Kurdish Transnational Networks between Western Europe, the Communist World and the Middle East in the 20th century

Workshop, Institut français d’études anatoliennes (IFEA, Istanbul), 12-13 December 2019

Thursday, 12 December

13:30-15:00: Welcome Lunch, IFEA

15:00-15:30 : Welcome and introduction

Etienne Peyrat (Sciences Po Lille), principal investigator, RUSKURD Project

Bayram Balcı, Director of the French Institute of Anatolian Studies

 

Session I : 15:30-18:00

Discussant: Masha Cerovic (Associate Professor EHESS, Paris / Visiting Fellow at the Marc Bloch Center, Berlin). 

  • Barbara Henning (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg), “Russian counterparts of various backgrounds in the extended networks of members of the Ottoman-Kurdish Bedirhani family in the late-19th and 20th centuries”
  • Jordi Tejel (Université de Neuchâtel, Institut d’histoire), “First Encounters with the USSR: the Kurdish nationalist movement in Syria and Lebanon, 1927-1946”
  • Omar Sheikhmous (Independent Analyst; Former Researcher and University Lecturer at Stockholm University): “Kurdish Students Abroad: Between Kurdish Nationalism and Left-wing Politics”

Friday, 13 December

Session II : 10:00 – 13:00

Discussant : Etienne Peyrat (Sciences Po Lille)

  • Joanna Bocheńska (Jagiellonian University): “A man on a mission. Abdullah Jalal Fatah, his doctoral dissertation on Kurdish culture (1978) and Polish academia in the 70s”
  • Hardy Mede (Doctor of Political Science, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (CESSP) / Contract Professor at the University of Paris-Dauphine), “Entre deux mondes (URSS et Moyen-Orient) sociologie d’une élite universitaire kurde: représentations, pratiques, capital scolaire”
  • Kenan Engin (Akkon-Hochschule für Humanwissenschaften), “Almanya’ya Kürt G..ü: Nedenleri, Gelişim Evreleri ve Kürt Diasporasının Kürtler Üzerindeki Etkileri” (Kurdish migration to Germany: Causes, stages of development and effects of Kurdish diaspora on Kurds)

Lunch: 13:00 – 14:30

Session III : 14 :30 – 17 :00

Discussant: Metin Yüksel, (Associate Professor, Hacettepe Univesity, Ankara)

  • Nicholas S. Glastonbury (PhD Candidate, Anthropology Department, CUNY Graduate Center), “Radio Yerevan, TRT, and the Sonic Insurgencies of the Early Cold War”
  • Etienne Peyrat (Sciences Po Lille), “Diplomatic and Political Challenges of Kurdish Emigration in Eastern Europe (1950s-1980s)”
  • Adnan Çelik (Postdoctoral fellow at Sciences Po Lille), The nexus of networking between the Kurds and Kurdologists during the 1960s and 1970s: The case of The Kurdish Students’ Society in Europe (KSSE) and The International Society Kurdistan (ISK)

Afterword: 17:00-18:00

The workshop will take place at the Institut Français d’Études Anatoliennes (IFEA). The workshop is open to external participants upon registration: adnan.celik@ehess.fr or oskizama@gmail.com. 

Tomtom Mahallesi, Nur-i Ziya Sk. No:10, 34433 Beyoğlu/İstanbul, Türkiye

This workshop is part of the RUSKURD research project, funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR).