‘PEOPLE WITHOUT A STATE ALSO MUST LIVE’:
KURDS’ EXPERIENCES OF CITIZENSHIP IN THE
MIDDLE EAST AND THE NETHERLANDS
NANNIE SKÖLD *
Through considering the historical and ongoing systematic oppression of Kurds in the Middle East,
this paper seeks to interrogate the role of citizenship in relation to processes of inclusion and
exclusion within nation states. By situating the concepts of citizenship and statelessness within
their appropriate political context, this paper explores the extent to which citizenship regimes can
be used to serve the interests of the state and undermine the interests of minority citizens. This is
analysed through considering the framework of the modern state system, in which individuals are
largely dependent on citizenship for access to rights. The severe implications of non-citizenship
increase citizens’ dependency on states, increasing the capability of states to oppress minority
citizens who are not considered to belong within the national community. Through navigating
participants’ narratives of citizenship and statelessness, a nuanced understanding of the role of
citizenship will challenge dominant assumptions.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction........................................................................................................... 283
Statelessness and the International State System .................................................. 285
Conceptualising Citizenship in Light of Ethnicity and Nationality ...................... 286
A Citizenship as a Political Tool .................................................................. 289
B Citizenship in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran .............................................. 290
C Citizenship in the Netherlands .................................................................. 293
Methodology ......................................................................................................... 294
Citizenship: A Certificate to ‘Exist in the Given World’...................................... 295
Citizenship: Security and Protection or a Risk ..................................................... 297
Citizenship: Representing the Idea of the Nation ................................................. 299
The Role of the State and Citizenship in Addressing Exclusion .......................... 300
Citizenship: A Tool of Assimilation and Oppression ........................................... 303
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 305
INTRODUCTION
Kurdistan is considered to be the world’s largest nation without a state. 1
Approximately 30 million Kurds are spread throughout the Middle East and —
through its diasporic population — Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Americas
and elsewhere. 2 Following the disunion of the Ottoman Empire, Kurdistan was
briefly considered for recognition as a sovereign state, but this was never
*
1
2
Nannie Sköld holds an MSc in Sociology: Migration and Ethnic Studies from the University
of Amsterdam. This article is an amended version of her Master’s thesis.
Loqman Radpey, ‘Kurdish Regional Self-Rule Administration in Syria: A New Model of
Statehood and Its Status in International Law Compared to the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG) in Iraq’ (2016) 17(3) Japanese Journal of Political Science 468, 470;
Abbas Vali, ‘The Kurds and Their “Others”: Fragmented Identity and Fragmented Politics’
(1998) 18(2) Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 82, 82.
Radpey (n 1) 470; Vali (n 1) 82.