The European Center for Kurdish Studies (german: Europäisches Zentrum für Kurdische Studien, EZKS) is an organization based in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and was established in order to facilitate and support the

Kurd ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Ir ...

ish studies program at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

. It was founded on 1 September 1999. The center is led by Eva Savelsberg who is its chairwoman and Siamend Hajo who is its treasurer; both were also the content managers of

KurdWatch KurdWatch was a human rights monitoring organization, mainly focusing on human rights abuses against the Kurdish population of Syria. The organization was based in Berlin, Germany. KurdWatch is closely associated with the European Center for Kur ...

, which reported about the human rights situation mainly in

Syrian Kurdistan Syrian Kurdistan is a Kurdish-inhabited area in northern Syria surrounding three noncontiguous enclaves along the Turkish and Iraqi borders: Afrin in the northwest, Kobani in the north, and Jazira in the northeast. Syrian Kurdistan is often ...

until 2016. KurdWatch was another project of the EZKS besides the ones of the Kurdish lectures at the FU Berlin and a library concerning Kurdish issues. The center can be described as close to the

Kurdish National Council The Kurdish National Council (KNC, , ENKS; ar, المجلس الوطني الكوردي ''al-Majlis al-Waṭaniyy Al-Kurdi'') is a Syrian Kurdish political party. While the KNC had initially more international support than the ruling Democra ...

. As a representative of the EZKS, Eva Savelsberg participates in several talk shows such as at

Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...

and its findings are also included in reports of

TRT World TRT World is a Turkish public broadcaster international news channel which broadcasts in English 24 hours a day, operated by the TRT and based in Taksim Square, Istıklal Avenue, Beyoğlu, Istanbul. It provides worldwide news and current affair ...

and the

Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research The Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research ( tr, Siyaset, Ekonomi ve Toplum Araştırmaları Vakfı, SETA) is a policy think-tank based in Ankara, Turkey. It was established in 2006 with the objective of producing "up-to-date and ...

(SETA) or the National Coalition of Syria.

References

1999 establishments in Germany Free University of Berlin Kurdish studies Educational organizations established in 1999 {{Germany-org-stub