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PhD Student, Woman and Gender Studies, Faculty of Political Science, University of Ankara, Ankara, Turkey

E-mail: kzlkayaberna@gmail.com

1. Introduction

Performativity is a concept that Judith Butler argues with different contexts in her popular books such as The Psychic Life

of Power: Theories in Subjection, Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex and especially in Gender Trouble: Feminism and

the Subversion of Identity and Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative. Butler’s vision on performativity mainly contains

repeatability and reference. Accordingly, performativity is not a singular and deliberate action; it is a repeatable and

referential practice (Butler, 1993, pp. 2). It is a practice that is created from a reference to a precedent norm or set of

norms (Butler, 1993, pp. 12).

This paper explores a historical question: Why do Kurds not have an independent state? Discussions about the social,

Performativity expresses that being a subject is not a pre-determined category but occurs during actions. It means the

subject does not exist before an action. It is made available through performative practices (Butler, 1997, pp. 119). These

practices are not singular acts. They are based on repetitions such as religious ceremonies. Signs and values within certain

acts set off symbolic performances. A symbolic series of actions exercises its power ceremoniously to establish a set of

meanings socially and politically, that confirms stylized forms publicly as regulations in general. The process is especially

supported by historical moments for the need of naturalness because collective identities can be consolidated by

“collective agreements” (Butler, 1999, pp. 178). Therefore, performative practices activate their effects notably related

to historical combinations. History joins them in a very basic way to effectively maintain so-called features. What does

an identity want? Can we know this in advance? The formulations link to the social and political actions, which create

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conditions, that intertwine the past, present and future. This is the special way of naturalization. Impelling the effects of

certain acts primarily gets strength from historical performances. The point is about repeated forms derived from

embodied ideals or fictions. Hence, the main need to achieve the operation is enough time (Butler & Athanasiou, 2013)

that is why Butler opposes the concept of subject as an autonomous category she claims that it is performative in all the

ways (Butler, 1999) thus, it can be easily said that no identity is natural. Subjects are prolific productions in reference to

naturalness for political purposes. Power literally produces subjects with an aim to naturalize their basics and hide itself

insidiously (Butler, 1999, pp. 5). That plays by adorning itself with norms and prohibitions. Butler underlines how the

force of prohibitions can form a truth about the being of the subject. A subject defines itself with a prohibition in the

line of particular sentences that are not beyond the given (Butler, 2004b, pp. 199).

Claiming truths about the subject puts definite categories on the table in which there are standards to be used by given

prohibitions and norms. These prohibitions and norms build the binary political opposition, which is actually considered

to be kind of natural. There is always an opposite-identity towards the Kurdish identity. One side has possession of

subjectivity, the other one has lack of it. This sort of political matrix creates a consistent relationship between Kurdish

identity and request. Namely, Kurds act in accordance with their given-role and request something that is generally

about a right from the opposite-identity. At this point, ethnicity of the opposite-identity does not matter. Names may

change such as Turkish, Arabic or Persian, but the act of the request by Kurds is always there. As required by its given-

role, the opposite-identity can return the requests of Kurds in a positive or negative way according to its pleasure. It is

between its two lips. Here, as well as the position of identities, the condescending side and the receiving side are

considered to be natural. The opposite-identity is the condescending side, and the Kurdish identity is the receiving side.

It is quite worthy to mention a historical moment because such status always hits the highest point with a supportive

Ottoman ruled them. Their only intentions were leading to their own territories. They did not politically think about the

great picture of Kurdistan. When Selim asked who could be the leader among mirs, Idris answered: “they are all more

or less equal, and none of them will bow his head before any other” (Van Bruinessen, 1992a. pp. 144). But they did not

From that moment on, a huge part of Kurdistan was in the Ottoman Empire’s possession. Hereby, the mirs also ignited

the wick of naturalized effect. During the Paris Peace Conference, which started early in 1919, a representative insisted

on establishing an independent Kurdistan. Immediately after, many influential Kurdish tribal leaders wrote their

opposite opinions on a piece of paper, and sent it to the members of the conference, to announce their allegiance to the

new state of Turkey (Van Bruinessen, 1992b, pp. 140). In February 1920, Sayyid Abdul Qadir expressed the thought of

brotherhood between Kurds and Turks which is still a repeated form today. According to him, whatever was desired in

effects. Furthermore, it is not an easy task. It needs to be supported by continuous and repeated acts of linguistics

through practices of identity (Butler, 1999, pp. 184). If this vision is formulated to Kurds, performativity turns Kurdish

identity into a continuous act of performance, and there is no Kurdish identity prior to performativity. Language

stubbornly pushes Kurds to create a specific form as historically. The request act of Kurds is a repeated form based on

past linguistic actions that reaches out to the present time. It is a performative act with results. The most important

point is integrating language to action with quite a lot of repetition. What if Kurds had chosen a leader among them in

1514?. First, they would have written a letter to declare the person they had chosen. After receiving the letter, Idris Bitlisi

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would have reported it to the Sultan Selim. In this way, language would have turned into action. Then, the chosen

Kurdish personality would have started ruling Kurdistan. Following this act, all actions would have shifted, and the

naturalized effect would have opened new ways of Kurdish politics that would continue up to the present time.

Performativity is a practical tool to help understand the basic approach of Kurdish politics as it is now. The repeated

acts are so powerful that they can even perplex the mind of a Kurdish nationalist. For example, Jaladat Badr Khan was

a Kurdish nationalist. He was one of the leaders of the Khoybun, which was a Kurdish nationalist movement. He also

had a serious Kurdish journal called Hawar (McDowall, 2007). He certainly had desires for independence of Kurdistan,

but the letter he wrote to Mustafa Kemal shows that he was confused. In his letter, he was obviously trying to convince

Mustafa Kemal in a certain act of request. He attributed the reason for the development of Kurdish nationalism to the

development of Turkish nationalism (Vali, 2005, pp. 203). He argued that the assimilation of the Kurds was also

then an act. Performativity is a power language, which acts to impose at all times. Not only does it mobilize, structure,

impress or mark, but also it produces forms precisely to determine what they are (Butler, 2015a, pp. 28-29).

What do Kurds want? The answer is not just about political, social, or cultural rights. One can state that desires for these

rights imply other desires, ideals, and conditions. The answer should be about being a subject or not. Kurds live as

the production of truth (Foucault, 1980, pp. 93).

If so, who are Kurds? When Kurds request a right, they are directly in a discursive position relating to being under the

power of who is always matched as an opposite-identity. It is a secondary position that makes Kurds figure only as

objects. That shows lack of power and gives the position of subject to an opposite-identity. Foucault indicates that these

kinds of divisions type the quality of beings between low-key and desirable or "lesser and greater" (Foucault, 1990, pp.

44). As in the shape of Foucault's objects of knowledge, an object is also a useful target to be invested for strategies of

power (Foucault, 1978, pp. 105). Discourses have a possible range of styles. They are organized with repetitions and

intensifications to be ready in present time. The basis of a discourse is not actually a language, a gesture, or a figure with

a licit place in history. It occurs from bounding one from another. It is linked to possibilities of history and transmitted

and culminated through time (Foucault, 2006).

enabled in possibilities (Foucault, 2002). It is formed without subject but created in it. “Language is ‘rooted’ not in the

things perceived, but in the active subject like action, language expresses a profound will to something” (Foucault, 2002,

pp. 316).

A discourse sustains images, undermines them, tenses them in the direction of a reason, and organizes them around a

slice of language by the act of faith, confirmation, and refutation (Foucault, 1988. pp. 94). The answer to the question

of how one becomes a subject is often related to acts. In the case of Kurds, these actions are progressively associated

with request. This creates a dilemma, which is very problematic. Making a request refers to getting permission from the

other, so then, does getting permission really help an identity become the subject? Examining Kurdish identity with the

act of request shows the exposition from the very beginning. The act in question is the given act that is created within

a boundary, and certain things are included in the discourse such as getting permission. It also reveals the limitations

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The disciplinary circulation wants to multiply itself by distributing and obtaining characters and categories with tactics,

that are refined by both the singular and the multiple (Foucault, 1995, pp. 149). The form of discipline always refers to

a norm or a set of norms that constantly remind differentiating and specifying to create the binary opposition of the

permitted and the forbidden. It seeks to operate the division, not the homogenization (Foucault, 1995, pp. 183). At the

same time, discipline hosts punishment and reward in its system. It is a swing between "desire to be rewarded" and "fear

of punishment". There are values for good-bad or positive-negative in the valley of oppositions. This system notes the

marks of good and bad for the field of norms (Foucault, 1995, pp. 180). The aggrieved discourse wraps Kurdish identity

with a desire to be subject through norms by the system of discipline, but this starts a crisis for Kurds. Foucault mentions

about the crisis of subjectivity. Accordingly, a form that has a crisis of existence obeys the rules by sacrificing itself to

try to find a way to ensure its existence (Foucault, 1986, pp. 95).

What should Kurds do? In this sense, Butler suggests rethinking the limits for performativity. Performativity is not

simply equal to performance, nor is it a disconnected one, but restrictions drive and keep performativity. It is a

is always the promise of hope for Kurds to be free sometime in the future, but not right now. It pushes the happiness

and the freedom of Kurds to an unknown time because they are currently victims. Sometime in the future never comes.

It gets farther away as it gets closer, but one should clarify that being a victim is a given performance.

There is always a knitted resistance within performative act to overcome the performative power. Performativity is a

renewable action without certain origins or ends. It has its own social existence, which means it is activated by smashes

from the contexts (Butler, 1997a, pp. 40). Being in the manner of becoming has possibilities to perform otherwise. It is

open to transformation by exceeding norms, making changes to norms, or exposing norms. Then, acts are not only

inhabited to norms. The conditions of norms are mostly the same as the conditions of resisting them. Norms come to

exist in a complex process of consents and resistances (Butler, 2004b, pp. 217). When we refuse, a more radical

transformation exists. As Butler says, “we find our way ‘politically’ in the wake of the ungrievable” (Butler, 2004b, pp.

expresses a dependency on the people to whom the one knows, or hardly knows, or does not know (Butler, 2009, pp.

14). Refusing the position of victim is the performance of the act to resist that ensures to put one's hand in one's pocket.

As performatively, when the act of resistance closes to a new way of life, it splits up with the other way of life of its own

accord (Butler, 2015a, pp. 217).

The independence referendum held on 25 September 2017 in South Kurdistan was an significant example of refusing

the position of victim. Despite all negative comments and ambitious opposition in the international arena, the leaders

of the Kurdistan Region resisted norms and prohibitions in a way to show the condition otherwise. They basically

renewed the action. Firstly, they were determined in their act of language. On every platform, they insistently stated to

hold referendum. President Masoud Barzani said, “I say only this: Congratulations to the people of Kurdistan. I call on

them to head to the ballot box on September 25 and vote and determine their own fate. That is it,” to the reporters

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unexpected practice can always give chances to political deadlocks (Butler & Spivak, 2007). On another day, President

Masoud Barzani expressed that “nothing can cancel the referendum” during a press conference. He was extremely

passionate about independence. He stated that “we are neighbors with Iraq from this moment on” (Rudaw, 2017b). On

the day of the referendum, power language transferred into action and was embodied in the act of voting which gathered

not only Kurds in South Kurdistan but also Kurds all around the world. It was an action that reversed what had been

internalized about Kurdish politics. Voting was the performance as an act of resistance that also showed how Kurds

can come together for a common purpose. Likewise, and most importantly, the act of request shifted to form a new

way of speaking and acting as a collective. Unfortunately, there was a lack of support to capture this historical moment

for naturalization. This creative act of politics could have transformed into the naturalized effect if persistence had been

sustained post-referendum.

in terms of linguistics. It is a way that makes it possible for the subject to exist by itself (Butler, 1997a, pp. 28).

What are these possibilities? Regular binary frame of politics discursively and performatively creates a standard for

reach the desired identity is knit with repeated acts inside instability and impermanence. There is no “pre-existing identity”

without “fiction”, in terms of “measured” size, out of true, false, real, or “distorted”. It is a creation and stretches across

sustainable performances. It means possibilities have performative characteristics hence, with subversive attributions,

identities can be created in depth of unconditional being (Butler, 1999, pp. 179-180).

Language takes a substantial place at this point, with an urge, to restore performative acts, and forms an odd way. This

is a way of politics that consciously emphasizes displacement as an instrument to be much more effective and powerful.

Language has a performative power to set a new kind of language with the power of “displace” (Butler, 1997a, pp. 78).

It is a challenge for opening the door to redefine power. In the case of Kurds, shifting the act from request to demand

in Butler’s notion of displacement includes command. The act of demand possesses command, which expresses an

authoritative direction. On one hand, Kurds want freedom and independence of Kurds and Kurdistan, on the other

perform an imitation of Kurdish identity. They imitate Kurdish identity in the exact way that is required for the identity

with authority to grant permission. Butler explains this as an imitation of an identity is expressed as an “imitation” of

an identity, however, the content of imitation is not figured out “as being itself an imitation” (Butler, 1997b, pp. 145).

Butler asks a question: “Does ‘resignification’ constitute a political practice, or does it constitute one part of political

transformation?” First, her answer makes it clear that it can be used in the direction of a strategy (Butler, 2004b, pp.

223) because it creates an area of possibilities. Butler points out the force in resignification, which pushes the history of

a term to be rewritten, in which identity encourages itself to create more possibilities of passion, worth, aspiration and

fairness. This replaces “symbolic domain” to expand meaning of an identity by rethinking about the “symbolic” (Butler,

1993, pp. 21-22). Subject is worked by repetitions as Butler says, a subject is an outcome of established discourses based

on rules. Rules with significations do not form the subject singly. A series of repetitions supports significations to

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Butler understands resignification as “the task is not whether to repeat, but how to repeat or, indeed, to repeat and,

through a radical proliferation...” (Butler, 1999, pp. 189). The act of demand with the direction of the command

resignifies Kurdish identity with the statement “I am Kurd and I want Kurdistan”. Repeating this saying refers to the

naturalized effect of performativity which has discursive power from repetitions. In other words, this is the act from

inversion, which destabilizes and displaces an old resignification of Kurdish identity. “Language assumes and alters its

power to act upon the real through locutionary acts, which repeated, becomes entrenched practices and, ultimately,

institutions” (Butler, 1999, pp. 148). In the words of Butler, “I am already affected before I can say ‘I’ and that I have

to be affected to say ‘I’ at all” (Butler, 2015b, pp. 2). This new way of politics mainly challenges the prevailing ways in

which Kurds and Kurdish politics have been understood. The act of demand inspires a new interpretation of Kurds,

and with it, a new imagining of independence as a collective form of Kurdi political action. It argues against the limits

by a series of sustained acts. South Kurdistan’s independence referendum in 2017 can be referential here. It was an

impressive challenge to the limits of bounded political actions, but it could not save itself from the repeated acts made

throughout Kurdish history, which is the direct opposite of obstinate continuance in the act of demand despite difficulty

or opposition. Within a short period of time, whereas the historical act of request got close to the act of demand, the

act of pursuing the referendum was a first. Sustaining political initiatives, as before the referendum, is a defiant and

persistent way of declaring “we still want”. There have always been acts for independence in Kurdish history, but

persistence was required to naturalize an action performatively. If it is maintained discursively, a supportive embodied

practice always follows. In connection with this, Kurdish authors or researchers tend to write about independence as a

trend of the period. The performative power in writing should not be in accordance with daily popular politics. It

transcends both the past and the future to be the language that acts were established from. Persistence must be sustained

Kurdish identity is generated by limited and repeated discourse for a long time, either goodwill or malevolent purposes.

Its discursive place has always held the subject position for an opposite-identity. At this point, refusing the position of

victim is about a determined act of being a linguistic fighter to run the show for Kurds. Now Kurds cannot afford to

become victims. It is important to understand that the request act of Kurds never brings them the freedom and the

happiness they are searching for. It always opens a space for being recognized as a subject, which means no recognition

of Kurdi and Kurdistani. This is always confused. It is now time for Kurds, as subjects, to follow the road to an

independent state by the act of demand. This leads to the downfall of the binary political framework and declares dignity

with the state of being worthy in all aspects of being a subject. So far, so many different people and groups have

discussed and written about Kurds and Kurdistan. A new language is required through linguistic acts with embodied

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