The politics of genocide recognition: Kurdish nation-building and commemoration in the post-Saddam era

Abstract

This article explores the genocide recognition politics (GRP) with a specific focus on Saddam Hussein's Anfal Campaigns (1986-1989) against the Kurdish population in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). In the context of a pending referendum on independence in the KRI, this study investigates the evolution of GRP in relation to secession, nation-building and commemoration as well as the social, political and economic drivers in the process. In addition, the study zeroes in on the internationalization of genocide recognition claims via diaspora lobbying and the KRG's bureaux of representation in Europe. The results are based on extensive fieldwork conducted with KRG representatives, diaspora entrepreneurs and other stakeholders between 2012 and 2016 in Europe and Iraqi Kurdistan. The KRG's genocide recognition claims are not explicitly associated with secession, but instead are employed to legitimize local rule by referencing collective trauma and shared victimhood. In this way, Anfal-as the 'chosen trauma'-has become a component of (local) nation-building mechanisms. Nevertheless, recognition claims can become instrumentalized for succession so long as the political circumstances in the region become favourable to Kurdish independence. In the diaspora context, the GRP serve to 2 establish a link to homeland through commemoration practices, but they also provide greater space for lobbying and transnational advocacy networking.

White Armband Day: From global social media campaign to transnational commemoration day

“…These public acts are the result of successful advocacy work for genocide recognition (cf. Baser and Toivanen, 2017) pursued by Bosniaks in North America fighting against genocide denial. They pay respect to the suffering of genocide survivors, who took up citizenship and insert their memories into the collective memory of the settlement society (Halilovich, 2015).…”

Memory and trauma in the Kurdistan genocide

“…Bahar Baser and Mari Toivanen, in their work “The politics of genocide recognition: Kurdish nation-building and commemoration in the post-Saddam era” (2017), explore the evolution of genocide recognition politics with regard to secession, nation-building and commemoration in the KRG, as well as the social, political and economic drivers of the process. They concluded that the genocide is employed to legitimize KRG rule by pointing to collective trauma and shared victimhood.…”

Navigating labels, seeking recognition for victimhood: Diaspora activism after mass‐atrocities

“…The memory of mass‐atrocities in the past can serve to explain the dispersal from the homeland, activate also the younger generation and motivate the preservation of tradition and language. The Great Irish Famine of the 1840s and Saddam Hussein's attacks on Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s are other “chosen traumas” around which diaspora identities have been formed (Baser & Toivanen, 2017; Mark‐Fitzgerald, 2013).…”