to these questions, Under the Banner of Islam focuses on the ambivalent role Sunni Islam has played in Turkey’s Kurdish conflict—both as a conflict-resolution tool and as a tool of resistance—in the last two decades. Relying mainly on participant observation in Civil Friday Prayers and 62 interviews conducted in three different cities in Turkey (Istanbul and the majority-Kurdish Diyarbakir and Batman) between June 2012 and June 2013, it demonstrates that Sunni Islam has had a very limited impact as a conflict-resolution tool in Turkey. Blending interview data with a detailed historical institutional analysis that goes back as early as the nineteenth century, it argues that the strength of Turkish and Kurdish nationalisms, the symbiotic relationship between Turkey’s religious and political fields, religious elites’ varying conceptualizations of religious and ethnic identities, and the recent political developments in the region (particularly the establishment of an autonomous Kurdish region, Rojava, in Syria) have all contributed to this outcome. The resulting narrative is not only a record of religion, ethnicity, and nationalism in Turkey’s Kurdish conflict, but also an investigation of how ethnic and religious identities are negotiated in conflict resolution and how symbolic boundaries are drawn in ethnic conflict zones.
Donald Bloxham
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199273560
- eISBN:
- 9780191699689
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199273560.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
Having removed most of the Armenians, and accepted the probable loss of the Arab provinces, it would be left to the Committee of Union and Progress's (CUP) successor regime to continue the ...
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Having removed most of the Armenians, and accepted the probable loss of the Arab provinces, it would be left to the Committee of Union and Progress's (CUP) successor regime to continue the homogenization process by removing the remaining Armenian population, then the Anatolian Greeks, and finally focusing on the Kurds. As with the development of the Armenian genocide, however, each of these episodes of persecution, displacement, and murder had its own dynamics, pattern, and intensity. The relationship between intention and contingency remained intimate, and the Entente powers had a profound responsibility for the re-escalation of inter-ethnic violence after the close of the First World War. But before moving to the Kemalist period, it should be recalled that the Armenians were not the only targets of CUP population engineering and murder. Here, the way the genocide fitted into greater Ottoman demographic schemes is examined, along with state-formation in the Caucasus from 1918 to 1920 and the ethnic homogenization process common to other states in the Balkans and east-central Europe in the first half of the twentieth century.Less
Having removed most of the Armenians, and accepted the probable loss of the Arab provinces, it would be left to the Committee of Union and Progress's (CUP) successor regime to continue the homogenization process by removing the remaining Armenian population, then the Anatolian Greeks, and finally focusing on the Kurds. As with the development of the Armenian genocide, however, each of these episodes of persecution, displacement, and murder had its own dynamics, pattern, and intensity. The relationship between intention and contingency remained intimate, and the Entente powers had a profound responsibility for the re-escalation of inter-ethnic violence after the close of the First World War. But before moving to the Kemalist period, it should be recalled that the Armenians were not the only targets of CUP population engineering and murder. Here, the way the genocide fitted into greater Ottoman demographic schemes is examined, along with state-formation in the Caucasus from 1918 to 1920 and the ethnic homogenization process common to other states in the Balkans and east-central Europe in the first half of the twentieth century.
Donald Bloxham
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199273560
- eISBN:
- 9780191699689
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199273560.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
A few months after the signing of the Lausanne Treaty, Mustafa Kemal secured the assent of the Grand National Assembly to alter Turkey's status to that of a republic. The new era brought the ...
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A few months after the signing of the Lausanne Treaty, Mustafa Kemal secured the assent of the Grand National Assembly to alter Turkey's status to that of a republic. The new era brought the intensification of Turkification campaigns affecting Kurds as well as the remnant of Christians. The one area in which Turkey notably failed to progress through its reform programme in the inter-war years was in the realm of democracy, with accountable institutions and cultural and political pluralism lacking, as a series of abortive experiments with freely elected governments illustrated. The persecution and flight of the remaining Christians continued through the 1920s and even into the era of the Second World War. This section shows how the international community responded to the post-genocidal situation, drawing comparisons with attitudes to ‘border adjustment’ in inter-war Europe. It also illustrates how, after the murderous ‘resolution’ of the Ottoman Armenian question, Britain was instrumental in its occupation of Iraq in exacerbating a regional Kurdish question that endures to the present.Less
A few months after the signing of the Lausanne Treaty, Mustafa Kemal secured the assent of the Grand National Assembly to alter Turkey's status to that of a republic. The new era brought the intensification of Turkification campaigns affecting Kurds as well as the remnant of Christians. The one area in which Turkey notably failed to progress through its reform programme in the inter-war years was in the realm of democracy, with accountable institutions and cultural and political pluralism lacking, as a series of abortive experiments with freely elected governments illustrated. The persecution and flight of the remaining Christians continued through the 1920s and even into the era of the Second World War. This section shows how the international community responded to the post-genocidal situation, drawing comparisons with attitudes to ‘border adjustment’ in inter-war Europe. It also illustrates how, after the murderous ‘resolution’ of the Ottoman Armenian question, Britain was instrumental in its occupation of Iraq in exacerbating a regional Kurdish question that endures to the present.
