Kurdish Identity, Islamism, and Ottomanism

Kurdish Identity, Islamism, and Ottomanism
Author: Deniz Ekici
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2021-03-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1793612609

A major common misconception in scholarship on Kurdish journalistic discourses is that Kurdish intellectuals of the late Ottoman period cannot be portrayed as Kurdish nationalists. This theory prevails because of the belief that they not only endorsed and promoted Pan-Islamism and Ottoman nationalism instead of Kurdish ethnic nationalism, but also because they allegedly eschewed political demands and instead concerned themselves with ethno-cultural issues to articulate forms of “Kurdism” rather than “Kurdish nationalism.” Refuting this underlying misconstruction of the nexus between Pan-Islamism, Ottomanism, and Kurdish nationalism, this book argues, based on empirical findings, that the Kurdish periodicals of the late Ottoman period served as a communicative space in which Kurdish intellectuals negotiated and disseminated an unmistakable form of Kurdish nationalism. It claims that hegemonic Ottomanist and Pan-Islamist political thought were used in pragmatic ways in the service of burgeoning Kurdish nationalism, but were rejected altogether when they were no longer useful to fostering Kurdish nationalism.

Islam, Kurds and the Turkish Nation State

Islam, Kurds and the Turkish Nation State
Author: Christopher Houston
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2020-05-26
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000184382

Can Islamism, as is often claimed, truly unite Muslim Turks and Kurds in a discourse that supersedes ethnicity? This is a volatile and exciting time for a country whose long history has been characterized by dramatic power play. Evolving out of two years of fieldwork in Istanbul, this book examines the fragmenting Islamist political movement in Turkey. As Turkey emerges from a repressive modernizing project, various political identities are emerging and competing for influence. The Islamist movement celebrates the failure of Western liberalism in Turkey and the return of politics based on Muslim ideals. However, this vision is threatened by Kurdish nationalism and the country's troubled past. Is Islamist multiculturalism even possible? The ethnic tensions surfacing in Turkey beg the question whether the Muslim Turks and Kurds can find common ground in religion. Houston argues that such unification depends fundamentally upon the flexibility of the rationale behind the Islamist movement's struggle.

A People Without a State

A People Without a State
Author: Michael Eppel
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2016-09-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1477311076

Numbering between 25 and 35 million worldwide, the Kurds are among the largest culturally and ethnically distinct people to remain stateless. A People Without a State offers an in-depth survey of an identity that has often been ignored in mainstream historiographies of the Middle East and brings to life the historical, social, and political developments in Kurdistani society over the past millennium. Michael Eppel begins with the myths and realities of the origins of the Kurds, describes the effect upon them of medieval Muslim states under Arab, Persian, and Turkish dominance, and recounts the emergence of tribal-feudal dynasties. He explores in detail the subsequent rise of Kurdish emirates, as well as this people’s literary and linguistic developments, particularly the flourishing of poetry. The turning tides of the nineteenth century, including Ottoman reforms and fluctuating Russian influence after the Crimean War, set in motion an early Kurdish nationalism that further expressed a distinct cultural identity. Stateless, but rooted in the region, the Kurds never achieved independence because of geopolitical conditions, tribal rivalries, and obstacles on the way to modernization. A People Without a State captures the developments that nonetheless forged a vast sociopolitical system.

Under the Banner of Islam

Under the Banner of Islam
Author: Gülay Türkmen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2021-01-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 019751183X

Sunni Islam has played an ambivalent role in Turkey's Kurdish conflict--both as a conflict resolution tool and as a tool of resistance. Under the Banner of Islam uses Turkey as a case study to understand how religious, ethnic, and national identities converge in ethnic conflicts between co-religionists. Gülay Türkmen asks a question that informs the way we understand religiously homogeneous ethnic conflicts today: Is it possible for religion to act as a resolution tool in these often-violent conflicts? In search for answers to this question, in Under the Banner of Islam, Türkmen journeys into the inner circles of religious elites from different backgrounds: non-state-appointed local Kurdish meles, state-appointed Kurdish and Turkish imams, heads of religious NGOs, and members of religious orders. Blending interview data with a detailed historical analysis that goes back as far as the nineteenth century, she argues that the strength of Turkish and Kurdish nationalisms, the symbiotic relationship between Turkey's religious and political fields, the religious elites' varying conceptualizations of religious and ethnic identities, and the recent political developments in the region (particularly in Syria) all contribute to the complex role religion plays in the Kurdish conflict in Turkey. Under the Banner of Islam is a specific story of religion, ethnicity, and nationalism in Turkey's Kurdish conflict, but it also tracks a broader narrative of how ethnic and religious identities are negotiated when resolving conflicts.

Kurds in Erdogan's Turkey

Kurds in Erdogan's Turkey
Author: William Gourlay
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2020-05-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1474459226

This book examines the circumstances of the Kurds in 21st century Turkey, under the hegemony of the AKP government. After decades of denial, oppression and conflict, Kurds now assert a more confident presence in Turkey's politics - but does increasing visibility mean a rejection of Turkey? Recording Kurdish voices from Istanbul and DiyarbakA r, Turkey's most important Kurdish-populated cities, this book generates new understandings of Kurdish identity and political aspirations. Highlighting elements of Kurdish identity including Newroz, the Kurdish language, connections to religion, landscape and cross-border ties, it offers a portrait of Kurdish political life in a Turkey increasingly dominated by its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Within the context of Turkey's troubled trajectory towards democratisation, it documents Kurdish narratives of oppression and resistance, and enquires how Kurds reconcile their distinct ethnic identity and citizenship in modern Turkey.

Islam and Competing Nationalisms in the Middle East, 1876-1926

Islam and Competing Nationalisms in the Middle East, 1876-1926
Author: Kamal Soleimani
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2016-06-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1137599405

Opposing a binary perspective that consolidates ethnicity, religion, and nationalism into separate spheres, this book demonstrates that neither nationalism nor religion can be studied in isolation in the Middle East. Religious interpretation, like other systems of meaning-production, is affected by its historical and political contexts, and the processes of interpretation and religious translation bleed into the institutional discourses and processes of nation-building. This book calls into question the foundational epistemologies of the nation-state by centering on the pivotal and intimate role Islam played in the emergence of the nation-state, showing the entanglements and reciprocities of nationalism and religious thought as they played out in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Middle East.

Nationalism and Islamism in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Nationalism and Islamism in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Author: Mohammad Salih Mustafa
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2020-11-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000204049

Exploring a new political phenomenon in the Middle East, this book studies the reconciliation of nationalism and Islamism by Islamic political parties in the context of nation states. Islamism in Kurdistan has become significantly framed by the politics of nationalism. Although the concept of religious nationalism has been discussed substantially before, this work highlights a new brand of religious nationalism that has emerged as a result of intertwining nationalism and Islamism. The focus of this study is on the development of religious nationalism in the continuously tumultuous region of the Middle East. The volume investigates whether Islamism in Kurdistan is limited by the politics of nationalism – which is an accentuated example for the whole Middle East region. By looking at the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), the research studies Islamism in the Kurdistan Region to elaborate on this new type of politics. This is essentially due to the absence of a politically recognised nation state, which renders Kurds to be particularly susceptible to various manifestations of nationalism. Offering an account on the spread of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Kurdistan Region, this original research on Kurdish nationalism will be a key text for students and researchers interested in nationalism, Islamism and Middle East politics.

Nationalism and Minority Identities in Islamic Societies

Nationalism and Minority Identities in Islamic Societies
Author: Maya Shatzmiller
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2005
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780773528482

The movement of nation building in Islamic societies away from the secular or Pan-Arab models of the early twentieth century toward a variety of "nationalisms" was accompanied by growing antagonism between the Muslim majority and ethnic or religious minorities. The papers in Nationalism and Minority Identities in Islamic Societies offer a comparative analysis of how these minorities developed their own distinctive identities within the modern Islamic nation-state. The essays focus on identity formation in five minority groups - Copts in Egypt, Baha'is and Christians in Pakistan, Berbers in Algeria and Morocco, and Kurds in Turkey and Iraq. While every minority community is distinctive, the experiences of each show that a state's authoritarian rule, uncompromising attitude towards expressions of particularism, and failure to offer tools for inclusion are all responsible for the politicization and radicalization of minority identities. The place of Islam in this process is complex: while its initial pluralistic role was transformed through the creation of the modern nation-state, the radicalization of society in turn radicalized and politicized minority identities. Minority groups, though at times possessing a measure of political autonomy, remain intensely vulnerable. Contributors include Juan R.I. Cole (University of Michigan), David L. Crawford (Fairfield University), Michael Gunter (Tennessee Technological University), Azzedine Layachi (St John's University), Richard C. Martin (Emory University), Paul S. Rowe (University of Western Ontario), Maya Shatzmiller (University of Western Ontario), Charles D. Smith (University of Arizona), Pieternella van Doorn-Harder (Valparaiso University), the late Linda S. Walbridge (University of Oklahoma), and M. Hakan Yavuz (University of Utah). Announcing the series: Studies in Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict General Editors: Sid Noel and Richard Vernon, co-directors of University of Western Ontario's Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict Research Group. Studies in Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict is a series that examines the political dimensions of nationality in the contemporary world. The series includes both scholarly monographs and edited volumes which consider the varied sources and political expressions of national identities, the politics of multiple loyalty, the domestic and international effects of competing identities within a single state, and the causes of, and political responses to, conflict between ethnic and religious groups. The volumes are designed for use by university students, scholars and interested general readers.

Turkey's Kurdish Question

Turkey's Kurdish Question
Author: Henri J. Barkey
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 278
Release: 1998
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780847685530

The Kurds, one of the oldest ethnic groups in the Middle East, are reasserting their identity-politically and through violence. Turkey's essentially democratic structure and civil society-ideal tools for coping with and incorporating minority challenge-have so far been suspended on this issue, which the government is treating almost exclusively as a security problem to be dealt with by force. This study explores the roots, dimensions, character, and evolution of the problem, offers a range of approaches to a resolution of the conflict, and draws broader parallels between the Kurdish question and other separatist movements worldwide.