Dr. Ganier specializes in Iranian studies and works on the history of the border areas between Iran and the Ottoman Empire in the modern and contemporary periods. He focuses on the social and political history of the border tribes, particularly the Kurds, and their relationships with local sedentary populations, including Armenians, Assyrians, and Turks. He has recently completed a PhD in History on the Ottoman occupation of the Iranian regions of Urmia and Savouj-Bulaq between 1905 and 1912.
Using Iranian, Ottoman, and Armenian archives, his research at ANAMED is dedicated to studying a strategic border-crossing point between Iran and the Ottoman Empire: the Maku (Iran)-Bayazıt (Ottoman Empire) sector, two local powers with a high degree of autonomy from their respective authorities, at the gateway to the Caucasus. This research extends from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century and aims to provide a political, economic, and social study of the relations between these two rival powers, with their protector states, and with the various local populations, particularly Kurds, Armenians, and Turks.