Journals

The six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), are among the most dependent on foreign workers to fill private-sector jobs. A combination of lower oil prices and rapid native labour force growth has given new impetus to efforts to diversify GCC economies away from oil and encourage natives to fill private sector jobs. This article summarizes the current status of foreigners and foreign workers in GCC countries and considers several scenarios, including maintaining the status quo, improving protections for foreign workers in countries of destination (CODs) and countries of origin (COOs), and changing the current migration system to employ fewer and more skilled workers.

Gang warfare is one of the social problems that attract attention in Denmark and it occupies an important place in the media discourse. However, the discriminatory and exclusionary effects of this discourse have been largely overlooked in many of the previous studies focusing on this problem. Taking this into account, this study examines the discriminatory aspects of the online news discourse covering these gang wars. In this way, it uncovers the forms of anti-immigrant bias in the news discourse in Denmark by examining articles from two online news articles by the newspaper Politiken and the news quoted from the same newspaper. Specifically, this study aims to demonstrate that the discriminatory and exclusionist discourse on the gang wars in Denmark may cause ethnic discrimination by producing negative social capital. The chosen sample of news articles has been analysed by devoting special attention to the concepts of 'racism', 'exclusion', 'marginalisation' and 'negative social capital' which are based on the critical discourse analysis of Teun A. van Dijk, who does not perceive news media as passive reporters but instead draws attention to their role in (re)constructing news events and dominant ideology.

In this review paper, we refresh and update our earlier ranking list based on citations in the field of migration studies. The results are categorised and presented separately for books and reports, articles and book chapters as well as for authors. In our latest rankings, we present an updated version of the most linfluential works of all time, but with a focus on the five years period from 2011 to 2016. The results of our ranking for the last five year period are in line with most impact factor calculations that are available. Using the Google Scholar citation database and Ann Harzing software, we have created ranking lists of the most cited articles, books and authors in migration studies.

The European Union (EU) has faced one of its biggest crises with the rise of population inflows through its Eastern and Southern neighbours as well as movements within the Union. In 2016, the main debate that dominated Europe was on restricting migration within and into the EU along with concerns and objections to the refugee quota systems and the sharing of the burden among member states. Turkey emerged as a 'gate keeper' in this crisis and has since been at the centre of debates because of the large Syrian refugee population in the country and billions of Euros it was promised to prevent refugees travelling to Europe. The Syrian crisis produced over 4.8 million refugees with over 2.8 million were based in Turkey by the end of 2016. Turkey with its generous support for Syrian refugees has been confirmed as a 'country of security'. This shadows the darker side of affairs as the very same country has also produced millions of asylum seekers since the 1980 military coup. Current circumstances and fresh evidence indicate that there will be more EU bound refugees coming through and from Turkey.

Adem Uzun, “Living Freedom”: The Evolution of the Kurdish Conflict in Turkey and the Efforts to Resolve it. Berghof Transitions Series No. 11. Berlin: Berghof Foundation, 2014. 48 pp., (ISBN: 978-3-941514-16-4).

Ebru Sönmez, Idris-i Bidlisi: Ottoman Kurdistan and Islamic Legiti-macy, Libra Kitap, Istanbul, 2012, 190 pp., (ISBN: 978-605-4326-56-3).

Sabri Ateş, The Ottoman–Iranian Borderlands: Making a Boundary, 1843-1914, New York; Cambridge University Press, 2013. 366., (ISBN: 978-1107033658). 

Choman Hardi, Gendered Experiences of Genocide: Anfal Survivors in Kurdistan-Iraq. Farnham, Surrey and Burlington Vermont: Ashgate, 2011, xii + 217 pp., (ISBN: 978-0-7546-7715-4).

Harriet Allsopp, The Kurds of Syria: Political Parties and Identity in the Middle East, London and New York, I.B. Tauris, 2014, 299 pp., (ISBN: 978-1780765631).

Khanna Omarkhali (ed.), Religious Minorities in Kurdistan: Beyond the Mainstream [Studies in Oriental Religions, Volume 68], Wiesbaden: Har-rassowitz, 2014, xxxviii + 423 pp., (ISBN: 978-3-447-10125-7).

Anna Grabole-Çeliker, Kurdish Life in Contemporary Turkey: Migra-tion, Gender and Ethnic Identity, London: I.B. Taurus, 2013, 299 pp., (ISBN: 978-1780760926).

Writing Kurdish literary history, that is a historical account of the development of Kurdish literature, is a fairly new project. Literary critics have strived to construct a comprehensive narrative of the evolution of poetry and prose and to classify individual works into certain schools and movements. Doing so, however, has proved to be a challenging task for Kurdish literature predominantly due to the lack of adequate knowledge of classical, and even contemporary, literature as a consequence of sizeable unpublished or lost manuscripts. In fact, the scarcity of knowledge on classical literature has left critics with a fragmented and episodic picture of Kurdish literary history. In this article I evaluate Kurdish literary historiography in the light of the scarcity of information and examine its ideological foundation and methodological problems. I discuss the significance of collecting, editing and publishing documents and manuscripts as a crucial step in rewriting Kurdish literary history and the way this might change our understanding of Kurdish literature.

Keywords: Kurdish literature; literary history; literary canon; manuscript; classification; periodisation.

Astengên li ber nivîsîna tarîxa edebiyata kurdî: Pêşkeşkirin, tesnîfkirin, û qonaxbendî
Nivîsîna tarîxa edebiyata kurdî, anku nivîsîna tarîxa werar û geşeya edebiyata kurdî, hewldaneke nû ye. Rexnegirên edebî hewla wê yekê dane ku wêneyekî giştgîr ê şi’r û pexşana kurdî bikêşin û berhemên nivîseran jî di nav rewt û hereketên edebî de bisenifînin. Lê belê, ev yek kar û erkekî zehmet e di çarçoveya edebiyata kurdî de, lewre windabûn an belavnebûna gelek ji destnivîsan nahêle ku zanyariyên saxlem û berfireh bi dest bikevin li ser edebiyata klasîk û hevçerx. Lewma bi tenê zanyariyên belawela hene li ber destê me sebaret bi tarîxa edebiyata kurdî. Ev gotar binemayên îdeolojîk/hizrî yên tarîxnivîsiya edebiyata kurdî û kêşeyên wê yên mêtodolojîk rave dike û balê dikêşe ser girîngiya berhevkirin, amadekirin û belavkirina belge û destnivîsaran wek pêngaveke esasî di jinûve-nivîsîna tarîxa edebiyata kurdî de, hewldanek ku dikare têgihiştina me li ser edebiyata kurdî biguhere.

Professor Mirella Galletti, a great friend of the Kurds, died in Rome on 4 September 2012. Mirella's work is of inestimable value to the field of Kurdish Studies and her publications cover not only the history, society and traditions of the Kurds, but also the Christian minorities of the Middle East, particularly those of Iraq and Kurdistan.

Minoo Alinia, Honor and Violence against Women in Iraqi Kurdistan. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 190 pp., (ISBN: 978-1-137-36700-6).

Fevzi Bilgin and Ali Sarıhan (eds.), Understanding Turkey’s Kurdish Question, Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2013, 250 pp., (ISBN: 978-0-7391-8402-8).

Michael M. Gunter, Out of Nowhere: The Kurds of Syria in Peace and War, Hurst Publishers, London, 2014, 169 pp., (ISBN: 978-1-84904-435-6).

Mohammed Shareef, The United States, Iraq and the Kurds: Shock, Awe and Aftermath, New York and Oxon: Routledge, 2014, 234 pp., (ISBN-13: 978-0415719902).

Latif Tas, Legal Pluralism in Action: Dispute Resolution and the Kurdish Peace Committee, Farnham: Ashgate, 2014, 208 pp., (ISBN-13: 978-1472422088).

Galia Goran and Walid Salem (eds.), Non-State Actors in the Middle East: Factors for Peace and Democracy, Oxon: Routledge, 2013, 230 pp., (ISBN-13: 978-0415517058).

Mehmed S. Kaya, The Zaza Kurds of Turkey: A Middle Eastern Minority in a Globalised Society. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011, xii, 223 pp., (ISBN 978-1-84511-875-4).

Shanna Kirschner, Trust and Fear in Civil Wars: Ending Intrastate Conflicts, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, 189 pp., (ISBN: 978-0-7391-9641-0).

This article compares humanitarian operations associated with Turkish state and pro-Kurdish movement actors in response to the large cross-border displacement of Kurdish-Syrians into Turkey from the September 2014 Kobani crisis. Analysis draws on actor mapping methodologies and fieldwork conducted in the Kurdish-majority town of Suruç in southern Turkey. Parallels with the 2011 Van earthquakes highlight the ethno-national complexities and potential controversy encountered when responding to humanitarian needs of predominantly Kurdish populations in Turkey. The alternative territorial identities generated by practices of Kurdish municipal-level “governmentality” (through camp management and humanitarian assistance) trouble the assumed hierarchy between Turkish state authorities and Kurdish challengers.

The articles in this volume deal with recent developments concerning the Yezidis. They focus on the consequences of ISIS' attempted genocide of Yezidis in the Sinjar region, and on aspects of the current public and academic discourse on Yezidis and their religion. Abstract in Kurmanji Destpêk bo hejmara taybet: Êzdiyatî û Lêkolînên li ser êzdiyan di serê sedsala 21an de Danasîna hejmara taybet: Êzdiyatî û xebatên li ser êzdiyan di destpêka sedsala 21em de. Nivîsarên vê hejmarê berê xwe didine têgihiştina rûdanên dawî yên derbarê êzidiyan de. Ev xebat dêneke taybet didine ser encamên hewla DAIŞê ya qirkirina êzdiyan li herêma Şengalê û cîhetên gotara/dîskûra giştî û akademîk li ser êzdiyan û dînê wan. Abstract in Sorani