"Problems of Kurdish Intellectuals (III)
Onder Aytac & Emre Uslu
aytac.uslu@gmail.com
15 May 2006
This week we will continue to analyze the problems of Kurdish intellectuals. There is an irony involved: Despite the fact that Kurdish intellectuals shape Kurdish nationalism mostly in reaction to Turkish nationalism, they at the same time imitate Turkish nationalism as a model for Kurdish nationalism.
From a theoretical point of view, Kurdish nationalism can be best explained by using Michael Hechter's neo-Marxist variant of the instrumentalist theory. Hechter's key argument is that nationalism is a reaction of peripheral minorities to the exploitative expansion and centralization of a central government on behalf of a dominant ethnic group. It is an 'exploitative' expansion because the central government seeks to 'assimilate' the peripheral minority by reducing or destroying its local autonomy. "
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