updated Mon. September 11, 2023
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Rudaw
April 26, 2018
“It's a proven fact that no one can do anything alone in Baghdad if the Kurds are not unanimous on matters,” he said, calling for unity. ... Going forward, he stressed that Kurds must remain united and that, no matter what course Kurdistan takes, Baghdad will “remain a strategic partner” and relations mustÃâà...
Kurdistan24
April 26, 2018
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A total of 36 Kurds were detained by security forces in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhilat) in the past month, according to statistics by human rights organization Hengaw. From March 21 to April 20, over one citizen was arrested per day in Rojhilat, the organization reported. Out of the 36 Kurdish detainees,Ãâà...
Rudaw
April 25, 2018
Kirkuk was taken from the Kurds on October 16. Of course, an inquiry should be launched to answer certain questions like: Why did this happen? Who was responsible for this? Would Kirkuk have fallen if the Peshmerga resisted? How long the Kurds could have resisted? Could this have been avoided?
The American Conservative
April 16, 2018
At issue between the two is the looming cost and potential consequence of Centcom's marriage of convenience with the YPG militia (the Kurdish People's Defense Units) that the U.S. has used to fight ISIS in Syria. The difficulty for the U.S. is that while the YPG's battle-hardened cadres have notched a seriesÃâà...
Rudaw
April 14, 2018
"A good example what happens if you do have a power like the United States willing to defend the autonomy of Kurdish people, Kurdistan, I believe, became ... Genocide Watch issued a warning for Kurds being "at risk for a large-scale genocide" at the hands of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria earlier this month.
Al-Monitor
April 6, 2018
In most of the episodes, Kurds are portrayed as villains involved either in terrorism or trafficking. One of the characters in “Valley of Wolves: The Trap” is Muro, a poorly dressed PKK commander who spouts mindless propaganda in oddly accented Turkish and speaks dramatically of the suffering of “hisÃâà...
The Guardian
April 4, 2018
Kurdish leaders, already troubled by a Turkish assault that last month drove the Kurds from an enclave in the north-west of the country – which the US did not oppose – are also now privately questioning the viability of the alliance fighting Isis. “They want us to finish what's important to them, but they won'tÃâà...
The New Arab
April 4, 2018
Turkish armed forces seized Syria's Afrin region last month and drove out Kurdish YPG militia after launching a military operation in the north of the country in January. Tags: Syria, Kurds, Afrin, Labour, UK. A delegation of officials from Britain's Labour party visited the Kurdish-led authority in northern SyriaÃâà...
NRT
April 4, 2018
SULAIMANI — British Labour officials visited Kurdish-held areas in northern Syria, vowing to stand with Syrian Kurds in the face of threats of attacks, as Turkey threatens to capture other Kurdish areas in the country. A delegation from British Labour Party arrived in Rojava on Tuesday (April 3) throughÃâà...
The Daily Star
April 4, 2018
A picture taken on April 3, 2018 shows vehicles of US-backed coalition forces driving in the northern Syrian town of Manbij.On the outskirts of Syria's Manbij, Kurdish-led fighters have dug trenches and US-led coalition soldiers patrol from land and sky after Turkey threatened to overrun the northern city.
Middle East Eye
April 4, 2018
British Labour officials visited the Kurdish-led authority in northern Syria on Tuesday, pledging to stand with it in the face of threats. "We're here for a long-term relationship with you, where we can support you against all the people who are trying to destroy your liberty," said Maurice Glasman, a Labour peerÃâà...
Al-Monitor
April 3, 2018
Kurds who oppose the Democratic Union Party (PYD) recently met under Ankara's auspices in Gaziantep, Turkey, to form the Afrin Liberation Congress. ... in Syria and is led by the PYD — made a similar declaration, saying the assembly members in Gaziantep "are blatantly betraying the Kurdish people.".
Rudaw
April 3, 2018
Online memes and monologues ask why the Kurds have been betrayed after they “fought ISIS for America and the world.” They talk as if this is the latest betrayal akin to 1975, when Henry Kissinger encouraged Mullah Mustafa Barzani to rebel against Baghdad but then abruptly withdrew American aidÃâà...
LatestLY
March 31, 2018
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is an umbrella group of fighters dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) which now controls swathes of North-eastern Syria after defeating Islamic State militants. However, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) active in Syria, and its armed wingÃâà...
ABC Online
March 31, 2018
Afrin: Turkey warns France it could become 'target' for backing Syrian Kurds. Updated about 5 hours agoFri 30 Mar 2018, 9:19pm. President Macron and President Erdogan are seen walking in opposite directions at a joint press conference Photo: Mr Erdogan said he exchanged 'heated words' with Mr Macron over Afrin.
Rudaw
March 29, 2018
One reason the Kurds now feel betrayed is that they fought ISIS in a time much different from the world we are living in now. We all remember how Barack Obama used the US air force to protect Erbil and the Kurds. Obama was the leader of a liberal-democratic world. He believed it was the duty of the US toÃâà...
The Week UK
March 29, 2018
Turkey has long vowed to crush the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which the government considers a terrorist group aligned with the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). After months of heavy shelling and violent clashes, Erdogan announced on 18 March that the Turkish military had seized fullÃâà...
BBC News
March 29, 2018
France has offered to mediate in the conflict in northern Syria, where Turkey launched a military offensive against Kurdish fighters in January. Ankara is battling to drive out the Kurdish YPG militia, which it sees as an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The French offer was swiftlyÃâà...
Arkansas Online
March 28, 2018
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inspects military honour guard as he arrives to address the members of his ruling party in Trabzon, Turkey, Sunday, March 25, 2018. (Kayhan Ozer/Pool Photo via AP). Comments; aAFont Size. BAGHDAD -- Iraq's prime minister said Tuesday that he has orderedÃâà...
Spectator.co.uk (blog)
March 28, 2018
In Syria, the situation is different but nonetheless bleak for the Kurdish people. It is now three years since Kurdish fighters in Syria repelled Isis from the city of Kobani with the help of coalition airpower. Turkey watched the Syrian Kurds and their armed group, the People's Protection Units (YPG) withÃâà...
Sputnik International
March 28, 2018
Commenting on the situation in Afrin in an interview with Sputnik, the head of Kurdish Initiative in Syria, Muhammed Oso, said that northern Syria-based Kurds will regret trusting Washington, which is not interested in supporting Kurds and just needs a force that could distract the Syrian government fromÃâà...
OCRegister
March 26, 2018
Washington's planned vehicle for this ambitious effort was the Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG. In fact, denying this territory to Damascus might inconvenience Assad, but he survived far worse. Iranian transit might be less secure through a nominal Kurdish zone, but the YPG cannot hermeticallyÃâà...
Kurdistan24
March 23, 2018
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – British Prime Minister Theresa May congratulated Kurds for celebrating Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, and wished the Kurdish community a peaceful year. “I would like to send my best wishes to everyone in the Kurdish community who are celebrating Newroz, the Kurdish NewÃâà...
IHS Jane's 360
March 23, 2018
A Turkish Leopard 2 tank rolls through Afrin town on 18 March. Source: Abdulfettah Huseyin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images. Key Points. Turkey has been buoyed by military victory against the YPG in Afrin; Ankara is now threatening to attack Manbij if the US does not force the YPG to withdraw. EncouragedÃâà...
Bristol Post
March 23, 2018
Protestors have blockaded the entrance to one of Bristol's biggest firms in protest at its links with Turkey following the death of a Bristol woman fighting for the Kurds in Syria. One worker at BAE Systems remonstrated with the protestors, after they stormed onto the grounds of the company's offices in FiltonÃâà...
The Guardian
March 23, 2018
... an armed group of foreign communists, anarchists and socialists fighting Isis under the aegis of Syria's Kurdish people's protection units (YPG) and its ... In early February, Syrian Kurds accused Turkish-backed rebels of mutilating then filming the body of a YPJ fighter after a video emerged of her corpse.
The Atlantic
March 22, 2018
The strains were exacerbated by last fall's independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurds, apparently emboldened by their military success against ISIS, and buoyed after having taken possession in 2014 of Kirkuk, the oil-rich region that is among the main areas of dispute between Baghdad andÃâà...
NRT
March 22, 2018
DIYARBAKIR — Turkey's Kurds celebrated the annual New Year festival of Newroz under the shadow of the capture of Afrin in Syria by the Turkish army, arrests of Kurdish politicians and the breakdown of the peace process. Tens of thousands joined authorized celebrations for the New Year across theÃâà...
Express.co.uk
March 22, 2018
Conservative senator Bruno Retailleau said the French President had turned his back on the Kurds following the capture of their stronghold Afrin by Turkish forces last weekend. Mr Retailleau said in a statement: “While France has always supported the Kurds, Emmanuel Macron, by his deafening silenceÃâà...
Arab News
March 22, 2018
One of the most conflict-affected areas in Iraq is currently the northern Kurdish region. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) recently pointed out that the region faces a humanitarian crisis as tens of thousands of people have been displaced. Many are pointing fingers at Iraqi forces for launchingÃâà...
New York Times
March 22, 2018
ERBIL, Iraq — Markets are bustling with shoppers seeking new holiday outfits. Airport flight boards feature packed schedules. And political tempers, which were erupting a few months ago, are tamped back within the bounds of diplomatic niceties. These scenes illustrate a remarkable turnaround in relationsÃâà...
Haaretz
March 21, 2018
Tens of thousands of Turkish Kurds turned an annual cultural festival into a rare mass political protest on Wednesday against the government's two-month-old military campaign ... The local head of his ruling AK Party in Diyarbakir, Serdar Budak, said Turkey's enemy was the YPG, not the Kurdish people.
Newsweek
March 21, 2018
GettyImages-933534016 A tank belonging to Turkish soldiers and rebel Free Syrian Army fighters is seen in the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin, in northwestern Syria, after they took control of the city from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), on March 18. Turkish flags adorned local buildings in the cityÃâà...
New York Times
March 19, 2018
The Free Syrian Army, a rebel group, and Turkey declared on Sunday that they had taken control of Afrin, a mostly Kurdish city near the Turkish border that had been held by the People's Protection Units, the Kurdish-led militia known by the initials of its Kurdish name, Y.P.G. The Kurds appeared to haveÃâà...
Kurdistan24
March 16, 2018
The policy first adopted by the Trump administration has been a failure, and the Kurds paid dearly when the US turned a blind eye to the Iranian-orchestrated attack on Kirkuk, Qanbar said. Pence's discussion with Abadi also included an affirmation of the Trump administration's “deep commitment to protect persecutedÃâà...
Tampabay.com
March 16, 2018
This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian civilians with their belongings as they fleeing from fighting between the Syrian government forces and rebels, in Hamouria in eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, Syria, Thursday, March. 15, 2018. Thousands of civiliansÃâà...
Express.co.uk
March 16, 2018
Mr Aksoy was shot six times by the militants who had tricked their way into the compound used by YPG, the Kurdish People's Protection Units, by wearing uniforms of their allies the Syrian Democratic Forces. He was covering the battle to retake Raqqa from IS, and friends said he wanted to "bring attentionÃâà...
Rudaw
March 16, 2018
Without a state, Syrian Kurds likely to eventually make a deal with Damascus ... He disputed the belief that Kurds are “friends” of the US government. ... “Western countries, they don't think in the terms of Kurds or other people or Arabs or Persians, they think in terms of their self-interest,” he added. RojavaÃâà...
TheTower.org
March 16, 2018
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has fired its first official Jewish Representative, Sherzad Omar Mamsani, reportedly under pressure from the central government in Baghdad. The Times of Israel reported on Thursday that the head of the KRG's Ministry for Endowment and Religious Affairs,Ãâà...
The Guardian
March 16, 2018
If you're wondering why Kurds and their supporters occupied King's Cross and Manchester Piccadilly stations last weekend: here's why. ... “It's important to understand the attack of the Turkish army, with its allied jihadist forces, is not just against the Kurdish people,” she tells me. “These are two systems atÃâà...
Rudaw
March 16, 2018
It was these actions of eastern (Iranian) and northern (Turkish) Kurds that led Iran and Turkey to feel they can have relations with the Kurdistan Region without provoking ... Turkey paid particular attention to this strategy, such that some suspected Ankara was encouraging Kurds to go for independence.
NPR
March 15, 2018
Stevens says he connected with the Kurdish People's Protection Units, also known by the Kurdish initials YPG, on Facebook. The group has a strong online presence where it uses social media to recruit Westerners, and then eventually transfers communication to encrypted messaging apps. Once acceptedÃâà...
The Japan News
March 4, 2018
Reuters BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraq's parliament approved a long-delayed budget on Saturday, the first since declaring victory over Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militant group after three years of war, but Kurdish lawmakers boycotted the vote over their region's diminished allocation. The budget ofÃâà...
Kurdistan24
March 3, 2018
This force contains fighters from all ethnic and religious groups of the region, including Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Syriacs, and many others. Fighters at the graduation ceremony spoke to Kurdistan 24 about their training. “We have had good training in 45 days on the political and military levels,” Zinar Arafat,Ãâà...
SFGate
March 3, 2018
MARSAWA, Syria — Turkey's prime minister said Saturday that Turkish troops have captured a strategic village in a Kurdish-held enclave in northwestern Syria, tightening its grip on Kurdish forces in the sixth week of its offensive on the area. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the Kurdish Afrin district hasÃâà...
Rudaw
March 3, 2018
BAGHDAD, Iraq — With Kurds continuing to boycott, the Iraqi parliament passed its 2018 budget bill on Saturday afternoon after more than three months of disputes. ... “We as Kurds on the financial committee have conducted many meetings with UNAMI, the International Monetary Fund, Iraqi high officials,Ãâà...
Ahval
March 1, 2018
The United States should use its influence to end ongoing fighting between Turkey and Syrian Kurdish forces in the northwest Syrian district of Afrin, officials of a rival Syrian Kurdish organisation told Ahval. Turkey launched a cross-border operation on Jan. 20 in an attempt to expel the People's ProtectionÃâà...
New York Times
February 28, 2018
Without the Kurds, the Arab forces and their American military advisers have largely been forced to halt clearing operations and taken up mostly defensive positions, United States officials said. That has left American air power to pick up the slack. The development is another major consequence of theÃâà...
Deutsche Welle
February 24, 2018
But the military then came up against the very determined opposition of the Kurdish People's Defense Units (YPG), which are also in possession of heavy weapons. This has increased the risk factor for the Turkish military. Ankara definitely wants to avoid a large number of Turkish soldiers being killed.
Ahval
February 23, 2018
Nationalism that arose in the making of the Turkish state amid the collapse of the Ottoman Empire a century ago is one of the main reasons that most Turks support the government's “wars on Kurds”, writes Stephen Star in the Arab Weekly. Large sections of the population do not support Turkish PresidentÃâà...
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