The Political Development Of The Kurds In Iran

This book looks at Kurdish Nationalism in Iran and examines the links between the structural changes in the Kurdish economy and its political demands. Farideh Koohi-Kamali argues that the transition of the nomadic, tribal society of Kurdistan to an agrarian village society was the beginning of a process by which Kurds saw themselves as a community of homogenous ethnic identity. The political movements of Kurds in Iran are discussed to illustrate that the different phases of economic development of Kurdish society played a great role in determining the way in which Kurds expressed their political demands for independence.

This book looks at Kurdish Nationalism in Iran and examines the links between the structural changes in the Kurdish economy and its political demands. Farideh Koohi-Kamali argues that the transition of the nomadic, tribal society of Kurdistan to an agrarian village society was the beginning of a process by which Kurds saw themselves as a community of homogenous ethnic identity. The political movements of Kurds in Iran are discussed to illustrate that the different phases of economic development of Kurdish society played a great role in determining the way in which Kurds expressed their political demands for independence.

A history of the development of the Kurdish national movement in Iran which reflects on seven decades of the movement from 1947.

An up-to-date analysis of the problems faced by Iran's Kurdish population

Kurdish Politics in the Middle East analyzes political and social dimensions of Kurdish integration into the mainstream socio-political life in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. Its central thesis is that ethnic conflict constitutes a major challenge to the contemporary nation-state system in the Middle East. Long vanquished is the illusion of the "melting pot," or the concept that assimilation is an inexorable process produced by "modernization" and the emergence of a relatively strong and centralized nation-state system in the region. Perhaps no single phenomenon highlights this thesis more than the historical Kurdish struggle for self-determination. This book's focus is on Kurdish politics and its relationship with broader regional and global developments that affect the Kurds. It does not claim to cover everything Kurdish, and it does not promote the political agenda of any group, movement, or country.

In tracing the evolution of Kurdish nationalism, Denise Natali shows that, contrary to popular theories, there is nothing natural or fixed about Kurdish identity or the configuration that Kurdish nationalism assumes. Rather, Kurdish nationalism has been shaped by the development of nation-states in the region. Although Kurdish communities have maintained some shared sense of Kurdishness, Kurdayeti (the mobilization of Kurdish identity) is interwoven with a much larger series of identities within the "political space" of each Kurdish group. Different notions of inclusion and exclusion have modified the political and cultural opportunities of Kurds to express their ethnic identities, and opening the possibility of assuming alternative identities over time. With this book Natali makes a significant contribution to theoretical, empirical, and policy-based scholarship on the Middle East, the plight of the Kurds, ethnonationalism, and ethnopolitical conflict. Hers is the first comparative work to examine Kurdish nationalism as a function of diverse political spaces. As a vital addition to the literature in the field, this book will supplant a number of standard texts on the Kurds.

In early 1946, Kurds declared an independent republic in north-west Iran. The Mahabad Republic, as it became known, was the first time that the Kurds experienced self-rule in the modern era. Although short-lived, the Republic had a formative influence on the subsequent development of Kurdish nationalist movements in Iran and the wider region. Here, Abbas Vali disputes the conventional view that the Kurdish Republic was the result of a Soviet conspiracy to dismember Iran, a side-effect of the Cold War. Instead he emphasizes the diversity of the internal Iranian and Kurdish factors that led to the formation of the Republic, arguing that the Republic represents the culmination of a new and modern Kurdish national identity. This was an identity which emerged in response to the exclusionary effects of the political and discursive processes and practices of the construction of a modern Iranian nation-state and national identity since the Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which often excluded and attempted to override a Kurdish one. Vali contends that this process, largely due to the socio-economic and cultural impact of the rule of Pahlavis, in reality forced the Kurdish people of Iran to form and reinforce their own ethno-linguistic and ethno-national community. The expressions of this separate identity can be traced through the formation and dissolution of Kurdish national parties, such as the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI). 'Kurds and the State in Iran' offers an analysis of the formation and effects of the concepts of the state, the nation, nationalism and ethnic identity, which go beyond current ethnicist and constructivist theories, thus making it essential reading for anyone interested in the Kurds or the development of national and state identities in the Middle East.

This book investigates the forgotten years of Kurdish nationalism in Iran, from the fall of the Kurdish republic to the advent of the Iranian revolution. An original and path-breaking investigation of the period, it sheds light not only on the historical specificity of the phenomenon of nationalism in exile, but also on the political processes and practices defining the development of Kurdish nationalism in the post-revolutionary era. Although nationalist landmarks such as the Kurdish republic in 1946 and the resurgence of the movement in the revolutionary conjuncture of 1978-79 have attracted the attention of historians and social scientists in recent years, little is known about the three decades of Kurdish nationalism in exile between these two events. This analysis draws on contemporary poststructuralist theory to question the concept of the minority in democratic and constitutional theory, arguing that it is an effect of the discursive linkage between sovereign power and the dominant ethnic-linguistic identity in the nation-state. This text will appeal to a wide academic audience ranging from the fields of Kurdish, Iranian and Middle East Studies to ethnicity, nationalism, government, and political science.