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Ferment and Fetters in the Study of Kurdish Nationalism

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Ferment and Fetters in the Study of Kurdish Nationalism Hakan Ozoglu. Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State: Evolving Identities, Competing Loyalties, and Shifting Boundaries. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004. xv + 186 pp. $35.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-7914-5993-5. Reviewed by Amir Hassanpour Published on H-Turk (September, 2007) Identifying Kurdish nationalism as "one of the The book begins with an introductory chapter most explosive and critical predicaments in the on theoretical, conceptual, methodological and or‐ Middle East," the author notes that "the subject re‐ ganizational issues followed by discussions of the grettably remains poorly studied" (p. 1). The book evolution of Kurdish "group identity" (chapter 2), was, therefore, conceived as "an ambitious at‐ the "Ottoman Empire and Kurdish tribalism since tempt to free the study of Kurdish nationalism the sixteenth century" (chapter 3), and Kurdish from its current marginal position and to bring it "protonationalism" in the nineteenth and early into mainstream scholarship in Middle Eastern twentieth centuries (chapter 4). The main topic of Studies" by examining "the issue in the context of the book is covered in chapter 5, which deals with the Ottoman Empire" (p. 2). the politics of the nobility in the Society for the This work is, in the words of the author, a Advancement of Kurdistan (Kürdistan Teali study of "the development of Kurdish identity and Cemiyeti, founded in 1918), a "political organiza‐ its culmination to Kurdish nationalism" (p. 3), a tion that was actively involved in defining and transition from pre- or proto-nationalist group promoting Kurdish identity" (p. 14). The last chap‐ identities into full-fledged nationalism. Its geo‐ ter offers conclusions and suggestions for further graphical focus is on the Kurds of the Ottoman research. Empire and those who, after its collapse, were in‐ Ozoglu has produced a well-written, valuable corporated into the Turkish Republic. Chronologi‐ study of a period in the history of Kurdish nation‐ cally, it focuses on the late Ottoman period, WWI alism, which is now receiving more research at‐ and early Republican years. The approach is both tention.[1] The author has relied on evidence "social and political history" (p. 15), although the from diverse sources such as Ottoman and British two historiographic traditions have developed in archives, interviews, memoirs and Turkish lan‐ different terrains and in oppositional terms. guage primary and secondary literature. The work is, however, constrained by the absence of H-Net Reviews theoretical frameworks that might turn it into the same time, evade theoretical issues, even those ambitious contribution envisaged by the author. I permissible within the official range of debate.[6] assess the book by placing it in the context of the‐ While a-theoretical studies continue to be ories of nationalism and the growing literature on produced by both historians and political scien‐ Kurdish nationalism. tists, one expects that the introduction of theoreti‐ The Paucity and Powers of Theory cal insight into studies of Kurdish nationalism Ozoglu begins his study by reviewing "the since the 1990s would initiate a rupture in this scholarship on nationalism" in order to arrive at a largely "Orientalist" and positivist tradition.[7] In "working definition," and situate the study "with‐ my assessment, however, there is yet no break‐ in the theoretical spectrum of nationalism" (p. 3). through in part because theory itself has turned However, his voyage into the realm of theory does into fetters. The received wisdom, in theoretically not take him beyond the conventional binarism of inclined studies, is the well-known distinction be‐ the civic/ethnic nationalism. A brief elaboration tween two types of nations and nationalisms-- will be in order. civic and ethnic (one is political, the other cultur‐ al). Dualisms such as rational/emotional, liberal/il‐ Until the mid-1990s, studies of Kurdish na‐ liberal, and universalistic/particularistic go on tionalism were, with very few exceptions, not in‐ and on, leading to the ideological claim that one is formed by theoretical insight on nations and na‐ bad and the other good. tionalisms. Early works, written in the Orientalist tradition by, among others, Basile Nikitine, Cecil Although the ethnic/civic dualism has been ef‐ Edmonds, Pierre Rondot, and Thomas Bois, did fectively critiqued by Marxist, feminist, anti- not touch theory, although like all a-theoretical racist, and, even, some liberal theories, students studies, they had their own underlying assump‐ of Kurdish nationalism ignore this body of knowl‐ tions about nations and nationalism. The frst ma‐ edge. Many are enchanted by the simplistic claims jor work on the history of Kurdish nationalism, of this paradigm, which is, itself a product of na‐ Wadie Jwaideh’s doctoral dissertation, was also tionalism, and faithfully serves the nationalist not preoccupied with theory.[2] The author of this cause. comprehensive study was personally familiar Today, based on the centuries-long history of with the development of Kurdish nationalism in actual civic nations, anti-racist theory sees the Iraq. Widely used by students of Kurdish history, modern, civic nation-state as a racially construct‐ it appeared in Turkish translation in 1999, and, ed entity.[8] At the same time, Marxist theory was published posthumously 2006.[3] The earliest claims that the legal equality of citizens (equality theory conscious work by Serge Gantner was sim‐ before the law regardless of ethnic or other be‐ ply ignored.[4] longings), although indispensable to both bour‐ The anthropological literature, based on feld‐ geois and socialist democracies, reproduces work, was more interested in studying tribalism, rather than eliminates the unequal distribution of nomadism, and kinship systems than depicting racial, ethnic, or linguistic power.[9] Feminist the‐ the Kurds as a nation in the making. One excep‐ ory makes a similar claim about gender relations. tion was Martin van Bruinessen and, more recent‐ The civic nation is gendered: it is a patriarchal in‐ ly, Christopher Houston[5]. Although Soviet works stitution, which (re)produces male domination. treated the Kurds as a nation, they were often [10] Marxist theory emphasizes the class nature of content with making a few references to Lenin nation(alism): historically, it is a bourgeois forma‐ and Marx in order to get published and, at the tion that (re)produces the capitalist order. Even some non-Marxist and non-feminist advocates of 2 H-Net Reviews democracy challenge the old dualism, and argue ism and ethnonationalism, as virtual synonyms" that ethnic and civic nations overlap in both theo‐ (p. 8). However, instead of discarding the dualistic ry and practice[11]; others identify the civic na‐ framework, Ozoglu works within it: in his own tion as a "myth"[12], while some theorize it as a words, he "carefully...takes an eclectic position phenomenon with a "dark side." The "dark side" and subscribes to several of different points of of the civic nation includes a long list of practices, view" (p. 9). He notes that his book "fits better into which makes it difficult if not impossible to distin‐ the context provided by the cultural construction‐ guish from the ethnic nation: national chauvin‐ ists (he mentions Ernest Renan and Benedict An‐ ism, racism, xenophobia, eugenics, apartheid, eth‐ derson), but further contends that the concept of nic cleansing, and genocide.[13] ethnicity is deeply embedded in nationalism" (p. It seems, however, that none of these theoret‐ 7). ical advances would alert students of Kurdish na‐ However, theoretical eclecticism does not tionalism to the limitations of the dualism. Fasci‐ help the author avoid some of the pitfalls of the nation with it is all round. Thus, if the Kurdish dualism. Nationalism and nationhood are tied to case was identified as "nationalism" until the late statehood. Pre-nationalist Kurdism or Kurdish 1980s, it is now labeled "ethnonationalism", as if identity became nationalist only when Kurds, or state nationalisms such as "Turkish," "Iranian," or rather Kurdish notables, began to demand seces‐ "Syrian" are either non-ethnic or less so.[14] For sion or, minimalistically, autonomy (see below). instance, anthropologist-historian Bruinessen, in He offers a "working definition" for his approach contrast with his earlier work, identifies the Kur‐ to Kurdish nationalism: dish case as "ethnonationlaism."[15] Simplistic as "Kurdish nationalism" refers to an intellectual it may seem, the term is used as a synonym for and political movement that is based mainly non-state nationalisms (note the title of Brui‐ (though not entirely) upon two premises-"the be‐ nessen’s 2000 book Kurdish Ethnonationalism lief in a consistent Kurdish identity, which is root‐ versus Nation-Building States).[16] Kurdish na‐ ed in ancient history; and the conviction of an un‐ tionalism does not, of course, neatly square with alienable right for self-determination in a historic the ideal, good nationalism, and, as a result, those Kurdish homeland or territory (p. 10). who dream of "civil"-izing it engage in strategies I will try to demonstrate that this definition such as labeling it as a case of "nationalists with‐ blurs pre-nationalist and nationalist politics in out nationalism" or, even, "'nationalismless' na‐ spite of the fact that the right to self-determina‐ tionalism".[17] Others depict it as "pastoral na‐ tion is a hallmark of modern nationalism. tionalism."[18] Making Sense of the Practice of Kurdish Na‐ Unlike most students of Kurdish nationalism, tionalism Ozoglu is aware that the ethnic/civic dualism does not adequately account for the Kurdish case. He The main contribution of Ozoglu, emphasized outlines two positions on the relationship be‐ throughout the book and in the blurb on its back tween ethnicity and nationalism: one treats them cover, is not theoretical, although it is not difficult as distinct and incompatible (Eric Hobsbawm, to pinpoint the ways in which theoretical assump‐ Ernst Gellner, etc.) while the other combines them tions constrain his methods of data gathering and into one (Walker Connor, Anthony Smith, etc.).
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