Lecture by Hamit Bozarslan “40 years of war in the Middle East: 1979-2019”

2 March 2020 | Press release

Historian, specialist in the Middle East, Turkey and the Kurdish question, Bozarslan is the speaker of the session in the framework of the Aula Mediterrània cycle next Thursday 5 March (6.30 pm) at the IEMed.

An expert in the Middle East, Turkey and the Kurdish question, Hamit Bozarslan has been director of studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris since 2006. A doctor of history and political science, he now focuses his research on the historical and political sociology of the Middle East, the revolutionary fact and violence present in the Arab world, and the formation of anti-democracies in the 21st century.

In his lecture at the IEMed, he will reflect on the protests that are shaking the Arab world (Iraq, Lebanon, Algeria …) for demands (“dignity”, “equality”, “freedom”) expressed by Arab societies. Claims that are in line with those observed in Latin America, Africa and Asia but that emphasize, according to Bozarslan, that pre-revolutionary dynamics have a significant weight in the evolution of the Arab world.

Bozarslan is a regular contributor to French media such as Le Monde and is the author of a long list of works, including the essay Crisis, violence et dé-civilization (2019), Révolution et état de violence. Middle East 2011-2015 (2015), History of Turkey. From the Empire to the Present (2013), A History of Violence in the Middle East. From the End of the Ottoman Empire to al-Qaeda (2008), From Political Struggle to Self-Sacrifice: Violence in the Middle East, (2004), The Kurdish Question: States and Minorities in the Middle East (1997). The event is presented by Massoud Sharifi Dryaz, associate professor of Sociology and professor of the master’s degree in the Arab and Islamic World (UB) with whom the IEMed is co-organizing the conference as part of the 2019-2020 Aula Mediterrània cycle.