33 “The Kurdish question consists of the desire of most Kurds to have the cultur- al, linguistic, and political rights that will protect their Kurdish identity. Some Kurds also seek autonomy or even independence from the countries in which they live; those states, however, have long denied such aspirations . . . . The result has been a constant instability that promises to intensify as the Kurds become more politically aware and as their cause grows more visible to the out- side world.” The Kurdish Nation M. HAKAN Y AVUZ AND MICHAEL M. GUNTER I n a region focused on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the question of the Kurdish people—the largest nation in the world without its own country— has only occasionally entered the international spot- light. Leaving that question unanswered, however, may prove to be a short-sighted solution. Although they would constitute a majority if the historic area in which they live (Kurdistan) were a nation-state, the Kurds are but mere minorities in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, the countries that encompass the Kurdish homeland. No reliable esti- mates of the Kurdish population exist, however, because most Kurds tend to exaggerate their num- bers, and the states in which they live undercount them for political reasons. There is not even com- plete agreement on who is a Kurd. Nevertheless, a reasonable estimate is that as many as 7 million Kurds may live in Turkey (making up between 12 and 15 percent of the population), 6 million in Iran (11 percent), 3 million in Iraq (between 20 and 23 percent), and 800,000 in Syria (7 percent). The Kurds, a largely Sunni Muslim people, are also divided tribally, geographically, politically, linguisti- cally, religiously, and ideologically. This, of course, further complicates their nascent but stunted sense of nationalism, and has allowed the states in which they live to use divide-and-rule tactics against them. The Kurdish question consists of the desire of most Kurds to have the cultural, linguistic, and political rights that will protect their Kurdish iden- tity. Some Kurds also seek autonomy or even inde- pendence from the countries in which they live; those states, however, have long denied such aspi- rations, fearing that they would challenge their ter- ritorial integrity. The result has been a constant instability that promises to intensify as the Kurds become more politically aware and as their cause grows more visible to the outside world. Indeed, a resolution to the Arab-Israeli dispute would leave the Kurdish question as the greatest source of insta- bility in the geostrategically important Middle East. KURDISH IDEN TITY Scholars increasingly are analyzing Kurdish nationalism as a “natural” force. However, national- ism, whether Turkish or Kurdish, is always constructed by the cultural elite—the “identity entrepreneurs”—and shaped by political context. The major difference between Turkish, Iranian, Iraqi, or Syrian nationalism and Kurdish nationalism is the presence of the state. The modernizing nation-state formed the Turkish state and Turkish nationalism and also stressed the nation’s civic aspect. Since Kur- dish nationalism in Turkey, Iraq, and Iran has evolved in response to modernizing nation-states, it constantly stresses its ethnic “difference” and has used events to historicize itself. Although the Kurdish cultural elite tend to iden- tify Turks as their “other” in the construction of Kur- dish nationalism, major tribal, linguistic, religious, and regional fissures exist within Kurdish identity itself. The Kurds are a nation in formation at the crossroads of the Arab, Iranian, and Turkish worlds. The sources of these divisions are sociohistorical and have prevented the emergence of a full-fledged Kur- dish identity. Kurdish life remains tribally structured in most areas and is based on local, tightly knit rural communities under a tribal-religious leader known M. HAKAN Y AVUZ is a professor of political science of the Uni- versity of Utah. MICHAEL M. GUNTER, who wrote the sections on Iran and Iraq in this essay, is a professor of political science at Tennessee Technological University. Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article-pdf/100/642/33/385831/curh_100_642_033.pdf by guest on 27 August 2020