LLB (School of Law, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey); MA (Inter-Asia NGO Studies, Graduate School, Sungkonghoe University, Seoul, South Korea) PhD Candidate (Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK)
I came to Aberdeen in September 2012 to commence my PhD research. My main interest area in the ongoing PhD research is political theory; the social contract, multiculturalism, political community, sovereignty, citizenship, nationalism and constitution-making, are particular themes and components of my research. Understanding the ways and mechanisms in which political authority justifies (not legitimize) itself, as well as searching for alternative ideas and practices of social and political organization are the main objectives of the ongoing research. My PhD research focuses on the Kurdish model of political community. The root causes of the suppression of the Kurds in Turkey, the ongoing constitution-making process that has identified addressing Kurdish political demands as one of its objectives, the constitutional drafts prepared by major political parties and their approach to the Kurdish political demands are analysed and critiqued. Multiculturalism, declarations of democratic autonomy by the Kurdish political movement in Syrian and Turkish Kurdistan are discussed, with the framework of contemporary political and constitutional theory in the West in mind.
Publications
Hamelink, Wendelmoet, and Hanifi Baris. 2014. “Dengbêjs on Borderlands : Borders and the State as Seen through the Eyes of Kurdish Singer-Poets.” Kurrdish Studies 2(1): 34–60.