Describes the situation of the world's largest ethnic group without a homeland, and explains the effect on the politics of Turkey and other countries where Kurds live

This 2006 book analyses the Kurdish question through the lens of social movement theory.

A seminal work in the field of Kurdish studies, Wadie Jwaideh’s pioneering research, published for the first time, presents a detailed analysis of the early phases of Kurdish nationalism and offers a framework within which to understand the movement’s later development. Following Wadie Jwaideh’s dissertation defense, his doctoral chairman took aside Jwaideh’s wife, Alice, and asked her to submit the work for publication without Wadie’s permission, believing that Wadie’s penchant for perfection would postpone its publication indefinitely. The thesis was never published during Jwaideh’s lifetime, but its fame spread by word of mouth, and many scholars have recognized its importance not only as a study of the earlier periods of Kurdish nationalism but also as a model for understanding its subsequent history. The work now stands as a classic, referenced by some of the most renowned scholars in the field. Its publication will permit it to reach a greater audience and to contribute more fully to the understanding and appreciation of this geopolitical and cultural movement. Jwaideh was born in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, into an Arabic-speaking Christian family that later moved to Baghdad. His intimate knowledge of the land and its people gave Jwaideh shrewd insight into Kurdish society and politics. Exploring the rich historical roots of the Kurdish national movement, he challenges the established view of the early Kurdish uprisings as isolated incidents triggered by economic hardship or political dissatisfaction. Instead he offers a new interpretation of the Kurds’ nationalist position, convincingly demonstrating the age and depth of their grievances. This complex and layered history of the Kurdish nationalist movement offers a valuable perspective from which to view the current conditions in Iraq. Jwaideh’s sensitive and prescient treatment of this region gives his study great contemporary relevance.

The Kurdish Movement in Turkey’s growing alliance with Islam One of the fault lines of Turkish politics traditionally has been the divide between religious and secular movements. However, as Zeki Sarigil argues, the secular Kurdish movement in Turkey has increasingly become aligned with Islam. As a result, Islam has become part of the movement’s political discourse, strategies and actions. Ethnic Boundaries in Turkish Politics traces the evolving relations between the leftist, secular Kurdish movement and Islam, from an apathetic and/or antagonistic attitude in the 1970s and 1980s to an increasingly Islam-friendly approach in the 1990s to an attitude of accommodation and the rise of Kurdish-Islamic synthesis in the early 2000s. Based on 104 interviews in several provinces in Turkey (primarily Ankara, Diyarbakir, Istanbul, and Tunceli) between 2011 and 2015 as well as ethnographic data, public opinion surveys and statements from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Kurdish leaders, Sarigil shows how the secular Kurdish movement increasingly has been endorsing Islam and Islamic actors. The reasons for this Islamic opening are global, national, and local; Sarigil demonstrates that a group of strategic and ideological factors have encouraged and/or forced Kurdish leaders to redraw symbolic and social boundaries of the movement. Namely, with the end of the Cold War support for Marxist ideas collapsed, creating increasingly more favorable responses towards religion. In addition, the movement’s need to expand its social basis and popularity; electoral politics; and legitimacy struggles against rival political actors were other major factors, which triggered the Kurdish movement’s boundary expansion (i.e. its Islamic opening). The study also shows that the Kurdish boundary making was not without any tension or contestation. The boundary expansion by Kurdish ethnopolitical elites triggered both internal and external boundary contestations. The movement’s embrace of Islam on a more widespread level has major ramifications for politics in Turkey and in the region. Ethnic Boundaries in Turkish Politics has important insight into the PKK, modern Turkish and Islamic societies and highlights the increasing role of Islam in global politics.