Independentist narrative among diasporan Rojhelatî (Eastern) Kurds: practices of transborder citizenship, dynamics and lines of contestation

This article argues that Rojhelat & icirc; (Eastern) Kurdish diasporans, shaped by recent political transformations, have developed an independentist narrative that both rejects and deconstructs the political, territorial, cultural, and institutional foundations of the Iranian nation-state - often framed as 'Iranianness'. Simultaneously, this narrative challenges established Kurdish political organizations for their ambiguity and shortcomings regarding the broader Kurdish nationalist movement. Acting as transborder citizens, Rojhelat & icirc; Kurdish activists and scholars mobilize the intellectual and material resources available in their host societies to articulate and promote a nationalist diasporic discourse centered on Eastern Kurdistan. This discourse seeks to persuade Kurdish political organizations to move beyond Iran-oriented federalist and 'brotherhood'-based rhetoric toward a clearer independence-oriented position -one that calls for a rupture with Iranian colonialism and enables stateless Eastern Kurds to pursue political and national sovereignty, ultimately envisioning the creation of a Kurdish state.