O nacionalismo curdo no Iraque: identidade e mudanças sistêmicas como fontes de legitimidade internacional (1992-2017)

Abstract

This dissertation aims to examine the rise of the Kurdish nationalist movement in Iraq in search of autonomy, analyzing how the international environment influenced this process between 1992 and 2017. From a reflexivist approach, it is argued that international normative changes of systemic sources in the mentioned period created opportunities for the Kurds to obtain and legitimate a de facto independence in Kurdistan. Moreover, in the post-Cold War period, the Kurdish issue received more international attention and legitimacy, and therefore, the Kurds managed to achieve autonomy with the creation of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), after decades of failed attempts. Following this, the KRG adopted, as a strategy to achieve greater legitimacy, values derived from the international normative context, such as democracy, human rights, economic development and self-determination. Based on the sharing of those values, Kurds in Iraq employed a process of state-building backed by international acceptance as a way to legitimize a possible secession, culminating in the 2017 Kurdistan independence referendum, a result of this 25-year process of de facto autonomy.