Yildiz, Kerim

PERSONAL:

Immigrated to London, England, from Turkey, 1989. Education: Attended University of Essex.

ADDRESSES:

Home—London, England. Office—Kurdish Human Rights Project, 11 Guilford St., London WC1N 1DH, England.

CAREER:

Human rights activist and writer. Kurdish Human Rights Project, London, England, founder and executive director, 1992—. Has served as a consultant to the Education Project of the British Refugee Council and to the Southeast branches of Insan Haklari Dernegi (IHD). Also a board member of other human rights and environmental organizations, serving as the board chair of the Gateway trust, and advisor to the Delfina Foundation.

MEMBER:

Kurdish PEN.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Lawyers Committee for Human Rights Award, 1996, for services to protect human rights and promote the rule of law; Sigrid Rausing Trust's Human Rights Award for Leadership in Indigenous and Minority Rights, 2005.

WRITINGS:

Dicle-Fõrat ve su sorunu: Türkiye'de baraj yapõmõnõn Suriye ve Irak'taki etkileri, KHRP (London, England), 2002.

Türkiye'de Kürtçe, Senfoni (Istanbul, Turkey), 2002.

The Kurds in Iraq: The Past, Present and Future, Pluto Press (London, England), 2004.

The Kurds in Syria: The Forgotten People, Pluto Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 2005.

The Kurds in Turkey: EU Accession and Human Rights, foreword by Noam Chomsky, Pluto Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 2005.

(With Tanyel B. Taysi) The Kurds in Iran: The Past, Present and Future, Pluto Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 2007.

(With Mark Muller) The European Union and Turkish Accession: Human Rights and the Kurds, foreword by Noam Chomsky, Pluto Press (London, England), 2007.

Author's writings have been published in English, Turkish, Finnish, and Russian.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kerim Yildiz is the founder and executive director of the Kurdish Human Rights Project in London, England. It is an independent nonpolitical human rights group established in 1992. In his position he has prepared cases to stand before the European Court of Human Rights. In addition, he worked as a representative at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) where he has made annual presentations since 1993. Yildiz has also written extensively on matters of human rights, minority rights and international law, particularly as they affect the Kurds. He is a former Amnesty Prisoner of Conscience who fled Turkey in 1986.

In The Kurds in Iraq: The Past, Present and Future, the author examines the Kurdish population, estimated at four million, two hundred thousand, in Iraq and the issues that they face. He also explores Kurdish links and international relations in a broader sense and discusses one of the most pressing issues for Kurds in Iraq, namely, maintaining autonomy afforded by Iraqi Kurdistan since the Iraq War. The nuanced analysis includes a look at the divisions between the two Iraqi Kurdish political parties and relations between Iraqi Kurds and Turkey. "In his book, Yildiz provides a useful, practical survey of the Iraqi Kurdish experience up through and after the 2003 War," wrote Michael M. Gunter in the Middle East Journal. "His analysis of the ‘triangular relationship’ (p. 104) existing between the United States, Turkey, and the Iraqi Kurds is particularly revealing." In a review in the Middle East Quarterly, Michael Rubin wrote: "The Kurds in Iraq is a valuable guide not only for the policy practitioner but also for the general reader," adding later in the same review: "Unlike many other authors on this subject, he neither indulges his emotions nor does he artificially extend backwards Kurdish nationalism."

The Kurds in Turkey: EU Accession and Human Rights was published in 2005 and focuses on Turkey's situation primarily in the light of human rights. The author writes about the history and situation of the Kurdish population in Turkey and the substance of the pro-European Union (EU) reforms in Turkey. The author examines how Turkey's dismal record in human rights is a stumbling block to becoming part of the EU. In the case of the Kurds, for example, they do not have many basic human rights, including the right to learn or broadcast in their own language. The book includes a foreword by noted activist and writer Noam Chomsky. A contributor to Reference & Research Book News noted that the author "asks whether … Turkey is really changing." Middle East Journal contributor Michael M. Gunter wrote that The Kurds in Turkey "constitutes invaluable reading for policy-makers, scholars, and the intelligent public."

The Kurds in Syria: The Forgotten People provides a brief introductory overview of the Kurds, an analysis of the Kurdish population in relation to Syria and Kurdish civil and cultural rights in Syria. Michael M. Gunter wrote in the Middle East Journal that the "study fills a gap in scholarship by offering a well-written and incisive analysis of "Syria's largest minority group."

Yildiz is the author, with Tanyel B. Taysi, of The Kurds in Iran: The Past, Present and Future. In their book, the authors provide a comprehensive account of the Kurdish situation in Iran. The authors include a historical overview of Iran since World War I on through the revolution of 1979. In addition to presenting a look at the issues facing Kurds within Iran, the authors explore how the Kurds have been affected by geopolitical upheavals in Iraq and Iran's other neighboring states. Other topics discussed are the war with Iraq, the emergent state policy toward its Kurdish population, and Iran's human rights record, especially concerning minorities and women. Writing in the Middle East Journal, Gunter referred to The Kurds in Iran as "a pithy, reader-friendly study of the Kurdish problem in Iran," adding later in the same review that "scholars, practitioners, and the informed lay public will find this a most useful addition to the literature."

The author has continued his work focusing on Kurdish rights. In an interview with Amy Goodman on the Democracy Now! Web site, the author commented on the 2007 incursion by Turkish military ground troops and airplanes to attack Kurdish militants inside northern Iraq. The author noted: "It is about oil. It's about the development in Kurdistan Iraq, because Turkey is right now collaborating with the most repressive regime, like Iran and like Syria, despite they are trying to become a member of the European Union. The reason they're doing that, they do not want to see any development in relation to the Kurdish self-determination in Iraq." The author went on to note: "Well, what I think is, Turkey do not want to see the Kurds have either federalism, federal state, or autonomy in Iraq or any part of the Kurdistan. That's why they are working together with Iran and Syria."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice, May 1, 2006, Z.F. Arat, review of The Kurds in Turkey: EU Accession and Human Rights, p. 1674; November 1, 2006, R.W. Olson, review of The Kurds in Syria: The Forgotten People, p. 556; November 1, 2007, R.W. Olson, review of The Kurds in Iran: The Past, Present and Future, p. 540.

International Affairs, November 1, 2006, Hasan Turunc, review of The Kurds in Turkey, p. 1184.

Middle East, August-September, 2007, Fred Rhodes, review of The Kurds in Iran.

Middle East Journal, March 22, 2005, Michael M. Gunter, review of The Kurds in Iraq: The Past, Present and Future, p. 312; January 1, 2006, Michael M. Gunter, review of The Kurds in Turkey, p. 176; June 22, 2006, Michael M. Gunter, review of The Kurds in Syria, p. 587; June 22, 2007, Michael M. Gunter, review of The Kurds in Iran, p. 539.

Middle East Quarterly, January 1, 2006, Michael Rubin, review of The Kurds in Iraq, p. 90.

Reference & Research Book News, May 1, 2005, review of The Kurds in Iraq, p. 48; May 1, 2006, review of The Kurds in Turkey.

ONLINE

Democracy Now!,http://www.democracynow.org/ (October 24, 2007), Amy Goodman, "Kurdish Human Rights Activist Kerim Yildiz Speaks Out on Escalating Turkish-Kurdish Clashes on Iraq Border," interview with author.

Kurdish Human Rights,http://www.kurdishrightsconference.org/ (April 23, 2008), brief profile of author.

Kurdish Human Rights Project,http://www.khrp.org/ (April 23, 2008), author profile.

[Sketch reviewed by Charlotte Alfred, Assistant to the Executive Director, Kurdish Human Rights Project.]