Külügyi Szemle - A Magyar Külügyi Intézet folyóirata - 2007 (6. évfolyam)
2007 / 4. szám - ÁZSIAI VÁLSÁGÖVEZET - Vidák Rózsa: Változó identitások: a kurdok identitása a török nemzetállamban
Résumé Shifting identities: Kurds in the Turkish nation-state Lately, not a week passes without mentioning the Kurds in the Hungarian press. However, paradoxically, it is the Kurds these reports are the least about. There, the Kurdish struggle is represented by a few thousand PKK guerrillas and the threat of a Turkish military intervention in Iraq. Still, there are 15 million people in Turkey struggling day after day with their Kurdish identities and the challenges of the Kurdish nation-building. Like any other people endeavoring to form an ethnic group or nation, Kurds attempt to organize themselves into a new political entity by building on former loyalties, common myths, and religious, cultural and linguistic heritage. Yet there is no consensus about these characteristics, even though they are usually presumed to be common and objective. Instead, different political actors and social groups rival to define the content of Kurdish identity. That is identity as such is not a precondition of nation-constitution, it is rather a consequence of the process. Meanwhile at the level of individuals identity is not exclusive either. People might have different identities at the same time existing parallel, overlapping, changing with space and time, and in certain situations diminish, disappear or strengthen. Hence one can be Kurd, Alevi and European simultaneously. 2007. tél 71
