Andy Curtis
Nationalism, ethnicity and conflict
Universiteit Utrecht
February 2005
peoples of the world no longer live in isolated corners of the globe.
The processes of globalization have created a smaller world, but the world
has no singular culture, nor a single language. The contact between peoples
has led to the construction of national identities and ethnic groups. Moreover
globalization has dispersed the world’s ethnicities, making few, if any, states
ethnically homogeneous.
Today, nationalism is not limited to a particular region; globalization has
dispersed nations, forcing them from their idealized homeland. This spread of
people has brought about a new form of nationalism that operates outside of a
particular country. The term diaspora was initially used to describe the spread
of the Jewish people throughout the world, however it is now used to describe a
people who have been dispersed from their original homeland, have a strong ethnic
identity and wish to return to their homeland. Diasporas have been dispersed
from their homeland, but have not forgotten it, for whatever reason they have
maintained a strong national consciousness without a state of their own.
The Kurdish people are the largest nation lacking a state. Many Kurds
have been thrown from their traditional homelands, often violently. They form a
diaspora, and I’ll use the Kurdish example as a case study to examine the forces
that create and sustain a long-distance nationalism.
1. Formation of a diaspora
Kurdistan refers to the traditional homeland of the Kurdish people, though it
was never the home of Kurdish people alone. During the 16th century, Kurdistan
was split between the Iranian and Ottoman empires, and was further split into
Turkish, Iraqi, Iranian and Syrian parts after the dissolution of the Ottoman
empire in the post World War I era. Today, half of the worldwide Kurdish
community lives within the borders of Turkey. The treatment the Kurds have
been subject to in Turkey plays a major role in the formation of a Kurdish
diaspora, as I will now discuss.
The stateless Kurds have never had their pleas for a state of their own
heard by the governments now controlling their historic homelands. Turkey rejects
the notion that separate ethnic identities live within the borders of the Turkish
state, maintaining that all within Turkey are “Turks.” In Iraq, the totalitarian
government never entertained notions that the Kurds should have the right to
govern themselves. Since the 1920s, Turkey has actively engaged in “minority
destroying” practices in response to the Kurdish minority. For example, in 1924,
the Turkish Constitution was altered to forbid the use of any language that is not
Turkish, preventing Kurds from taking Kurdish names or receiving instruction in
Kurdish at school.
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1.1. A people in exile
The present Kurdish diaspora is a direct result of nation-building tactics. The
Kurdish people are now a people in exile from their homeland. Unsurprisingly, the
Kurds began to rebel against the Turkish oppression in the 1920s, which resulted
in even harsher policies from the Turkish government. In 1934, the Turkish
Government passed a “Resettlement Law” that explicitly states its primary goal
was to assimilate persons with other cultures, a law that was primarily aimed at
assimilating the Kurdish people. As a result of this law, many tribes of Kurdish
people were forcefully deported from southern Turkey. In both Turkey and Iraq,
recent policies have led to enormous population displacements, forcing millions
of Kurds to leave their homes.
These and other nation-building tactics have forced many Kurds to live
in exile. Kurdish people cannot express their Kurdish heritage in traditional
Kurdistan, however they have found opportunities to do so in liberal western
states. This has created a Kurdish diaspora, with communities of Kurds living
in states throughout Europe. The Kurdish example shows how a diaspora
community can be created. In the general sense, diasporas are often created
from war refugees. Due to the forceful removal from their homes, the diaspora
communities generally create a nationalism that can be called transnationalism.
