Review by: Buşra Özdemir, 211553806
Published by State Univ of New York (February 2004)
Series: Suny Series in Middle Eastern Studies
Hardcover: 192 pages
Rise of Kurdish Nationalism
This book examines the issue in the context of Ottoman Empire. It focuses primarily on understanding the social, political, and historical forces behind the emergence and development of
Kurdish nationalism in the Ottoman context which it was born. Also, this book discusses the development Kurdish identity and its culmination to Kurdish nationalism. Chronologically, the study concentrates on the period stretching from the late Ottoman and World War I era to the early years of the Turkish Republic.
The book includes six chapter and first chapter is about some nationalist ideas from same scholarships in order to help the reader to understant theoretically nationalism before discussing
Kurdish nationalism. The book claims that the concept of ethnicity is deeply embeddes in nationalism (p.7). Therefore, the crucial relationship between the ethnicity and nationalism are addressed. It mentions process of identity formation and claims that groups go through dialectical, dialogical, and monotogical stages (p.8). In addition, this book suggests that nationalism is the political movement of an ethnic group that keeps together based upon common language, religion, kinship and territory (p.9). After it discusses nationalist ideas, It gave us a definition about Kurdish nationalism which ‘’ Kurdish nationalism refers to an intellectual and political movement that is based mainly (though not entirely) upon two premises- the belief in a consistent Kurdish identity, which is rooted in ancient history; and the conviction of an unalienable right for self-determination in a historic Kurdish homeland or territory’’ (p.10).
In the second chapter, rendering of the word ‘Kurd‘ is investigated and it is claimed that
‘’throughout