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Experts on countries of origin by country

Ayluctarhan, Salih

The Expert has nearly ten years of experience as a prosecutor in Turkey, handling various types of crimes. His experience includes cases before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), focusing on a range of fundamental human rights, which also involved asylum matters. He completed my LLM in U.S. Legal Studies at UCONN Law, where he engaged in projects comparing the EU and U.S. asylum processes. Over the past two years, he has been working on asylum cases, both affirmative and defensive. He is currently involved in legal tech projects that automate the filling of I-589 forms and authenticate supporting documents using AI tools.

Occupation: Lawyer
Countries of expertise: Turkey

Bayir, Dr Derya

Expert on Turkish law, politics and society.

Occupation: Lawyer/Academic
Countries of expertise: Turkey

Bowring, Prof William S B

Barrister and academic, with vast research, publishing and advisory experience across Russian and CIS affairs; fluent in Russian

Occupation: Barrister, Professor of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London; formerly Prof. in Human Rights and International Law, University of North London;previously, Reader in Law, Director of the Pan-European Institute, University of Essex
Countries of expertise: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

Faruqi, Daanish

Dr. Daanish Faruqi is a Visiting Researcher at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.  A scholar of migration and mobility in the Middle East and North Africa, he has leveraged his expertise both in academia and in international development. At Georgetown he researches democracy promotion and conflict resolution through transnational religious humanitarianism. Relying on fieldwork with transnational humanitarian NGOS immediately following the 2023 Syrian/Turkish earthquake, his latest writing deals with the viability of religious humanitarianism in effectively managing refugee crises. He has a forthcoming interview with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on this project and its potential for peace building.

He completed his Ph.D. from Duke University, where he wrote his dissertation on the role of Syrian Sufi religious scholars in joining the 2011 uprising against Bashar al-Assad. Through several years of ethnographic and historical fieldwork in Morocco, Turkey, and Jordan, conducting hundreds of Arabic-language interviews, his work revealed the role of 19th century migration from North Africa to Damascus in informing contemporary Syrian… Read more

Occupation:
Countries of expertise: Algeria, Egypt, Gaza Strip, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, West Bank

Fatah, Dr Rebwar

The Expert has worked as an expert witness on the Middle East, producing Country Expert Reports (CER) for the past 20 years.

The Expert has produced on average between 200-300 reports each year on the MENA region for British, European, and US courts.

The Expert’s areas of expertise include tribal issues, gender-based violence, security issues, extremist groups and militias, human rights law and violations, the situation for minorities, trafficking, and the availability of medical services. In addition to CERs,

The Expert also authenticates documents from the region, and conducts nationality and ethnicity reports in order to assess the likely origin of an individual within MENA.

The Expert is able to conduct nationality assessments in Arabic, Farsi, Sorani, and Bahdini/Kurmanji.

Occupation: Director – Middle East Consultancy Services
Countries of expertise: Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen

Ghobadi, Dr Kaveh

Independent researcher. Country expert reports, nationality assessment, language analysis, Gender-based violence, Ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East, and Document authentication.

Occupation: Independent Researcher
Countries of expertise: Iran, Iraq, Iraq (Kurdistan Regional Government), Syria, Turkey

Hafidh, Dr Hasan

The Expert is a Lecturer in Comparative Politics and International Relations of the Middle East. 

Occupation: Lecturer in Comparative Politics of the Middle East (Gulf Specialism), Expert of Islamic Countries
Countries of expertise: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen

Imam, Amna

Dr Imam brings more than two decades of experience in mixed methods international social science practice, research, and teaching around the world, focusing on East and West Africa, South Asia, USA, and Central Asia. Her interests involve research, development, and instruction on advanced issues of human rights, international conventions on human, civil, and political rights, and against torture; police service, judicial and quasi-judicial institutions, and persecution; grievance redressal arrangements; gender analysis, gender equality, gender-based violence, forced marriages, and sexual abuse; child abuse, child marriages, and violence against children; climate-related issues; and more. She has written books and scholarly articles about public administration, employing quantitative data and qualitative streams of historical changes in socioeconomic, judicial, political, and administrative institutions.

Her work employs innovative research methodologies, focusing on getting to the crux of socio-cultural and institutional situations to deliver efficient solutions that take into account complex dynamics involving human rights, child rights, gender equality, sustainability, and other such standards, in diverse socio-political contexts.

Occupation:
Countries of expertise: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey, Uganda, United States of America

Jenkins, Gareth

The Expert is an analyst and researcher based in Istanbul since 1989. His special areas of interest are leftist, Kurdish and Islamist movements and organizations, religious and ethnic minorities, rightist organizations, political Islam, human rights, security issues and civil-military relations.

Occupation: Political Analyst/Researcher
Countries of expertise: Turkey

Laizer, Sheri J

Extensive experience in expert reports on all the countries listed, and also in particular, Kurds in country of origin and diaspora

Occupation: Freelance writer & broadcast journalist since 1985 specializing in the Near East; photographer; political commentator, Middle East country of origin specialist
Countries of expertise: Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Syria, Turkey

Landesmann, Sonya

Intercultural and psychoanalytic psychotherapist, specialising in issues relevant to various Muslim countries, incl vendettas, honour killing, domestic violence, PTSD, Rape Trauma Syndrome, assault in detention and traumas of migration and exile.

Occupation: Intercultural and psychoanalytic psychotherapist. Formerly taught English to speakers of other languages. Also worked for the Refugee Council, Goldsmiths’ College, and Nafsiyat Inter cultural Therapy Centre.
Countries of expertise: Albania, Iran, Iraq, Turkey

Radeljic, Prof. Branislav

The Expert is an academic, consultant and policy analyst, specializing in EU, Balkan and East European political and socioeconomic developments. He has a BA from the University of Rome La Sapienza, two MA degrees from the Free University of Brussels, and a PhD from the University of London. He lectured for many years in the United Kingdom and, more recently, he has held professorships in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. In addition, he has held visiting appointments at Antonio de Nebrija University in Madrid, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Michigan and the University of Pittsburgh.

The Expert is the author of Europe and the Collapse of Yugoslavia: The Role of Non-State Actors and European Diplomacy (2012), editor of Europe and the post-Yugoslav Space (2013), Debating European Identity: Bright Ideas, Dim Prospects (2014), European Community-Yugoslav Relations: Debates and Documents that Mattered (1968–1992) (2017), and The Unwanted Europeanness: Understanding Division and Inclusion in Contemporary Europe (2021), and co-editor of Religion in the post-Yugoslav Context (2015), Kosovo and Serbia: Contested Options and Shared Consequences (… Read more

Occupation: Academic, Consultant and Policy Analyst
Countries of expertise: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, Turkey

Rahimi, Sadeq

The Expert’s research and publication interests have covered diverse aspects of culture, health and subjectivity ranging from collective self-esteem and perception of racism to schizophrenia and culture, political subjectivity, radicalization, clinical trials, behavioral economics, and artificial intelligence.

Occupation: Anthropologist, psychotherapist
Countries of expertise: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Canada, France, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States of America

Yazici Yildiz , Ayse

The Expert is a Turkish lawyer with 20 years' experience in civil and criminal cases, conducting litigation and providing legal consultancy.

Occupation: Lawyer, Turkish law expert
Countries of expertise: Turkey

Zraly, Maggie

The Expert is a medical and psychological anthropologist with extensive training in public health. Her research and practice have focused on conflict-affected populations, including survivors of conflict-related sexual violence/genocide-rape, youth heads of household, and children associated with armed forces and armed groups.

The Expert conducted four years of in-depth fieldwork on the ground in Rwanda between 2003 and 2012. In 2016, she conducted short-term research in Afghanistan on human trafficking, and in 2017, she directed a center for mental health in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. She has completed short deployments for child protection and mental health support in emergency response, the longest of which was for 3 weeks in 2016 across Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, and Serbia to assess the protection situation of forcibly displaced Syrian, Afghan, and Iraqi children seeking asylum.

Occupation: Anthropologist
Countries of expertise: Afghanistan, Iraq, Rwanda, Turkey, United States of America