In March 2019, the Felsberg Institute for Education and Academic Research (FIBW) started a first German-Kurdish research project titled "Eternal War? Long-term socioeconomic consequences of the war in the province of Halabja" together with the University of Halabja from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Over a period of six months, indirect long-term socio-economic consequences of war in the province of Halabja will be explored in two phases.

The FIBW research associate, Silvia Nicola, has developed together with five colleagues from the University of Halabja, the necessary tools to conduct a scientific survey in the first phase of this project. In a first step, the survey was conducted among the students of the University of Halabja with the aim of gathering data on their socio-economic situation and the brain drain risks posed by political and/or armed conflicts.

The same set of questions was also given to a smaller group of students from the University of Sulaymanyia in order to better identify specific local trends. In total, 350 undergraduate students from six departments and all enrollment years (law, English, history, social sciences, physics and sports science) have participated in the survey.

First results of this data collection phase have already been presented at the 3rd International Conference on Kurdish Studies in London. After the London conference, Ms. Silvia Nicola, the FIBW researcher, will return to Halabja for the second data collection phase. The focus will lay this time on semi-standardized interviews with household members from Halabja.

This cooperation is part of a more complex research project, which was initiated by Prof. Dr. Polla Khanaqa, the director of the Kurdistan Institution for Strategic Studies and Scientific Research (KISSR). This first project sequence was supported by Dr.  Yousif Goran, the KRG Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research.