Nation building and genocide as civilising and de-civilising processes: a critical analysis of the origins of the Kurdish genocide from Arabisation to the final solution

Abstract

This study examines a combination of issues around the origins of genocide of the Kurds, drawing on the figurational sociology of Norbert Elias, in order to examine how the Baath Party’s ideology has shaped the Arabisation of the land and its people. The central argument is that through the combination of the long-term focus on the developments of nation building in Iraq and its relation to the domination of the ideology of pan-Arab nationalism, and the long-term focus of the civilising process, created increased ethnocentrism, which formed a road map to the genocide process. The first part of this thesis consists of a literature review of the most prominent writings on genocide, along with a theoretical analysis. This includes approaches to the framework of ethnocentrism and the origins of the genocide concept, its definition and the theoretical models of genocide. The second part of the research examines the theoretical framework of the civilising process, de-civilising process and civilising offensive. This is in relation to the theoretical developments concerning nation building in Iraq. The third part of this thesis attempts to explore the historical developments of an Arab-nation state in Iraq, examining the process of the annexation of Mosul Province to Arabic Iraq and its elements in the framework of the civilising process. This annexation was accompanied by the establishment of ethno-Arab-centrism and the emergence of the Baath Party’s ideology; therefore, the monopolising of the means of violence is explored. The fourth part investigates the classification or gradation of the Kurds in association with the long-term process of ‘Arabisation’ through the evacuation, deportation, Baathfication and the destruction of the Kurds, in part through the final solution of the Anfal Campaigns. Additionally, thirty semi-structured interviews have been conducted with victims of the genocide, and eyewitnesses to the events, as well as those not involved in the genocide process; this includes both Kurds and Arabs. Using the approach to the civilising process as a framework for the origins of genocide, this thesis aims to evaluate the causes of genocide in Iraq via the assessment of nation building, the origins of ethno-Arab-centrism, and the emergence of the Baath Party’s ideology. This is in order to identify those responsible for the atrocities that have been committed against the Kurdish people in Iraq.