Kurds

By Rahila Gupta | ( OpenDemocracy | – – Rojava is a fast moving, dynamic place where things change by the minute. What are the material conditions which support this woman-centred revolution ? Part 5 of 50.50’s series Witnessing the revolution in Rojava, northern Syria. There is a real sense of a people responding to […]

US Centcom Commander in Syria to Coordinate Kurds, Arabs against ISIL

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Robert Burns of AP reported on the visit inside Syria of the head of the US Middle East Command (Centcm), Army Gen. Joseph Votel, to assess the progress in US training of the Syrian Democratic Forces division. It is said to comprise 25,000 Kurdish fighters of […]

Americans may see ISIL as No. 1 Threat, but Turkey & the Kurds have other Priorities

By Abbas Djavadi | ( RFE/RL | – – For a long time the Turkish government was accused of assisting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) group. These accusations were heard especially since the battle Syrian Kurds fought with ISIS over the town of Kobani on the Syrian-Turkish border almost a year ago. […]

Kurds

Syrian Kurds: True Revolution must Liberate Women

By Rahila Gupta | ( OpenDemocracy ) In less than four years, the women’s umbrella organisation, Kongira Star, has set up an autonomous, grassroots, democratic structure which has resulted in shifting patriarchal mindsets and reversing gender discriminatory laws . . . On day three of my trip to Rojava, Nuvin and Essam from the media […]

ISIL Endgame: Obama to send 250 more US Troops into Syria

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – President Obama is announcing Monday morning in Hanover, Germany, that he will send another 250 US troops, likely mostly special operations, into Syria, bringing the total to 300. The 50 troops already there are embedded with the YPG or People’s Defense Units of the leftist Democratic […]

Turkey’s Erdogan exports Press crackdown to US as his guards manhandle Journalists in DC

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Turkish President Erdogan visited Washington DC this week to participate in the deliberations on nuclear weapons. He brought with him some bad habits and some bad actors in his security detail, according to WaPo’s Ishaan Tharoor. Some pro-Kurdish protesters gathered to protest Erdogan’s visit. Then when […]

Authoritarianism

Turkey’s Erdogan: Democracy Has ‘Absolutely No Value Any Longer’ given war on PKK Terrorism

TeleSur | – – “Democracy Has ‘Absolutely No Value Any Longer’” The Turkish president made the comments in the context of the government’s fight against the Kurdish PKK resistance group. In the fight against the Kurdish insurgency in the country, there is no place left for democracy and freedom of speech in Turkey, President Recep […]

Syria’s Kurds to declare Federal Province