On the Outside Looking In: A Kurdish Studies ConferenceA joint initiative between Soran University and the University of Central Florida

January 27, 2015University of Central Florida, Orlando, Cape Florida Ballroom

Organized by Tyler Fisher (University College London and Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford) and Nahro Zagros (Soran University),with special thanks to Jessica Gagnon and Jocelyn Figueroa

of UCF’s Global Perspectives Office as well as the Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd Program for Strategic Research and Studies

On the Outside Looking In: A Kurdish Studies Conference

A joint initiative between Soran University and the University of Central Florida

The study of Kurdistan and its peoples encompasses topics as timely as today’s headlines and as timeless as the most ancient civilizations. This is the first confer-

ence in a pair of collaborative, interdisciplinary forums organized by Soran Univer-sity and UCF. Papers address a wide range of Kurdistan’s social, political, security,

linguistic, historical, and cultural dimensions.

“What Was Lost in the Sinjar” is an exhibition of photographs by Robert Leutheuser taken in the Sinjar region of north-western Iraq during the past five years of his visits to the Yezidi communities. The Sinjar region was the home of the Yezidis prior to the August 2014 genocidal attacks by terrorists who self-identify as the Islamic State. It is estimated that 5,000 Yezidis were killed during the attack and subsequent occupation, 2,500 Yezidi women taken prisoner, and 400,000 escaped to become refugees. Although the Islamic State has recently suffered significant military defeats, many, if not most, of the Yezidi refugees say they can never return to the Sinjar. For those who do, life can never be the same. Mr. Leutheuser is an independent photographer who has traveled extensively among the Kurdish peoples over the past fifteen years. Soran University and he agreed that this conference would be a valuable opportunity to help attendees and others better understand the fabric of the Sinjari Yezidi communities that have suffered so greatly. The exhibit will consist of black and white photographs, as well as a more extensive digital display of the Sinjari Yezidis. A separate digital display of Kurdish proverbs matched with Mr. Leutheuser’s photographs will also be shown.

More photographs can be seen on Mr. Leutheuser’s website, www.beyondbordersphotography.com.

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Welcome from the President of Soran University, Dr Muslih Mustafa

A warm welcome to all of you. Many have traveled long distances to be here for this joint initiative between the University of Central Florida and Soran University, On the Outside Looking In: A Kurdish Studies Conference. I can guarantee that your journeys will have been worthwhile and you will not be disappointed by this ground-breaking conference. It is the first conference in a pair of collaborative, interdisciplinary forums organized by Soran University and UCF. Today’s papers and discussions will address a wide range of Kurdis-tan’s social, political, security, linguistic, historical, and cultural dimensions.

The study of Kurdistan, its history, culture, and people, has been a fast grow-ing field of study throughout the world, even before the recent tragic events

in the Middle East brought the Kurds to the forefront of international consciousness. The Kurdistan Region of Iraq has led the way in promoting a democratic, egalitarian society, with the Kurdistan Regional Government determined to bring the region into the realms of a modern and economically viable society. To do this they recognize that higher education in particular must be brought into the modern world of scientific and academic development. International collaborations and partnerships are a vital part of Soran University’s strategy to fulfill these aims; and this conference is an important step in promoting understanding of the Kurds and the Kurdish regions of the Middle East to students in the United States, as well as giving Kurdish students and researchers opportunities to explore a different culture and method of study. In addition, this first joint initiative of what I hope will be many collaborations between Soran University and UCF is designed to educate and benefit students and staff of both universities.

Soran University is a young but vibrantly expanding university situated in one of the most beautiful areas of the Kurdistan Region, approximately two hours northeast of the capital Erbil, itself a city of profound historical importance and the seat of the Kurdistan Regional Government. Currently, we have five faculties: Science, Engineering, Law, Arts, and Education. Plans for a new campus are well underway, and there has been a steady formation of new departments and new buildings since the university was inaugurated in 2009, with new student accommodation nearly ready for occupation. We are active-ly developing international partnerships such as our link with UCF and aim ultimately to become one of the leading univer-sities of the Middle East.

I hope that you all enjoy today’s experience and that perhaps we will see some of you visiting us at Soran University before too long.

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9:00 Registration

9:30 Welcome and Opening Remarks, President Muslih Mustafa (Soran University). John Bersia (UCF), Michael Gunter (Tennessee Tech University)

10:00 Kamal Y. Odisho (Soran University) and Muslih Mustafa (Soran University), “The Exodus of Christian and Aramaic Peoples from Mesopotamia: A Last Safe Haven in Kurdistan?”

10:30 Coffee/tea break in photo exhibit area (photographer Robert Leutheuser will give a brief explana- tion about the exhibit, “What Was Lost in the Sinjar”)

11:00 Metin Atmaca (The Social Sciences University of Ankara), “Change and Continuity in the Per- ception of Kurdish Lands in Western and Eastern Literature”; Farhad Shakely (Uppsala University, Sweden ), “Mala-ye Jazîrî: a Sufi poet, a Naqshbandi Sufi”; Muli Amaye (Soran University), “Alternative Narratives: Women and Nation”

12:30 Luncheon

1:00 Luncheon Keynote, Hamit Bozarslan (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales), “When States and Societies Fall Apart: Kurdistan and the Middle Eastern ‘State of Violence’”

2:00 Alexandra Ioannidou (Soran University and University of Essex) “Language Choice in Education in the KRG: A Linguistic or a Political Decision?”; Niaz Muhsin Aziz (University of Texas at Austin), “Mitigation in Kurdish”

3:00 Break

On the Outside Looking In: A Kurdish Studies ConferenceTuesday, January 27, 2015

at the University of Central Florida, OrlandoAll events take place in UCF’s Cape Florida Ballroom.

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3:15 Christian Sinclair (University of Arizona), “Infusing Media Rhythms into the Diasporic Space: Kurds and Media Production in the US”; Ipek Demir (University of Leicester), “Translating Kurdishness in Diaspora”; Libby Johnston (University of Essex), “LGBT Activism in Kurdistan: Achievements, Shortcom- ings, and Barriers”

4:45 Break

5:00 Wietse van den Berge (Leiden University), “PKK 2.0: The Need to Reconsider Attitudes To- wards the Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat (PYD)”; Juliette Duclos-Valois (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales), “Occupy Sinjar: The Compromises Tied to Access to Water Resources”; Peshawa A. Muhammed (University of Sulaimani), “U.S. Policy Options for the Future of (Iraqi) Kurdistan"

6:30 Conference Dinner

7:00 Dinner Plenary, Steven A. Cook (Hasib Sabbagh Fellow for Middle East Studies, Council on Foreign Relations), “Kurdistan, Iraq, and the Emerging Middle East” 9:00 End

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The Exodus of Christian and Aramaic Peoples from Mesopotamia: A Last Safe Haven in Kurdistan?Kamal Y. Odisho and Muslih Mustafa Soran University

Repetitive cycles of ethno-religious and political persecution have threatened the millennia-long existence of minori-ties in Mesopotamia: Kurds, Christians, Yezidis, and Sabians. The systematic persecution has negatively impacted demographic growth, economic development, social and political integration, and self-esteem, which has ultimately produced a society that is continually forcing its inhabitants into “extinction” or exodus en masse. Iraqi society lost its Jews in the 1950s, and is now on the brink of losing its Christians, Sabians, and Yezidis forever. The Iraqi Christians, Aramaic in origin and autochthonous inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia for millennia, consider themselves the right-ful descendants of the Chaldeans and Assyrians of Mesopotamia. Their numbers after the establishment of the Iraqi State in 1922, following the Sykes-Picot agreement and the decision of the League of the Nations, eventually reached 3.1% of the total population (Iraqi census of 1947). In the seven decades since, the Christian population has declined to a few hundred thousand and to less than 1.8% of the population. The cycles of persecution have proved to be very effective; the last onslaught, from 2003 to the present, has been particularly intense and focused.

Kurdistan, the native land of Christians who lived for centuries with the Kurds, is now the last resort for them. Chris-tians from the major cities of Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul, with their faith and lives under severe threat, have sought refuge northward in Kurdistan. Will it be a final safe haven for them? The recent rhetoric of the Kurdish leadership sends a strong message that it should be.

Change and Continuity in the Perception of Kurdish Lands in Western and Eastern LiteratureMetin AtmacaSocial Sciences University of Ankara

Scholarship on Kurdish history discusses the boundaries of Kurdistan in terms of its geographical limits and political frontiers. Be it geographical or political, most of these works are more or less in agreement concerning the contours of the Kurdish lands. While almost every modern study on the region elaborates on the boundaries of Kurdistan, the scholarship is silent about different versions of the name, such as Kurdistan and Kourdistan, as well as the changing geographical boundaries and changing center of Kurdistan through the centuries. In this paper I shall not discuss where Kurdistan is and what the borders of the region are; numerous sources and maps already give enough information about this. The question I am interested in here is what and where the Ottomans, Iranians, and Westerners meant when they referred to Kurdistan before the modern period, especially during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

ABSTRACTS(by order of presentation in the conference)

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Mala-ye Jazîrî: a Sufi poet, a Naqshbandi SufiFarhad ShakelyUppsala University, Sweden

The main characteristic of the poetry of the Kurdish Sufi poet Malâ-yê Jazîrî (1570-1640) is that it is almost entirely a Sufi poetry. Contrary to many other Classical Kurdish poets, Jazîrî did not write such love poetry that could be inter-preted as poetry for the love of a human being, or a Majâzî love poetry, as it is called in Sufi literature. This aspect in Jazîrî’s poetry has been indicated and thoroughly studied by the editors and researchers of his poetry. One can find in the poetry of Jazîrî most of the ideas and topics that are dealt with by other Sufi poets. The prevailing idea is, undoubt-edly, the doctrine of Wahdat al-Wujûd (the Unity of Being) of Muhyî ad-Dîn Ibn ‘Arabî (560/1165-638/1240) and its poetical reflections. Moreover, studying Jazîrî’s poetry, one can infer that the poet belonged to the Naqshbandi Sufi order that was newly established in Kurdistan. What still remains a matter of uncertainty is the branch of the Naqsh-bandiyya to which he belonged and the Sheikh, the master, who guided him.

The present paper is an approach to the above-mentioned questions. It tries to provide answers that are based on indica-tions found in Jazîrî’s poetry and on facts in the political and religious history of Kurdistan.

Alternative Voices: Women and NationMuli AmayeSoran University

Loomba (2005) states that “National fantasies, be they colonial, anti-colonial or post-colonial, play upon the connec-tions between women, land or nations.” This presentation explores the role of Kurdish women in nation building in Kurdistan following its years of suppression and abuse. Beginning in 2013, the research project Many Women, Many Words gathered the stories of older women who survived Saddam Hussein’s Al-Anfal campaign. If women are the keepers of tradition, this project sought to uncover alternative stories to the heroic depictions of Kurdish resistance in the mountains, showing how women supported their children, endured great privations and maintained family struc-tures. The collected narratives contribute to creating a national sense of existence that logs and examines a difficult past through the lens of the present. This research project sees creative writing playing a fundamental catalytic and inter-pretive role in human understanding. As Sheingold (2010) writes, “the literary imagination has long been recognized as capturing the spirit and the soul of the times.” In a small way this project attempts to do that through the voices of Kurdish women. This presentation will feature photographs from the project, an account of its multi-lingual methodol-ogy, and excerpts from the stories themselves.

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Language Choice in Education in the KRG: A Linguistic or a Political Decision?Alexandra Ioannidou (Soran University and University of Essex), Jaffer Sheyholislami (Carleton University), and Re-been Rasheed (University of Duhok)

Although most, if not all, nation-building projects involve language policy and planning (LPP), the KRG is not unique in that it does not have an explicit LPP. Lack of a clear LPP in education, however, could have serious pedagogical, socio-economic, and socio-political consequences (Halliday 2007; Ferguson 2006). In the absence of clear language policies, researchers have advocated investigation into attitudes about language (Spolsky 2005). This is the first empir-ical study looking into students’ perceptions of the language of instruction in four key locations within the KRG. The choice of the Kurdish variety used in formal education—as elicited via questionnaires from eleventh-grade students—is predicated on the current variety used at school, i.e., Bahdini or Sorani in different areas, respectively. Other factors, like native language, languages spoken at home, or the teachers’ language do not seem decisively to affect students’ preferences. This hypothesis is mainly supported by students’ attitudes in areas along the isogloss between predomi-nantly Sorani and Bahdini regions, where the preferred language is different from the one students speak natively. This phenomenon logically raises questions regarding the level of students’ comprehension of their textbooks. Indeed, 61% of the participants claim that they face “some difficulties” (compared to “no difficulties”) in understanding the lan-guage of the textbooks. Such findings suggest that students’ preferences are heavily driven by regional language policy and, concomitantly, political spheres of influence. Additionally, the levels of comprehension we elicited call for a serious effort in introducing bilingual programs in certain areas in order to increase students’ performance and enhance their attitudes towards Kurdish varieties.

ReferencesFerguson, G. 2006. Language planning and education. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Halliday, M. A. K. 2007 [1960]. Linguistics and its application to language teaching. In Language and Education, Vol. 9 in The collected works of M. A. K. Halliday, ed. J. J. Webster, 135-173. London: Continuum.Spolsky, B. 2005. Is language policy applied linguistics? In Directions in applied linguistics, eds. Bruthiaux et al., 26-38. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Mitigation in KurdishNiaz Muhsin Aziz University of Texas at Austin

This paper is about the pragmatics of mitigation in Kurdish, the linguistic strategies that attenuate face-related acts such as making/refusing a request by taking contextual clues into consideration. Mitigation is highly relevant to politeness phenomenon. The paper seeks to address the following questions. What is mitigation? How does it vary in Kurdish according to social factors (power, social distance, and social positions) and what functions does it have? What are the various linguistic (politeness) strategies employed by Kurdish speakers in mitigated speeches?The data are drawn from a Kurdish drama, Saya, broadcast in 2013 and comprising 29 episodes of about 45 minutes each. Generally, this drama deals with competition between upper and lower-class socio-economic groups. For the purposes of this paper, I selected and encoded ten episodes (about 450 minutes) in order to exaine mitigating linguis-tic strategies. The hypothesis, then, is that when it comes to negotiating power in terms of socio-economic rights and duties between these two groups, there should be some associated linguistic differences (markers) between them, such as mitigation, that is identical to the lower class. This paper investigates this hypothesis.8

Infusing Media Rhythms into the Diasporic Space: Kurds and Media Production in the USChristian SinclairUniversity of Arizona

Kurdish-Americans number some 30-40,000 and their communities are scattered across the United States. The first wave of immigration began in the mid-1970s and peaked during the early 1990s. The two largest Kurdish communities developed in Nashville, TN, and San Diego, CA. However, today, the Kurdish community in the greater Washington, DC metro area, despite its much smaller size, seems to have taken on the role of the Kurdish “media hub” with many journalists, media producers, writers, and others engaged in the production and dissemination of media related to Kurd-ish issues in Kurdistan, as well as about the Kurdish-American community itself. Kurds are working with well-estab-lished news agencies, and also developing new print (Kurdish Review, est. 2011) and digital (DC Kurds on Facebook) means of diffusion.

Migrant communities often attempt to re-territorialize space in their new environment with the “infusion of that place with one’s own rhythms” (Karim 2003). Members of diasporic communities exist in the physical territoriality of their adopted homeland, but the “rhythms” keep them engaged to their place of origin. One important means of engagement is through media. Media are an important means of cultural maintenance, community building, and influence. This paper, through interviews with Kurdish-Americans directly engaged in the production and dissemination of Kurdish media, will examine the role of Kurdish media production in the DC area. How do the media keep the Kurdish diaspo-ra in the United States engaged and connected to life in the Kurdish heartlands of the Middle East? How do the media help form bonds within the Kurdish communities in the DC/Virginia area and elsewhere across the US? What roles do these members of the Kurdish diaspora play in achieving those goals? And how do they see their work in terms of community and identity formation?

Translating Kurdishness in DiasporaIpek DemirUniversity of Leicester

Kurds have been present in Europe since the 1980s (see for example, Griffiths 2002; Wahlbeck 1999). They are now a sizable community, and a significant component of many vibrant neighborhoods of European cities. The movement of Kurds from Turkey has been fuelled by the suppression of their cultural and linguistic rights and their forceful displace-ment from Kurdish villages, as well as their facing multiple forms of deprivation and exclusion in Turkey. They now run transnational community organizations, businesses, and satellite channels; they are increasingly active and involved in the social, cultural, and political life of Europe (Demir 2012; Demir 2014 in press). Indeed, as Hassanpour & Mojab (2004: 222) also state, “the Kurds of Turkey have maintained a hegemonic presence in [European] diaspora politics.” This is because Kurds in Europe have created an alternative diasporic space, which has turned them into active transna-tional agents, enabling them to challenge and disrupt Turkey’s construction of the Kurdish problem, and tell an alterna-tive story about Kurdishness. Gaining rights in Turkey and subverting the hegemonic discourses about Kurds in Turkey rests, partly, on how well the Kurdish diaspora can build transnational networks in Europe (and elsewhere) and thus mobilize to gain influence and recognition. Moreover, the translation of Kurdish culture, rebellion, and struggle (both to Europeans and to their second and third generation) and the transnational battles of Kurds are closely interrelated. My paper will examine such processes by discussing the findings of my recent ethnographic research.

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LGBT Activism in Kurdistan: Achievements, Shortcomings, and BarriersLibby Johnston (University of Essex) and Jedidiah Anderson (Indiana University Bloomington)

This paper discusses the LGBT movement across Kurdistan—the Kurdish inhabited areas of Turkey, Iraq and Iran—since its visibility in 2010 (Syria could not be included in this study, as the researchers could not gain access to it due to the current conflict). This research aims to uncover whether the public appearance and activism of LGBT Kurds has led to a notable move towards the acceptance of LGBT rights in the Kurdistan region and, if so, to what extent. It concludes by arguing that, as a result of the previous oppression and persecution of the Kurdish people, LGBT activists have been able to establish a voice within the minority population. At the same time, however, Kurdish culture, norms, religion, and traditions limit if not hinder the acceptance of the LGBT movement. This research is drawn from inter-views with Kurdish LGBT activists and individuals, as well as secondary academic sources, news reports, and articles on the topic of LGBT rights and activism in Kurdistan.

PKK 2.0: The Need to Reconsider Attitudes Towards the Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat (PYD)Wietse van den BergeLeiden University

Now that Syria’s Kurds have created a de facto autonomous political entity, no international actor has established for-mal relations or offered any other kind of support to the most important political party inside Syrian Kurdistan so far. A commonly accepted explanation for this is the party’s affiliation with a terrorist organization. Based upon the party’s ideology, doctrine, and behavior (in the context of the Syrian Civil War and the rise of the Islamic State) that assump-tion proves to be false.

Occupy Sinjar: The Compromises Tied to Access to Water ResourcesJuliette Duclos-ValoisÉcole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales

This paper will cover the compromises that tie the mainly peaceful population of the Sinjar province of Iraq to the forces remaining close to the Kurdish Democratic Party, whose priority is to maintain the district under their control. The aim of this paper is to shed light on a rising paradox: the “problem of water” acting as the starting point of an exchange between the government and the “public” peasant, even though resolution would not imply resolution of the water problem.

We shall suggest an insight into the mechanisms tied to the progressive rise of a “public,” as used by John Dewey. How do the peasants of Sinjar problematize “what is happening to them” leading to the rise of a community of com-mon interest, as yet embryonic? How they perceive their situation in respect to the power in place in the area? What meanings can be given to the compromises that tie the population and the power in place together for access to water resources? The paper first explains the production conditions of this study, and the link appearing between the production of the

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study and a hypothesis enabling a formalization of the interpretation. Subsequently, the paper sets out to resolve the precariousness of the underlying balances between this “public” and the power in place: resolving the “problem of wa-ter” through mechanisms of symbolic and monetary compensation, guaranteeing a relay for the occupation of the land. I draw from the results (and mishaps) of ethnographic fieldwork carried out over a two-tier period in the Sinjar district, between September 2013 and April 2014.

U.S. Policy Options for the Future of (Iraqi) KurdistanPeshawa A. MuhammedUniversity of Sulaimani

Kurdish attempts in Iraq—and indeed in the greater Middle East—to augment their autonomy or even achieve indepen-dence represent one of the sources of conflict and instability in the region. The fact that the Kurds are the largest nation in the world without their own independent state could alone be said to have kept these aspirations alive. This paper suggests that Arab-Kurdish tensions in post-2003 Iraq and the uncertainties surrounding the future of Iraq as a unified state have made the prospects for Kurdish independence brighter. Rising expectations with regard to the likelihood of a Kurdish state and the complex role the U.S. continues to play remain crucial to the stability of the Middle East.In this paper, the policy options of the U.S. vis-à-vis the future of Iraqi Kurdistan will be discussed. The study will first look at the current federal arrangement in Iraq. It will examine its origins, its durability, and its viability as far as Amer-ica’s interests are concerned. It then provides a discussion of a centralised unitary Iraq and its impact on regional stabil-ity, and will consider both Kurdish aspirations for self-rule and America’s desire to maintain the status quo in Iraq. The paper will finally explore the possibility of an independent Kurdish state arising from Iraq, in light of the recent events in Iraq and the Arab world and the changing nature of America’s alliances in the region.

Towards an Interoperable Kurdish Keyboard LayoutRanjbar Balisane (University of Oxford), Yadgar Hamadameen (Soran University), Hewa Balisane (Soran University)

poster presentation

There are no official, up-to-date Kurdish keyboard standards. There are two dominant types of keyboard layouts devel-oped by hobbyists that are widely used; one of them is derived from the IBM PC Arabic keyboard layout and the other is derived from the QWERTY keyboard layout. However, neither of these layouts are optimized for typing speed and interoperability when typing Aramaic or Latin scripts.

In order to gain a better understanding this research explores the historical origins of Kurdish writing and analyzes the frequency of Kurdish letters in written documents online, which has not previously been explored. On these grounds, the paper suggests an optimized keyboard layout for speed and interoperability for Kurdish.

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Front Cover Image: One Crowded Hour of Glorious Life Is Worth an Age without a Name (Kurdish proverb), Kurdish shepherd in the Kurd Dag area, Syria (2007), photograph by Robert Leutheuser