Amazon.com - Editorial Review
Dismantled in the aftermath of World War I, Kurdistan is little more than a lingering memory among millions of living Kurds, against whom are pitted the governments of Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. Susan Meiselas gathers historical documents, maps, charts, and photographs that document the changing fortunes of the Kurdish people in the 20th century; anthropologist Martin Van Bruinessen provides ethnographic commentary on this mountain tribe's way of life. Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History helps bring the memory of Kurdistan and the reality of the present situation to the attention of readers unfamiliar with the region. Read more...
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The Kurdish Predicament in Iraq is a political analysis of events in Iraq since 1992, based on the author's extensive travels in Kurdistan and interviews with Kurds who participated in the government. The book examines the personalities of Barzani and Talabani, the Iraqi opposition to Saddam, in which the Kurds were a leading force, the continuing Iraqi Kurdistan civil war that began in May 1994, and the resulting power vacuum in Iraqi Kurdistan. Gunter provides an objective analysis, with the hope that it will lead to a better understanding of both the continuing tragedy in Iraqi Kurdistan and the chances that exist for renewed hope.
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Amazon.com - Editorial Review
Their homeland was divided out from under them, scattering them across Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, and the former Soviet Union and denying them long-awaited acceptance and peace. Saddam Hussein gassed them; Stalin deported them; Turkey tried to rob them of their own language and today has them engaged in a bitter guerrilla war. Assassinated in Iran, suppressed in Syria--even among their own kind the Kurds are victims of betrayal as one Kurdish faction wages war on another. This is the bitter truth of journalist Jonathan C. Randal's book, After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness?, an account of his decades-long fascination with the Kurds.
After he was evicted from his apartment by a band of Kurdish mercenaries during the Lebanese civil war, there was no looking back for Randal; for almost 30 years he has roamed the Middle East following the Kurds' fate. In addition to accounts of these travels, Randall also delivers a scathing indictment of U.S. involvement in--and betrayal of--Kurdish interests. Randal details every breach of faith, starting with Henry Kissinger's acquiescence in the Shah of Iran's massacre of thousands of Kurdish fighters supported by the U.S. in their war against Iraq right up to the Bush administration's abandonment of a Kurdish uprising against Saddam Hussein it had initially encouraged. Whether it is the treachery of outsiders or the perfidious behavior of the Kurds themselves, After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? explicates the terrible history and bitter future of this ancient people. Read more...
Amazon.com - Editorial Review
After the month-long Gulf War of 1991, Iraq's Kurdish minority began to rise against Saddam Hussein's regime, which had in previous years engaged in genocidal campaigns, including assaults with chemical weapons, that killed as many as 180,000 people. United Nations peacekeeping forces helped established a "safe haven" in Iraqi Kurdistan (a section of northern Iraq that runs along the borders of Turkey and Iran) and elections were soon held. Teresa Thornhill, an English barrister who became concerned with the plight of the Kurds through an ex-partner's personal connection to Iraq, took two trips to the region in 1993 to see for herself how the efforts at democracy were progressing.
"The Iraqi Kurds claimed that they did not wish to establish an independent state," Thornhill writes. "Rather they wished to be part of a post-Saddam Iraq under a federal arrangement." But their efforts were hampered by the economic sanctions of the UN against Iraq, which affected them as well as Saddam, and Iraqi troops were poised at the edge of the border, ready to reclaim their land. In addition, rival Kurdish groups began engaging in violent conflict. Thornhill particularly concerns herself with the Kurdish women who survived Saddam's atrocities, but she encounters people from every level of Kurdish society. Her fascination with the region and its people is perceptible even in the restrained journalistic tone with which she recounts her journey. Read more...
Book Description
After World War I, Britain's geographical expansion was echoed by a decline in power. In Kurdistan, where the dwindling of the British Empire was played out against a background of world politics, Wallace Lyon was Provincial Administrator and Administrative Inspector. His job was to protect the Kurds from Iraq and safeguard British imperial interests. His memoir illuminates the complex relationship between Britain and the rest of the world through the microcosm of Kurdistan. Read more...
Book Description
In this collection, scientists who are employed within the regions of the Middle East, Turkey, and Kurdistan try to make different facets of the Kurdish conflict transparent and select aspects of the Kurdish conflict to analyze. The editors goal is to point out the baselines and the complexities of the confliict and to assess its modifications and chances for a peaceful resolution. Read more...
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An Important theoretical contribution to the area of refugee studies, this book is based on ethnographic fieldwork among Kurdish refugees in the UK and Finland. The author has uniquely combined empirical evidence and contemporary sociological theories of diasporas and transnationalism. Vivid ethnographic material is used to introduce new arguments about the process of integration among refugees. The author argues that a study of refugee communities needs to take into account the refugees'... Read more...
Book Description
Using the Turks and Kurdish communities in Germany as a case study, this book offers a unique analysis of tans-state political loyalties and activities of transnational communities and their political ramifications at both national and international levels. Read more...
