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138 5 Politicking But Mosul [the Ottoman vilayet encompassing today’s Iraqi Kurdistan] has always been against the government, whatever form it should happen to assume; the begs have always played with the authorities as you play with a fish on the hook, and the fact that they were now constitutional authorities gave an even better zest to the sport and barbed the hook yet more sharply. —Gertrude Bell, Amurath to Amurath (1911:284) The Kurdistan Region is abuzz with politicking, a form of, and impetus for, much of the social connecting that takes place there. By “politicking,” I mean political activity in the form of conversations and actions. Politicking is by definition active and always in process. Politicking comprises the political stuff of state, local, tribal, and lineage governance, aspirations to such governance, as well as economic jockeying both licit and illicit. In one sense, politicking is patriliny’s counterweight, because it is highly agenic and in motion, whereas patriliny makes claims to fixedness and immutability. But politicking also makes, shores up, and to an extent depends on patriliny. The two work in concert in Kurdistan, and as Kurdistan connects to the wider world. A bureaucrat or politician’s office is usually rectangular, with the entryway at one end, and a desk at the other. Along the sides are comfortable chairs and small coffee tables. Such an office can usually seat at least eight guests, and many can handle a much larger crowd. If you are welcomed into such an office, you will be invited to sit and make yourself comfortable. Within a few minutes, an attendant will appear and ask whether you prefer tea or coffee, and sometimes a soft drink or water is offered, too. A few minutes after that, he (the person in this role is usually male) will bring your preferred beverage and possibly some candy or POLITICKING 139 cookies. If it is winter, he is also likely to slide an oil-fueled space heater (sope), near you. In summer, an evaporative cooler is likely to be on. The politician or bureaucrat may be finishing up talking with whoever preceded you, and once that is finished, will warmly welcome you and ask you to state your petition. A short conversation ensues in which you explain what you hope the politician can do for you, and the politician offers some kind of solution, one that may or may not be satisfactory. Sometimes matters are left open ended. You are unlikely to be openly rushed, especially if you have not yet finished your beverage, although the social atmosphere may indicate to you that it is time to leave. Many other people are likely waiting, some possibly sitting there in the same room. If all is relatively quiet, some small talk, or even a lot of small talk, might precede or be mixed in with the “business” conversation. A modern political office in the Kurdistan Region is reminiscent of a shaikh or agha’s busy, guest-filled diwan, except that a traditional diwan in the village has floor cushions rather than chairs, which allows a large number of people to squeeze into the room. A popular agha’s diwan may be bursting with people on any given evening. They will eat, laugh, tell stories, gossip, and drink nonalcoholic beverages late into the night. The main diwan area is for the men, but the women may be socializing in another room. The modern state representative’s office, and the shaikh or agha’s diwan (or the diwan of an influential man in the city) are the traditional spaces for politicking in Kurdistan. As a longtime “politically unstable” place, Kurdistan has long had much to contest. Since 2003, Iraq itself has again been “unstable,” and a great deal of life and the political order is again contested there, after the more stable and predictable Saddam Hussein years. Kurdistan now interacts with Baghdad as part of the same country and has many representatives serving in the Iraqi government . To be sure, Kurdistan and Iraq’s relationship is not unproblematic. It is beyond the ambit of this book to do justice to the number of issues between Iraq and the Kurdistan Region that remain unsettled, but most of them have to do with territory and oil revenues under overarching issues of sovereignty. However, as of this writing the Iraqi state and the KRG are grudgingly working together, which is a great improvement over the past. [18.191.132.250] Project MUSE (2024...

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