Dark Times

doi:10.1017/9781108623711.011

10 - Dark Times

Kurdistan in the Turmoil of the Middle East, 1979–2003

from Part II - Regional Political Developments and the Kurds in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2021

Edited by

Cengiz Gunes and

Hamit Bozarslan: Affiliation:
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Cengiz Gunes: Affiliation:
The Open University, Milton Keynes
Veli Yadirgi: Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Book contents

Get access

Summary

After the historical cycle which started with the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War, all of Kurdistan was affected by war and violence. Between 1979 and 2003, two structural dynamics of the Kurdish conflict, which had determined Kurdish history, have also been radicalized and militarized: the centrifugal one tearing apart the Kurdish space along the line of the state borders, linguistic and sectarian zones, partisan traditions and political cultures, and centripetal one unifying it across these many borders under the idea and ideal of ‘Kurdishness’ and by many forms of pacific or armed mobility. This tension was not an easy one to bear, but it has been managed, although at a high cost. The 1980s (and as far as Turkey is concerned 1990s) have probably constituted the darkest period of the Kurdish history with a rough estimation of Kurdish victims, namely, civilians, reaching some 200,000 people. By the beginning of the 2000s, however, Kurds’ survival as a part of Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Syria and thus, in the trans-frontier Kurdistan, seemed to be out of any major threat.

Keywords

Iranian Revolution military coup Iran-Iraq War Anfal operations Gulf Wars Kurdish autonomy PDK-Iran PKK

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of the Kurds , pp. 269 - 288

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108623711.011 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahmed, M. M. A. and Gunter, M. M. (eds) (2005). The Kurdish Question and the 2003 Iraqi War. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers.Google Scholar

Barkey, H. J. and Graham, E. F. (1998). Turkey’s Kurdish Question. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.Google Scholar

Bozarslan, H. (1999). Network-Building, Ethnicity and Violence in Turkey. Abu Dhabi: ECSSR.Google Scholar

Bozarslan, H. (2012). Revisiting Middle East’s 1979. Economy and Society, 41 (4), 558–67.Google Scholar

Emanuelsson, A. (2005). Diaspora Global Politics: Kurdish Transnational Networks and Accommodation of Nationalism. Göteborg: Göteborg University.Google Scholar

Entassar, N. (1992). Kurdish Ethnonationalism. Boulder, CO, and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar

Fanon, F. (2005 [1961]). The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press.Google Scholar

Fischer-Tahir, A. (2002). ‘Wir gaben viele Märtyrer’. Widerstand und kollektive Identitätsbildung in Irakisch-Kurdistan. Münster: UNRAST-Verlag.Google Scholar

Giddens, A. (1985). The Nation-State and Violence. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar

Gunes, C. (2012). The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey: From Protest to Resistance. London: Routledge.Google Scholar

Gunter, M. M. (1992). The Kurds of Iraq: Tragedy and Hope. New York: St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar

Hiltermann, J. (2008). ‘The 1988 Anfal Campaign in Iraqi Kurdistan’. www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/fr/document/1988-anfal-campaign-iraqi-kurdistan.Google Scholar

Hoff, R., Leezenberg, M. and Müller, P. (1992). Elections in Iraqi Kurdistan. Amsterdam: Pax Christi.Google Scholar

Institut kurde de Paris (1991). Conférence Internationale de Paris, 14–15 octobre 1989. Paris: Institut kurde de Paris.Google Scholar

Institut kurde de Paris (1992). International Interparliamentary Consultation on the Kurds, Washington D.C., 27 February 1991. Paris: L’IKP.Google Scholar

Jongerden, J. (2007). The Settlement Issue in Turkey and the Kurds: An Analysis of Spatial Policies, Modernity and War. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar

Keen, D. (1993). The Kurds in Iraq: How Safe Is Their Haven Now? London: Save the Children.Google Scholar

Lawrence, Q. (2008). Invisible Nation: How the Kurds’ Quest for Statehood Is Shaping Iraq and the Middle East. New York: Walker Company.Google Scholar

Markus, A. (2007). Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar

Middle East Watch (1994). Bureaucracy of Repression: The Iraqi Government in Its Own Words. Washington, DC: Middle East Watch.Google Scholar

Naji, K. (2008). Ahmedinejad: The Secret History of Iran’s Radical Leader. London: I.B. Tauris.Google Scholar

Randal, J. (1997). After Such Knowledge What Forgiveness? My Encounters with Kurdistan. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.Google Scholar

Romano, D. (2006). The Kurdish Nationalist Movement: Opportunity, Mobilization and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Stansfield, G. R. V. (2003). Iraqi Kurdistan: Political Development and Emergent Democracy. London: Routledge.Google Scholar

Tejel, J. (2009). Syria’s Kurds: History, Politics and Society. London: Routledge.Google Scholar

Turkish Probe (1993). ‘Differentiating between the PKK and the Kurdish Issue’. 13 July.Google Scholar

Vali, A. (2017). Silence au Rojhelat: une étude de cas. Anatoli, no. 8, 77–105.Google Scholar

Watts, N. (2010). Activists in Office: Kurdish Ethnic Politics, Political Resources, and Repression in Turkey. Seattle, WA: Washington University Press.Google Scholar

White, P. (2000). Primitive Rebels or Revolutionary Modernizers? The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar

Book contents

10 - Dark Times

Summary

Keywords

Access options

References

Save book to Kindle

Save book to Dropbox

Save book to Google Drive