Kurds

By Juan Cole | – – A joint operation by US Delta force and Iraqi Kurdish freed 70 captives on Thursday, led to killing of 20 and the capture of 6 Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) forces, and left one US soldier dead. He was the first US military casualty in the struggle between Washington and the […]

Dissent

Ankara bombs: Turkey is being torn apart by bad leaders and bad neighbors

contributors

By Alpaslan Ozerdem | (The Conversation) | – – It had already been a deadly summer of political instability in Turkey. And now this. Another bloody massacre – this time at the hand of twin bomb attacks on a peace rally in Ankara, which have killed at least 97 people. It is the worst terror […]

Featured

Syria: Will US arming of Kurdish-led Northeast Rebels Provoke Turkey?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The intrepid Anne Barnard and Karim Shoumali at the NYT have a piece on how Saudi-supplied TOW anti-tank weapons to rebels in Hama and Idlib are creating a US-Russian proxy struggle in northwest Syria (the CIA is actually the source of the weapons, with Saudi intelligence […]

Kurds

Who Bombs a Peace Rally? An Unprecedented 95 Dead in Turkey capital as Accusations fly

contributors

Written by John Lubbock | ( Globalvoices.org Twin bombings hit a peace rally organised by leftist groups in Ankara on the morning of October 10 in what has proven the deadliest bomb attack in Turkish history. The interior ministry initially announced a death toll of 30 people. The health ministry updated the figure to 86 […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Turkey Risks Turmoil with end of Peace Process & of Non-Intervention Policies

contributors

By Omer Tekdemir and Oğuzhan Göksel | (Open Democracy) | – – Though often depicted as a relatively stable exception in a turbulent region, the Republic of Turkey has also wrestled with burdens of the Ottoman Empire. Arguably, the most troublesome legacy has been the multi-ethnic and multi-religious character of post-Ottoman society, because even after […]

Iraq

Kurds unite, from Conservatives to Far Left, in Fight against ISIL

contributors

By Karlos Zurutuza | (Inter Press Service) | – – KIRKUK, Iraq (IPS) – Reminders of the last occupants of camp K1 in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk are only visible on the murals at the main gate leading into the compound: Iraqi soldiers saluting the flag, pointing their weapons or being cheered on […]

Displaced and Refugees

As Syrian Refugee Boy Identified, Crisis of Conscience over Refugees

contributors

By Jon Queally, staff writer | (Commondreams.org) | – – Three-year-old Aylan Kurdi drowned along with his mother, Rehan, and older brother, Galip, while the family attempted to cross the sea from Turkey to Greece on Wednesday. A paramilitary police officer carries the lifeless body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi after he drowned when the boat […]

Kurds

Are Turkish Pres. Erdogan’s anti-PKK Campaign, Snap Elections Backfiring?

contributors

By Kubilay Yado Arin | (ISLAMiCommentary) | – – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. (photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons) Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan this week called for new elections on November 1, after his government failed to form a coalition following the June poll in which his party —the AKP — failed to win a majority of […]

Kurds

Fighting at Funerals: Turkey plunges back into Conflict

contributors

T. Deniz Erkmen | (Informed Comment) | – – It has been a month since the government of Turkey has ended the tenuous peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), by bombing Qandil mountains in Iraq and rounding up Kurdish activists. What instigated the resumption of the conflict was the killing of two […]