UK prof rejects Arabic article quoting him denying Kurds exist as a people
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — An article posted on several Arabic websites refers to a lecture by British Professor of Politics Charles Tripp where he has supposedly said that there are no such people as Kurds and that the land they live on belongs to the Assyrians, with Nineveh as its capital. A claim rejected by the professor.
The Arabic article authored by Hamed Zmil Issa describes Tripp as a British historian and quotes him as saying in a lecture at Oxford University: “There are no such people as Kurds and they are a branch of the Persians as referred to in Encyclopedia Britannica.”
The article goes on to say that “The Kurds do not have a language of their own and theirs is just a dialect of the mother tongue, Farsi, and the evidence of that is that Kurds have difficulty understanding each other as seen in different regions.”
However, in an email to Rudaw, Professor Tripp, who teaches politics and history at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), at the University of London, rejected the article and denied he had ever given such a lecture.
He said: “I have never given a lecture in Oxford or anywhere else on the Kurds since I have never worked on Kurdish history or in the Kurdish region itself.”
The original article goes on to say: “Some of them [Kurds] are Arabs, others have lost their roots and some are remnants of the Jews who were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar.”
The article that appears on Iraqi Christian sites says that the Kurds “have stolen some characteristics from their neighbors such as geography and social structure.”
“Even their costume is stolen from Syrian farmers,” it claims.
Professor Tripp said in response to Rudaw: “It sounds like someone is stirring things up – misusing my name to give supposed authority to their own prejudices.”
The Arabic article authored by Hamed Zmil Issa describes Tripp as a British historian and quotes him as saying in a lecture at Oxford University: “There are no such people as Kurds and they are a branch of the Persians as referred to in Encyclopedia Britannica.”
The article goes on to say that “The Kurds do not have a language of their own and theirs is just a dialect of the mother tongue, Farsi, and the evidence of that is that Kurds have difficulty understanding each other as seen in different regions.”
However, in an email to Rudaw, Professor Tripp, who teaches politics and history at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), at the University of London, rejected the article and denied he had ever given such a lecture.
He said: “I have never given a lecture in Oxford or anywhere else on the Kurds since I have never worked on Kurdish history or in the Kurdish region itself.”
The original article goes on to say: “Some of them [Kurds] are Arabs, others have lost their roots and some are remnants of the Jews who were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar.”
The article that appears on Iraqi Christian sites says that the Kurds “have stolen some characteristics from their neighbors such as geography and social structure.”
“Even their costume is stolen from Syrian farmers,” it claims.
Professor Tripp said in response to Rudaw: “It sounds like someone is stirring things up – misusing my name to give supposed authority to their own prejudices.”