The Iranian Kurdish Liberation Movement: Crossborder Interaction and Mobilization (1950-2015)

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the Iranian Kurdish movement from 1950 to 2015. This study pays particular attention to movement mobilization and different aspects of the collective actions and insurgency deployed by the actors, civil society organisations and the political parties of Iranian Kurds during different phases of the movement. The timeframe for this study is categorized into three major periods of movement mobilization and conduction: the 1960s, from 1979 to the 1980s, and the 1990s until 2015. Theories of social and political movements, combined with theories of nationalism and ethno-nationalism, provide the main theoretical framework of this thesis. The “crossborderness” of the Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish movement, has been highlighted and critically analysed through the different chapters of this study. The collective political movement led by the Komala and KDPI, the two mainstream political organizations of the Iranian Kurdish movement, is the focal of this study. Nevertheless, there have been periods in the Kurdish movement in which the actions of the Iranian Kurdish civil society were not limited to the activity of the KDPI and Komala. In this regard, several historical events and actions, for instance of the Kurdish peasants, students, intellectuals and others, which have high importance for the direction of the Iranian Kurdish movement, have been included in this research. While this thesis classifies the Iranian Kurdish national movement as a movement aimed at liberating the Kurdish people from authoritarian regimes, it also argues that due to the way the movement has been established, led and conducted, it has suffered from a lack of real achievement. The movement, because of its fluctuating patterns and its multifaceted challenges (elite/leadership fragmentation, collaboration, internal brutality and lack of long term and sustainable strategy), is far from achieving its ideals and ambitions.