By utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) methodology, this study explores the ideological function of language in the Kurdish journalistic discourse of the pre-WWI period (1898-1914). Informed by the CDA approach, the present study perceives language as a social practice that produces meanings and presumes a dialectical relationship between language and ideology in the construction of social realities, beliefs and identities. Hence, this study is situated within the wider scope of discourse analysis that focuses on the link between identity, discourse, power and ideology. The study particularly utilizes, in an eclectic manner, the CDA conceptual frameworks developed by Norman Fairclough and Ruth Wodak in order to examine and explain the ideological function of the Kurdish journalistic discourse in the formation of Kurdish national identity from the prespective of a linguistically informed discursive study. To this end, from the perspective of CDA approach, the study methodically and analytically conducts an exhaustive close textual examination of numerous discourse samples taken from the corpora of three Kurdish journals of the late Ottoman period, i.e., Kurdistan (1898-1902), Kürd Teavün ve Terakki Gazetesi (The Kurdish Gazette for Mutual Aid and Progress) (1908-1909) and Rojî Kurd (Kurdish Sun) (1913). Given that the historical circumstance have a tremendous effect on the formation of discourses, this study investigates discourse practices and language devices employed in the Kurdish journals by taking into consideration the distinctive sociocultural and political conditions in which each journal was published. The study concludes that contrary to the common misperception in the literature, the Kurdish press of the late Ottoman period served as a platform on which Kurdish intellectuals negotiated, constructed and disseminated a distinctive form of Kurdish national identity and nationalism in their discourse despite –sometimes at the expense of- the hegemonic Ottoman and Pan-Islamic identities. However, although the Kurdish journalistic discourse managed to produce a Kurdish nationalist discourse among the Kurdish intellectuals and a small segment of Kurdish reading public, it failed to imitate the Andersonian notion of ‘imagined communities’ as the ‘cultural products’ of ‘print-capitalism’ that would immensely contributed to the formation of a unified field of communication around a national print-language. As a result the Kurdish identity discourse remained inconsequential in terms of making an impact among a larger Kurdish public that would ultimately lead to the construction of a braoder imagined Kurdish national community. The present study attributes the limited power and influence of the Kurdish journals or the Kurdish printing-press on Kurdish masses to the unfavourable historical circumstances, including the novelty of the newspaper genre, the low literacy rate in Kurdistan, the state-imposed restrictions on the production and dissemination of the journals, the personal and familial concerns and interests of the Kurdish leadership of the period and the lingering effects of both parochial (tribal, linguistic, sectarian, regional) and meta-loyalties (Islamism, Ottomanism) among Kurds in the era of nationalism.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the football team Dalkurd act locally and transnationally through their identifications, relationships and activities with other actors with whom the footballsteam interacts. The study has also focused on the tensions that arise between the local Dalkurd and transnational Dalkurd. Theoretical starting points are based on the transnational perspective, which is important in order to understand how a football team like Dalkurd act through his activities, identifications and relationships. The second theoretical perspective is based on the social networks 'importance for the football clubs' culture and local identity, which is important for understanding the local identity based on Swedish club culture. The methodological approach of the study is based on case studies with qualitative focus. The empirical material consists of a large number of media texts in the form of existing interviews and reports published in newspapers, radio and television. Also materials from web-based websites, and other social media. The result shows that Dalkurd has, through his activities, social relations and belongings and also symbols created transnational identity, and the association has also created local identifications even that these are relatively limited. The study's results showed that the football team has created a triadic relationship in the form of "transnational social space" between a football association in the form of Dalkurd, the country of hostland Sweden and the home country Kurdistan. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur fotbollslaget Dalkurd verkar lokalt respektive transnationellt genom sina identifikationer, relationer och aktiviteter med andra aktörer som fotbollsföreningen interagerar med. Studien har även fokuserat på de spänningar som uppstår mellan det lokala Dalkurd och transnationella Dalkurd. Teoretiska utgångspunkter bygger på det transnationella perspektivet som är viktigt för att kunna förstå hur ett fotbollslag som Dalkurd verkar genom sina aktiviteter, identifikationer och relationer. Det andra teoretiska perspektivet bygger på de sociala nätverkens betydelse för fotbollsklubbarnas kultur och lokala identitet vilket är viktig för att förstå den lokala identiteten utifrån svensk klubbkultur. Studiens metodologiska ansats bygger på fallstudier med kvalitativ inriktning. Det empiriska materialet består av ett stort antal mediatexter i form av befintliga intervjuer och reportage publicerade i tidningar, radio och tv. Även material från webbaserade hemsidor, och andra sociala medier har tagits med. Resultatet visar att Dalkurd genom sina aktiviteter, sociala relationer samt tillhörigheter och symboler har skapat en transnationell identitet men föreningen har också skapat lokala identifikationer även att dessa är relativ begränsade. Studiens resultat visade att fotbollslaget har skapat ett triadisk förhållande i form av ”transnational social space” mellan en fotbollsförening i form av Dalkurd, bosättningslandet Sverige och hemlandet Kurdistan.

This thesis aims at presenting the historical panorama of the early Kurdish cultural activities in Anatolia which began to rise as a political subject after the First World War but could begin to express its nationalist demands after the foundation of the Republican government. It is claimed in the thesis that Kurdish nationalist identity as a collective body could begun to be formed in the last period of the Ottoman Empire when the Empire was in an inevitable dissolution. This progress in question took its start during the reign of Abdulhamid II, and accelerated during the Committee of Union and Progress period. Especially after the 1908 Constitution, Kurdish intellectuals have begun to create &ldquo / Kurdish&rdquo / publications and cultural institutions seeking to improve the conditions in the regions that the Kurds inhabited. These facts lead us to some questions to begin with and this thesis seeks answers for the following important questions: &ldquo / By considering the awakening of Kurdish nationalist identity, how did the policies centered on the provinces after 1908, influence the Kurdish regions?&rdquo / , &ldquo / What is the response of the Kurdish regions to the new state policies of the period?&rdquo / , &ldquo / Considering the social associations formed by Kurds during the CUP period what were the effects of them on the formation of a new Kurdish identity?&rdquo