A Century of the Kurdish Question: Organizational Rivalries, Diplomacy, and Cross-Ethnic Coalitions

Abstract

The Kurdish question remains one of the most important and complicated issues in ethnic politics in contemporary times. Taking the Ottoman Defeat in the World War I in 1918 as a historical critical juncture, the article sets the agenda for the special issue and develops a conceptual approach to think about the strategies of Kurdish nationalism. It goes beyond the state-ethnic minority antagonism that has been the most predominant theme in the study of Kurdish politics, and discusses how inter-organizational rivalries, diplomatic efforts in pursuit of external support, and domestic cross-ethnic coalitions have shaped the dynamics and outcomes of Kurdish nationalist struggles.

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Ethnopolitics editor Karl Cordell for initiating this special issue, contributors to the issue, and reviewers of the manuscripts.

ORCID

Güneş Murat Tezcür http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5722-6209

Notes

1 One of the well-known stories in this regard considers the betrayal of Emir Bedir Khan of Botan by one of his commanders, Yezdansher, in 1847 (Eppel, 2016, pp. 56–64; Zeki Beg, 2010, pp. 220–4).

2 Most Yazidis speak Kirmanji dialect of Kurdish and has a long history of persecution at the hands of Sunni rulers including Kurdish chieftains.

3 In another episode of cooperation, the KDP send a small military contingent to the defense of Kobanî via Turkey in October 2014. However, the involvement of this force in the battles remained mostly symbolic.

4 In a particularly bloody episode, the KDP forces ambushed and destroyed a large PUK military group led by Ali Askari in Hakkari in June 1978.

5 The author spent the referendum day and night in Kirkuk. In the evening before the referendum day, the anti-referendum PUK faction made a failed attempt to remove Karim from his position.

6 This approach characterized United Kingdom’s approach to the Kurdish issue in Iraq in the 1960s. Foreign and Commonwealth Research Department Memorandum, “The Kurdish Problem in Iraq, 1963–1971,” December 6, 1971 (Burdett, 2015, pp. 354–6).

7 As early as August 1945, Moustafa Barzani sent a letter addressed to Stalin asking diplomatic and material support for his struggle against the British controlled Iraqi state (Hewramî, 2003, pp. 30–1).

8 Remarks by Jonathan Cohen, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, at the 8^th Annual Turkey Conference of the Middle East Institute, Washington, DC, December 4, 2017.

9 Personal communication with a senior KRG official in Washington, DC, December 4, 2017.