UNA Warwick & District : Kurdish Question: The Self-determination Policy of Kurds in Iraq, Syria and Turkey

Kurdish Question: The Self-determination Policy of Kurds in Iraq, Syria and Turkey – Its Effects on Middle East politics and wider International Relations

Guest Speakers: Dr Omer Tekdemir

Research Associate in Kurdish studies

Associate Lecturer in politics and international relations

School of History, Politics and International Relations, University of Leicester.

His peer-reviewed academic articles have appeared in the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, National Identities, and Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, while he regularly writes op-eds for Open Democracy, Conversation UK, Your Middle East, and Research Turkey. Dr Tekdemir’s research interests include political theory, political economy, international relations theory, discourse analysis, populism, identity, citizenship, conflict, peace building, political Islam, and the Middle Eastern, Turkish, and Kurdish area studies.

The so-called Kurdish question is an outcome of the imperial and colonised history. Redrawing the borders of the Sykes-Picot (1916) map with having a Kurdish self-determination right occur as a new hegemonic articulation, power struggle, and antagonism in the neighbourhoods that rooted in the history of the Middle East. The Kurdish national struggle shaped in the crucial realties of war and violence of the region. However, the Kurds as an emerging power in the region, seeking to build a peace within Iraq, Turkey, Syria (where the struggle is very dynamic) and Iran.

Yasin Duman

Yasin Duman is a PhD researcher at Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations.

Yasin worked as a psychologist in Sanliurfa, Turkey to deliver mental health and psycho-social support to Syrian refugees.

He did his master's study at Sabanci University Conflict Analysis and Resolution program work based on a field research on the Kurdish autonomous administration in northern Syria.

He published a book in Turkish on the same topic called Rojava: An Experience of Democratic Autonomy. Yasin has also written several briefs, articles, and chapters on Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria and published in academic journals including Journal of Peacebuilding and Development and Journal of Psychology.

Both Omer and Yasin will analyse how the self-determination declarations of the mainstream Kurdish political parties in Kurdistan Regional Government (Iraq) and in Syria influenced Turkey`s foreign policy preferences in the light of liberal theory of international relations. More specifically, they both will examine the role of ideology and political goals of the PDK (Iraq) and the PYD (Syria), two non-state actors, in their self-determination policies and aims to investigate how they have  influence AKP`s (Turkey) moves in the regional and international politics. How the Kurdish Question as a regional fact impacts Turkey`s relations with Syria, Iraq, Russia and USA.

There will be a Ploughman`s Lunch and coffee/tea (£3.50 per head) from 12:00 pm till 12:30 pm and the meeting starts at 12:30 prompt.  For catering purpose please do let me know if you intend coming.   Please do come along and bring a friend!