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Bir Diplomatin Gozuyle Kurt Sorunu (The Kurdish Question from the Perspective of a Diplomat) |
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reviewed by Mehmet Yegin |
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Author: Ingmar Karlsson |
ISBN:
978-9944-483-24-7 |
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Publisher:
Homer Kitabevi |
Page:
184 |
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Type:
Paperback |
Price:
20 TL |
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Place of Publication:
Istanbul |
Published in:
2008 |
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Review: |
The Kurdish Question is one of the most prominent issues that requires the delicate scrutiny and attention of scholars and policy makers in Turkey. The issue has been more discussed with the rise of terrorism in the country and has been, unfortunately, largely attached to separatist terrorism. On the contrary, in the international arena, the terrorism is largely disregarded and the issue seen as an ethnic conflict in a nation state. Nevertheless, both perspectives are inadequate to address the Kurdish issue, which is neither solely related to Turkey nor can be confined to ethnic terrorism. It is necessary to scrutinize the issue in a broader perspective, first by defining the boundaries of the Kurdish population, with its diverse language and ethnic characteristics and a tribal structure dispersed throughout various countries. Then, by presenting the problems, and finally by providing proposed solutions.
Bir Diplomatin Gozuyle Kurt Sorunu [The Kurdish Question from the Perspective of a Diplomat] by Ingmar Karlsson presents an overview on the Kurdish Question. Karlsson is an experienced Swedish diplomat who has worked in various Middle Eastern cities, such as Amman, Damascus and Istanbul. Although he is not an expert on the Kurdish issue or Kurds, his studies and published books on the Middle East and various issues lack total amateurishness. The book offers a well-organized study on the issue without a claim of scholarly authority. In this review, after a brief summary, the holistic framework and neutral approach with authentic phrases are underlined as strengths, and the limited space for solution proposals and the lack of visual materials are mentioned as weaknesses of the book.
Karlsson demonstrates that "the book aims to provide background information and historical analysis in order to better understand the current situation and discuss the solution proposals to ameliorate the basic human rights and citizenship problems of the Kurdish population in the countries they reside." (Karlsson, p.8) The book consists of nine chapters. The author first gives the general information about the basic characteristics of the population, such as location, language and religion in the first chapter. He explains the difficulty of determining the Kurdish population or pointing to a certain location for this population. He gives the diversity of the population according to different languages/dialects they use and various religious groups and sects. In the second chapter, the author presents the myths, history writing and past history of the population, relying on theories of nationalism and nation building. Then, the book gives the historical background of Kurdish nationalism and the actors in the Ottoman Empire until World War-I.
The next five chapters examine the historical evolution of the problem in each country after demise of Ottoman Empire. In fourth and fifth chapter, the Kurdish population and their historical evolution in Lebanon, the Caucuses and Syria is presented. The sixth chapter deals with the status and problems of the Kurdish population in Iran. In this chapter the Republic of Mahabad as the only Kurdish state established in West Iran, the Shah era and circumstances after revolution are examined. The seventh chapter gives a detailed history of the population in Iraq from the end of WWI until the current situation after US interventions. In this chapter the author gives the story of the Kurds under the British mandate, Iraqi monarchy, and the Baath regime and Republic of Iraq. The ninth chapter is about the Kurdish question in Turkey and the PKK terrorism problem. In this chapter the policies and changing trends on the issue presented. The PKK terrorism, evolution of its rhetoric and its effects on the Kurdish question is portrayed. This chapter also includes the period after Ocalan's capture and the recent developments regarding Turkey's democratization and EU influence. The book ends with the argument that it would be impossible to establish a grand Kurdish state that derives its territories from four states.
The book's holistic framework andrational, objective approach to the issue are its outstanding strengths. The author does not restrict the issue to a particular state or time period, but rather tries to provide all aspects of the problem, including the internal dynamics of the population such as the roots and myths that nourish Kurdish nationalism and the tribal structure. This holistic approach portrays the similarities of the policies about the Kurdish population in different countries. Besides, it reveals the patterns of the major powers or conflicting neighbors' policies towards the local Kurdish population. The second strength of the book is its quite objective and rational approach to the problem. Most of the other books are based on the perspective of states' official published policies or are totally against the states that Kurdish people live in that they include biased arguments and information. On the other hand, this book examines the issue in a more rational and neutral basis. The author neither has concerns for the reactions of the relevant countries nor uses an emotional language to dramatize the issue. The author tries to present the issue as it is and he is quite successful about this particular task.
Karlsson's book does not only offer the historical events and political aspect of the issue. He enriches the study with myths, stories, poems and proverbs that belong to Kurds and local people in the region. These authentic ornaments, especially the proverbs, are not given in one chapter of the book as a list rather they are spread according to the relevant context in different sections. These phrases and poems enrich the book, yet they include some biased approaches and statements.
The book presents the general characteristics of Kurdish population, the path for Kurdish nationalism and a historical analysis of this population beginning with the Ottoman era. He gives a brief and useful guide to understanding the issues, or at least to get an idea about the basic parameters of the issue, without claiming to be a scholarly analysis. Thus, it can be said that the book accomplishes its primary goal, yet it is hard to say the same for the solution proposals. One of the weaknesses of the book is the allocation of limited space to the solution proposals and discussions for ameliorations of the human rights and citizenship issues of the Kurdish people. The mentioned solutions are concentrated in the chapter about Turkey and are overly focused on Turkey's membership of the European Union.
Another deficiency about the book is a lack of maps. The author underlines some cities and key places as critical and important in the book. Yet, for readers who are not familiar with the region, it is really hard to locate these cities and visualize the mentioned historical events. Thus, some visual aids, such as maps, are necessary but are totally absent in the book. The book should provide -not of course the contradictory so-called Kurdistan maps- at least a general map that includes Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria in order to visualize and locate the places mentioned in the book.
In sum, the book gives a neutral, general framework for the Kurdish Question with some authentic expressions. It is quite useful for readers that want to cover almost all aspects of the Kurdish population in a straightforward study. However, there are weaknesses in providing solutions or ameliorations for the Kurdish population's problem and the lack of maps makes it more difficult to visualize and locate the places mentioned in the book.
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about book: |
The Kurdish Question is one of the most prominent issues that need delicate scrutiny and attention of scholars and policy makers in Turkey. The issue began to be more discussed with the rise of terror in the country and unfortunately largely attached to the separatist terror. On contrary in the international arena, largely the terrorism is disregarded and issue regarded as an ethnic conflict in a nation state. Nevertheless, both perspectives were inadequate to address the Kurdish issue which is neither solely related to Turkey and nor can be constrained with ethnic terrorism.
"Bir Diplomatin Gozuyle Kurt Sorunu [The Kurdish Question from the Perspective of a Diplomat]" by Ingmar Karlsson presents an overview on the Kurdish Question. Karlsson is an experienced Swedish diplomat worked in various Middle Eastern cities such as Amman, Damascus and Istanbul. |
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intellectual platform for social sciences, JTW contributes to
this area by promoting new publications in its Book Reviews
section. Publishers can send newly published books to be
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Editor for Book Reviews:
Dilek Aydemir
bookreviews@turkishweekly.net
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