The Kurdish question: whose question, whose answers? The Kurdish movement seen by the Kurds and their neighbours

Abstract

That the contemporary relevance of Jwaideh’s work had not diminished by the turn of the century is shown by the fact that the recent Turkish translation was banned almost upon appearance.[2] In a situation where many other books on the Kurds, including some more overtly political ones, were and remained freely available, this can only be considered as a mark of distinction, based on the recognition of some dangerous quality. It was no the subject matter as such that caused the ban but rather, I imagine, the way in which Jwaideh framed what was usually called the Kurdish ‘issue’ or ‘question’. Reflection on the ban of Jwaideh’s book in Turkey provided me with the subject for this memorial The Kurdish Question lecture: the various ways in which the Kurds’ neighbors, and especially the scholarly inclined among them, have defined the Kurdish ‘issue’. Jwaideh looked at the Kurds and their history from the perspective of an Iraqi, whose own identity necessitated some engagement with the Kurds.