The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London offers a two-week intensive Kurdish course for beginners.

SOAS offers a two-week intensive course aimed at those who wish to learn to read and write in the northern dialect of Kurdish (Kurmanji) and to acquire a basic conversational ability. Course will take place between Monday 4 April and Saturday 16 April. Interested? Then enrol NOW!!! Places are limited, so early enrolment is advised to avoid disappointment. Enrolment has now opened for two-week intensive Kurdish course. Contact SOAS at http://www.soas.ac.uk/languagecentre/languages/lwtintensiveeaster/introduction-to-kurdish-kurmanji-.html or call at 020 7898 4888

or  School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
The fee for this 20-hour course is £280 payable in advance.

SOAS will also offer regular beginner and advance Kurdish course in September.

If you are interested in learning Kurdish Kurmanji, please apply now. SOAS language centre need 5 people to start a Kurdish class. If 5 students cannot be found then SOAS will not be able to offer this course.

Kurdish (Kurmanji) Beginners Course
A one-year course in beginners spoken and written Kurdish, at SOAS Language Centre in London

Duration: This is a one-year course with three 10-week terms

Mode of Attendance: Part Time

Description
The aim of the course is to provide a thorough introduction to contemporary Kurdish. By the end of the course, students will have covered basic grammatical constructions and acquired an essential working vocabulary allowing them to communicate within a limited range of situations in which learners are likely to find themselves. The language is presented together with the cultural context in which it is used so that learners are able to appreciate such things as appropriateness and linguistic etiquette when interaction takes place in the target language.

Method
The course is taught in English and Kurdish with coverage of the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing, and a balance between communicative activities, structure practice and grammar. Class size is limited to twelve to allow for close involvement.

Assessment for Course Placement
If you are not a complete beginner, you need to take an assessment in order for SOAS to place you on the course that is the most suitable for your language learning needs.

Fees for this Course
The fee for each ten week term is £255 payable in advance

For further details, including terms and conditions, required materials and how to apply, please visit the following page:

http://www.soas.ac.uk/programmes/prog14152.html

Contacting the SOAS language centre

Visiting address:
22 Russell Square, London WC1 – just around the corner from SOAS main buildings.

Office hours:
Monday to Friday 10am to 6.45pm
Saturday 9.30am to 12.30pm

E-mail: languages@soas.ac.uk
Telephone: UK: 020 7898 4888 World: +44 20 7898 4888
Fax: UK: 020 7898 4889 Int: +44 20 7898 4889
Post: The Courses Secretary, SOAS Language Centre, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG

Seminar: Ge

Speaker: Dr Choman Hardi

Chair:  Dr Umut Erel

Date and time : 21rst January 2010,@7:00 pm

Venue: B111, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

(SOAS) Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG

Organised by Kurdish Society at SOAS (KSSOAS) and Kurdish Studies and Students Organisation (KSSO)

Seminar Abstract

Al-Anfal (The Spoils) was a series of military attacks launched by the Iraqi state against the Kurdish rural inhabitants in 1988. The offensive took place in 8 stages and it stretched over seven months (Feb- Sep 1988). During the campaign 281 locations were attacked with poison gas, more than 2600 villages were razed to the ground, and 100,000 civilians were disappeared.

This research was conceptualised in the early 2000s when I watched numerous documentaries about Anfal on the Kurdish satellite channels. I found that despite the fact many women were interviewed during these documentaries a large part of their experiences during and after Anfal remained unspoken about. Here I draw on interviews conducted during my research (2005-2008) and some of my work for the Kurdish Museum project (2008- 2009), collecting testimonies as part of a team involving cameraman, director and photographer. My aim was to get a general overview of the women’s experiences who suffered during the different stages of Anfal and in the aftermath.

The sample included 59 women and 22 men for my research and I have also drawn on 16 interviews (13 women and 3 men) conducted for the Museum Project. This means a total of 70 women and 24 men have informed this research. Various others have contributed to this research through conversations and meetings that took place during fieldwork.

In my research I found that there were differences in how women and men remembered the genocide campaign and also they differed in what they remembered. Here I will discuss three factors that influenced Kurdish women’s remembrances of the Anfal campaign, namely the gender expectations of how men and women should feel and behave in Kurdish society; the dominant Anfal narrative; and the social stigma around certain experiences. I will also speak about the consequences of the way women are represented in the official Anfal narrative for the women themselves and the community at large.

We regret to inform you that there has been a change of speaker for the seminar on Thursday 10th December 2009. Mr Akin Birdal, a human rights lawyer and senior DTP politician, has postponed his UK visit due to the threat of a ban of his political party, the pro-Kurdish DTP, by Turkish the Constitutional Court. In his place, Medeni Kırcı, a member of the DTP Foreign Affairs Committee will be speaking. The meeting will be chaired by Prof. Mary Davis. We apologize for this short notice and look forward to see you at our seminar, these recent developments will be addressed at the seminar too.

Speaker: Mr Medeni Kırcı, member of the DTP Foreign Affairs Committee

Chaired by Prof Mary Davis

Date: 10th December 2009 at 7:00 pm

Venue: G50 School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (SOAS) Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG

Seminar abstract

Mr Medeni Kırcı will address human rights violations and ethnic discrimination against the Kurds in Turkey. Mr  Kırcı will also talk about prosecution of Kurdish trade unionists and politicians including the prosecution of Leyla Zana for a talk she previously delivered at SOAS and discuss the responses of the Kurds and the European Union to the Turkey’s poor human rights record.

Further information

Kurdish Society at SOAS (KSSOAS) and UK Kurdish Studies and Students Organisation (KSSO)

www.ksso.org.uk and email: mc@ksso.org.uk

Europe’s largest independent student newspaper – the voice of 120,000 students

* Friday, July 31, 2009
* By Hilary Aked

Prominent Kurdish politician Leyla Zana has been sentenced to 15 months in jail by a Turkish court following charges over a speech she made at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

The court ruled on Tuesday (28^th July) that she was guilty of disseminating “propaganda for a terrorist organization” because she is said to have called the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan “as important for the Kurdish people as the brain and the soul are for a human being.”

The court cited “speeches made abroad between 2007 and 2008″ which included the comments made in May last year at a seminar organised by the SOAS Kurdish society on “the obstacles and options for a political and peaceful solution of Turkey’s Kurdish question”.

Her lawyers demanded acquittal, arguing that this did not constitute propaganda, but the court convicted her under Article 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Law. It is thought there will be an appeal.

Professor Mary Davis of London Metropolitan University, who chaired the seminar, called the charges “completely trumped up”.  She said: “The issue is one of freedom of speech and academic freedom. If she [Zana] mentioned him [PKK leader Ocalan] it has been deliberately misinterpreted and taken out of context.”

The academics’ trade union UCU has unanimously passed an emergency motion of solidarity with  Zana, which calls on the Principal of SOAS, and the Vice Chancellor of London University to “defend the rights of academic freedom and to communicate this in the strongest terms to the Turkish Embassy”.

The University of London did not comment. SOAS Vice Principal, Professor Nirmala Roa, said:

“Our Principal has written to the Turkish Embassy asking for clarification about the charges being brought against Ms Zana.

“SOAS is committed to the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge. This can only be done effectively in an atmosphere of openness, mutual tolerance and intellectual freedom, without fear of intimidation or reprisal. For SOAS freedom of speech is paramount and the notion that people should be prosecuted for things said in an academic seminar at SOAS is deeply worrying.”

Janroj Yilmaz Keles, the chairperson of the Kurdish Studies and Student Organisation, condemned the decision of the Turkish court as a “direct attack on freedom of expression, protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.

“Turkey has to take active steps to provide a viable, long term peaceful solution to the Kurdish question instead of struggling to suppress the voices of those working towards this goal,” he added.

He called the sentence a discriminatory decision, adding: “Not only is she Kurdish, she is a woman, up against a justice system dominated by men, a woman publicising taboo subjects. This is one of many, many legal actions they have taken against her.”

Zana previously spent 10 years in jail after being arrested for using the Kurdish language, which is severely restricted in Turkey, when being sworn in as the first female Kurdish MP to sit in the Turkish Parliament.

In 1994 a court convicted her of links to the PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States, the United Nations and the European Union. She was released in 2004 following international pressure.

Zana is a former deputy of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) which the Turkish government alleges is linked to the PKK, a militant group which wants self-rule in the South-Eastern region of the country. They have been in conflict with the government for 25 years, over which time at least 40,000 people are thought to have been killed. But DTP leaders state that they support a unified and democratic Turkey.

Amnesty International UK spokesperson Steve Ballinger told London Student: ”The conviction of Leyla Zana is an unacceptable restriction of freedom of expression – something that we have sadly documented much of in Turkey.

“The Article under which she was convicted fails to distinguish between support for the political aims of an organisation and the violent means that it uses.”

The EU awarded Zana the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1995, and she has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace prize. Turkey’s human rights record and the Kurdish question remain major barriers to it joining the European Union.

http://www.london-student.net/2009/07/31/kurdish-politician-leyla-zana-jailed-after-soas-speech/