Prerequisites for the Preservation of National Identity, and a Reflection on the Role of Youth.

This summary will briefly highlight the components of ethnic identity. If one is to ask, "What is it that defines a person?" One could say it is ethnic identity, for ethnic identity is the set of symbols that define and distinguish a people. But one cannot produce these symbols alone. For instance, language, which is an index feature of identity, requires a group of people for its emergence and practice. This is true of all the other symbols mentioned in this article. 

An individual is the carrier of symbols of ethnic identity and may embody them, but he is not their creator. Insofar as an individual is a member of a group with a distinct ethnic identity, he is bestowed with certain index features, in contrast to another person who is a member of another community, who has another distinct ethnic identity.

The index features of identity can be classified into two categories. The first category consists of the primary symbols, which include culture, faith, belief systems, and rituals. The second category includes dress, language, physical features, and color (Manin Nash 1996: 24).

Upon reflection it can be concluded that culture consists of the rules that govern the relationships between people and regulate the way they behave toward one another—the embodiment of their everyday life. Belief is the method by which people make sense of their existence; they speak of the unseen—the origins of their existence, the meaning of their existence, and where they go in the afterlife—that connects one to a force that cannot be seen but can be felt. Belief defines one's relationship with life, and belief becomes part of one's identity. Belief systems, in the light of faith, whether secular or sacred, regulate people's relationship with one another. To illustrate, if one's culture sets certain guidelines on how to communicate with those in one’s proximity, then belief systems, in the light of faith, would instruct one on how to behave toward another—and in line with its instructions, it would identify a reward or punishment system.

The secondary features include dress (what kind of clothing one wears), language, physical features, and color. These are referred to as secondary features because they are components of a culture. Take language; speaking in Kurdish, distinguishes one from someone else who speaks Persian, Arabic, or Turkish. Language plays a central role in constructing a collective consciousness and common understanding, prerequisites to cooperation and coexistence. While physical features and color identify us and distinguish us from someone of European or African descent. This foundation, consisting of the index features of ethnic identity, makes it known who a member of a nation is and who is external to the boundaries of said nation.

Therefore, these markers, whether they are primary or secondary, must be embodied (such as rituals), felt (such as beliefs), visible (dress), heard (like language), and practiced (like culture). These must have a constant presence to become a part of life. These markers not only define a ethnic community but also create it. For example, these markers not only distinguish a Kurd from a Persian or Turkish individual by identifying him as distinctive, but they also give a specific essence to the Kurd, and this essence is embodied in the Kurdish individual's traditions, language, and dress—in other words, these markers bestow upon him a socio-cultural essence.

At the end of this article, a logical position as to how to preserve this essence will be given. What is the origin of these symbols, and where do they come from? Certainly, they are rooted in history (Hobsbawm 1992: 16); that is to say, a group of people has decided to live together in a territory, communicate with one another (culture), communicate with one another, and understand each other (language), and dress in a manner suited to the geographical center they inhabit (dress) (Benedict Anderson, 1983; Anthony D. Sims, 1991). They have decided to defend the land they inhabit together, not to migrate or leave it. With the passage of time, their feeling of belonging to each other and their attachment to the territory has increased, and they have become one nation. Together they have become the embodiment of a shared life (Ernest Renan 1996, defines a nation as a common spirit.) That is ethnic identity, the Kurdish people, on Kurdish land. Thus, identity is two-dimensional, belonging to a land and belonging to a people. This is a prerequisite for the creation of a nation-state. When the boundaries of a nation become one with the boundaries of a state, the state extends as far as the boundaries of the nation (see Ernest Gellner, 1983).

Where there exists a group of people, there exists their social framework, and where there is a social framework, there are tools for its preservation. These tools are the index features of culture; therefore, the differences between groups of people are those index features that identify them. That is why those index features must be embodied and made visible because those index features tell us who is a member of the group and which cultural prerequisites are needed for membership (see Manning Nash 1996: 26).

The purpose of these index features is the creation and preservation of a group. The index features that distinguish an ethnic identity are the features that protect its boundaries. If these boundaries are repeatedly violated by members of a nation, then the ethnic identity risks extinction. To illustrate, dress; making a habit of wearing the clothing of a nation not your own, would signify that the dress of another nation defines you; or, if you repeatedly speak in a language that is not your mother tongue, not the tongue of the members of your nation, that makes it so that you speak in the language of another nation. If that is repeated for all index features of ethnic identity, then that nation will cease to exist. It will assimilate into the culture of another nation and will become part of another ethnic community. Meaning; that a nation, in losing its ethnic identity, loses itself, and that is called ethnic suicide. What one can take away from this is; that the risk of extinction is imposed on a community when its ethnic identity is no longer kept alive by its members. The key takeaway here is - insofar as an individual is the holder of an ethnic identity, and initially embodies it within himself, then the practice of indexing features of ethnic identity by that individual keeps the ethnic identity alive and preserves that national community. The opposite of this is also true, meaning that if the individuals of said nation do not embody the index features of their ethnic identity and do not practice them in their everyday lives, then those individuals contribute to the extinction of their ethnic identity. With the cessation of their ethnic culture, that nation will also cease to exist. Then, if the index features of an ethnic identity - culture, beliefs, rituals, alongside language, dress, and physical features - are preserved, then the ethnic identity of that group is also preserved. That means ethnic identity is the essence of the national group. This is a crucial and existential subject. Now, we Kurds are under constant threat, and we are in a continuous cultural war, and one cannot be neutral on a battlefield; to elucidate, when you dress in another nation's clothing - you have made your decision, you have willingly killed a part of your nation's ethnic identity and have instead preserved the ethnic identity of another nation. Likewise, if it is decided that you speak in a language that is not Kurdish, if you do not reconcile with your own culture and do not take pride in it, then you take pride in another culture. If this is repeated for all the index features that distinguish your national-ethnic identity, the result would be that you have become a member of another national community and you have lost your ethnic identity; then, your ethnic identity has been lost on your battlefield.

We Kurds as a nation are in a constant war for survival, whether you feel it or not, you are in a constant war for survival, from distant history until now, Kurdishness and the ethnic identity of Kurds (that are related to the six symbols of ethnic identity) have been passed down and entrusted to you. Because your ancestors had decided not to assimilate into another nation and to live their lives as Kurds in their own nation - that is Kurdistan (That is why there are now people called Kurds and a land called Kurdistan). But, from here onwards, it is the responsibility of each individual member of the Kurdish nation, especially the youth, to ask one important question; do they want to pass on this nation's ethnic identity that has been passed down and entrusted to them - or have they decided that it will die with them? The proper sensibility is to handle this entrustment responsibly and to keep it alive now, and the only way to keep it alive is to practice it and pass it down to posterity. The youth of today can be the cause of their nation's preservation or extinction. What the nation expects of the youth is to become the nation's life force and to embody the nation's essence.

References

Anderson, Benedict.1983.  Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.

Ernest Renan, 1996. “The Nation” in John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith Ethnicity, Oxford reader, Oxford: oxford university press.

Gellner, Ernest.1983. Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Hobsbawm, E.J. 1992 Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Manning Nash, 1996. “The Core Elements of Ethnicity” in John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith Ethnicity, Oxford reader, Oxford: oxford university press.

Smith, Anthony D. 1991. National Identity. Reno: University of Nevada Press.