Kurdification

Map of Iraqi Kurdistan
  Official territory of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region
  Territory controlled by Iraqi Kurdistan
  Territory claimed by Iraqi Kurdistan
  Rest of Iraq
  Iraqi Kurdistan proper controlled by the Iraqi government

Kurdification is a cultural change in which non-ethnic Kurds or/and non-ethnic Kurdish area becomes Kurdish. This can happen both naturally (as seen in Turkish Kurdistan) and deliberately (as seen in Iraq after the invasion of Iraq).[1][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 interacted with ethnic Kurds.

Turkey

Caucasian refugees (1860s-1910s)

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.[10] 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).[11]

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.[12] These refugees included Circassians, Chechens, Laks and Avars.[13] The largest group of refugees were Circassias who fled the Circassia region (part of the Russian Empire) during the ethnic cleansing of Circassians.[14][15] Two years later, Shapsug tribe with members of the Abzakh tribe founded the villages of Bolethan (Karapolat), Arnis (Güzgülü) and Ximsor (Eskibalta) near Bingöl.[16][15][17] Concurrently with the Circassian migration, Ossetians settled in the villages of Xulik (Otluyazı) and Ağcaviran (Akçaören) in Ahlat,[18][19][20] Yaramış, Karaağıl, Hamzaşeyx (Sarıpınar), Simo (Kurganlı) in the eastern Muş region, and Lekbudak (Budaklı) near Karaçoban.[20] According to the Russian intelligence officer Aleksandr Kolyubakin, no less than 1,500 Ossetians lived in the Sanjak of Muş in the late 1880s.[18]

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,[21] and Circassians of the Kabardian tribe founded the village of Narlı Çerkezleri (Eskinarlı) in Pazarcık area.[15] 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.[22][7][23]

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,[24] but many individuals of Caucasian origin joined the Kurdistan Workers' Party.[25][26] As part of their campaign, the Kurdish party Peoples' Democratic Party won most Caucasian villages in Turkish Kurdistan.[27][28][29]

Armenians

Through the 20th century, an unknown number of Armenians living in the mountainous region of Tunceli (Dersim) had converted to Alevism.[30] During the Armenian Genocide, many of the Armenians in the region were saved by their Kurdish neighbors.[31] According to Mihran Prgiç Gültekin, the head of the Union of Dersim Armenians, around 75% of the population of Dersim is descended from "converted Armenians."[32][33] He reported in 2012 that over 200 families in Tunceli have declared their Armenian descent, but others are afraid to do so.[32][34] In April 2013, Aram Ateşyan, the acting Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, stated that 90% of Tunceli's population is of Armenian origin.[35]

Iraq

Until 2011 (end of main U.S. military presence)

On 21 August 2006, Shabak Democratic Party leader Hunain Qaddo, proposed the creation of a separate province within the borders of the Nineveh Plain, in order to combat the Arabization and Kurdification of Iraqi minorities. The Iraqi government voted against the proposition.[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]

There have been reports that some Arabs are being displaced in previously mixed Kurdish-Arab villages in Northern Iraq.[44]

The Kurdish government defended the Kurdification with the implementation of article 140 of the Iraqi constitution which ensured the restoration of the situation as it was before Saddam Hussein's genocide and Arabization policies against the Kurdish population during the Al-Anfal Campaign and the Kurdish Feyli genocide.

Intensified tensions between Kurds and Sunni Arabs led to violent clashes between both of them since Saddam's Arabization and genocide campaigns against the Kurdish population in Iraqi Kurdistan. On 21 August 2006, Shabak Democratic Party leader Hunain Qaddo proposed the creation of a separate province within the borders of the Nineveh Plains, in order to combat the "Arabization" and "Kurdification" of Iraqi minorities. The Iraqi government voted against the proposition.[45][46][47][48]

After 2011

Kurdification or re-Kurdification (post-Saddam) has been an open policy of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq since 2003, according to Gareth Stansfield, a professor of Middle East politics at the University of Exeter.[44] Some Assyrians sources claimed that the Kurds have clear plans for the annexation of the Nineveh Plains to the Kurdish control and it is claimed by Assyrian activists that they have "always sent their followers to international forums to interrupt international protection for Assyrians".[49] The Hareetz newspaper had reported on 24 December 2014 that the Kurds object to the establishment of a protected Christian enclave, because they want to annex the Nineveh Valley, most of whose residents are Christians.[50][51] The Assyrian activist from the Assyrian Patriotic Movement claimed that the entire Assyrian Triangle (between Greater Zab and the River Tigris) has been "occupied by Kurdish intruders".[49][51] Some Assyrians in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq also 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, especially in areas which belonged to the Kurds before Saddam's Al-Anfal Campaign.[52]

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.[53] Another view is that the Kurdish militia (Peshmerga) quickly abandoned their positions at the beginning of the ISIL occupation of the city of Mosul, and that the Peshmerga, who had disarmed Assyrians and left them defenseless, retreated without informing the indigenous Christian population, leaving them uninformed and unarmed.[54]

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.[55] Other sources have stated that Yazidis already speak Northern Kurdish which is one of the two major dialects of Kurdish language. [56]

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.[4] 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.[57] The Assyrian International News Agency claimed that the Kurds have annexed Assyrian, Yazidi and Shabak villages and which now under Kurdish Control in North Iraq,[58][59] and that in Iraqi Kurdistan, Assyrian politicians of some towns have been replaced with Kurdish ones.[58]

Syria

Assyrians have claimed that Kurdish nationalists have enforced revisionist curricula in schools with a Kurdish-nationalist bias. This is controversial since it has been noted they ""alter historical and geographical facts"", including Assyrian place names which are changed to Kurdish names, and students are taught that King Nebuchadnezzar from the Old Testament married a Kurdish woman.[60]

Turkish news claimed that Ossama Telcu, member of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, had claimed that the PYD forces set ablaze civil registry and land registry buildings in Manbij shortly after taking city from ISIL. According to Turkish AA source, PYD forces set ablaze civil registry and land registry buildings in Manbij. In addition, it was claimed that the PYD had also been sending away Sunni Arabs and Turkmen residents who want to return to their homes in Manbij on the pretext that ISIL has planted mines inside the house.[61][62][63] However, the Reuters, Kurdish and US sources reported that civilians had returned to their homes.[64]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ Preti Taneja, Minority Rights Group International (2007). Assimilation, exodus, eradication: Iraq's minority communities since 2003. Minority Rights Group International. p. 19.
  3. ↑ "Overcrowding and Kurdification threaten Christians in northern Iraq" (AsiaNews, October 2007)
  4. 1 2 "UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION NEEDS OF IRAQI ASYLUM-SEEKERS" (PDF). p. 11.
  5. ↑ Mehrdad Izady. The Kurds: A Concise History And Fact Book. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ↑ Harmen van der Wilt. The Genocide Convention: The Legacy of 60 Years. p. 147.
  7. 1 2 Yeldar Barış Kalkan (2006). Çerkes halkı ve sorunları: Çerkes tarih, kültür, coğrafya ve siyasetine sınıfsal yaklaşım. p. 175. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  8. 1 2 3 Caucasian battlefields : a history of the wars on the Turco-Caucasian border, 1828-1921. Cambridge University Press. p. 104. ISBN 9781108013352.
  9. 1 2 "Ortayazı Köyü/Ergani/Diyarbakır". Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  10. ↑ Janet Klein (2011). The Margins of Empire: Kurdish Militias in the Ottoman Tribal Zone. ISBN 9780804777759.
  11. ↑ "Unutulmuş Ahlat Çerkesleri-1" (in Turkish). Cerkes-Fed. 16 August 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  12. ↑ 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).
  13. ↑ "Kars - Index Anatolicus". Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  14. ↑ Anita L. P. Burdett (1998). Armenia : political and ethnic boundaries 1878 - 1948. Archive Ed. p. 1017. ISBN 9781852079550.
  15. 1 2 3 "Türkiye'deki Çerkes Köyleri" (in Turkish). 6 September 2011. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  16. ↑ "Karapolat - Index Anatolicus". Index Anatolicus.
  17. ↑ "Eskibalta - Index Anatolicus". Index Anatolicus. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  18. 1 2 Anthony Gorman. Diasporas of the Modern Middle East. ISBN 9780748686117.
  19. ↑ Çerkes fıkraları (in Turkish). University of Wisconsin - Madison. 1994. p. 10. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  20. 1 2 "Köylere Göre Sülaler [Cached]". Alan Vakfi. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  21. ↑ "Varto - Index Anatolicus". Index Anatolicus. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  22. ↑ Ahmet Buran Ph.D., Türkiye'de Diller ve Etnik Gruplar, 2012
  23. ↑ Dursun Gümüşoğlu (2008). Anadolu'da bir köy: Eskikonak : antropolojik inceleme. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  24. ↑ Paul Globe. "Turkish Circassians Reject Proffered Alliance With Kurds" (in 7 April 2015). Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  25. ↑ "Çerkes gerilla: PKK kendimle yüzleşmemi sağladı" (in Turkish). Özgür Gündem. 9 May 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  26. ↑ Kurdish Politics in Turkey: From the PKK to the KCK. Routledge. 2014. ISBN 1317271165.
  27. ↑ "Bitlis'te Oturan Çerkes Aileden HDP'ye Destek". Bitlis Radikal. 20 October 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  28. ↑ "HDP Çerkesler için broşür hazırladı". Haber46. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  29. ↑ "SEÇSİS - Sandık Sonuçları" (in Turkish). Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  30. ↑ "Armenian Elements in the Beliefs of the Kizilbash Kurds". İnternet Haber. 27 April 2013. Archived from the original on 24 March 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  31. ↑ A. Davis, Leslie (1990). Blair, Susan K., ed. The slaughterhouse province: an American diplomat's report on the Armenian genocide, 1915–1917 (2. print. ed.). New Rochelle, New York: A.D. Caratzas. ISBN 9780892414581.
  32. 1 2 "Mihran Gultekin: Dersim Armenians Re-Discovering Their Ancestral Roots". Massis Post. Yerevan. 7 February 2011. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
  33. ↑ Adamhasan, Ali (5 December 2011). "Dersimin Nobel adayları..." Adana Medya (in Turkish). Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  34. ↑ "Dersim Armenians back to their roots". PanARMENIAN.Net. 7 February 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
  35. ↑ "Tunceli'nin yüzde 90'ı dönme Ermeni'dir". İnternet Haber (in Turkish). 27 April 2013. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  36. ↑ "Cable: 06BAGHDAD3283_a". Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  37. ↑ Ismail, Mirza (2008-12-01). "The Kurdish Threat to The Yezidis of North Iraq". Assyrian International News Agency. Archived from the original on 2008-12-23. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  38. ↑ "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.
  39. ↑ "Iraq's Shabaks Are Being Oppressed By Kurds". Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  40. ↑ "Iraqi Turkmen take up arms in Kirkuk - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  41. ↑ "The Hero Yazidis Hope Will Save Them". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  42. ↑ Matt Cetti-Roberts. "Inside the Christian Militias Defending the Nineveh Plains — War Is Boring". Medium. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  43. ↑ "The Nineveh Plain Protection Units". Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  44. 1 2 Rebecca Collard / Makhmour. "Kurds and Sunni Arabs Fall Out in the Wake of ISIS Fight". TIME.com. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  45. ↑ "Cable: 06BAGHDAD3283_a". Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  46. ↑ "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.
  47. ↑ "The Hero Yazidis Hope Will Save Them". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  48. ↑ Matt Cetti-Roberts. "Inside the Christian Militias Defending the Nineveh Plains — War Is Boring". Medium. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  49. 1 2 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/14007-assyrians-need-protection-from-islamisation-and-kurdification
  50. ↑ https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/14007-assyrians-need-protection-from-islamisation-and-kurdification, Haaretz newspaper on 24 December 2010
  51. 1 2 "Assyrians of Iraq and the Nineveh Plain Conspiracy". Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  52. ↑ "Iraqi Kurdistan Must Ensure Minority Rights - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  53. ↑ "http://rudaw.net/english/opinion/21012016?ctl00_phMainContainer_phMain_ControlComments1_gvCommentsChangePage=3_20". rudaw.net. Retrieved 5 May 2016. External link in |title= (help)
  54. ↑ Parker, Ned; Coles, Isabel; Salman, Raheem (14/10/2014). [http:// uk.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-gharawi-spe- cial-report-idUSKCN0I30Z820141014 "Special Report: How Mosul fell - An Iraqi general disputes Baghdad's story"] Check |url= value (help). Reuters. Reuters. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  55. ↑ "The People of the Book and the Hierarchy of Discrimination". www.ushmm.org. Retrieved 2016-12-27.
  56. ↑ "Yezidi Language". Yezidis. Retrieved 2017-02-28.
  57. ↑ Ghanim, David. Iraq's Dysfunctional Democracy. p. 34.
  58. 1 2 "Assyrian, Yezidi and Shabak Villages Are Now Under Kurdish Control in North Iraq". Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  59. ↑ "Kurds Build Cemetery, Park in Heart of Assyrian Area in Turkey". Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  60. ↑ WELT AINA. According to Aboona, due to the very obscure history of the Kurds and the lack of historical sources, ""Kurds have been forced to look for what they wanted in others' nations sources" [such as Assyrian history]. "Most of the inhabitants of today's Kurdistan region were Christians and were later displaced or absorbed by Kurdish tribes. The scholarly consensus is that Kurdish tribes were living in nomadic and pastoral societys, living in their tents, divided into tribes and subtribes, and were "less disposed to adopt civilisation than the Persians or Turks". Between 1055 and 1536, many Assyrian worship centers in northern and northeastern ancient Assyrian "were raided and attacked by Kurds who killed, looted and enslaved the indigenous population." "During these times Kurds were moving into Assyrian regions." Aboona, H (2008). Assyrians and Ottomans: intercommunal relations on the periphery of the Ottoman Empire. Cambria Press. . ISBN 978-1-60497-583-3. page 89-94
  61. ↑ "Syria: PYD accused of changing demography in Manbij". Anadolu Agency. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
  62. ↑ "Kurds Accused of Changing Demography in Manbij". Antiwar.com. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
  63. ↑ "Report: U.S.-backed Kurdish rebels may have committed war crimes in Syria". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  64. ↑ "Thousands return to Manbij after IS militants flee city". Reuters. 14 August 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2016.

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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