Great Powers, Oil and the Kurds in Mosul: (Southern Kurdistan/Northern Iraq), 1910-1925/Iraqi Kurdistan : Political Development and Emergent Democracy (Book)
2004; Middle East Institute; Volume: 58; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1940-3461
Autores Tópico(s)Islamic Studies and History
ResumoKURDS Great Powers, oil and Kurds in Mosul: (Southern Kurdistan/Northern Iraq), 1910-1925, by Habibollah Atarodi. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2003. xix + 216 pages. Bibl. to p. 225. Index to p. 233. Maps to p. 236. $666. Iraqi Kurdistan: Political Development and Emergent Democracy, by Gareth R. V. Stansfield. London, UK and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. xvi + 185 pages. Append, to p. 208. Notes to p. 237. Bibl. to p. 255. index top. 261. $80. The Kurds in general and Iraqi Kurds in particular have become increasingly important in regional and international politics since Iran -Iraq War (1980-88), when each side used other side's Kurds as fifth columns and thus regionalized problem. The Gulf War and its aftermath in 9 1999 1 and now war to remove Iraqi President Saddam Husayn from power in 2003, have greatly magnified this situation. Habibollah Atarodi draws useful historical survey of how Iraqi Kurds were arbitrarily placed into their current situation in Northern Iraq, or what most Kurds refer to as Southern Kurdistan following World War I. he emphasizes British role, but also discusses contributions of France, United States, Turkey, and League of Nations. Gareth R.V. Stansfield analyzes Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) that arose after Gulf War in 1991, which played major role as moved toward regaining its sovereignty on june 30, 2004. Thus, both of these well-written studies will prove extremely useful for understanding this volatile, still evolving situation. Habibollah Atarodi argues passionately that since world in general and British navy in particular were converting from coal to oil, the economic value of Mosul oil and British desire to control it was undoubtedly prime motive behind . . . attaching] that wilayat to newly and artificially created state of Iraq (p. 208). Once this was accomplished, the policy of maintaining peace and tended to serve those who had upper hand and were pleased with status quo, not captive nations who longed for an opportunity to throw off their yokes (p. 213). The insistence on stability by today's powers remains remarkably same regarding Iraqi Kurds, who, concludes Atarodi, have found oil on their land to be a veritable curse (p. 208). The author overstates his thesis, however, when he refers to Allenby's crusaders (p. 22) during World War I, and the ultra-nationalist Mustafa Kemal [Ataturk] (p. xix) after that war. One might also note that Ottoman Empire officially ended in 1923, not 1919 (p. 1). Most importantly, of course, one should also note that in future, water resources of Iraqi Kurdistan undoubtedly will become even more important than its oil. Gareth Stansfield's scholarly analysis provides wealth of factual data and insightful interpretations of current situation based on his working and living in Iraqi Kurdistan from 1997-2000. During this period, he developed close personal relationship with most of main political figures including Mas'ud Barzani, President of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Jalal Talabani, secretary General of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) These close contacts have most usefully enabled him to draw numerous important conclusions not available in other studies, as well as analyze how Kurdish politicians and civil servants at variety of levels perceive their system to work (p. 25). Barring always-possible unforeseen event such as assassination, for example, Stansfield identifies Nechervan Idris Barzani of KDP and Kosrat Rasoul AIi of PUK as most likely future leaders of their respective parties. …
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