The Kurds and the territorialization of minorityhood

Autor: Janet Klein
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Contemporary Iraq & the Arab World. 14:13-30
ISSN: 2515-8538
DOI: 10.1386/jciaw_00016_1
Popis: Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of Gyanendra Pandey’s work on the construction of minorityhood in India, this article explores how Kurds became a minority in the context of foreign intervention in the Ottoman Empire and how a new discourse surrounding ‘minorities’, citizenship and rights became elements in a wider discourse on modernity, civilization, sovereignty, identity, citizenship and power. This article ultimately traces the minoritization of the Kurds and how Kurds became minoritized after, but along with, Armenians. Of particular interest in the present study is how fresh thinking in the field of borderlands history can help illuminate other angles of the minoritization process, here, namely, its connection to territoriality. Thus, here I add to Pandey’s concept of ‘marked citizenship’ to reflect on what I call ‘marked territoriality’ as the companion feature in the process of making minorities. I also suggest that the case study I explore in this article may help us tweak the periodization of territoriality itself.
Databáze: OpenAIRE