Analyzing Kurdish politics in Syria: A dependent nationalism

This thesis analyzes Kurdish politics in Syria from 1946 to 2014. It shows how the Kurdish political movement in Syria has been emerged and developed. One key finding of this study is that Syrian Kurds did not fundamentally produce their own ethnic nationalism but rather they were under great influence of other Kurdish movements in Turkey and Iraq; their nationalism was dependent and not independent. Not only ethnic dynamics, but also policies by Syrian governments alienated Syrian Kurds and made them to develop a distinctive identity. Although the thesis studies Syrian Kurdish politics after Syria's independence in 1946, it offers political and tribal histories of these politics under the French Mandate in Syria. This study dedicates a considerable part to the organizational aspect of the Kurdish political movement in Syria. Interventions of non-Syrian Kurdish actors, lack of democracy and personal agendas are among reasons behind the numerous splits among Kurdish parties and their umbrella organizations. The subject of the thesis is important as it studies a rarely-studied subject on the academic level. It is also important, because today Kurds of Syria are representing a key player in so called the Syrian civil war.