Kurdish Self-Determination, Turkish Anxiety: The Making of the Republican Raison D'état

Öz

How did the First World War (1914-1918) and its aftermath shape and transform the Kurdish political activism and Kurdish nationalism in the Middle East? How did the Treaty of Sèvres (1920) and its clauses offering the Kurds an opportunity for self-determination influence the Turkish nationalism and the worldview of the founding fathers of the Republic? In the light of these questions, this article seeks to understand and explain the inter-dependent relationship between the Kurdish aspirations for self-determination and the making of the modern Turkish state and the Republican mindset in the early twentieth century. In doing so, the global market of ideas and the transnational historical context (e.g. debates over Wilsonian self-determination and nationhood, centralization vs. decentralization) will be taken into account as well as the ruptures and continuities in the Ottoman-Turkish state tradition against the state-seeking nationalisms. Understanding this historical context influenced by the transnational and local societal and political forces would shed light to unpacking the state-minority relations in Turkey in general and the modern Kurdish question in the Middle East in particular.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Turkish nationalism
• Kurdish nationalism
• self-determination
• World War I

Xweçarenivîsa Kurdan û Endîşeya Tirkan: Çêbûna Aqlê Dewletê yê Cumhuriyetê

Öz

Gelo Şerê Cîhanê yê Yekem (1914-1918) û encamên wê, çawa dirûv dan aktîvîzma Kurdî ya polîtîk û neteweperwerîya Kurdan li Rojhilata Navîn û ew çawa veguherandin? Gelo Peymana Sewrê (1920) û maddeyên wê yên ku di biwara mafê çarenûsê (self-determînasyonê) de derfetek pêşkêşî Kurdan dikirin, tesîreke çawa li neteweper werîya Tirkan û zihnîyeta pîrên damezirîner ên Cumhurîyetê kir? Armanca vê gotarê ew e ku di bin ronahîya van pirsan de, pêwendîya dualî-pevgirêdayî ya bidestxistina mafê çarenûsa Kurdan û avakirina dewleta modern a Tirkîyeyê û zihnîyeta Cumhûrîyetê ya destpêka sedsala XXem têbigehe û şîrove bike. Di heman demê de, bazara cîhanî ya hizran û peywenda tarîxî ya dernetewî (wek mînak, prensîba bidestxistina mafê çarenûsê ya Wîlsonî, gengeşeyên li ser netewebûnê û yên li ser sîyaseta ‘edemê merkezîyetê li dijî merkezîyetê), herweha qutbûn û domandina nerîta dewletê ya Osmanî-Tirkan li hemberî neteweperwerîya dewletparêz jî dê li ber çavan bên girtin. Têgihîştina vê peywenda tarîxî ya ku ji hêzên civakî û polîtîk yên dernetewî û xwemalî bandor wergirtîye, dê ronîyê bavêje ser çareserîya pêwendîyên dewlet-kêmaran li Tirkîyeyê bi giştî û kêşeya modern a Kurdan a li Rojhilata Navîn bi taybetî.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• neteweperwerîya Kurdan
• neteweperwerîya Tirkan
• mafê çarenûsê
• Şerê Cîhanê yê Yekem
• ewlehîya ontolojîk

Kaynakça

1. Aksakal, M. (2008). The Ottoman road to war in 1914: The Ottoman Empire and the First World War. Cambridge University Press.
2. Al, S. (2015). An Anatomy of Nationhood and the Question of Assimilation: Debates on Turkishness Revisited: An Anatomy of Nationhood and the Question of Assimilation. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 15(1), 83–101. https://doi.org/10.1111/sena.12121
3. Al, S. (2016). Young Turks, Old State: The Ontological (In)Security of the State and the Continuity of Ottomanism. In M. H. Yavuz & F. Ahmad (Eds.), War and Collapse: World War I and the Ottoman State. The University of Utah Press.
4. Al, S. (2019b). Islam, ethnicity and the state: Contested spaces of legitimacy and power in the Kurdish-Turkish public sphere. Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 19(1), 119–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/14683857.2019.1578052
5. Al, S. (2019a). Patterns of Nationhood and Saving the State in Turkey: Ottomanism, Nationalism and Multiculturalism. New York: Routledge.
6. Alkan, M. Ö. (2013). Cumhuriyet kurulurken Kürt meselesi: Asimilasyon, asayiş, medeniyet. Birikim, 293, 104–112.
7. Asker, Ahmet and Emrah YILDIZ (2011). "Ezberin İnşası: Millî Mücadele ve Erken Cumhuriyet Dönemi Basınında Kürt Meselesi," Kebikeç İnsan Bilimleri İçin Kaynak Araştırmaları Dergisi, 32: 15-40, p.20.
8. Ateş, S. (2013). The Ottoman-Iranian borderlands: Making a boundary, 1843-1914. Cambridge University Press.

9. Ateş, S. (2014). In the Name of the Caliph and the Nation: The Sheikh Ubeidullah Rebellion of 1880–81. Iranian Studies, 47(5), 735–798. https://doi.org/10.1080/00210862.2014.934151
10. Atmaca, M. (2019). Resistance to centralisation in the Ottoman periphery: The Kurdish Baban and Bohtan emirates. Middle Eastern Studies, 55(4), 519–539. https://doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2018.1542595
11. Bajalan, D. R. (2019). The First World War, the End of the Ottoman Empire, and Question of Kurdish Statehood: A ‘Missed’ Opportunity? Ethnopolitics, 18(1), 13–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449057.2018.1525163
12. Barkey, K. (2012). Rethinking Ottoman Management of Diversity: In A. T. Kuru & A. Stepan (Eds.), Democracy, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey (pp. 12–31). Columbia University Press; JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/kuru15932.4
13. Bektas, U., & Butler, D. (2017, September 26). Erdogan tells Iraqi Kurds they will go hungry if Turkey imposes sanctions. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-kurds-referendum-turke/erdogan-tells-iraqi-kurds-they-will-go-hungry-if-turkey-imposes-sanctions-idUSKCN1C1135
14. Bozarslan, H. (2008). Kurds and the Turkish State. In R. Kasaba (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Turkey (1st ed., pp. 333–356). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521620963.013
15. Bruinessen, M. van. (1999). The Kurds and Islam. Working Paper No. 13, Islamic Area Studies Project, Tokyo, Japan. https://www.academia.edu/6215221/The_Kurds_and_Islam
16. Bruinessen, M. van. (2000). The Sâdatê Nehrî or Gîlânîzade of Central Kurdistan. In Mullas, Sufis, and Heretics: The Role of Religion in Kurdish Society: Collected Articles. https://doi.org/10.31826/9781463229887
17. Calamur, K. (2017, October 20). Why Doesn’t the U.S. Support Kurdish Independence? The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/10/us-kurdish-independence/543540/
18. Danforth, N. (2015, August 10). Forget Sykes-Picot. It’s the Treaty of Sèvres That Explains the Modern Middle East. Foreign Policy. https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/08/10/sykes-picot-treaty-of-sevres-modern-turkey-middle-east-borders-turkey/
19. Findley, C. V. (2011). Turkey, islam, nationalism, and modernity: A history, 1789-2007. Yale University Press.
20. Gellner, E. (1983). Nations and nationalism. Cornell University Press.
21. Hassanpour, A. (2003). The Making of Kurdish Identity: Pre-20th Century Historical and Literary Sources. In A. Vali (Ed.), Essays on the origins of Kurdish nationalism. Mazda Publishers.
22. Ilicak, S. (2011). A Radical Rethinking of Empire: Ottoman State and Society during the Greek War of Independence 1821–1826 [PhD dissertation]. http://search.proquest.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/docview/915016878?accountid=11311
23. Jwaideh, W. (2006). The Kurdish national movement: Its origins and development (1st ed). Syracuse University Press.
24. Klein, J. (2007). Kurdish nationalists and non-nationalist Kurdists: Rethinking minority nationalism and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1909. Nations and Nationalism, 13(1), 135–153. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8129.2007.00281.x
25. Klein, J. (2011). The margins of empire: Kurdish militias in the Ottoman tribal zone. Stanford University Press.
26. Knights, M. (2017, September 17). Kirkuk: The city that highlights Iraq’s war within a war. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-41656398
27. Makdisi, U. (2002). Ottoman Orientalism. The American Historical Review. https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/107.3.768
28. Manela, E. (2017). The Wilsonian moment: Self-determination and the international origins of anticolonial nationalism. Oxford Univ. Press.
29. Mann, M. (2004). The dark side of democracy: Explaining ethnic cleansing. Cambridge University Press. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=275202
30. Mitzen, J. (2006). Ontological Security in World Politics: State Identity and the Security Dilemma. European Journal of International Relations, 12(3), 341–370. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066106067346
31. O’Driscoll, D., & Baser, B. (2019). Independence referendums and nationalist rhetoric: The Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Third World Quarterly, 40(11), 2016–2034. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2019.1617631
32. Olson, R. (1991). Five stages of Kurdish nationalism:1880–1980. Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs. Journal, 12(2), 391–409. https://doi.org/10.1080/02666959108716214
33. Olson, R. (2000). The Kurdish Rebellions of Sheikh Said (1925), Mt. Ararat (1930), and Dersim (1937-8): Their Impact on the Development of the Turkish Air Force and on Kurdish and Turkish Nationalism. Die Welt Des Islams, 40(1), 67–94.
34. Olson, R. W. (1991). The emergence of Kurdish nationalism and the Sheikh Said Rebellion, 1880—1925. Univ. of Texas Press.
35. Özoğlu, H. (2001). “Nationalism” and Kurdish Notables in the Late Ottoman–Early Republican Era. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 33(3), 383–409.
36. Özoğlu, H. (2011). From Caliphate to secular state: Power struggle in the early Turkish Republic. Praeger.
37. Park, B. (2019). Explaining Turkey’s Reaction to the September 2017 Independence Referendum in the KRG: Final Divorce or Relationship Reset? Ethnopolitics, 18(1), 46–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449057.2018.1525165
38. Reuters. (2017, September 26). Turkey’s Erdogan accuses Barzani of “treachery” over Kurdish referendum | Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/mideast-crisis-kurds-referendum-turkey-e/turkeys-erdogan-accuses-barzani-of-treachery-over-kurdish-referendum-idUSI7N1LV02K
39. Reynolds, M. A. (2011). Shattering empires: The clash and collapse of the Ottoman and Russian empires, 1908-1918. Cambridge University Press.
40. Reynolds, M. A. (2016). Decline of empires. In N. Dalziel & J. M. MacKenzie (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Empire (pp. 1–7). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe344
41. Rodogno, D. (2012). Against massacre: Humanitarian interventions in the Ottoman Empire, 1815-1914: the emergence of a European concept and international practice. Princeton University Press.
42. Sluglett, P. (n.d.). The Kurdish Problem and the Mosul Boundary: 1918-1925. Retrieved June 1, 2021, from https://archive.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/169-history/36383.html Smith, A. D. (1986). The ethnic origins of nations. B. Blackwell.
43. Smith, A. D. (2015). Ethnosymbolism. In A. D. Smith, X. Hou, J. Stone, R. Dennis, & P. Rizova (Eds.), The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism (pp. 1–2). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118663202.wberen052
44. Tilly, C. (1994). States and Nationalism in Europe 1492-1992. Theory and Society, 23(1), 131–146.
45. Toprak, Zafer (2010). “Doğu Anadolu’da ‘Uygarlaştırıcı Misyon,’ içinde: Doğu Anadolu’da Toplumsal Mühendislik – Dersim-Sason (1934-1946) , İstanbul;Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, s. vii -xx.
46. Tugdar, E. E., & Al, S. (2018). Iraqi Kurdistan Independence Aspirations and the Neo-Ottomanist Turkey. In Federalism, Secession, and International Recognition Regime. Routledge.
47. Ülker, E. (2008). Assimilation, Security and Geographical Nationalization in Interwar Turkey: The Settlement Law of 1934. European Journal of Turkish Studies. Social Sciences on Contemporary Turkey, 7.
48. Ünlü, B. (2016). The Kurdish struggle and the crisis of the Turkishness Contract. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 42(4–5), 397–405. https://doi.org/10.1177/0191453715625715
49. Ünlü, B. (2018). Türklük sözleşmesi: Oluşumu, işleyişi ve krizi (1. baskı). Dipnot yayinlari.
50. Vali, A. (2014). Kurds and the state in Iran: The making of Kurdish identity (Paperback edition). I.B. Tauris.
51. Yavuz, M. H. (2016). Social and Intellectual Origins of Neo-Ottomanism: Searching for a Post-National Vision. Die Welt Des Islams, 56(3–4), 438–465. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700607-05634p08
52. Yaycioglu, A. (2016). Partners of the empire: The crisis of the Ottoman order in the Age of Revolutions. Stanford University Press. Yeğen, M. (1996). The Turkish state discourse and the exclusion of Kurdish identity. Middle Eastern Studies, 32(2), 216–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/00263209608701112
53. Zeydanlıoğlu, W. (2008). The white Turkish man’s burden: Orientalism, Kemalism and the Kurds in Turkey. In G. Rings & A. Ife, Neo‐colonial Mentalities in Contemporary Europe? Language and Discourse in the Construction of Identities (Vol. 4, pp. 155–174).
54. Zürcher, E. J. (2010). The young Turk legacy and nation building: From the Ottoman Empire to Atatürk’s Turkey. I. B. Tauris ; Distributed in the United States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan.