Kurds Stuck in Pain: A View of Kurdish Identity in the Way of Performativity

Abstract

Why can Kurds not be happy, peaceful, joyous, and live a lifestyle on the top that they deserve just as many other ethnic identities have already done? Why do Kurds not have an independent state with a healthy and wealthy society just as many other populations, even the smallest, have achieved? Is it the destiny of Kurds? Or is it about behviours? The answer emerges from the pain that Kurds are stuck in. In this paper, Judith Butler’s concept of performativity is used to argue the aggrieved discourse that accompanies Kurdish identity with a tricky position called victim mentality. Analyzing limited and repeated discourses about Kurdish identity is used to attempt to suggest a new way of doing so, discursively. The idea that using a style of linguistic acts with embodied practices enables one to go beyond the current binary political framework for Kurds is explored.