"The Kurds used to have no other friends than the mountains. But that is not true anymore."
(2016) STVK02 20161Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- This paper investigates the recruitment of foreign fighters to the Kurdish armed forces YPG and YPJ, who combat the jihadist Islamic State in Western Kurdistan. The research question addresses the mystery of how people with no ties to the conflict area can be motivated to risk their lives in a distant conflict abroad, when they could just choose not to. David Malet´s theory of the framing of the conflict as crucial for successful recruitment proves useful. The paper uses narrative method on the Kurdish forces´ Facebook-page targeting potential recruits, in order to find out what “story” it tells its readers about the conflict. The results show that the recruitment page frames the conflict as hegemonic Western values in the Kurdish... (More)
- This paper investigates the recruitment of foreign fighters to the Kurdish armed forces YPG and YPJ, who combat the jihadist Islamic State in Western Kurdistan. The research question addresses the mystery of how people with no ties to the conflict area can be motivated to risk their lives in a distant conflict abroad, when they could just choose not to. David Malet´s theory of the framing of the conflict as crucial for successful recruitment proves useful. The paper uses narrative method on the Kurdish forces´ Facebook-page targeting potential recruits, in order to find out what “story” it tells its readers about the conflict. The results show that the recruitment page frames the conflict as hegemonic Western values in the Kurdish community being threatened by the IS and Turkey. To the supposed Western reader these values are so familiar that it appears as if Goodness and Humanity themselves were threatened. Sharing these values, the reader experiences fellowship with the Kurdish forces. The framing of the conflict becomes an epic tale of a mythic clash between Good and Evil, rather than a political conflict between two different political ideas of society. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8873369
- author
- Muren Cederstrand, Amanda LU
- supervisor
-
- Martin Hall LU
- organization
- alternative title
- Om foreign fighters i västra Kurdistan
- course
- STVK02 20161
- year
- 2016
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- foreign fighters, Rojava, civil conflict, kurds, framing, recruitment, YPG, YPJ
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 8873369
- date added to LUP
- 2016-06-17 11:44:07
- date last changed
- 2016-06-17 11:44:07
@misc{8873369,
abstract = {{This paper investigates the recruitment of foreign fighters to the Kurdish armed forces YPG and YPJ, who combat the jihadist Islamic State in Western Kurdistan. The research question addresses the mystery of how people with no ties to the conflict area can be motivated to risk their lives in a distant conflict abroad, when they could just choose not to. David Malet´s theory of the framing of the conflict as crucial for successful recruitment proves useful. The paper uses narrative method on the Kurdish forces´ Facebook-page targeting potential recruits, in order to find out what “story” it tells its readers about the conflict. The results show that the recruitment page frames the conflict as hegemonic Western values in the Kurdish community being threatened by the IS and Turkey. To the supposed Western reader these values are so familiar that it appears as if Goodness and Humanity themselves were threatened. Sharing these values, the reader experiences fellowship with the Kurdish forces. The framing of the conflict becomes an epic tale of a mythic clash between Good and Evil, rather than a political conflict between two different political ideas of society.}},
author = {{Muren Cederstrand, Amanda}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{"The Kurds used to have no other friends than the mountains. But that is not true anymore."}},
year = {{2016}},
}