The Kurdish Community in the Czech Republic and Its Transnational Practices
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Turkish Migration Conference 2015 Selected Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | http://tplondon.com/tmc2015book |
| Field | Political sciences |
| Keywords | Kurdové; Česká republika; diaspora |
| Description | Paper deals with Kurdish community residing in the Czech Republic – especially focuses on the promotion of their political interests. Paper is based on my long-term own field research. Used were mainly semi-structured interviews and analysis of documents. Attended were also various events organised by Kurds. The main task of case study is a description and analysis of the genesis of the Kurdish diaspora in the CR together with the analysis of the promotion of their political interests and their transnational activities of this relatively small not traditional Central European community. They seeks to promote organized interests, they are linked to the wider Kurdish diaspora in other countries and furthermore they are linked to their home countries as well, and therefore we are able to identify their transnational political, socio-cultural and economic activity. Kurdish community in the Czech Republic has established itself as a result of both voluntary and forced emigration mainly from Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. The first Kurdish 149 students who were politically active came to former Czechoslovakia in the 60s of the 20th century. In Czechoslovakia there also lived various prominent Kurdish politicians or artists and there were many visits of Kurdish politicians straight from Kurdistan also. This was enabled by attitude of the Czechoslovak communist government that was supportive toward Kurdish claims in the Middle East. After the revolutionary events of 1989, the Kurdish community composition changed – more Kurds from Turkey arrived. Members of the Union of Kurdish Students established in the 2003 Kurdish civil association, which represents the only functioning organization. Contrary to the situation in the Western Europe, Kurdish civil association is composed of Kurds from Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran together, what brings some difficulties. Since 2011 are Kurds residing in the Czech Republic also very active in protests against regime of Bashar al-Assad. |
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