#kurds

You hear many words of wisdom traveling through the Mideast, all which offer insightful pondering to events past and present.  Watching the tragic escalation of events in Syria and the failing efforts to bring the fighting to a close bring to mind words often spoken by the Kurds of the region, who are well-versed in […]

This article originally appeared on the Fikra Forum (March 22, 2012) —————————– In recent months, as uncertainty over Assad’s future continues, Turkey’s position with regard to its potential military or humanitarian intervention has been heavily debated. While Turkish leaders have condemned the Syrian government’s brutal suppression of dissent since February 2011 and warned several times […]

2011 proved a tumultuous year for states. The Arab Spring evidenced that stifling dissent through oppression and supporting autocracies should not be the status quo policy of the United States. Now we see states being made anew. How will these states fully differ from their previous forms? Will their previous economic or political strongmen truly be ousted […]

2011 evidenced our inability to predict substantial change and respond to tumultuous events. The ramifications of foreign policy decisions will not show their true colors for some time. Below, I discuss notable states – Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Qatar, Cuba, Burma, Ivory Coast, Norway, Israel, and Palestine – that I believe are important because of their effects on peace […]

Officials said about 10,000 Turkish infantry and special forces punched into northern Iraq on Oct. 19 in an effort to destroy bases of the Kurdish Workers Party. They said the operation was in response to a PKK strike in southeastern Turkey in which at least 26 soldiers were killed. In order to understand this last […]

Is Turkey’s grandstanding vis-a-vis the Palestine issue hypocritical in light of its own continually deleterious approach to another stateless group – the Kurds? What conditions support the notion that there should or should not be a dichotomy between Turkey’s approach to the two groups – Kurds and Palestinians? With this, how does the apparent contrast […]

Various sources report that dozens of Turkish journalists are jailed, and hundreds are facing trial. Chief among the reasons for so many to be jailed and facing legal action is their criticism of the government. Over 40 journalists are in jail, and over 700 more are facing lawsuits with the threat of imprisonment, according to […]

Maliki’s political endurance hangs on the support of the Kurdish faction.

Last week, in a December 22th Wall Street Journal op-ed, Ibrahim Bahr Al-Uluom, a former Iraqi oil minister and current member of the Iraqi National Alliance (a political party), lamented the recent Iraqi oil lease auctions and suggested transferring as much of Iraq’s oil wealth directly to its citizens in the form of shares in […]

In the Muslim world, Turkey and Iran are usually perceived as standing on opposite sides.  Turkey stands for secularism, while the Shia clerics dominate the Iranian politics.  Turkey is a “friend of the West”, and is also a Muslim country that has normal relations with Israel. While Iran, if it is not in the news […]

My Master’s thesis dealt with the effect of an independent Iraqi Kurdistan on the Kurdish movement in which I specifically examined what effect increasing the level of autonomy in Iraqi Kurdistan have had on Kurdish secessionist groups in Syria, Iran, and Turkey.  Considering I spent last whole year engrossed in researching the operations of Kurdish […]

The recent announcement by the Turkish government that it is preparing a serious plan to address its Kurdish problem should also serve as a reminder to the Iranian government that it needs to address the Kurdish issue as well.  Iran, which contains the second largest population of Kurds, has also treated its Kurdish population egregiously.  […]