The Goat and the Butcher. Nationalism and State Formation in Kurdistan Iraq since the Iraqi War by Robert Olson (Mazda Publishers: Costa Mesa, California, 2005)

Abstract

The Goat and the Butcher is an important work as it sheds light on and analyses the development of Kurdish nationalism in northern Iraq and Turkey and the emergence of the de facto Kurdish state in northern Iraq from the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003 to the end of 2005. Even though it mainly focuses on the link between capitalism, the butcher, and nationalism, the goat, i. e. Kurdish nationalism, the book also examines Turkey’s relations with its neighbors, including Syria, Russia, Iran and Israel and explains the impact of those relations on Kurdish nationalism in Turkey as well as in northern Iraq. The book gives different reasons for the rise of Kurdish nationalism in the region. The American invasion and occupation of Iraq and the rejection of the 1 March Resolution 2003 by the Turkish Assembly appears as the main reason.