News Archive
European Thought and Global Inspiration
Iraq As a European Tragic Idea, 5 p.m. Thursday 6th April 2017, Room ORB 1.23, UCC
CASiLaC and THE DEPARTMENT OF GERMAN Present
Dr Sardar Aziz
Senior Adviser
Kurdistan Parliament/Iraq
European Thought and Global Inspiration
Iraq As a European Tragic Idea.
It is common to describe Iraq as an ancient entity. However, this norm does not withstand the country's reality. I argue that the notion of Iraq (as a nation or state) is a colonial construction, barely a century old. There is a plethora of historical works attempting to chronologise this narrative. My view focuses primarily on the idea(s) that gave birth and credence to Iraq (as a nation-state). I explore how European ideas of sovereignty, territory, border, state, nation, people, civilization, superiority (modern) influenced the early makers of Iraq and were maintained by the Iraqi intelligentsia themselves, albeit differently, insofar as it has remained a resilient entity. My emphasis will be on how beliefs emerge from ideas and how they are implemented through agents and institutions as dogma, in other words the recipe for tragedy. The idea of Iraq is at once conflictual and syncretic, continuously re-affirmed, disputed, and prone to violence. The concept lacks attachment with territory, people, memory and interests. Against this background, I argue that the Iraqism always failed to galvanize the necessary ‘too much belief in what is patently not so’.
NEW time and venue:
5 pm on Thursday 6th April 2017, in Room ORB 1.23
This event has been organised by the Department of German and the CASiLaC, School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
ALL WELCOME!!