Routledge A Century of Kurdish Politics: Citizenship, Statehood and Diplomacy (Ethnopolitics)

The Kurdish question remains one of the most important and complicated issues in ethnic politics in contemporary times, with the Kurds being one of the largest ethnic groups in the world without a state of their own. This comprehensive volume brings together a group of distinguished scholars to address the Kurdish question in its centennial year with a fresh analytical lens, to demonstrate that the study of Kurdish politics has developed beyond a narrow focus on the state-minority antagonism. It addresses a series of interrelated questions focusing on Kurdish politics as well as broader themes related to nationalism, ethnic mobilization, democratic struggles, and international security. The authors examine the agency of Kurdish political actors and their relations with foreign actors; the relations between Kurdish political leaders and organizations and regional and great powers; the dynamics and competing forms of Kurdish political rule; and the involvement of Kurdish parties in broader democratic struggles. Using original empirical work, they place the scholarship on Kurdish politics in dialogue with the broader scholarship on ethnic nationalism, self-determination movements, diaspora studies, and rebel diplomacy. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Ethnopolitics. About the Author Güneş Murat Tezcür is the Jalal Talabani Chair and Professor of Political Science at the University of Central Florida, USA. He also directs the Kurdish Political Studies Program, the first and only academic entity dedicated to the study of Kurdish issues in the United States. He is a social scientist studying democratization, political violence, and politics of identity with a focus on Iran, Turkey, and Kurdish lands.