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This book investigates the forgotten years of Kurdish nationalism in Iran, from the fall of the Kurdish republic to the advent of the Iranian revolution. An original and path-breaking investigation of the period, it sheds light not only on the historical specificity of the phenomenon of nationalism in exile, but also on the political processes and practices defining the development of Kurdish nationalism in the post-revolutionary era. Although nationalist landmarks such as the Kurdish republic in 1946 and the resurgence of the movement in the revolutionary conjuncture of 1978-79 have attracted the attention of historians and social scientists in recent years, little is known about the three decades of Kurdish nationalism in exile between these two events. This analysis draws on contemporary poststructuralist theory to question the concept of the minority in democratic and constitutional theory, arguing that it is an effect of the discursive linkage between sovereign power and the dominant ethnic-linguistic identity in the nation-state. This text will appeal to a wide academic audience ranging from the fields of Kurdish, Iranian and Middle East Studies to ethnicity, nationalism, government, and political science.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Modernity and the Emergence of Popular Politics in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhelat).- 2. The Restoration of Sovereign Order and the Kurdish Resistance.- 3. The Revival of the Nationalist Movement.- 4. Coup d'État and Exile.- 5. Armed Action in Rojhelat.- 6. The Rise of the Left and the Search for a New Identity.- 7. The Formation and Structure of the Komalay Shoreshgeri Zahmatkeshani Kurdistani Eran (The Revolutionary Association of the Toilers of Iranian Kurdistan).- 8. The Revolutionary Rupture and the Political Field in Kurdistan: A Brief Survey.- 9. Conclusions: Genealogy of Violence-Sovereign Domination and Armed Resistance in Rojhelat.
About the author
Abbas Vali is former Chair of Modern Social and Political Thought at the Department of Sociology, Bogazici University, Turkey.
