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Comment by someotherperson | Hacker News Reader

It doesn't really seem that weird, Mosul is in Iraqi Kurdistan. It's a lot more like referring to some as specifically Basque or Catalonian rather than Spanish. Kurds have a language and culture that is very distinct from their Arab neighbors. Unlike your example, Iraqi Kurds have had their own constitutionally defined regional, semi-autonomous government.

> It doesn't really seem that weird, Mosul is in Iraqi Kurdistan

Mosul is most definitely not inside Iraqi Kurdistan, which actually serves the point that this is article pointlessly political.

I'd like to see the day that a University publication refers to Spanish researcher constantly and explicitly as Basque.

I guess I should have been more specific and a bit less sloppy. Mosul is directly adjacent to Iraqi Kurdistan in the disputed region and the majority of the population is Kurdish. However Kemune, the site, and Duhok where the team is based are in the undisputed part of Kurdistan. It seems like an odd nit to pick, I imagine the researcher just requested to be identified as Kurdish, he is after all the head of the Kurdistan Archaeology Organization. It isn't that odd, I've seen publications refer to a researcher as Catalonian or Scottish in the past, I'm not sure about Basque with respect to science but it pops up in the arts.

The article definitely goes out of its way to point out that the researchers were Kurds, which if you know anything about the region makes complete sense: Catalan researchers would insist on being identified as Catalan researchers and not Spanish. Scottish researchers might reasonably insist on not being identified as English. This identification was almost certainly requested by the Kurish researchers themselves.

The only thing odd here is your taking umbrage at someone else's need for visible political identity, which makes you seem reactionary or at best naive.

So this was the impetus for your original comment. You just wanted to point out that Mosul didn’t belong to the Kurds. What a waste of time and energy and it’s very transparent and counter productive.

Nothing belongs to “the Kurds” — this isn’t the 13th century, we don’t assign land to ethnic groups?

I feel like I’m in the twilight zone. Would anybody in the right mind say that Ohio belongs to the Whites? Or Chicago belongs to the Blacks? Yet somehow you’ve managed to completely misread my post, ignored the fact that the first mention of Mosul was in a reply, and then made a reference to a region “belonging” to an ethnic group.

It’s probably why hopelessly racist, hyper political publications like this one get a pass.

Outside the Middle East: “we’re all one!! Undivided!”

Inside the Middle East: “if you’re not divided on racial, religious and ethnic groups then you’re unhappy!”

[flagged]

This is silly. There aren't any radical right-wing comments in this thread, and such comments are routinely (and IMO rightly) downvoted into oblivion. Calling out suspicious ethnic subtext is still very much the purview of liberals and progressives--if it feels "radical right wing" to you, I suspect (and hope!) the explanation is that your bubble is far to the left of the broader population.

Suspicious ethnic subtext?

Can you say more about why you think this article has suspicious ethnic subtext?

I don't think it has suspicious ethnic subtext, but the OP clearly did and left an explanation as to why (although it seems to have been flagged now).

The Kurdistan Region is de facto an independent state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdistan_Region

It's a de facto independent state the same way that Scotland is a de facto independent state. Probably even less so. But now imagine prepending every Scot with "The Scot" in a publication -- just in case you don't confuse them with some other member of the UK.

It's silly, but mostly racist.

It isn't really a racial distinction. The Kurds in northern Iraq view themselves as being distinct from the rest of Iraq and even speak a different language. They're. different cultural and ethnic group. They're only part of Iraq because after WWI the allied powers split Kurdistan up and divided it among neighboring countries.

Why do you think this is about ethnicity? The more plausible interpretation is that some scientists are considered (in this article) as German because they come from German universities, while the locals are supported by the Kurdish government/organizations, as explained in the article.

I don't have an opinion either way, but if you're going to disagree with the article, please at least make it explicit (and provide reasoning if possible).

In fact, the article addresses this with:

> It is located at Kemune in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

... and:

> chairman of the Kurdistan Archaeology Organization

... and:

> took place in January and February 2022 in collaboration with the Directorate of Antiquities and Heritage in Duhok (Kurdistan Region of Iraq).

To be fair, I believe there is some disputed evidence that the Kurdish (partially) descend from the Hittani. The arabs living in Iraq do not. Well... I guess in reality it is so far back that probably everyone in Eurasia descends from the Hittani.

Still, I can imagine it makes a difference if you identify yourself with Hittani as ancestors or you do not

I'm aware of the Hittites from Asia Minor, and separately the Mittani to their east. But not the Hittani. Did you unconsciously merge the two?

My understanding is that the region is pretty much de facto independent. So there's probably politics at play: The German team works with the local Kurdish authorities and must keep good relations with them.

Definitely politics in play. "There are Kurdish authorities here to do good work with the Germans" is the statement they wanted to emphasize more than the archeology.

There’s no Croatian Autonomous Bezirk in Germany or Austria

lol I noticed it too!

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