HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF THE KURDS pdf download

Historical Dictionary of The Kurds by Michael M. Gunter

HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF THE KURDS

He says,

In today’s world of sovereign states, there is not much tolerance for a “people” without a state, even when the people is larger than the populations of many states.

This applies most decidedly to the Kurds, some 25 million strong, depending on the count, who are divided among three large multi people states in the Middle East and a growing diaspora in Europe and North America.

This is their first misfortune.

The second is that the Kurds developed a sense of nationhood too late, after the region had been carved up, which only frightened the countries they lived in traditionally.

The reaction was more often repression, if not outright warfare, rather than accommodation and provision of reasonable autonomy.

But the third, and worst, misfortune is that the Kurds, while recognizing one another as branches of the same family, are still deeply divided in their allegiances and sometimes fight one another more bitterly than they fight those who dominate them.

Thus, while the situation can improve for the Kurdish people and the fall of Sadam Hussein is exceptionally promising, there is always a cause to fear a reversal and new setbacks.

Writing about a “people” is not as easy as writing about a state.

It is necessary, first, to show where the people resided at various times in the past, what holds them together and what divides them, and how they manage to survive as a coherent group in a world of states.

Only then can one concentrate on the persons, places, and events that mark their history or consider how they survive economically, maintain privileged social relations with one another and relate to outsiders, and preserve their culture, language, and religion