Crucial Images in the Presentation of
a Kurdish National Identity: Heroes and

Patriots, Traitors and Foes
Martin Strohmeier

Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2003. 265 pages.

This book is primarily a history of the early Kurdish movement, from its
inception in the late nineteenth century to the 1930s. Yet, its distinctiveness
comes not from the Kurdish nationalists’ more publicized products, but from
its focus on the margins of their literary attempts. This study of failed nation-
alism “is concerned less with how and why Kurdish nationalism did or did
not ‘catch on’ than with the efforts made by [the] Kurdish elite to construct
a viable concept of Kurdish identity” (p. 1). In other words, the author’s
main concern is to identify how images of the Kurds were constructed and
represented, and how they evolved, over time, until the late 1930s. 

The book is divided into three parts, each of which corresponds to a dif-
ferent period that delineates differing self-images of the Kurds. Each part,
in turn, consists of six to eight chapters that provide an account of both key
events in the Kurdish movement’s history and literary works. Part 1,
“‘Awakening’ the Kurds,” deals with the movement’s background context
and early period by discussing its leaders, several publications, and organi-
zations. In this period, the Kurds’ self-definition was predominantly nega-
tive, and obstacles to modernization abounded: tribal structures, a nomadic
way of life, illiteracy, ignorance, and wildness. 

Yet the Turks were never the “inimical other,” except for such people as
the Ottoman sultan Abdulhamid and “a long line of Ottoman despots.” They
had a long list of prescriptions to awaken and literally “remake” the Kurds so
that they could be accepted by the nations of the civilized world. When the
Wilsonian principles granted their right to self-determination without this cul-
tural leap, some Kurds wanted a Kurdish state. However, the vast majority
mourned for the Treaty of Sevrés along with their Turkish brethren, despite
the fact that its articles established Kurdistan. This chapter also describes how
most Kurds joined forces with the Kemalists to drive out the occupiers, only
to be frustrated by the Kemalists’ subsequent assimilation projects.

Part 2, “The Kurdish Question in the Turkish Republic,” revolves
around developments during the early Republican period as well as the reac-
tions of prominent Kurdish leaders. Strohmeier covers new organizations in
exile, most strikingly Khoybun, together with Sheykh Sa’id and the Ararat

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106 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 22:1

Revolts, and letters to Turkish statesmen. The nationalists’ agenda involved
attempts to reinterpret what had happened and to undertake new roles for
themselves, as well as to influence the resistance in Turkey. The most strik-
ing transformation was the self-definition of the Kurds, which was assum-
ing a positive image (p. 103), thereby a full-fledged nationalist identity and
cause. The Kurds were now portrayed as morally superior people struggling
against their oppressor, the “evil Turks” (p. 103). Following the failed
Khoybun-sponsored Ararat revolt, the Kurdish movement also had its own
traitors. Dr. Sükrü Mehmed Sekban, in his La Question Kurde, disputed the
tenets of Kurdish nationalism that he had helped to propagate and the goals
that he had tried to realize. Despite several responses by his compatriots, he
had already given the Turkish state a valuable instrument (p. 124). 

Part 3 analyzes the following period, during which it became evident
that Kurdish dreams to achieve nationhood would not be realized in the
near future. As a result, Kurdish leaders dedicated themselves to imagina-
tive nation-building efforts (p. 137). Bedirkhans assumed an important role,
coupled with the enthusiasm and interests of French Orientalists, in tradi-
tional Kurdish culture. The idea was to ensure cultural survival and keep
foreign sympathy alive for the Kurdish cause. Kamuran Bedir Khan wrote
Der Adler von Kurdistan (The Eagle from Kurdistan), a militaristic novel
to pursue the former aim. Strohmeier aptly identifies the positive image of
the Kurds portrayed in this novel, as well as the entire cast of a nationalist
drama, and hence shows the role of images in the construction of a Kurdish
national identity as political developments unfold.

Overall, the author does a great service by spelling out the voice of a
subaltern identity. In particular, Turkish readers who are unfamiliar with the
Kurds’ history will find many details at least appalling. The book also gives
the different attitudes of Kurdish leaders in the face of changing Turkish
policies. Sadly enough, such racist Kurdish arguments as the superiority of
the Aryan race and the essentialization of the Turks as “evil Turks,” both of
which were devised to gain the West’s sympathy, would only perpetuate the
negative image of the entire Orient rather than help their cause. This is very
telling in terms of how people of the “Orient,” even for their secularist
aims, should frame their self-identity, for colonial images eventually also
hurt their people.

In addition to this case of failed nationalism, a second volume cover-
ing the later period of Kurdish nationalism until today could be promising.
How have the images of the past been used and transformed by the current
movement? More importantly, what explains the current secular–Marxist



Book Reviews 107

Kurdish movement’s success in mobilizing the largely religious Kurdish
community in Turkey? In this regard, a burning issue could be the Marxist
Kurdish dilemma with the recent American role in attaining the Kurdish
people’s dreams in Iraq.

This book’s implication for the study of nationalism raises a larger
question. We have seen the lack of an “inimical other” in the eyes of a mod-
ernizing elite who aspired to awaken its people in the former period, until
the Turkish Republic was replaced by a pro-western movement whose
“inimical other” appeared as the “evil Turk.” Ironically, this new face of the
movement sought Kurdish authenticity through such colonial images as
free unveiled women and the racial superiority of the Aryan Kurds. 

As a Turk with Islamic ideals, I found many lessons in this book for my
fellow Muslims who face the dilemma of self-criticism and resistance
against colonialism’s multiple faces. Muslims have the responsibility to
eliminate all traces of nationalism from their minds, while upholding the
cultural autonomy of their fellow Muslims. As Muslims in the diaspora
experience the challenges of cultural issues in their Islamic practices, I hope
that we can develop a more viable idea of ummah, one that will be able to
achieve real diversity in unity.

Halil Ibrahim Yenigün
Department of Politics

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia