Defining the Nation: Kurdish Historiography in Turkey in the 1990s

Abstract

This article examines Kurdish historiography in Turkey in the 1990s. It centres on the question how the national community is historicised via central myths, especially for the pre-Islamic periods. As a source basis writings of members of the intellectual elite which are published in newspapers are used. This article argues that identity in the Kurdish society is currently mainly constructed around an ethnic history, which assumes Kurdishness to be constant and which is based on a dichotomy between barbarism and civilisation. The discursive space for this historiography is mainly determined by Turkish national discourse in its popular version. Finally, a comparative outlook with the Iraqi case is suggested.