The Kurds of Lebanon: identity, activism and ideology - KurdishQuestion.com
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Many members of the Kurdish community in Lebanon cannot give a solid answer to the question of whether they consider themselves Kurdish first and foremost, or Lebanese. It’s a conundrum shared by many other national and ethnic groups in the country, who arrived in the 20th century as refugees and immigrants, but were only ever partially integrated into the political and social fabric of Lebanon. Here, some Kurdish families have been prominent member of Beirut society since Ottoman times, while others are newly arrived refugees from Syria, with little hope of ever gaining official permission to stay in the county, let alone citizenship. Under these circumstances, Lebanese Kurds are caught between integration in the local Sunni community, and allegiance to independence movements back in Kurdistan. The community is fractured between being “Lebanese” and being “Kurdish”. As with many diaspora communities, those who cling to Kurdish identity are just as split; between support for the Barzani government in Iraqi Kurdistan and the democratic confederalist ideology of the PKK and PYD.
In the 1980’s the Kurdish population of Lebanon numbered between 60,000 and 90,000, and was centred in Beirut and its suburbs. Most had left rural Turkey in the earlier half of the century, fleeing persecution at the hands of Turkish nationalists. Sixty years later, the small community was only partially accepted in Lebanon; a country where political power is tied to strong ethno-religious sects. Thus, the Kurds were largely ignored, or treated as second rate members of the Sunni community. It was under these circumstances that the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan moved into the Beqaa valley in eastern Lebanon.
