ABSTRACT
Kurds living in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran have yet to obtain unrestricted rights to education, publishing and broadcasting in Kurmanji and Sorani, the two main dialect groups of Kurdish. Kurdish broadcasting and publishing remain tightly controlled by the government in Iraq and Iran; in Turkey the distribution of Kurdish publications and cassettes was legalised in 1991, but distributors and purchasers face various types of interference from officials. The formation of reading publics requires standardisation of languages and stimulates efforts at language reform. Conditions in the Diaspora are especially conducive to interaction among musicians from Kurmanji- and Sorani-speaking regions. Conceptions of what is 'essentially Kurdish' vary according to differences in working and living conditions and in response to various ideological constraints. Kurdish cultural survival requires visions and representations of national culture, but these need not be defined through such oppositions as 'classical' versus 'folk', nor do they need to be controlled through the centralised institutions of a state bureaucracy.
