Hannah Arendt, Baʿthism, and Anfal

Abstract In the twentieth century, totalitarianism emerged as a new phenomenon, with powerful new regimes sweeping to power on the backs of the ideologies of National Socialism, Bolshevism, and Baʿthism. Armed with these ideologies, and in their names, such regimes committed murder at a mass scale previously unknown to world history. Among the victims of this historical process were the Kurds in Iraq, who were subjected to genocide at the hands of the Baʿthist regime. This article addresses the relationship between totalitarianism and genocide, and specifically how the Baʿthist regime justified genocide against the Kurds. It argues that three elements in Hannah Arendt's theory of totalitarianism –ideology, terror, and total domination – explain why every totalitarian regime in history has wound up resorting to genocidal programs. Using the 1980s Anfal campaign by the Baʿthist regime against the Kurds as a case study, this article elucidates the relationship between totalitarianism and genocide. This analysis will lead to a better understanding of the justifications, features, and motivations of the Baʿthist regime's genocide against Kurds.