- \r\n \t
- The Kurds currently reside in Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey, but they have not established an internationally-recognized state based on their national identity.<\/li>\r\n \t
- The Jews were a stateless nation until 1948 when they declared Israel a state, and immediately gained recognition from the U.S., followed by the rest of the world.<\/li>\r\n \t
- Palestinians are currently members of a stateless nation, although the sovereignty of Palestine has been recognized by 135 member countries of the U.N. The term \u201cState of Palestine\u201d is only used officially by Sweden.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n
<\/a>Key Concept: Stateless Nation<\/h3>\r\n
Various cultural communities came to consider themselves nations and were also able to establish a modern nation-state based on that identity. Many, however, never established their own nation state. They are thus called \u201cstateless nations\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nMany of the nation states of the Middle East formed their national consciousness after the establishment of their state, however. The national identity in that case is formed based on a recent institution, rather than one which organically developed over a long period of time. States that developed their national consciousness after the formation of the state do not have a national history that ties to a unique cultural community. For example, Arab-majority countries of the Middle East all share Arab identity, language and heritage, although they have very different national identities.\r\n\r\nThe new nation state system also created a situation in which many cultural communities in the Middle East became underrepresented minorities. When a community lacks representation in a country\u2019s system of government and\/or cultural definition of citizenship, it is sometimes referred to as \u201cminoritization.\u201d \u201cMinoritize\u201d is a verb used in the social sciences to critically describe the process which creates inequity between groups in a given country (see \"Key Concept\" below).\r\n
\r\n<\/a>Key Concept: Minoritization<\/h3>\r\n\u201cMinoritize\u201d is a verb used in the social sciences to critically describe the processes which create inequity between groups in a given country. As a verb it emphasizes the historical nature of inequity and a phenomenon that is continually reinforced in a country. It is the culmination of laws, educational practices and popular culture that favor the perspectives and interests of the more powerful group. It refers to the relationship between the dominant group, which identifies with national identity and is more supported by the country\u2019s political, social and economic systems, and less powerful communities whose interests are not as well-served by them. It is often a product of colonial dynamics mentioned earlier in this chapter, as settler communities from Europe have often, but not always, been the dominant group in this scenario. For a more detailed explanation, see: Sensoy & Diangelo (2012).\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nIn the Middle East, the formation of nation states created numerous minority groups in each country, whose cultural, linguistic or religious identity doesn\u2019t match with the official nationality of the country. The examples are too numerous to list. The key aspect to be aware of is that the identity of the most powerful group of the country \u2013 which is usually also the majority group but not always \u2013 doesn\u2019t represent the entire population. For example in Iran the majority identity is Persian-speaking, Shi\u2019i Muslim. There are also numerous Kurdish, Arab, Azeri, Assyrian, Jewish, Iranians, among others, and each may be speakers of a different language, and\/or adherents to a different religious tradition.\r\n\r\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/religionsofmiddleeast1\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/135\/2016\/07\/Kurdish-inhabited_area_by_CIA_1992_box_inset_removed.jpg\")
\r\n\r\nKurdish populations are spread between four countries (Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran) in all of which they live as (sometimes persecuted) minorities.\r\nThe Kurds are an Indo-European people whose history predates the arrival of the Turks and Arabs in their portion of Middle East.\u00a0 They practice Sunni Islam but are linguistically and culturally distinct from Turks and Arabs.\u00a0 Nationalists in the countries where Kurds live tend to see Kurdish cultural identity as a threat to their local nationalism.\u00a0 \u00a0In Turkey, which has the largest Kurdish minority in the region (close to 15 million), the government has long denied the reality of a separate Kurdish identity.\u00a0 Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, referred to the Kurds as \"mountain Turks.\"\u00a0 Kurdish attempts to achieve autonomy have been ruthlessly suppressed in all four Middle Eastern countries where they dwell.\u00a0 At different times, the Turkish government has bombed Kurdish areas and razed their villages.\u00a0 In 1988, towards the end of the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein's military dropped poison gas on the Kurdish town of Halabja, killing some 5,000 people.<\/div>","rendered":"It is important to understand the dynamics of national identity for two main reasons:<\/p>\n
1) to understand the immense cultural diversity of the Middle East,<\/p>\n
2) to understand issues of inequity and power imbalances,<\/p>\n
3) to acknowledge that many of the conflicts of the Middle East are\u00a0better understood with an accounting\u00a0of national identity issues.<\/p>\n
The map of the Middle East is diverse already with Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish and Persian linguistically defining the political borders \u2013 not the monolithic image most people have of the Middle East as an exclusively Arabic-speaking place. However, within those political boundaries, there is even more diversity to be grappled with, and understood. This section gives an overview of national identities and how they formed in the Middle East, and how they differ from European and global views on national identity. It also touches upon the issues of inequity that national identity formation often creates.<\/p>\n
The importance of national consciousness, government based on national identity, and individual citizenship, has a historical explanation related to power struggles in Europe. The Pope became equivalent to an emperor in Western Europe, because when the Western Roman Empire fell to the Germanic invaders, there was a power vacuum which the Bishop of Rome (now known as the Pope) came to fill. One result of this was a power struggle between \u201csecular\u201d forces, i.e., princes and local rulers, and the Church. The Treaty of Westphalia in the 17th Century ended the Thirty Years War and created many of the boundaries in Europe which remain definitive \u2013 it also gave the right for each territory to choose its own form of worship. It was a defeat for the Church, but a victory for increased individualism in regard to spirituality and group belonging. Print media played a critical role in the formation of national consciousness as a form of group belonging: reading literature in one\u2019s own vernacular had a powerful effect (Anderson, 2006).<\/p>\n
In the Middle East the history of national consciousness differs a great deal from that of Europe. \u00a0There were always concepts of cultural community, somewhat synonymous with nation, or people, but national identities were not defined by a particular state. \u00a0To take an example from Arabic speaking communities of the Middle East. \u00a0A nation, or a people, is usually referred to as\u00a0qawm<\/i> in Arabic. \u00a0Thus, qawmia<\/em> is usually how the word nationalism is translated.<\/p>\n
Likewise, the word umma<\/i>, which means community and is used by Muslims to refer to their global community, is also sometimes translated as \u201cnation\u201d. \u00a0Traditionally, cultural communities were also based on a particular religious tradition. \u00a0National identity is therefore a complicated topic in the context of the Middle East. \u00a0For the sake of this discussion, however, it is important to know that various cultural communities, whether they called themselves qawm<\/em> or umum<\/em> (plural for umma<\/em>), came to consider themselves nations. At the same time, many of those did not possess a state of their own, and some continue to be without a state. They are thus \u201cstateless nations\u201d.<\/p>\n
Examples of stateless nations:<\/p>\n
- \n
- The Kurds currently reside in Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey, but they have not established an internationally-recognized state based on their national identity.<\/li>\n
- The Jews were a stateless nation until 1948 when they declared Israel a state, and immediately gained recognition from the U.S., followed by the rest of the world.<\/li>\n
- Palestinians are currently members of a stateless nation, although the sovereignty of Palestine has been recognized by 135 member countries of the U.N. The term \u201cState of Palestine\u201d is only used officially by Sweden.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n