Abstract
The chapter focuses on the existence and performance of modern Kurdish cultural institutions, mainly in Iraq’s and Turkey’s parts of Kurdistan, to a lesser degree in Iranian Kurdistan and in Europe, as well as on their relations to their political and social environment. This presentation of an almost unknown set of organisations gives an idea of their origin, character of activities and scope of influence. It analyses their social reception and their power to make themselves audible in order to protect and promote the Kurdish language and cultural heritage, along with the right to self-determination seen through the prism of the neo-institutional category of an ‘organisational field’.
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- 1.
The concept of ‘organisational field’ was introduced by Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell (1983, 147–60).
- 2.
There is no fixed answer as to how long such a time period should be. To decide whether a certain form of organised activity is an institution or not can only be judged by history. It is evident that there are no standard answers here because different times and different societies have disparate opinions on how long time it takes to establish an institution.
- 3.
The aims may change but usually that happens only slowly.
- 4.
- 5.
Personal interview with Kawa Mahmoud Shakir, Hawler, July 2013.
- 6.
It is impossible to specify a number of cultural institutions in the Kurdistan Region because there are no central records of them.
- 7.
Until 2013, the Ministry of Culture was headed by the representatives of the Communist Party. The thesis does not apply to the Department of Antiquities because of its narrow specialisation and expert nature.
- 8.
Interview with K.M. Shakir, Hawler, July 2013.
- 9.
Personal communication with Seywan Saeedian, November 2017.
- 10.
Personal communication with Ako Khama Khurshid, November 2017.
- 11.
Barzani resigned from his post and Talabani died in October 2017.
- 12.
In 1998 the Ministry of Culture allocated land and a budget and engaged an architect to establish a Museum of Modern Art. For numerous reasons, the project was postponed. The establishment of a such a museum would celebrate and promote modern artistic activity in Kurdistan and signal to the world the Kurdish people’s recognition that contemporary art and artistic output is a seminal part of Kurdish culture.
- 13.
Personal Interview with Mazhar Khaleghi, Silemani, May 2014.
- 14.
Personal Interview with Silêman Elî, Duhok 2014.
- 15.
In 2012, Silemani was appointed by the Kurdish parliament as ‘the cultural capital’ of Iraqi Kurdistan. Founded in 1784 by Kurdish prince Ibrahim Pasha Baban to reflect the values of freedom and multiculturalism, Silemani’s residents have been at the forefront of the campaign to promote the use of the Kurdish language since the late nineteenth century. Before then, the language of the learned man was Persian, Arabic or Ottoman Turkish. Since its foundation, Silemani has produced many intellectuals, poets, writers, thinkers and important artists and has quite a cosmopolitan spirit.
- 16.
Records at the local Directorate for Culture and Art show that there were 372 different cultural events organised in 2015 (Hassan 2016).
- 17.
Despite the closure of the Institute in 2016, according to reliable sources, its activity is continued in the same building in the form of a newly established institute called Komeleya Lêkolînên Kurdî. It undertakes a much smaller activity, focusing mainly on Kurdish lessons, but it still functions.
- 18.
Some of these institutions are more widely known under their Turkish names, therefore we used them.
- 19.
Some Kurdish cultural organisations were registered as commercial or service companies due to the fact that the court refused applications for their registration in the form of non-governmental organisations.
- 20.
According to the 2008 foundation law, foundations are asset-based units established by at least one person: an individual or legal entity, that set as their main goal activities for the common good or public good. The main bodies of the foundation are an executive council and a board of management. The foundation does not work on the principle of membership, but it may have a board of founders. See: Bocheńska and Kurpiewska-Korbut (2015).
- 21.
According to the definition contained in the Law on Associations of 2004, an association is a legal entity established by at least seven persons or legal entities, gathering knowledge and combining efforts to achieve common goals not forbidden by law, excluding those based on sharing profits. See: Bocheńska and Kurpiewska-Korbut (2015).
- 22.
Personal Interview with Genim, a member of the band Koma Çiya, a worker of NÇM, Istanbul, June 2013.
- 23.
The Cigerxwîn Centre’s Kurdish and Turkish names are not identical. It was translated into English after the Kurdish name. The Aram Tigran Conservatoire and the Cigerxwîn Centre were shut down by the Turkish authorities in 2016 and the Sümer Park Complex was taken over by the central administration.
- 24.
Personal Interview with Cevahir Sadak Düzgün, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Municipal Council of Diyarbekir and Osman Baydemir, the Mayor of Diyarbekir, Diyarbekir, Mardin, July 2013.
- 25.
Interview with C.S. Düzgün , Diyarbekir, July 2013.
- 26.
Personal Interview with director Zana Farqînî, Istanbul, June 2013.
- 27.
Personal Interview with Deniz Gündüz , Istanbul, June 2013.
- 28.
Interview with D. Gündüz .
- 29.
Interviews from Iran remain anonymous. Personal Interview at Fergey Zimanî Kurdî Raja, July 2017.
- 30.
Personal Interview at Ferhengî Aşitî , July 2017.
- 31.
Personal Interview at Korî Kurdanî Taran, July 2017.
- 32.
Personal Interview with Qaşang Abdulla and Miran Hassan (KCC), Ibrahim Yahli (Kurdish Community Centre), and Taylan Sahbaz (Day- Mer ), London, July 2016.
- 33.
Personal Interview, Bane, July 2017.
- 34.
Personal Interview with Sidqî Salah, Silemani, May 2014.
- 35.
Interview with M. Khaleghi, Silemani, May 2014.
- 36.
See: the chapter two on the modern Kurdish literature inspirations from the past.
- 37.
Personal Interview with Rauf Begard, Silemani, May 2014.
- 38.
The word dengbêj comes from Kurdish from the word deng, meaning the voice and the present tense topic of the verb gotin which is bêjin.
- 39.
The organisation was established in 2003 as a branch of NÇM.
- 40.
Interview with C.S. Düzgün and O. Baydemir, Mardin, Diyarbekir July 2013.
- 41.
Personal communication with Seywan Saeedian, November 2017.
- 42.
Personal interview with Bariş Seyitvan, Diyarbekir 2015.
- 43.
Personal interview with Mela Îbrahîm Xelîlê Amedî, Diyarbekir 2015.
- 44.
This approach also reverberates in the study on Kurdish migrants by Karol Kaczorowski presented in the following chapter.
- 45.
Interview with B. Seyitvan , Diyarbekir 2015.
- 46.
Personal Interview with Director Nader B. Mohammad, Hawler, April 2014.
- 47.
Personal Interview with Himan Ramzi, November 2015.
- 48.
Interview with B. Seyitvan , 2015.
- 49.
According to information leaflet about the exhibition, Sümer Parkı Gallery, Diyarbekir 2012.
- 50.
This project was supported by UNICEF, Research and Development Organisation (RDO), Z Company and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- 51.
Interview with B. Seyitvan , 2015.
- 52.
Interview with K.M. Shakir, Hawler, July 2013.
- 53.
Interview with K.M. Shakir, Hawler, July 2013.
- 54.
There is an option to pay a certain sum of money in the case of young people so that the death sentence is not carried out. Usually it is a high amount which the family cannot afford, and thus organisations help to collect it.
- 55.
It is hard to see any direct pressure (cultural expectations) from the public, the society within which organisations function.
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Work on this chapter was supported by the Polish National Science Centre, grant DEC-2012/05/E/HS2/03779.
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Kurpiewska-Korbut, R. (2018). The Socio-Political Role of Modern Kurdish Cultural Institutions. In: Bocheńska, J. (eds) Rediscovering Kurdistan’s Cultures and Identities. Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93088-6_3
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