In an article published in The Daily Star (Lebanon), two BSIS PhD researchers (Moritz Pieper and Octavius Pinkard) discuss the implications of a long-term peace between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). They focus on the likely effects on Turkish domestic politics, as well as the implications for Syria and the broader region. They argue that any peace between Ankara and the PKK must include the extension of full citizenship rights to Turkey’s Kurdish population in the new constitution that is currently being drafted. They further discuss and analyse the impact that such a reconciliation is likely to have on regional power and security dynamics, particularly for Syria. This column is the latest in a series of articles in which they will focus on conflict in the broader Middle East.
The focus of Moritz Pieper’s research is on regional and inter-regional power dynamics in the Middle East and Central Asia, with a special interest in non-Western foreign policies toward the Iranian nuclear programme. His PhD dissertation comparatively analyzes Chinese, Russian and Turkish foreign policy toward the Iranian nuclear programme, reflecting on the emergence of alternative narratives of diplomacy over the Iranian nuclear programme in a world of conflicting power centres and on changing conceptions of security cultures toward Iran. He is supervised by Dr. Tom Casier.
Octavius Pinkard’s research has a focus on Lebanese politics and the regional power and security dynamics of the Levant, with a particular emphasis on sub-state actors such as Hezbollah and Hamas and the states that support them, including Syria and Iran. His doctoral thesis examines the political mobilization of the Lebanese diaspora in Europe, and analyzes its attempts to both inform and influence French, British, and EU-level foreign policy towards Lebanon. He is supervised by Dr. Elise Feron.