Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Umut Yıldırım

Umut Yıldırım is an assistant professor of anthropology at the Geneva Graduate Institute.

Kurdish Decolonial Ecologies
The Tigris river passing through the Hevsel gardens of the World Cultural Heritage site in Diyarbakir. Mehmet Masum Suer/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesA destroyed mansion in the Dabanoğlu neighborhood in 2024, courtesy of the author.
MER Article

Kurdish Decolonial Ecologies

On my return to Diyarbakır in the Kurdish region of Turkey, also known as Amed (Northern Kurdistan) in the winter of 2024, I found a post-siege city, in which the conversion of the old Christian district of Sur into an open-air shopping mall was partially complete. Neighborhoods I had been
Umut Yıldırım • 11 min read