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Kurdification

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kurdification is a cultural change in which people, territory, and language become Kurdified,[1] i.e. become Kurdish. This can happen both naturally (as in Turkish Kurdistan) or as a deliberate government policy (as in Iraq after the 2003 invasion).[2][3][4]

The notion of Kurdification is different from country to country. In Turkish Kurdistan, many ethnic Armenians,[5] Bulgarians,[6] Circassians,[7] Chechens,[8] Georgians,[9] Ingushs,[8] and Ossetians have become Kurdified as a result of fleeing to the region and having subsequently assimilated with Kurds. In Iraqi Kurdistan, territories belonging to minorities such as Turkmens and Assyrians were subjected to Kurdification policies until 2017 in the disputed territories of northern Iraq, when the Kurdistan Regional Government administered the area.[10] More recently during the Syrian Civil War, the Syrian Democratic Forces have been accused of Kurdifying traditional Arab lands.[11][12]

Turkey

Caucasian refugees (1860s–1910s)

Main article: Chechen Kurds

When refugees from Caucasus reached the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople decided not to settle these in Kurdistan due to the extreme poverty and lack of material resources for the refugees. Yet after some time, the Ottomans started seeing the refugees as a chance to diminish the Kurdish claim to the region and allowed the refugees to settle in the region.[13] In 1862, Circassian refugees from the Shapsug tribe arrived in the Kurdish areas of Ahlat and Adilcevaz and settled in the three Kurdish villages of Yoğurtyemez, Xanik (Çukurtarla), Develik and founded the village of Koxiş (Yolçatı).[14]

The first big wave of Caucasian refugees to Kurdistan was in 1864 when 15,000 to 20,000 refugees settled in Sarıkamış, founding new villages and settling in abandoned Greek and Armenian villages.[15] These refugees included Circassians, Chechens, Laks and Avars.[16] The largest group of refugees were Circassias who fled the Circassia region (part of the Russian Empire) during the ethnic cleansing of Circassians.[17][18] Two years later, Shapsug tribe with members of the Abzakh tribe founded the villages of Bolethan (Karapolat), Arnis (Güzgülü) and Ximsor (Eskibalta) near Bingöl.[19][18][20] Concurrently with the Circassian migration, Ossetians settled in the villages of Xulik (Otluyazı) and Ağcaviran (Akçaören) in Ahlat,[21][22][23] Yaramış, Karaağıl, Hamzaşeyx (Sarıpınar), Simo (Kurganlı) in the eastern Muş region, and Lekbudak (Budaklı) near Karaçoban.[23] According to the Russian intelligence officer Aleksandr Kolyubakin, no less than 1,500 Ossetians lived in the Sanjak of Muş in the late 1880s.[21]

Chechens and Ingushs mostly settled in Varto area, in the villages of Arincik (Kıyıbaşı), Çarbuhur (Bağiçi), Tepeköy, Artet (Serinova), Ulusırt and Arinç (Çöğürlü),[8] Avars who settled in Kayalık village,[24] and Circassians of the Kabardian tribe founded the village of Narlı Çerkezleri (Eskinarlı) in Pazarcık area.[18] There is also a Georgian village in Diyarbakir Province.[9]

From early stage on, these Caucasians went through a process of kurdification and thereby had Kurdish as their mother tongue.[25][7][26]

20th–21st century and PKK

When the Kurdish question rose in Turkey, it also had an effect on their Caucasian neighbours. Even today, there is an aversion from joining the Kurds in their conflict against the Turkish state,[27] but some individuals of Caucasian origin joined the Kurdistan Workers' Party.[28][29] As part of their campaign, the Kurdish party Peoples' Democratic Party won most Caucasian villages in Turkish Kurdistan.[30][31][32]

Iraq

Shabaks

On 21 August 2006, Shabak Democratic Party leader Hunain Qaddo, proposed the creation of a separate province within the borders of the Nineveh Plain, arguing that the move was to combat the Arabization and Kurdification of Iraqi minorities. The Iraqi government voted against the proposition.[33][34][35]

After 2011

Some Assyrians in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq complained that construction plans are "aimed at affecting a demographic change that divides Assyrian blocs". Also some Yazidis, Shabaks and Turkmens have reported that they are facing a policy of cultural and security control against them.[36]

In 2016, David Romano, Professor of Middle East Politics, said that without the YPG and Peshmerga, the Assyrians of northern Syria and Iraq would likely all be dead, lying in some jihadist-dug mass grave.[37]

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum published news which argued that the Yazidis have frequently been pressured to assimilate to both Arab and Kurdish ethnicities.[38] Other sources have stated that Yazidis already speak Northern Kurdish which is one of the two major dialects of Kurdish language.[39]

During the Iraqi Civil War, Iraqi army troops fled their posts around the Nineveh Plains while ISIL attacked. Later, KRG forces, with the support of coalition airstrikes, captured these areas from ISIL. Since then, there have been disputes between pro-government Assyrians and Kurds, as the former have either asked the Kurds to leave or promised them autonomy.

In 2011, some Yazidi activists voiced their "concern over forced assimilation into Kurdish identity". Some have accused the Kurdish and Iraqi parties of diverting US $12 million of reconstruction funds allocated for Yazidi areas in Jebel Sinjar to a Kurdish village and marginalizing them politically. According to Sweden-based economist David Ghanim, the goal of some tactics of the KRG had been to push Shabak and Yazidi communities to identify as Kurds, which has been strongly denied by KRG authorities. He also claimed that the Kurdish authorities are working to impose Kurdish identity on the Yazidis and the Shabaks.[40] Assyrian politicians of some towns have been replaced with Kurdish ones.[41]

The Kurdish regional government has also been accused of trying to Kurdify other regions such as the Nineveh Plains and Kirkuk by providing financial support for Kurds who want to settle in those areas.[42][43]

Kirkuk

While Kurdish forces held the city of Kirkuk, Kurdish authorities attempted to Kurdify the city. Turkmen and Arab residents in Kirkuk experienced intimidation, harassment and were forced to leave their homes, in order to increase the Kurdish demographic in Kirkuk and bolster their claims to the city. Multiple Human Rights Watch reports detail the confiscation of Turkmen and Arab families' documents, preventing them from voting, buying property and travelling. Turkmen residents of Kirkuk were detained by Kurdish forces and compelled to leave the city. Kurdish authorities expelled hundreds of Arab families from the city, demolishing their homes in the process.[44][45][46]

United Nations reports since 2006 have documented that Kurdish authorities and Peshmerga militia forces were illegally policing Kirkuk and other disputed areas, and that these militia have abducted Turkmen and Arabs, subjecting them to torture.[47]

Iran

Main article: Chegini Kurds

Küresunni Turks

In the southwest of Khoy, there are Kurdicized groups of Küresünni Turks.[48]

Syria

During the Syrian Civil War, the Syrian Democratic Forces, have been accused of Kurdification. [11][12] Liz Sly of the Washington Post stated:

"The Kurds formally renamed Tal Abyad with a Kurdish name, "Gire Spi", and proclaim its new identity in signs throughout the town — written in the Latin script used by Turkish Kurds but not readily understood by Syrian Kurds or Arabs. They have also unilaterally detached it from the existing Syrian province of Raqqa and made it a part of their newly formed autonomous enclave, carved from areas traditionally inhabited by Kurds but steadily encroaching also on territories that were historically Arab."[49]

See also

References

  1. ^ Frye, Richard Nelson (1984). The History of Ancient Iran. C.H.Beck. p. 30. ISBN 9783406093975.
  2. ^ Al-Ali, Pratt, Nadje Sadig, Nicola Christine (2009). What kind of liberation?: women and the occupation of Iraq. University of California Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-520-25729-0.
  3. ^ Preti Taneja, Minority Rights Group International (2007). Assimilation, exodus, eradication: Iraq's minority communities since 2003. Minority Rights Group International. p. 19.
  4. ^ "Overcrowding and Kurdification threaten Christians in northern Iraq" (AsiaNews, October 2007)
  5. ^ Mehrdad Izady. The Kurds: A Concise History And Fact Book.
  6. ^ Harmen van der Wilt. The Genocide Convention: The Legacy of 60 Years. p. 147.
  7. ^ a b Yeldar Barış Kalkan (2006). Çerkes halkı ve sorunları: Çerkes tarih, kültür, coğrafya ve siyasetine sınıfsal yaklaşım. p. 175.
  8. ^ a b c Caucasian battlefields: A History of the Wars on the Turco-Caucasian Border, 1828–1921. Cambridge University Press. 2011-02-17. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-108-01335-2.
  9. ^ a b "Ortayazı Köyü/Ergani/Diyarbakır". Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  10. ^ "On Vulnerable Ground | Violence against Minority Communities in Nineveh Province's Disputed Territories". Human Rights Watch. 2009-11-10. Retrieved 2018-10-23.
  11. ^ a b "The Future of the Kurds in Syria". Council on Foreign Relations. 2019-11-14. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
  12. ^ a b "Have the Syrian Kurds Committed War Crimes?". Council on Foreign Relations. 2017-02-07. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
  13. ^ Janet Klein (2011). The Margins of Empire: Kurdish Militias in the Ottoman Tribal Zone. ISBN 978-0-8047-7775-9.
  14. ^ "Unutulmuş Ahlat Çerkesleri-1" (in Turkish). Cerkes-Fed. 16 August 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  15. ^ Georgi Chochiev and Bekir Koç (2006). "Migrants from the North Caucasus in Eastern Anatolia: Some Notes on Their Settlement and Adaptation". Journal of Asian History. Harrassowitz Verlag. 40 (183).
  16. ^ "Kars – Index Anatolicus". Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  17. ^ Anita L. P. Burdett (1998). Armenia: Political and Ethnic Boundaries 1878–1948. Archive Ed. p. 1017. ISBN 978-1-85207-955-0.
  18. ^ a b c "Türkiye'deki Çerkes Köyleri" (in Turkish). 6 September 2011. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  19. ^ "Karapolat – Index Anatolicus". Index Anatolicus.
  20. ^ "Eskibalta – Index Anatolicus". Index Anatolicus. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  21. ^ a b Anthony Gorman (2015-05-29). Diasporas of the Modern Middle East. ISBN 978-0-7486-8611-7.
  22. ^ Çerkes fıkraları (in Turkish). University of Wisconsin – Madison. 1994. p. 10.
  23. ^ a b "Köylere Göre Sülaler [Cached]". Alan Vakfi. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  24. ^ "Varto – Index Anatolicus". Index Anatolicus. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  25. ^ Ahmet Buran Ph.D., Türkiye'de Diller ve Etnik Gruplar, 2012
  26. ^ Dursun Gümüşoğlu (2008). Anadolu'da bir köy: Eskikonak : antropolojik inceleme.
  27. ^ Paul Globe (7 April 2015). "Turkish Circassians Reject Proffered Alliance With Kurds". Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  28. ^ "Çerkes gerilla: PKK kendimle yüzleşmemi sağladı" (in Turkish). Özgür Gündem. 9 May 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  29. ^ Kurdish Politics in Turkey: From the PKK to the KCK. Routledge. 2014. ISBN 978-1-317-27116-1.
  30. ^ "Bitlis'te Oturan Çerkes Aileden HDP'ye Destek". Bitlis Radikal. 20 October 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  31. ^ "HDP Çerkesler için broşür hazırladı". Haber46. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  32. ^ "SEÇSİS – Sandık Sonuçları" (in Turkish). Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  33. ^ "Cable: 06BAGHDAD3283_a". Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  34. ^ "Hizballah Cavalcade: Quwat Sahl Nīnawā: Iraq's Shia Shabak Get Their Own Militia". JIHADOLOGY: A clearinghouse for jihādī primary source material, original analysis, and translation service. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  35. ^ "Iraqi Turkmen take up arms in Kirkuk - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East". Al-Monitor. 2014-06-18. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  36. ^ "Iraqi Kurdistan Must Ensure Minority Rights". Al-Monitor. 2013-09-23. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  37. ^ "http://rudaw.net/english/opinion/21012016?ctl00_phMainContainer_phMain_ControlComments1_gvCommentsChangePage=3_20". Rudaw. Retrieved 5 May 2016. {{cite news}}: External link in |title= (help)
  38. ^ "The People of the Book and the Hierarchy of Discrimination". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2016-12-27.
  39. ^ "Yezidi Language". Yezidis (in American English). Retrieved 2017-02-28.
  40. ^ Ghanim, David (2011-09-12). Iraq's Dysfunctional Democracy. p. 34. ISBN 9780313398025.
  41. ^ "Assyrian, Yezidi and Shabak Villages Are Now Under Kurdish Control in North Iraq". Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  42. ^ Hashim, Ahmed (2005). Insurgency and counter-insurgency in Iraq. Cornell University Press. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-8014-4452-4. Archived from the original on 2016-01-07. Retrieved 2015-10-12.
  43. ^ Taneja, Preti (2007). Assimilation, exodus, eradication: Iraq's minority communities since 2003. Minority Rights Group International. p. 20. ISBN 9781904584605. Archived from the original on 2016-01-07. Retrieved 2015-10-12.
  44. ^ "Iraq: Kirkuk Security Forces Expel Displaced Turkmen". Human Rights Watch.
  45. ^ "KRG: Kurdish Forces Ejecting Arabs In Kirkuk". Human Rights Watch.
  46. ^ "Iraq: Arab's homes destroyed in Kirkuk". Human Rights Watch. Archived from the original on 2021-12-22.
  47. ^ "Uncertain Refuge, Dangerous Return: Iraq's Uprooted Minorities" (PDF). Minority Rights Group International.
  48. ^ The most important Kurdish tribes in that region are ..., Korahsunni Kurdicized Turks, southwest of Ḵoy
  49. ^ "They freed a Syrian town from ISIS. Now they have to govern it". The Washington Post. 2015. Retrieved 30 October 2015.

General References

  • A. Bazzaz, turkmen.nl "The Kurdification procedure was soon implemented by the Kurdish leadership after toppling Saddam down in April 2003"
  • Park, Bill, The Kurds and post-Saddam political arrangements in Iraq The Adelphi Papers (2005), Taylor & Francis: "The Kurds, who are intent on the further ‘Kurdification’ of Kirkuk before any census is held"
  • Park, Bill, Iraqi scenarios, The Adelphi Papers, Volume 45, Number 374, May 2005, pp. 49–66
  • PKK Iran - Strategic Comments, 2004 - informaworld.com "recent months Turkish intelligence has begun to report Turcoman frustration with Ankara’s failure to prevent the increasing ‘Kurdification’ of northern Iraq"
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