Deconstructing Ethnic Conflict and Sovereignty in Explanatory International Relations: The Case of Iraqi Kurdistan and the PKK Submitted by Johannes Černy to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy in Ethno-Political Studies in September 2014 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: _____Johannes Cerny_____________________ 1 2 Abstract: This study is essentially a critique of how the three dominant paradigms of explanatory international relations theory – (neo-)realism, liberalism, and systemic constructivism – conceive of, analytically deal with, and explain ethnic conflict and sovereignty. By deconstructing their approaches to ethnic identity formation in general and ethnic conflict in particular it argues that all three paradigms, in their epistemologies, ontologies and methodologies through reification and by analytically equating ethnic groups with states, tend to essentialise and substantialise the ethnic lines of division and strategic essentialisms of ethnic and ethno-nationalist elites they set out to describe, and, all too often, even write them into existence. Particular attention, both at the theoretical and empirical level, will be given to the three explanatory frameworks explanatory IR has contributed to the study of ethnic conflict: the ‘ethnic security dilemma’, the ‘ethnic alliance model’, and, drawing on other disciplines, instrumentalist approaches. The deconstruction of these three frameworks will form the bulk of the theoretical section, and will subsequently be shown in the case study to be ontologically untenable or at least to fail to adequately explain the complex dynamics of ethnic identity formation in ethnic conflict.By making these essentialist presumptions, motives, and practices explicit this study makes a unique contribution not only to the immediate issues it addresses but also to the wider debate on the nature of IR as a discipline. As a final point, drawing on constitutive theory and by conceiving of the behaviour and motives of protagonists of ethnic conflict as expressions of a fluid, open-ended, and situational matrix of identities and interests without sequential hierarchies of dependent and independent variables, the study attempts to offer an alternative, constitutive reading of ethnic and nationalist identity to the discourses of explanatory IR. These themes that are further developed in the empirical section where, explanatory IR’s narratives of ethnic group solidarity, ethno-nationalism, and national self-determination are examined and deconstructed by way of the case study of the relations between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Iraqi Kurdish ethno-nationalist parties in the wider context of the political status of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. With this ambition this study makes an 3 original empirical contribution by scrutinising these relations in a depth unique to the literature. 4 Table of Contents List of Abbreviations 6 Figures 9 Acknowledgements 10 Introduction 11 Part One 1.) ‘Groupism’ or How Explanatory International Relations Theory Explains Ethnic and Ethno-Nationalist Conflict 32 2.) Concepts, Methods, and Frameworks 65 3.) Conclusion 95 Part Two 4.) State Formation and the Origins of Kurdish Ethno- Nationalism in Iraq and Turkey 110 5.) KDP and PUK 129 6.) The PKK 142 7.) Conclusion 156 Part Three 8.) The Origins of the PKK Sanctuary in Iraqi Kurdistan 162 9.) The Kurdish Wars of the 1990s 184 10.) The PKK and Iraqi Kurdistan in Post-2003 Iraq 210 11.) Conclusion 259 Notes 267 References 297 5 List of Abbreviations ADYÖD Ankara Democratic Higher Education Association ( Ankara Demokratik Yüksek Öğretim Derneği ) AKP Justice and Development Party ( Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi ) ARGK People’s Liberation Army of Kurdistan ( Arteşa Rizgariya Netewa Kurdistan ) BDP Peace and Democracy Party ( Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi ) BISA British International Studies Association CDA Critical Discourse Analysis CENTCOM United States Central Command CHP Republican People’s Party ( Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi ) CJCS Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff CPA Coalition Provisional Authority CUP Committee for Union and Progress ( İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti ) DEP Democracy Party ( Demokrasi Partisi ) DFLP Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine DP Democratic Party ( Demokrat Parti ) DTP Democratic Society Party ( Demokratik Toplum Partisi ) FARC Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ( Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia ) FRELIMO Mozambique Liberation Front ( Frente de Libertação de Moçambique ) GAP South-eastern Anatolia Project ( Güneydoğu Anadolu Projesi ) HADEP People’s Democracy Party ( Halkın Demokrasi Partisi ) HEP People’s Labour Party (Halkın Emek Partisi ) HRK Kurdistan Freedom Unit (Hezen Rizgariya Kurdistan ) ICP Iraqi Communist Party ITF Iraqi Turkmen Front ( Irak Türkmen Cephesi ) IKF Iraqi Kurdistan Front JİTEM Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism 6 Organisation ( Jandarma İstihbarat ve Terörle Mücadele ) KADEK Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress ( Kongreya Azadî û Demokrasiya Kurdistanê ) KCK Kurdistan Democratic Confederation ( Koma Civaken Kurdistan ) KDP Kurdistan Democratic Party ( Partîya Demokrata Kurdistan ) KDP-I Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran KDP-T Democratic Party of Turkish Kurdistan KNC Kurdish National Council Kongra-Gel People’s Congress of Kurdistan (Kongra Gelê Kurdistan ) KRG Kurdistan Regional Government MEK People’s Mujahideen of Iran (Mojahedin-e-Khalq ) MERIP Middle East Research and Information Project MHP Nationalist Action Party ( Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi ) MIT National Intelligence Agency (Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı ) NLM National Liberation Movement NSC National Security Council PAK Panhellenic Liberation Movement ( Πανελλήνιο Απελευθερωτικό Κίνηµα ) PAK Kurdistan Liberation Party ( Partiya Azadiya Kurdistan ) PCDK Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party ( Partiya Careseriya Demokratik a Kurdistane ) PJAK Kurdistan Free Life Party ( Partiya Jiyani Azadi Kurdistan ) PKK Kurdistan Workers’ Party ( Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan ) PNAC Project for a New American Century PUK Patriotic Union of Kurdistan ( Yeketî Niştîmanî Kurdistan ) PWD Patriotic and Democratic Party of Kurdistan ( Partîya Welatparêzên Demokratên Kuristan ) PYD Democratic Union Party ( Partiya Yekita ya Demokratik ) RCT Rational Choice Theory SCIRI Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq SHP Social Democratic Populist Party ( Sosyaldemokrat Halkçı Parti ) TAK Kurdistan Freedom Falcons ( Teyrêbazên Azadiya Kurdistan ) 7 TAL Transitional Administrative Law TESEV Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (Türkiye Ekonomik ve Sosyal Etüdler Vakfı ) TKSP Socialist Party of Turkish Kurdistan ( Türkiye Kürdistan Sosyalist Partisi ) TWP Workers Party of Turkey ( Türkiye İşçi Partisi ) WINEP Washington Institute for Near East Policy 8 Figures Map of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq Source: Wikimedia, Creative Commons Generic License 9 Acknowledgements My profound appreciation goes to my supervisors at Exeter, Gareth Stansfield and Hashem Ahmadzadeh, as well as to Brendan O’Leary at UPenn, where I had the unique opportunity to spend a doctoral fellowship – while I may differ with each in my interpretations of Kurdish identity and the political space in Iraqi Kurdistan, I always cherished our discussions on these matters, and their support of my research was crucial to my success. Outside Iraqi Kurdistan I want to thank Selahettin Çelik, Abbas Vali, Bob Olson, Michael Gunter, Denise Natali, Nina Caspersen, Hugh Pope, Doğu Ergil, Siamend Hajo, and James Harvey for sharing their personal insights and expertise with me. In Iraqi Kurdistan, without the help of Omar Sheikhmous, who generously facilitated a great number of my contacts there, my field research would literally have never got off the ground. I also want to acknowledge the services of the Department of Foreign Relations of the KRG, and in particular its head, Falah Mustafa Bakir, who opened many doors for me during my stays there. Likewise, I am indebted to my tireless ‘fixer’ and translator during my research in Iraqi Kurdistan, Niaz Zangana, as well as to several journalists there who, due to the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation and for their own safety, I decided not to name in this study. For the sake of full disclosure I want to record that my research has been partly funded by a Centre for Kurdish Studies Scholarship of the University of Exeter. I received further funding from a research grant from the British Institute for the Study of Iraq, and a Marie Curie doctoral fellowship in Sustainable Peacebuilding as part of the VII EU Marie Curie framework that allowed me to continue my field research in Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey as well as to spend a year as a doctoral fellow at the University of Coimbra in Portugal. While all these institutions and individuals have contributed to my research in many ways, it goes without saying that all errors and omissions in this study are entirely mine. Hannes Černy Canterbury, UK Spring 2015 10 Introduction Research foci and rationale of the study Back in 1995, when the post-positivistt challenge to established theories of IR was in full vogue, Steve