Reimagining the Middle East Amid Geopolitical Recalibrations | The Amargi Launch Panel Discussion

Five distinguished panelists examine the Middle East’s ongoing transformations, shaped by conflict, peace efforts, authoritarian resilience, grassroots uprisings, and shifting global dynamics. The discussion addresses state-society relations, power balances, and struggles for democracy and rights, drawing on perspectives from peace negotiations, nationalism, climate politics, gender equality, and social movements to envision a more just and inclusive regional future. The panel took place on November 20, 2025, in Leipzig, Germany, as part of the launch event for The Amargi, a new independent media outlet.

Speakers:

Cengiz Çandar: Cengiz Çandar is a veteran Turkish journalist, Middle East expert, and current member of Turkey’s Parliament. Author of seven books, including Turkey’s Mission Impossible: War and Peace with the Kurds (2020), he has also held academic posts in Sweden and Turkey.

Prof. Abbas Vali: Abbas Vali is a leading Kurdish political theorist from Iran, known for his influential work on Kurdish identity and nationalism. He has taught in the UK and Turkey and served as founding president of the University of Kurdistan in Hewlêr.

Dr. Joost Jongerden: Joost Jongerden is Associate Professor at Wageningen University, specializing in rural sociology, Kurdish politics, and radical democracy. His research focuses on how conflict, resource governance, and displacement shape societies in the Middle East.

Rojin Mukryan: Rojin Mukryan is a PhD candidate at University College Cork whose research centers on political theory, Kurdish politics, and democracy in the Middle East. Her work has been published in journals such as International Political Theory and Theoria.

Dr. Shilan Fuad Hussein: Shilan Fuad Hussein is a Kurdish scholar of gender and politics with fellowships in Europe and the US. She has published widely on women’s roles in conflict and resistance, emphasizing their centrality to democratic change in the Middle East.