Syria's Kurds: History, Politics and Society

Introduction 1. The Kurds During the French Mandate 1.1 Kurdish Populations under the French Mandate 1.2 The Mandate System and the Birth of the Syrian State 1.3 The Mandate and the "Colonial Expertise" 1.4 The Kurdish Cultural Movement in Syria and Lebanon 1.5 Fragmentation of the Kurdish Community: Politics in Jazira 2. Syria in Transition, 1946-63 2.1 Searching for New Political Horizons 2.2 The Triumph of Arab Nationalism and the United Arab Republic 3. The Ba'athist System and the Kurds 3.1 Ba'athism: an Exception in Arab Nationalism? 3.2 The Years of Ideological Purity (1963-70) 3.3 The Years of Exploitation (1970-2000) 4. The Kurdish Issue and Its Transnational Dimension 4.1 The emergence of Hafiz al-As'ad's Game 149 4.2 The Fall of Saddam Husayn And The Collapse of Syrian Strategy 5. The Kurdish Response and its Margins: "Dissimulation" of a hidden conflict 5.1 The Kurdish Parties at the Margins of the Legal System 5.2 Kurdish Identity at the margins of official islam 5.3 The Defense of Kurdish Culture 6. The Qamishli Revolt, 2004: The Marker of a new Era for the Kurds in Syria 6.1 The Activities Preceding the Kurdish Upheaval 6.2 The Qamishli Revolt 6.3 Toward a Radicalization of Ethnic Divisions? Conclusion