ISIK Ayhan

Postdoctoral Researcher

Faculté de Philosophie et Sciences sociales
Centre de recherche Mondes Modernes & Contemporains
Campus du Solbosch - CP 133/01
Avenue F.D. Roosevelt, 50
B-1050 Bruxelles

ayhan.isik@ulb.be

2021-2023 : Postdoctoral Researcher, Modern and Contemporary Worlds Research Center (MMC), Université libre de Bruxelles.
2021-2023 : Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam.
2020-2021 : Postdoctoral Researcher, Scholars at Risk Fellowship, Utrecht University.
2015-2020 : PhD researcher, NWO-funded VIDI project ‘Paramilitarism, Organized Crime and the State,’ Utrecht University, Netherlands.
2013-2015 : Researcher and Library manager, İsmail Beşikci Research Library, İsmail Beşikci Foundation, Istanbul, Turkey; http://ismailbesikcivakfi.org
2012-2013 : Researcher, Hafıza Merkezi (The Truth, Justice and Memory Center), Istanbul, Turkey; http://www.hakikatadalethafiza.org
2015-2020 : PhD in Department of History and Art History (Political History), Utrecht University.
Aug 2018 : Genocide and Humain Rights University Program, organised by the University of Toronto and Zoryan Institute of Canada in Toronto, Canada.
2012-2014 : Master of Arts in History, Institute of Social Sciences, Istanbul Bilgi University.
2007-2012 : B.A. in History, Istanbul Bilgi University.

Research Interests

Political Violence, Paramilitaries and Perpetrators, War and Conflict, Conflict and Peace Studies, Modern History of Turkey, Modern Kurdish History, Middle East Politics, Mass Violence, Forced Migration, Enforced Disappearances, Kurdish-Armenian Relations in the Ottoman Empire.

Publications

Books

Işık, Ayhan. Turkish Paramilitarism in Northern Kurdistan: State Violence in the 1990s, Edinburg University Press (January 2024).
Işık, Ayhan, Özgür Sevgi Göral, Özlem Kaya. The Unspoken Truth: Enforced Disappearances, the Truth Justice Memory Center, 2013.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

“Turkish Paramilitaries during the Conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK,” The Commentaries, 2(1), January 2022, pp.1–11.

“Violence Against the Kurds in the Turkish Republic” (with Uğur Ümit Üngör), Routledge Handbook on Contemporary Turkey, ed. Joost Jongerden, Routledge, July 2021, pp. 24-36.
“Types of Turkish Paramilitary Groups in 1980s and 90s,” Journal of Perpetrator Research. May 2021, 3(2), pp. 42–65.
“Pro-state Paramilitary Violence in Turkey since the 1990s,” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, March 2021, 21, no 2.
“The Emergence of Paramilitary Groups in Turkey in the 1980s,” Kurds in Turkey: Ethnographies of Heterogeneous Experiences, ed. Lucie Drechselová and Adnan Çelik, Lexington Books, 2019, pp. 59-80.
“Geç Osmanlı’da ‘Bir Kürd’ Entelektüel: Abdullah Cevdet” [A Kurdish Intellectual in Late Ottoman: Abdullah Cevdet], in Kürt Tarihi ve Siyasetinden Portreler, ed. Yalçın Çakmak and Tuncay Şur, İletişim Yayınları, 2018, pp. 123-130.

Other Publications

“Devlet-PKK Çatışmasında Türk Paramiliterleri” [Turkish Paramilitaries during the Conflict with the PKK], February 2022, https://politikosbiosethos.blogspot.com
“Mass Violence and the Kurds: Introduction to the Special Issue” (with Uğur Ümit Üngör) Kurdish Studies, May 2021, 9(1), pp. 1-9.
Dünden Bugüne Türkiye'de Paramiliter Örgütlenmeler ve Devlet [Paramilitary Organizations and the State in Turkey from Past to Present], Interview, Kürt Araştırmaları, 2021.
“From Denial to Overtness,” Interview, Birartibir, 2021.
“Türkiye'de Devletin ve Toplumun Paramiliterleşmesi” [Paramilitarization of State and Society in Turkey], Bianet, 2020.
“İttihatçı Bir Kürd Abdullah Cevdet” [A Unionist Kurd Abdullah Cevdet], Kürt Tarihi, July-August 2016, Vol. 25, pp. 31-39.
“İzlenimler: Kuşlar Bile Yoktu” [Observations: Even the Birds Were Gone], Toplum ve Kuram, 2014, Vol. 9, pp. 277-302.
“1990’larda Devletin ‘Sivil Siyaseti’ Olarak Zorla Kaybetmeler” [Enforced Disappearances as ‘Civil Politics’ of the State in the 1990s], Toplum ve Kuram, 2014, Vol. 9, pp. 43-52.
“Kürt Teavün ve Terakki Cemiyeti ve Gazetesi” [Kurdish Solidarity and Progress Association and Newspaper], Kürt Tarihi, August-September 2013, Vol. 8, pp. 45-49.
“12 Eylül Askeri Darbesi ve Metris Cezaevi” [12 September Military Coup and the Metris Prison], Toplum ve Kuram 2013, Vol. 8, pp. 41-48.
“Hestî ya da Adaletin Mahrumiyeti” [Bone or Deprivation of Justice], Bianet, 2012.
“Kürtlerin Sosyal Bilimlerdeki Yer(sizliğ)i” [Displacement of Kurds from the Social Sciences], Tîroj, September-October 2012, Vol. 58, pp. 16-18.
“Bir Asimilasyon Projesi: Yatılı İlköğretim Okulları” [An Assimilation Project: The District Boarding Schools in Turkey], (with Serhat Arslan) Toplum ve Kuram, 2012, Vol. 6-7, pp. 107-14.
“Sözlü Tarih ve Kürtlerde Sözlü Tarih Çalışma Örnekleri” [Practices of Oral History Studies Among Kurds], Toplum ve Kuram, 2009, Vol. 2, pp. 175-193.
“Türkiye’de Neoliberalizm, Kürt Meselesi ve Tuzla Tersaneler Bölgesi” [Neoliberalism in Turkey, the Kurdish Issue and the Docks in Tuzla, Istanbul], (with Harun Ercan, Mehmet Polatel, Onur Öztürk and Serap Altun), Toplum ve Kuram, 2009, Vol. 1, pp. 119-188.

Edited Books and Journal Issues

Co-editor of the book, The Making of Paramilitary Violence in Turkey, Routledge, (forthcoming, 2024).
Co-editor of the book, Kürtler ve Cumhuriyet (Kurds and Republic), Zan Publication, (forthcoming, 2023).
Co-editor of the Special Issue “Mass Violence and the Kurds,” Kurdish Studies, Vol. 9 No. 1, May 2021.
Co-editor of the book, 1990'larda Kürtler ve Kürdistan (Kurds and Kurdistan in the 1990s), Istanbul Bilgi University Press, 2015.

Conferences, Workshop Papers, Academic and NGO Service

Oct 2022 : “The Extra-legal Political Violence of the Turkish State During the Republican Period,” Political Violence and Migration: The Fabric of a Turkish Nation, from Late Ottoman to the Present, Workshop of the MMC, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
Oct 2022 : Co-organizer, “Political Violence and Migration: The Fabric of a Turkish Nation, from Late Ottoman to the Present,” two-day workshop, Université libre de Bruxelles (20-21 October).
May 2022 : “Paramilitarization of state violence in Turkey since the 1990s” Violence in Turkey (1950-2000s) Performances, Perpetrators, Victims, Workshop of the DFG-Research Network Contemporary History of Turkey, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
Oct 2021 : “Dönüşen Militarist Yapılar, Paramiliter Gruplar ve Devlet” [Transforming Military Structures, Paramilitary Groups, and the State] at Militarizmden Arındırılmış Bir Dünya Ütopyası Sempozyumu [Symposium on the Utopia of a Demilitarized World], ADAM-DER, Ankara, Turkey
Dec 2018 : “Paramilitary Violence in Turkey: The 1992 Massacre in Cizre,” Genocide after 1948: 70 Years of Genocide Convention, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Nov 2018 : “Role of Turkish Paramilitary Forces during the Civil War in the 1990s,” Societal Conflict and Cohabitation in Turkey and Beyond-CEST Conference, Institute for Turkish Studies (SUITS) conference, Stockholm, Sweden.
Nov 2018 : “The Emergence and Reorganization of Paramilitary Groups in Turkey in the 1990s,” Mass Violence and the Kurds: From the Late Ottoman Empire to Modern Turkey, NIOD and Utrecht University workshop, NIOD Institute in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
July 2018 : “Reorganization of Paramilitary Forces in Turkey in the Early 1990s,” 6^th The International Network of Genocide Scholars (INoGS), Medical Faculty of Aix-Marseille University conference, Marseille, France.
Apr 2018 : “Paramilitary Forces in Turkey (1980-2000)”, Research School Political History research seminar, Nederlandse Defensie Academie, Breda, Netherlands.Military History
Jan 2018 : “New Political Actors of the Middle East: The Kurds,” Dutch United Nations Student Association Masterclass, University of Amsterdam.
Dec 2017 : “The Establishment of Paramilitary Formations in Turkey, 1980s-1990s,” Paramilitarism and Violence in Global Perspective, NIOD Institute in Amsterdam.
Mar 2016 : “Paramilitarism and Turkish State in 1990s,” Paramilitarism and the State in the 1990s workshop, NIOD Institute, Amsterdam.
Dec 2014 : “Bir Asimilasyon Projesi: Türkiye’de Yatılı İlköğretim Bölge Okulları” [An Assimilation Project: District Primary Boarding Schools], Istanbul Bilgi University Centre for Sociology and Education Studies/SEÇBİR.
Oct 2014 : Co-founder, ZAN Sosyal, Siyasal ve İktisadi Araştırmalar Enstitüsü [Institute for Social, Political and Economic Studies]. http://zanenstitu.org/
Oct 2014 : Co-organizer, 1915, Diyarbekir ve Kürtler Semypozyumu [Symposium on 1915, Diyarbekir and the Kurds], Istanbul Bilgi University (25 October).
June 2014 : Co-organizer, Kürt Çalışmaları Konferansı II (Kurdish Studies Conference II), Boğaziçi University, Istanbul (7-8 June).
Apr 2014 : Co-organizer, 1990’larda Kürtler ve Kürdistan Konferansı [Conference on Kurds and Kurdistan in the 1990s], Bilgi University, Istanbul (26-27 April).
2013-2016 : Co-Founder, Kürdoloji Çalışma Birimi [Kurdish Studies Unit], Istanbul Bilgi University.
June 2013 : Co-organizer, Kürt Çalışmaları Platformu [Kurdish Studies Platform], two-day long seminars and discussions, Sumerpark, Diyarbakir (15-16 June).
Mar 2013 : “Coğrafyanın Kürt Ulusunun Söylemsel İnşasındaki Yeri” [The Place of Geography in Discursive Construction of the Kurdish Nation], Conference of Ottoman Kurdish Press, Istanbul Bilgi University.
June 2012 : Co-organizer, Kürt Çalışmaları Platformu [Kurdish Studies Platform], two day-long seminars and discussions, Sumerpark, Diyarbakir (23-24 June)
June 2011 : Co-organizer, Kürt Çalışmaları Platformu [Kurdish Studies Platform], two day-long seminars and discussions, Sumerpark, Diyarbakir (25-26 June)
2008-2022 : Co-founder and editor, Toplum ve Kuram [Theory and Society].
2007-2015 : Member, Kürdoloji Çalışmaları Grubu [Kurdish Studies Group], in Ottoman Archives.