This study conducts an analysis of the Classical Liberal doctrines, namely Natural Rights, Utilitarianism, and Social Darwinism, in the context of historical events contributing to the successful establishment of autonomous governance by the Kurdish population in Iraq. The research methodology employed is qualitative case study, with the case subject being the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq. The study draws upon secondary sources encompassing scholarly books and articles, to gather pertinent information. Throughout the course of history, the Kurdish people have ardently aspired to create their own homeland, Kurdistan. Despite their determination and historical occurrences, the four constituent parts constituting Kurdistan have not been able to coalesce into a unified entity. Nevertheless, the Kurdistan region in Iraq has made remarkable progress and presently governs itself autonomously within the Iraqi state. This progress can be attributed to a myriad of historical events, ranging from major turning points to subtle influences. In the comtext of this study, all three aforementioned Liberal doctrines hold relevance, although to varying degrees. Utilitarianism and Natural Rights emerge as the primary influential doctrines, while Social Darwinism, though present, exerts a lesser impact on the studied developments.

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This study is a historical analysis of Turkish-Iraqi relations from the Gulf War of 1990 up to the Iraqi elections of 2005 and the end of Transitional Administration Law (TAL) and prior to the permanent constitution. This study attempted to explain how Turkish-Iraqi relations entered into a new phase with the Gulf War of 1990. In this year, Iraq invaded Kuwait. Following this invasion, Iraq was attacked by coalition forces and at the end of this war, Iraq was nearly divided when a safe haven was created for the Kurds in northern Iraq. In this regard, this thesis paid attention to three factors that had significant impact on the foreign policy of Turkey towards Iraq: a de facto Kurdish state in northern part of this country and apprehension about the possibility of an independent Kurdish state, the existance of PKK in northern Iraq as a result of a power vacuum there and concerns about the future fate of Turkomans in Iraq and attempts to protect their rights. This study has demonstrated how Kurdish question has influenced Turkey&rsquo / s policy towards Iraq and restricted its options.

An important starting point for the thesis is the enormous importance of photography as a source for historical research. Earlier in history, this approach has not been obvious among many historians, but recent decades’ new trends have emerged that have changed the attitude towards the image as historical source. Against this background, the main purpose of the thesis is to study how the Swedish media have chosen to portray the genocide of the Kurdish population in Iraq in 1988. The material consists of photographs that has been published by Swedish newspapers from 1988. In order to visualize general patterns, trends and a symbolism in the images, the methodological approach has been based on a semiotic image analysis where the image has been placed in a context while analyzed from two levels. In addition to this, a cultural theoretical perspective has also formed the theoretical framework for the thesis. Here, the starting point has been that the photographs published in the Swedish press papers reflected a cultural as well as a historical context in which they existed in. The results of the thesis have shown that the imagery has testified to a clear tendency to create clear dividing lines between male and female individuals in the photographs. The research have showed that women and children got strong positions as victims while the men usually became absence or they became more dominant in the situations when they showed up. When it came to the context in which the images were published, it showed that the photographs usually came to be placed in context where they came to symbolize or manifest events that concern parts of the genocide. Sometimes images also came to complement each other like a story where each part had to manifest certain parts of the story.

The aim of this political scientist paper is to describe and analyze the quasi state Iraqi Kurdistan 1992-2006 using the theory of Kolstö about how and why quasi states develops and the theory of Pegg regarding how the international society deal with quasi states. A qualitative case method is used. In the study the two theories are combined. Iraqi Kurdistan is used as a case to study to confirm Kolstö’s and Pegg’s theories. It’s an interesting case as it’s included in one of the most sensitive geo political areas in the world. The Kuwait war 1990 and the Second Gulf war 1991 were the incentive to Iraqi Kurdistan as a quasi state and the US invasion of Iraq 2003 was the incentive to the end of it. In conclusion the case verify the theories and the theories promote the understanding of Iraqi Kurdistan’s period as a quasi state. The goal of the quasi state Iraqi Kurdistan was to become a federal state in a federal Iraq and it succeeded.

This is a study of the Turkish discussion on minority rights. The minority issue in Turkey was placed on the Turkish agenda in connection with intensified negotiations with the European Union on Turkish membership. The unusual and complex circumstances regarding the minority issue in Turkey makes it interesting and relevant to study this topic. The particular focus of this study is on the Kurdish minority and on the alternative discussion regarding the minority issue pursued within civil society groups and the academic sphere. The aim is to contribute to the understanding of the debate on minority rights within these groups. Interviews and collection of literature were made during a field study in Turkey in 2006. A result of this field study was the observation that there are forces working for a change in the notion of Turkish citizenship, and that the minority concept is controversial in Turkey for a number of reasons. Another observation was that the tension between assimilation and cultural identity is an important aspect of the discussion on minorities in Turkey. The Turkish debate has been contrasted to the debate on multiculturalism within political theory. This debate on multiculturalism is about how to deal with culturally diverse societies. There is one main position in favour of multiculturalism and one against. The ideas put forward in the Turkish discussion have been compared with this debate and it has been found that the Turkish discussion differs from this debate in some respects.

Abstract This study examines and analyzes the types of violence committed by the Turkish state against the Kurds. Using a comprehensive typology of violence and qualitative analysis of news and NGO reports, the researcheris study asks what types and forms of violence does the Turkish state and their affiliates commit against the Kurds? While answering this research question a rubric was formulated this study also formulates a rubric (actor, motivation, form of violence) to utilize with a typology of violence that fills gaps of State Repression theory (the leading theory used in this subject matter) analysis. The results of this analysis of this study show that the Turkish state (and affiliates) have used all types of violence in a multitude of forms against the Kurds. Furthermore, the theoretical contribution this study demonstratesis the recognition that that types of violence overlap and should be be recognized as doing so in or analyzed in this manner to better understand the complexity and layers of violence to provide tailored solutions. Word Count: 19869

Late in 2004, King Abdullah of Jordan coined a controversial phrase that still dominates the heart of the geopolitics of the Middle East: The Shia Crescent. “If pro-Iran parties or politicians dominate the new Iraqi government, a new ‘crescent’ of dominant Shia movements or governments stretching from Iran into Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon could emerge to alter the traditional balance of power between the two main Islamic sects and pose new challenges to U.S. interests and allies. What the King of Jordan saw as a threat, Iran saw as the bedrock of its newfound regional power. However, what the King of Jordan and his Arab-Sunni aides downplayed was Iran’s ties with non-Shia groups, ranging from Sunni parties to secular and even non-Muslim groups. More importantly, they neglected Iran’s presence in the Middle East before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In fact, the seeming omnipresence of Iran’s proxies in the Middle East is not a recent, nuanced phenomenon; rather, it dated back to the Shah’s foreign policy in making connections with both the Iraqi Kurds and Shia Lebanese. While much ink has been spilled on Iran’s foreign policy under the Islamic Republic, there has been a void in the analysis of Iran’s ties with Non-State Actors (NSAs) in the pre-1979 Revolution Era. v From this point of view, the present study is an attempt to set forth a new understanding of the emergence and fluctuation of Iran’s ties with NSAs at the heart of the Middle East during the Shah’s era. I will accomplish this by identifying the Iran-NSA relationships within an examination of the larger historical context of state-NSA relationships in the region. Here, the story of the evolution of Iran’s ties with NSAs can be narrated as the unfolding of constant interaction between states and non-state forces in the Middle East. Analyzed from this perspective, my research examines the actors, processes, and mechanisms that Iran has used to construct ties with NSAs from 1961 until 1979. “What actors and processes at what levels of analysis and through what mechanisms have constructed Iran’s ties with NSAs?” This is the central question that guides the analytical narrative in the present survey. Therefore, the dependent variable for this research is the evolution of Iran’s ties with NSAs, while the intervening variable is a set of actors and processes that have brought about such sub-state ties. In this framework, the proposed work will undertake these main tasks: A) Tracing the history of the ebbs and flows within Iran’s ties with non-state actors through a geopolitical lens. B) Explaining how Iran’s ties with non-state actors unfolded and understanding why Iran’s proxies evolved in the way they did. C) AssessingthebroadcontoursoftheevolutionarytrajectoryofIran’stieswithNSAs and its possible future path(s) for the geopolitics of the Middle East and its regional balance of power.