Discourse about Kurdishness and Indigeneity - (Kurdish Societies, Politics, and International Relations) by Aynur Unal (Hardcover)

About the Book

By drawing parallels between the global indigenous rights movement and the Kurdish struggle, the book critically analyses the discourse about Kurdishness constituted by the Kurdish political movement in Turkey from an indigeneity perspective.

Book Synopsis

The Discourse About Kurdishness and Indigeneity: Kurdish Political Movement in Turkey presents a comprehensive analysis of the self-identified Kurdish identity within the Kurdish political movement in Turkey, adopting an indigenous perspective. The analysis is mainly focused on the parliamentary politics of three distinct periods in Turkey, including the inception of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the emergence of other pro-Kurdish political parties since the 1990s, and the parliamentary politics through the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). In addition to the central perspective of indigeneity, the theoretical framework of the book, including internal colonialism and Orientalism within Orient perspectives, is also employed to critically investigate the relationship of post-colonial nation-states with multi-ethnic societies in the case of Turkey and the Kurdish struggle. The research consists of a mixed methods approach to explore the discourse on Kurdishness by analysing party programs, statements, and semi-structured interviews. The book utilises the Discourse-Historical Approach to analyse data and provide an interpretation of the concept of indigeneity within the discourse on Kurdishness. It sheds new light on the Kurdish political movement and other indigenous peoples in Mesopotamia, who were rendered invisible after the First World War due to the emerging political discourse in the Middle East.

Review Quotes

The Discourse About Kurdishness and Indigeneity: Kurdish Political Movement in Turkey significantly contributes to indigenous and Kurdish studies by examining the indigeneity of Kurds and Kurdistan from multiple angles. The author draws on Kurdish history, culture, literature, and contemporary politics to illustrate how Kurdistan has been colonized, with a primary focus on Turkey's colonization of Northern Kurdistan. By comparing Kurdistan to other colonized territories and the indigeneity of Kurds to other nations, the study provides a broader understanding of the diversity in the Kurdish political and armed movement's resistance against Turkish occupation in Kurdistan, enriching the existing literature on the topic.

Dr. Yasin Duman

Queen Margaret University and KU Leuven

"Aynur Unal is a talented scholar who writes with passion and conviction in a way that delivers on what C Wright Mills positioned as the intersections of history and biography. Using biographical starting points as the anchor for the research problem, Aynur Unal examines the revelatory power of political ephemera to significant effect. Such an approach means this book will appeal to a broad audience, extending beyond those focused on Kurdishness, indigeneity, or rights movements."

About the Author

Aynur Unal is Associate Lecturer at Arden University, England.