Jaffer Sheyholislami - Kurdish Identity, Discourse, and New Media (Palgrave MacMillan Series in International Political Communication)

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN SERIES IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

Series editor: Philip Seib, University of Southern California (USA)

From democratization to terrorism, economic development to conflict resolution, global political dynamics are affected by the increasing pervasiveness and influence of communication media. This series examines the participants and their tools, their strategies and their impact. It offers a mix of comparative and tightly focused analyses that bridge the various elements of communication and political science included in the field of international studies. Particular emphasis is placed on topics related to the rapidly changing communication environment that is being shaped by new technologies and new political realities. This is the evolving world of international political communication.

Editorial Board Members:

Hussein Amin, American University in Cairo (Egypt)

Robin Brown, University of Leeds (UK)

Eytan Gilboa, Bar-Ilan University (Israel)

Steven Livingston, George Washington University (USA)

Robin Mansell, London School of Economics and Political Science (UK)

Holli Semetko, Emory University (USA)

Ingrid Volkmer, University of Melbourne (Australia)

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The CNN Effect in Action: How the News Media Pushed the West toward War in Kosovo

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Media Pressure on Foreign Policy: The Evolving Theoretical Framework

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The African Press, Civic Cynicism, and Democracy

By Minabere Ibelema

Global Communication and Transnational Public Spheres

By Angela M. Crack

Latin America, Media, and Revolution: Communication in Modern Mesoamerica

By Juanita Darling

Japanese Public Opinion and the War on Terrorism

Edited by Robert D. Eldridge and Paul Midford

African Media and the Digital Public Sphere

Edited by Okoth Fred Mudhai, Wisdom J. Tettey, and Fackson Banda

Islam Dot Com: Contemporary Islamic Discourses in Cyberspace

By Mohammed el-Nawawy and Sahar Khamis

Explaining News: National Politics and Journalistic Cultures in Global Context

By Cristina Archetti

News Media and EU-China Relations

By Li Zhang

Kurdish Identity, Discourse, and New Media

By Jaffer Sheyholislami

Jaffer Sheyholislami

KURDISH IDENTITY, DISCOURSE, AND NEW MEDIA
Copyright Jaffer Sheyholislami, 2011.

All rights reserved.

First published in 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
in the United Statesa division of St. Martins Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.

Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.

ISBN: 9780230109858

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sheyholislami, Jaffer, 1960

Kurdish identity, discourse, and new media / Jaffer Sheyholislami.

p. cm.(Palgrave Macmillan series in international political communication)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 9780230109858 (alk. paper)

1. Mass mediaPolitical aspectsKurdistan. 2. Mass media and nationalismKurdistan. 3. InternetPolitical aspectsKurdistan. 4. Group identityKurdistan I. Title.

P95.82.K87S54 2010
302.2308919597dc22

2010046032

A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.

Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.

First edition: June 2011

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America.

To
Dr. Amir Hassanpour,
whose groundbreaking research into
Kurdish language and media inspired
and informed this study, and

To
Narmin, Hauna and Sarah,
whose love and support helped me to complete it.

The author and publisher thankfully acknowledge the followings for permission to use copyright materials:

1. Amir Hassanpour (1992). Language and nationalism in Kurdistan. San Francisco: The Edwin Mellon Press. Map: Major Dialect Groups, p. 22; Map: Major Kurdish Principalities, p. 51.

2. Behzad Naghib Sardasht, for screenshot of www.koord.com homepage.

3. Barozh Akrayi, for the cover image, of the town of Akr in Kurdistan-Iraq, taken in 2005.

Since this study is addressed to audiences who may not be familiar with Kurdish and other Middle Eastern languages, transcription and transliteration are reduced to a minimum. English translation of Kurdish texts is provided without transcription of the original text whenever possible. Anglicized names have not been transliterated; for example, the name of an Iranian Kurdish filmmaker has been written as Ghobadi instead of its romanized Kurdish transliteration Qubad. However, when the same name (i.e., Ghobadi) is part of a transliterated text, the Kurdish version of the name (i.e., Qubad) is used. To transcribe Kurdish texts, I have used the Latin-based writing system that has been in use since the 1930s predominantly among Kurds from Turkey and Syria. This system has been used for the transcription of personal and geographical names, title of publications, television programs and websites, and parts of texts that are transliterated for the purpose of illustrating specific aspects of textual analysis. Romanization is done according to the following list of transliteration.

Table i.i Transliteration

Although a number of scholars predicted the demise of nationalism and nation in the age of globalization nationalism has been identified as one of the most powerful forces in the modern world (Hutchinson & Smith, 1994, p. 3, see also Anderson, 1991; Billig, 1995; Hall, 1993; Maleevi, 2006). Whereas previously nationalism was primarily viewed as the architect of the modern nation-state from the late eighteenth century onward (Deutsch, 1966, 1953; Gellner, 1997, 1983; Hobsbawm, 1990, 1988; Kedouri, 1993; Smith, 1998), its surge in recent decades has been seen as a response to the need for collective identities. Many scholars believe that nationalism is a force and resource promoting national identities both in nation-states (Billig, 1995; Calhoun, 1997; Madianou, 2005; Wodak, de Cillia, Reisigl & Liebhart, 2009) and also among nations without states (Castells, 1997; Kane, 2000; Guibernau, 1999, 1996).