Kurdish History Textbooks: Building a Nation-State within a Nation-State

Abstract

This article reviews the history and social studies textbooks used in Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) schools in terms of their contribution to the construction of the Kurdish/Kurdistani national identity. The article also examines how the KRG's views of the Other are expressed in these textbooks in order to reveal the discourses, categories of differences, assumptions, and views about these concepts, as well as the attempts made through the textbooks to answer the question of what it means to be a Kurd or a Kurdistani. As with nation-building projects elsewhere, KRG school textbooks are part of a strategy to create an "imagined community," and are intended to strengthen the process of creating a Kurdish/Kurdistani nation-state within an Iraqi nation-state.

The fiction of nationalism: Newroz TV representations of Kurdish nationalism

“…It does, but no more so than any other nationalist project. In fact, recent research illustrates how textbooks created by the KRG create a fiction of the nation on a smaller scale (Kirmanji, 2014) and how events such as the Anfal attacks on Halabja are interpreted and contested for the very same reasons (Watts, 2012).…”

The potential of history textbooks and curriculum reform in Iraqi Kurdistan within a conflict transformation frame: dealing with the past from a processual and dynamic perspective

“…In that sense, the KRG's full competence over education in the Kurdistan region entails risks and opportunities at the same time. While Kurdish history textbooks tend to serve a political agendabuilding a nation state within a nation state, according to Sherko Kirmanj (2014) -I have shown that, on the one hand, the elite discourse about the final position of Kurds within the Iraqi state is not clear yet, and, on the other hand, some developments stemming from different levels (political, grass roots, international) might provide the impetus for a de-escalation of conflict. This should include a preliminary de-victimization of collective memories by the KRG and the central government, or, at least, a new transformation of the parameters of the conflict through curriculum reform.…”

The bifurcated trajectory of nation formation in Kurdistan: Democratic confederalism, nationalism, and the crisis of capitalist modernity

“…Such as in working towards a national educational model(Kirmanj, 2017) or the establishment of a diplomatic tradition to represent foreign policy (Abbas Zadeh & Kirmanj, 2017).9 The objective here is not a full assessment of the broader political debate in the KRG around independence referendum but rather to focus on the extent of nation-formation practice.…”

“…8 8 Such as in working towards a national educational model (Kirmanj, 2017) or the establishment of a diplomatic tradition to represent foreign policy (Abbas Zadeh & Kirmanj, 2017). …”