ABSTRACT
Diasporic groups and community members have extended support to wider anti-war, anti-arms trade, and anti-criminalization initiatives within the United Kingdom (UK). From the late 1990s, several more Kurdish community centers were established throughout the UK–in Birmingham, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cambridge, and Croydon. Several Kurdish community organizations in the UK have networked with organizations, based in Belgium but acting as an umbrella organization for various Kurdish groups worldwide. The transnational activities and initiatives of the Kurdish diaspora in the UK have also had a significant impact in Turkey "in terms of social remittances and of political leverage, putting the Turkish government under considerable pressure regarding its Kurdish policies." Surveillance, targeting, and deportation measures against "failed" Kurdish asylum seekers from Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Syria have also continued in the post 9/11 period. Unless there is a marked change in British politics, Kurdish communities will continue to be subjected to various forms of "Othering" and criminalization.
