The Multiple Identities of the Middle East: A Case of Iraqi Turkmen Refugees in Turkey


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Yıldız T., Çıtak Aytürk Z. A.

JOURNAL OF BALKAN AND NEAR EASTERN STUDIES, vol.23, no.2, pp.339-357, 2021 (SSCI) identifier identifier

Abstract

This article is an attempt to contribute to the empirical literature on the multiple identities of the Middle East through an under-studied ethnic group that has occupied the margins of the Middle Eastern politics, namely Iraqi Turkmens. It basically searches for the salience and interaction of a wide range of identity aspects. It attempts to break down and analyse the components of the identity of Iraqi Turkmens based mainly on the findings of a survey conducted among Sunni Iraqi Turkmens settled as refugees in Turkey following the ISIS attacks in Iraq starting from June 2014. Discovering ethnic, national, religious, sectarian and tribal aspects as the five main dimensions of the Iraqi Turkmen identity, the study proposes empirical evidence for how different identity aspects are simultaneously available, remain strong, and intermingle and conflict with each other.