Kurdistan
Turkish sociologist and writer Ismail Besikci receives a recognition award by the Kurdistan Region’s minister of higher education and scientific research. November 7, 2021. Photo: ministry page on Facebook
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research on Sunday said Duhok University will give Ismail Besikci, a Turkish sociologist who has faced criticism for his writings on Kurdish affairs, an honorary degree.
The Ministry tasked Duhok University with making preparations to give the sociologist and writer an honorary doctorate degree. Higher education minister Aram Mohammed said that “We value every word in the works and the scientific products and the great sacrifices of Besikci” and that “we look at them with gratitude and acknowledgement.”
Ismail Besikci, born in 1939, is a Turkish sociologist and former Nobel Prize candidate. He was dismissed from his post working at the sociology department of Ataturk University in Erzurum and arrested for his writings on the Kurdish population in Turkey and suffered 17 years in jail.
He is an honorary member of the international writers’ association, PEN. Nearly all of his 36 books, which remain groundbreaking works on the Kurds, were banned in Turkey at one time or another.
Besikci was among tens of thousands of Kurds and others who rallied in the German city of Cologne in 2017 in support of the Kurdistan Region's independence referendum.
Years before that, he and the head of his foundation were prevented from boarding a flight to attend a conference at the American University in Washington at the invitation of the Kurdish American Society (KAS).
The Ministry tasked Duhok University with making preparations to give the sociologist and writer an honorary doctorate degree. Higher education minister Aram Mohammed said that “We value every word in the works and the scientific products and the great sacrifices of Besikci” and that “we look at them with gratitude and acknowledgement.”
Ismail Besikci, born in 1939, is a Turkish sociologist and former Nobel Prize candidate. He was dismissed from his post working at the sociology department of Ataturk University in Erzurum and arrested for his writings on the Kurdish population in Turkey and suffered 17 years in jail.
He is an honorary member of the international writers’ association, PEN. Nearly all of his 36 books, which remain groundbreaking works on the Kurds, were banned in Turkey at one time or another.
Besikci was among tens of thousands of Kurds and others who rallied in the German city of Cologne in 2017 in support of the Kurdistan Region's independence referendum.
Years before that, he and the head of his foundation were prevented from boarding a flight to attend a conference at the American University in Washington at the invitation of the Kurdish American Society (KAS).
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