Kurdish academic faces trial in Turkey over US doctoral thesis

A Kurdish academic is facing prosecution in Turkey over an unpublished doctoral thesis she wrote while in the US, which examines racism against the Kurds and describes the mass killings of Armenians in the First World War as genocide.

Güllistan Yarkin, who received her PhD in sociology from SUNY Binghamton University in 2017, has been charged under Article 301 of the Turkish penal code, which covers the public denigration of the Turkish state.

Her difficulties began in 2018 when she applied to Turkey’s Inter-University Board (ÜAK) to have her US doctorate officially recognised in the country because she wanted to work there.

Yarkin, who is now a fellow at the University of Hamburg, shared with Times Higher Education the letter she received from the ÜAK in 2020 notifying her that her application had been rejected.

In the letter, the board says that some statements in the thesis could constitute “propaganda for a terrorist organisation”, while others could potentially fall foul of Article 301. It singles out references to the “Armenian genocide” – the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks during the First World War. Turkey has acknowledged that atrocities took place but rejects the term “genocide”, even though many historians have described it as such.

The rejection letter also cites references to “Dersim genocide”, colonialism, the Kurdish question and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey.

The board says some passages in the paper “go beyond the boundaries of freedom of expression”, describing them as presenting a “one-sided” perspective.

In May 2025, Yarkin received from the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office a letter showing that prosecutors had sought permission from the Ministry of Justice to investigate her under Article 301 over passages from the thesis. UAK’s allegation that the dissertation could amount to “terrorist propaganda” was not pursued, Yarkin said.

THE has not seen the unpublished thesis, but Yarkin explained that it is about Turkish-Kurdish relations and racism against Kurds in Turkey “explored through a sociological study of everyday interactions between Turkish and Kurdish residents of Zeytinburnu, a working-class district of Istanbul”.

“The Turkish university system doesn’t want academics to use these concepts,” Yarkin told THE, referring to the ideas singled out in the board’s rejection letter.

The ÜAK, Turkey’s Ministry of Justice and its Council of Higher Education did not respond to THE’s requests for comment before publication.

Yarkin said the ÜAK’s decision to reject her application was surprising because the dissertation had not yet been published. She had submitted it to the authorities as part of the administrative process for recognising an overseas degree.

A court order shared with THE by Yarkin shows that the first hearing is scheduled for 6 October. The order says that an arrest warrant should be issued so that Yarkin’s defence statement can be taken, after which she is to be released.

Yarkin said she will not go to Turkey to give a statement because she fears she would be prevented from leaving the country. “I can go to Turkey, but I’m worried they might not let me leave again. Travel bans are often imposed on people facing criminal charges there, and I don’t know what might happen in my case,” she added.

Yarkin was previously prosecuted under Article 301 over statements made at an Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day commemoration in April 2021. She was acquitted in May 2024.

She said the latest case should concern universities outside Turkey because it involves research produced at an American institution being judged against the standards of a Turkish body. “They try to affect international knowledge production. It’s not only about Turkey – it’s about international academia,” she said.

seher.asaf@timeshighereducation.com