This thesis explores the impact of the border between Turkey and Iraq on Kurdish identity. Since the demarcation of the border in 1926, both Turkey and Iraq have struggled to accommodate their Kurdish citizens into their common national communities. There have been numerous bloody conflicts on both sides. As of September 2016, the Iraqi Kurdistan President repeatedly announced that it was time for Kurdistan to demand independence. He stated that 'the time has come to redraw Middle East boundaries'. On the Turkish side of the border, a new series of bloody conflicts began at Turkey's Iraq border after the peace talks between the Turkish state and the Kurdish Worker's Party [or PKK] paused in July 2015. Kurds have been exposed to different nation-state building processes with different notions of inclusion and exclusion in Iraq and Turkey. Kurds in each state have had a different socio-political environment within which to construct and practice their identity. Based on original data collected during a rarely encountered peaceful period on both sides of the border, this thesis addresses three important research gaps in the literature. (1) It brings Kurds' voices, self-understanding and self-narratives to the existing body of knowledge. The thesis explores how Kurds themselves perceive their nation and construct their identity. It shows how different socio-political environments in each state have shaped a different Kurdish identity and discusses the implications of these differences. (2) The thesis also explores how Turkish Kurds and Iraqi Kurds perceive their ruling states as well as construct their identity in relation to them. (3) It explores how Turkish Kurds and Iraqi Kurds perceive their nation and narratively construct their identity in relation to each other. The thesis examines how bordering, as a process of socio-spatial homogenisation and differentiation, works on each side of the border between Turkey and Iraq.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:714616 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Gorentas, Bilal |
| Contributors | Meinhof, Ulrike |
| Publisher | University of Southampton |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/411248/ |
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