The Kurdish Question in a Changing Middle East

Political forces internal and external to the Middle East are calibrating their responses to changing geopolitical realities. Kurdish political forces have had to struggle and negotiate with a new Syrian government, growing Turkish influence, and changes in domestic political dynamics of Iraq and Iran. How should we understand the transformation of regional politics from a Kurdish perspective? To answer this question and contextualize it, CCMS hosted Dr. Abbas Vali and Dr. Hamit Bozarslan for an online discussion moderated by Dr. Aso Javaheri.

Speakers:

Abbas Vali

Dr. Abbas Vali, a former professor at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, is a Kurdish political theorist and scholar known for his influential work on Kurdish nationalism, state formation, sovereignty, and modernity in the Middle East. His research focuses on the historical and structural dynamics shaping Kurdish identity and political movements, particularly in Iran and Turkey. He is best known for his book Kurds and the State in Iran: The Making of Kurdish Identity, in which he analyzes the relationship between modern state sovereignty and the formation of Kurdish political consciousness. His broader body of work interrogates themes such as nationalism, self-determination, minority politics, and the contradictions of modern nation-state frameworks in the Middle East. Vali’s writings are widely cited in Kurdish studies, Middle Eastern politics, and critical nationalism studies, and he is regarded as one of the key theoretical voices in contemporary Kurdish political thought.

Hamit Bozarslan

Dr. Hamit Bozarslan is a Kurdish political sociologist and historian specializing in the political history of the Middle East, with particular expertise in Kurdish movements, political violence, state formation, and authoritarianism. He is Directeur d’Études (Professor) at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, where he teaches and conducts research on contemporary Middle Eastern politics. His work combines historical analysis, political sociology, and comparative authoritarianism studies. Bozarslan has written extensively on the Kurdish question in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria, as well as on broader regional transformations, including jihadism, revolutionary movements, and the crisis of state legitimacy in the Middle East. His scholarship situates Kurdish political mobilization within larger structural dynamics such as militarization, nationalism, and regional geopolitics. Among his notable works are studies on political violence in Turkey, the sociology of the PKK, and analyses of Middle Eastern uprisings and authoritarian resilience. His research is widely cited in Kurdish studies, conflict studies, and Middle Eastern political analysis, and he is considered a leading academic voice on Kurdish politics and regional instability.

Moderator

Aso Javaheri

Aso Javaheri is a Kurdish historical sociologist, researcher, and international soccer referee from Eastern Kurdistan. She finished her PhD as her first journey in sociology, working on a historical study of the critiques of the political economy of soccer in Iran, the first research on this topic in Iran. Now, she is studying her second PhD in history as her new journey at Simon Fraser University. As an interdisciplinary woman researcher from a colonized nationality, her research interests and activities reflect her background, including a critique of the political economy, socio-political movements, revolution, class, gender, and the sociology of sports. Her current project is on a lesser-known Kurdish peasant revolt in Iran, the Mukrian Peasant Revolt of 1953. She has presented and published works in different online and paper journals and books in Farsi and English.