Imagined Kurds

IMAGINED KURDS: MEDIA AND CONSTRUCTION OF KURDISH NATIONAL IDENTITY IN IRAQ A Thesis submitted to the faculty of San Francisco State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for / \ 5 the Degree 3C Master of Arts In International Relations by Miles Theodore Popplewell San Francisco, California Fall 2017 Copyright by Miles Theodore Popplewell 2017 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL I certify that I have read Imagined Kurds by Miles Theodore Popplewell, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts in International Relations at San Francisco State University. Assistant Professor Amy Skonieczny, Ph.D. Associate Professor IMAGINED KURDS Miles Theodore Popplewell San Francisco, California 2017 This thesis is intended to answer the question of the rise and proliferation of Kurdish nationalism in Iraq by examining the construction of Kurdish national identity through the development and functioning of a mass media system in Iraqi Kurdistan. Following a modernist approach to the development and existence of Kurdish nationalism, this thesis is largely inspired by the work of Benedict Anderson, whose theory of nations as 'imagined communities' has significantly influenced the study of nationalism. Kurdish nationalism in Iraq, it will be argued, largely depended upon the development of a mass media culture through which political elites of Iraqi Kurdistan would utilize imagery, language, and narratives to develop a sense of national cohesion amongst their audiences. This thesis explores the various aspects of national construction through mass media in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, in mediums such as literature, the internet, radio, and television. I certify that the abstract is a correct representation of the content of this thesis. Date ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to give my sincerest thanks to Amy Skonieczny for her guidance on this project. Further gratitude is due to Nicole Watts, Denis Ekici, Scott Siegel, Sanjoy Banerjee, and Burcu Ellis for their inspiration and direction in producing this paper. Finally, I'd like to thank my parents, Cynthia and Dean, for their continuous and unconditional support for me and my passions. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction.......................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review and Methodology................................................................12 The General Theories of Nationalism: Ethnicism and Constructivism ................12 Ethnicist and Constructivist Theories of Kurdish Nationalism ............................24 Methodology............................................................................................................ 34 Chapter 3: Print Capitalism and Mass Media in Iraqi Kurdistan...................................... 37 Historical Foundations of Nationalist Media......................................................... 37 Mass Media in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq ........................................................38 Table of Kurdish Television Stations.................................................................... 49 Chapter 4: Narratives and Identities .................................................................................. 53 Chapter 5: Conclusion.........................................................................................................63 Works Cited..........................................................................................................................68 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION The presence of Kurdistan presents a significant quandary, both in a spatial sense and even a notional sense. When the Ottoman Empire was finally dissolved at the end of the First World War, it became clear, but ultimately ignored, that there were several ethnic groups living in once-Ottoman territory aspired for autonomy and recognition by the European powers. Various parties representing nationalist interests in the Middle East ultimately had the recognition of their desire for sovereign territory overruled by European imperial interests, and thus mandates such as Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and Palestine were created through the cycles of negotiations and agreements that occurred at the end of the war. Yet despite the formation of these political territories, and their eventual transition towards becoming sovereign states, ethnic territories such as Kurdistan1 have only grown in the consciousness as part of an increasing prevalence of nationali sm in the region. Nationalism is a modem concept and the development of Kurdish nationalism, and the notion of Kurdistan, is an intriguing element to the intersection of Middle Eastern politics with processes of modernity. Nationalism, worldwide, has transformed how communities of people view themselves and their spatial and temporal relations with other communities. Where there were once collections of villages with a shared language and set of customs two centuries, national identities have ascended in consciousness to 1 There are other such ‘homelands’ of other ethnic groups with nationalist movements in the Middle East, such as Assyria, Ezidikhan for the Yazidi Kurds, and Turkmeneli for Iraqi Turkmen. 2 make these villages part of a greater community, a nation, or as Benedict Anderson defines it, an “imagined community” (1991, p. 6). The Kurdish nationalist movement is an example of this ‘imagining’ of the Kurds as a single community, with its own ‘homeland’ of Kurdistan also being ‘imagined’ through the same political processes. For many Kurdish nationalists, the homeland of Kurdistan exists in both history and life. It is a distinguishable territory, with boundaries overlapping internationally-recognized borders. Since the germination of Kurdish nationalism began in the late 19th century, there have been efforts, large and small, serious and miniscule, to transform at least portions of this territory into internationally-legitimized states. On September 25, 2017, the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq,2 the only such internationally recognized ‘quasi-state’ governed by Kurds (Natali, 2010), held a referendum, asking voters the following question: Do you want the Kurdistan Region and the Kurdistani areas outside the Region to become an independent state? (Rudaw, 2017) 2 The terms Iraqi Kurdistan, KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government), and KRI (Kurdistan Region in Iraq) are often used interchangeably. However, to avoid semantic confusion, KRI will refer to the officially designated territories that are acknowledged by the Iraqi constitution as being under the authority of the KRG. Iraqi Kurdistan will refer to the parts of Iraq that both encompass the KRI and other parts of Iraq that possess Kurdish populations and/or are claimed/occupied by the KRG as being part of Kurdish territory. 3 The referendum, as of the time of writing, passed with a ‘yes’ vote of 92%, as reported by the KRG’s election commission (Rudaw, 2017). The implications of this referendum, and the future of independence for a Kurdish state, is undecided and it would be unproductive to make conjectures about future events with regards to Kurdish statehood. However, what can be derived from this event is the broader, and recorded, trajectory of Kurdish independence movements driven by nationalism and their continued prevalence within the discourse revolving around the Kurdish question. Previous historical attempts at statehood have manifested, such as the short-lived Kingdom of Kurdistan of the mid 1920’s and the Mahabad Republic of the 1940’s, but no Kurdish quasi-state has thus far incurred the same level of international normalcy as the KRI. Furthermore, even though there has been very little support among the international community for the referendum’s results, the fact that this move towards independence was governed through democratic processes rather than violence and military revolution begs the question as to the effects of following international democratic norms on the decisions of Kurdish nationalists, such as those in the KRG. There is no doubt Kurdistan, albeit slowly, inches towards a new understanding of itself in relation to Kurdish national identity. But a problem that confronts us is how the Kurdish national movement in Iraq has spread the conception of Kurdish national identity to the point that such nationalist sentiments breach political barriers with events such as establishing an autonomous ‘quasi-state’ in Iraq, a state that has achieved legitimacy within the international 4 community, and later on a secession referendum that may not have received international support, but at the very least was recognized as a sovereign act by a legitimate political entity. The ideological dynamic that has been most significant in the development and endurance of the Kurdish quasi-state has been Kurdish nationalism, a political movement that has garnered significant support amongst Kurds throughout both the Middle East and diaspora areas. Therefore, a major question that we are then presented with is how Kurdish nationalism, specifically the more traditionally-conceptualized nationalized seen in the KRI, can remain salient and significant amongst the population? This question, in fact, can be applied to all contemporary manifestations of nationalism throughout the world. This thesis argues that the most significant dynamic that contributes to the proliferation and endurance of nationalist sentiments is the

Load more