Dear members, Dear interested persons,
Hereby you receive this year´s last newsletter.
Board meetings
Our board meetings were Held on 15 October and 26 November in Cologne. In addition, we had a meeting via Skype on 3 October.
Conferences 2018
The preparations for the conference of experts, that will be held on 27 January 2018 in Cologne, are completed. Cooperation partners are the Volkshochschule Cologne and the Kurdish Center for Public Relations – Civaka Azad. Political scientist Prof. Dr. Andreas Heinemann-Grüder, political scientist Mahir Tokatli from University of Bonn, sociologist Dilar Dirik from University of Cambridge, Executive Committee member of Kurdistan National Congress Adem Uzun, Co-Chair of Human Rights Association IHD Eren Keskin and Prof. Dr. Mithat Sancar, MP and jurists, will discuss under the heading „Kurds in context of (de-)escalation in the Middle East“. Journalist Diana Hodali, political scientist Rosa Burc and our Co-chair Dersim Dagdeviren are moderators of the conference.
The conference in Frankfurt on the subject of „Genocides in the Middle East and perspectives for reconcilliation“ will take place on 14 April 2018. Cooperation partners are the Heinrich Böll Foundation Hessen and the Kurdish Center for Public Relations Civaka Azad. The conference is supported by Sebastian Cobler Foundation. Speakers are i.a. historian Prof. Dr. Mihran Dabag, historian Mehmet Bayrak and Leyla Imret, Co-mayor of Cizre.
Paneuropean network extension
We are pleased to announce the founding of Kurdish Academics Network Kurd-Akad in Switzerland on 16 December 2017 in Fribourg. We wish our friends success for their further work.
Meanwhile our third meeting of Kurdish academics – all PhD´s and PhD candidates – from different European countries took place in Brussels. We will intensify the networking.
European network meeting of Kurdish Institutes and academic organisations
14 of 23 invited organisations participated the network meeting of Kurdish Institutes and academic organisations on 11 and 12 November. The evaluation of academic work on Kurds and Kurdistan in Europe, the elaboration of requierements on research and science regarding Kurdish and correlating issues, the developement of perspectives on an academic institutionalization and effective ways of networking were topics of the meeting. We are pleased to laying the foundation for a future cooperation of these important playors. We established a group email for an effective communication. Networking between scientist working at universities and research institutes, networking of organisations with juridical Focus and cooperation of institutions that are working on establishing of Kurdish Studies or training of Kurdish teachers are designated as key objectives. First meetings will be held in January.
Paneuropean networking of politicians
We organised a European network meeting with Kurdish politicians in cooperation with HDP Europe and United European Left / Nordic Green Left on 8 December in the European Parliament. The mission of Kurdish politicians and the networking between them were the main topics of the meeting. HDP MP Prof. Dr. Mithat Sancar, member of our scientific advisory board, generated sicnificant impulses. A coordinating group for continuation of networking was established.
EUTCC Conference in the European Parliament
This year, we attended again the annual conference of European Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC) – our Co-chair is board member of EUTCC – in the European Parliament.
Guest of state parliament NRW
On 04.12 we met Heike Wermer, spokesperson of CDU parliamentary group in the integration commission, and Björn Franken, member of CDU parliamentary group in the integration commission.
Workshop migration
On 07 October we organized a workshop entiteld „People with Kurdish migration background as thematic field of german migration research“ in cooperation with working group migration and inequality studies of University Duisburg-Essen and Support of Interdisciplinary Center Integration and Migrations Research. You can find the details on our homepage.
Honorary Award
On 28 October we awarded our first honorary prize for outstanding scientific expertise and and to the universal values of Humanity to world-renowned linguistic and cognitive scientist Prof. Dr. Noam Chomsky and the kurdologist Prof. Dr. Celîlê Celîl. The award ceremony took place with guest from politics, science and society in the Rautenstrauch Joest Museum – Cultures of the World, our cooperation partner.
We are looking forward to new members and activists.
Executive Board