The post-Ottoman order in the Middle East: Mark Sykes and the complexity of the Kurdish question

Author(s):  
Mohammad Sabah Kareem
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Arie M. Kacowicz ◽  
Galia Press-Barnathan

The Middle East is often considered a war zone, and it rarely comes to mind as a region that includes cases of peaceful change. Yet several examples of peaceful change can be identified at different levels of analysis: international, regional, interactive, and domestic. This chapter first critically examines the impact of the broader global/systemic level of analysis on the prospects for peaceful change. It then moves to examine the regional level of analysis, exploring the Kurdish question and the Arab-Israeli conflict as a central axis of change, the role of the Arab League, and the case of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The chapter then examines the interactive, bilateral level of analysis, exploring peaceful territorial change in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, with reference to the successful Israeli-Egyptian negotiations of 1977–1979 and the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process since 1993. Next, it explores the domestic level of analysis, focusing on domestic politics, the nature of ruling coalitions, and the implications of the domestic turmoil of the Arab Spring. The last section draws conclusions from each level of analysis, with implications about the prospects for peaceful change in the region.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-110
Author(s):  
Metin Atmaca ◽  
Joost Jongerden ◽  
Sabri Ateş ◽  
Francis O’Connor ◽  
Marouf Cabi

Sebastian Maisel, ed., The Kurds: an Encyclopedia of Life, Culture, and Society, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2018, 376 pp., (978-1-4408-4256-6).Murat Yeşiltaş and Tuncay Kardaş, eds., Non-State Armed Actors in the Middle East: Geopolitics, Ideology, Strategy. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, 278 pp., (ISBN: 978-3-319-55287-3). Barbara Henning, Narratives of the History of the Ottoman-Kurdish Bedirhani Family in Imperial and Post-Imperial Contexts: Continuities and Changes. Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press, 2018, 756 pp., (ISBN: 9783863095512).Gareth Stansfield and Mohammed Shareef, eds, The Kurdish Question Revisited. London: C Hurst & Co., 2017, 712 pp., (ISBN-10: 0190687185; ISBN-13: 978-0190687182).Abbas Amanat, Iran: A Modern History, New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 2017, pp. 1000, (ISBN-10: 0300112548, ISBN-13: 978-0300112542).


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Mehmet Orhan

Kurdish studies are generally defined and conducted according to a topic or geographic location, namely, within the Middle East. Research procedures used to handle different issues as well as develop concepts and hypotheses have become important, since most of the current theories lack practical approaches when conducting studies on the Kurds. Relying on specific examples, published sources as well as the author’s personal fieldwork and insights, the article establishes a critique of bias, problems and solutions in research goals and methodologies in the field of Kurdish studies. The article underlines the importance of problem-oriented research, notably addressing the questions who, where, when, how and why. Furthermore, it shows the way in which the personality of the researcher, as well as the fluctuations and constraints encountered during the fieldwork, influence the methodology. Finally, it emphasises the practical and theoretical challenges dealt with by the researcher due to the political aspect of the Kurdish question, which encompasses orientalist, imperial, or national interests.


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