Kurds honour Turkish scholar at opening ceremony for foundation

ERBIL (K24) — At a ceremony attended by the Turkish scholar Ismail Besikci and the KRG Minister of Culture and Youth Affairs Khaled Doski, the foundation named in Besikci's honour opened its Erbil branch on Wednesday.

Speaking to the audience at the Ministry of Culture's Peshewa Hall, the Turkish sociologist Ismail Besikci, who has extensively written on Kurdistan and the Kurds, said the capital of South [Iraqi] Kurdistan, Erbil, "should not only be a center of oil and gas production and commerce." He added, "This city should also become a center for cultural and scientific production."

The renowned Turkish academician Ismail Besikci has been charged numerous times with more than 100 years by Turkish courts and served 17 years in prisons for "repeated violations of indivisibility of the Turkish state and nation." More than thirty of his books on Kurdistan and Kurdish history and social organisations were banned for decades by Turkish authorities, before the relative liberalization of the 2000s.

A member of the executive board of the foundation, Ahmet Onal from Istanbul, Turkey, told K24 that the reason they decided to have a branch in Erbil is that it is becoming a "mini Kurdistan," adding, "For, there are Kurds of all backgrounds from all parts of the homeland who come here for security, jobs and education.”

The Istanbul-headquartered Ismail Besikci Foundation, launched in 2012, aims to guide and assist students and researchers in their academic pursuits into Kurdish-related historical, social, and political issues. It also has a branch in Diyarbekir, North Kurdistan. Its Erbil branch is at MRF Towers on 100-metre Road.