For all of the latest Kurdish news, see these sources:
ANF English: https://anfenglishmobile.com/
Hawar News: https://www.hawarnews.com/en/
Rojava Information Center: https://rojavainformationcenter.com
Women Defend Rojava: http://womendefendrojava.net/en/
Rojhelat: http://rojhelat.info/en/
Rojava Centre for Strategic Studies
Komun Academy:
NEWS
- Co-chair of the PYD: SDF could join government forces in Idlib after an agreement on role in Syrian Armed Forces
- The relationship between ecology and the system is unsustainable
- Turkey must release political prisoners: Human Rights Watch
- Kurdish-led SDF calls for truce in Syria amid coronavirus pandemic
- Russia sends ship with military ambulances towards Syria after virus outbreak
- UN calls for total ceasefire in Syria to focus on coronavirus
- Iran-backed militias beef up presence in Syria’s Idlib, Aleppo: monitor
- Turkey using drug from China for coronavirus
- Turkey tightens restrictions to curb coronavirus outbreak
- Turkey dismisses eight pro-Kurdish party mayors in east
- EU leaders to review 2016 deal with Turkey on migrants
- UN expert raises alarm over migrant, asylum seeker ‘pushbacks’ at Turkey-Greece border
- Fears mount as Syria reports first coronavirus case
- Kurdish-led northeast under lockdown as Syria announces first coronavirus case
- Turkish-backed group’s disruption of water puts 460,000 people at risk, UNICEF warns
- Iraq, Kurdistan crack down on coronavirus curfew violators as infections rise
- Turkey’s Coronavirus Death Toll Up Nine to 30 as 289 New Cases Diagnosed-Health Minister
- Turkish-backed group, again, cuts water supply to 460,000 people in northeastern Syria
- Syrian President Issues Amnesty, Reduces Sentences
- Syria Confirms First Coronavirus Case as Fears Grow It Could Spread
- Iraqi forces take over US base along Syrian border
- High-risk Syria ups measures against coronavirus
- Russia Satisfied with Turkey’s Military Patrols Along Syria’s M4 Highway
- Turkey Imposing Curfew for People Over Age 65
- War-ravaged Syria takes steps against coronavirus
- War-Ravaged Syria Takes New Steps Against Coronavirus, Says No Recorded Cases Yet
- Syrian Kurdish authorities ease military draft demands for Kurds abroad
- Greece: 11 Arrests, Arms Seized in Turkey-Linked Terror Raid
- Turkey denies reports of troop pullback in Syria
- Turkey to suspend all scientific and culture events in latest coronavirus measure
- PKK: Let’s celebrate Newroz!
- Doctors in northwest Syria brace for ‘devastating’ coronavirus
- Turkey says it sent 500,000 coronavirus test kits to United States
- Turkey-backed rebels violate ceasefire in Syria’s Idlib
- Students under investigation for refusing to sing Turkish national anthem
- US slaps sanctions on Syria defence minister for Idlib assault
- Turkey Confirms First Coronavirus Death, More Than Doubles Cases to 98
- Coronavirus in Syria: WHO to test for coronavirus
- France Unlocks Extra €50 Mln for Humanitarian Aid to Syria
- Gulf Keystone Petroleum suspends drilling activities at well in Iraqi Kurdistan
- Journalists start Twitter campaign in Turkey
- Top Kurdistan Region officials commemorate 32nd anniversary of Halabja genocide
- Greece hopes EU-Turkey talks will ease tension over refugee crisis
- Government scrambles to contain coronavirus as Turkish cases triple
- Russia, Turkey curtail first joint military patrol in Syria’s Idlib
- Syria elections postponed over coronavirus
- UN says concerned about recent escalation in Iraq
- More than 4.8 million children born into war in Syria: UN
- Coronavirus: Turkey quarantines thousands of pilgrims from Saudi Arabia
- Turkey-Russia Patrols Start Amid Protests on Syrian Highway
- Syria, insisting it is coronavirus-free, takes broad steps to prevent spread
- KRG imposes curfews, orders quarantine of those returning from abroad as infections continue
- Russia, Turkey set joint patrols
- New law abolishes honor killings’ mitigating excuse in Syria
- Kurdish-led northern Syria says no coronavirus cases, implements countermeasures
- Egypt helping Kurdish-led troops in Syria fighting Turkish forces
- Turkey detains Kurdish human rights lawyers on terror claims
- Turkish police detain HDP co-mayor of Kurdish city
- Turkey Blames Kurdish Fighters for Syria Blast That Killed 4
- US prepares biting Syria sanctions as Assad pummels Idlib
- Turkey-based Kurdish publisher shortlisted for international ‘courage’ award
- American, British soldiers killed in fresh rocket attack on Iraqi base
- Babacan’s new party vows Turks can tweet without fear of arrest
- Report: Greece secretly detains, abuses refugees
- Turkey threatens ‘heavy’ retaliation if Idlib ceasefire is broken
- Turkey jails Kurdish ex-mayor for nine years for ‘terrorism’ links
- Turkey says U.S. offering Patriot missiles if S-400 not operated
- Turkey hopes for new refugee deal with EU before March 26
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
- Between Erdogan and Assad, Kurds remain reliable ally
- Inside one Duhok refugee camp under coronavirus lockdown
- Is Turkey planning a new invasion of eastern Syria? – analysis
- 21 stunning images from a photojournalist’s harrowing ordeal in Iraqi Kurdistan
- Kurdish Crackdown Continues in Turkey, Despite Health Emergency
- The UK Hasn’t Bombed Iraq or Syria Since Last September. What Gives?
- Intel: What was Russia’s defense minister doing in Syria?
- Turkey’s Economy Seemed Safer From Virus Than Most. Then Outbreak Hit Home
- If coronavirus spreads to this population, it could be catastrophic
- Coronavirus: ‘Islamic State’ seeks to profit from pandemic
- Amid US uncertainty in Syria, Kurdish YPG eyes bolstering ties with Russia
- One year after ISIS was defeated in Syria, it has yet to be eradicated
- Why Gerald Knaus’s proposal for a second EU-Turkey migration deal cannot work
- EU inaction on Syrian refugees is a stain on human conscience
- What Are Iraqi Refugees Doing in Syrian Camp?
- Will Coronavirus Slow the World’s Conflicts — or Intensify Them?
- Turkey’s intervention has created new possibilities in Syria – analyst
- Turkish soccer team lands in political hot water
- Abdullah Öcalan and the Spirit of Newroz
- Recep Tayyip Erdogan blackmailing Europe by threatening a flood of refugees
- Turkey’s Drone Air Force Is Spreading Its Wings In Syria To Great Effect
- Has the coronavirus reached Syria?
- 5,000 Terrorists Detained In One of The Toughest Prisons Worldwide
- Turkey’s Intervention in Syria and the Art of Coercive Diplomacy
- Ten years on Syria is still deep in wars
- Iraq’s pro-US PM-designate faces challenge from Iran-backed factions
- The Geopolitics of COVID-19
- Deir ez-Zor residents protest rule by Syrian Kurdish group
- Life in Syria’s Baghouz a Year After the Fall of Last ISIS Flag
- The Challenges Of Preparing For Coronavirus In Syria
- Syria war: The myth of Western inaction in Idlib
- Intel: Turkey targeted by both sides in northern Syria conflict
- US blames Russia, not Assad, for Turkey’s loss
- Eastern Syria defeated ISIS but has been given no coronavirus test kits
- U.S. Court Exposes Turkey’s Role in Iran’s and Venezuela’s Sanctions Evasion Schemes – Again
- Why Ankara’s Syrian refugee threat has lost its impact
- Russia, Turkey conduct first joint patrol in Idlib
- They Defeated ISIS. Now Syrian Kurds Gear Up to Fight Coronavirus
- Steeped in history
- The US census and the Kurdish diaspora
- Turkey’s actions in Syria’s Afrin amount to ethnic cleansing – Kurdish analysts
- Turkey’s geostrategic orientation at crossroads amid Idlib tangle
- The Irish Times view on the war in Syria: the world must not forget
- Mission impossible 2.0: Idlib plan stumbles at outset
- Turkish Use of Water as a Weapon Demonstrates Willingness to Pressure Kurds
- Europe Turns Its Back on Refugees—and Its Own Values
- Another prime minister nominee in Iraq: Will this one take?
- What to Make of Turkey’s Recent Dust-Up in Syria
- Beyond the end
- Rojava Film Commune: Forms of Freedom
- Erdogan determined to achieve goals in Syria despite setbacks
- Integration through sport: The story of Dalkurd FF
- Syrian opposition split over Russia-Turkey patrols in Idlib
- Turkish Government Responsible for Torture, Arbitrary Killings, and Disappearances
- Gambling with 80 Million Lives: Why Erdoğan Lied about Coronavirus
- What Is Behind Turkey’s Proposal for Syria’s Oil?
- Children bear brunt of Syrian conflict
- Syrian refugees deserve better than to be used as political pawns
- ‘We Don’t Know Where To Hide’: The Day-To-Day Struggles For Civilians In Idlib
- ‘I Feel Let Down by the World’: In Syria’s Idlib, a Bloodier Phase Is on the Horizon
- Analysis: Nine years on, we still dream of a free Syria
- With Cease-Fire in Place, Syrians Return for Belongings, but Not to Stay
- How Turkey lost Russia and the West
- How long will the Turkish-Russian deal on Idlib last?
- War in Syria enters tenth year
- Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria ill-prepared for coronavirus outbreak
- Syria Weekly: The Struggle for the State in Syria
- Bloodshed, unrest, poverty: Syria’s war nine years on
- ‘There is nothing now’: Syrians in Idlib fear end nearing
- In pictures: Nine years of Syria’s war
- Turkey cannot make a terrorist out of Kurdish mayor Selçuk Mızraklı
- Jinwar, the Middle East’s first feminist commune for Arab, Kurdish, and Yazidi victims of Islamic State
- Syrian war, rumbling into 10th year, still has global impact
- Russia’s Strategy for the Middle East: Stabilize, Revitalize, Create Chaos
- Northeast Syrian airwaves home to radio tower of Babel
- The way to Rojava – A way back to your own history
- Inside one man’s secret mission to rescue jihadi brides from ISIS
- Campaign of the Week: Turkey and Kurdistan Solidarity Initiative
- Erdogan turns to oil in a bid to salvage Syria policy
- Syria: Is the Endgame Approaching?
- Iraqi Kurdistan reaches out to EU while keeping independence dream alive
- The Turkish poet imprisoned for 26 years for a crime he did not commit
- What game is Turkey playing in Syria?
- Baghdad fears escalation after attacks in Iraq and Syria
- Coronavirus climbs up Turkey’s economic risk ladder
- Erdogan may be the world’s most ‘insulted’ leader
- Is COVID-19 lurking in Syria’s Kurdish northeast?
- Erdogan’s war in Idlib faces uphill battle on the home front
- What’s happening in Syria is genocide
- Far-Right Terrorists Want Syria Crisis to Bring on Race War
- Syria is the war nobody wins, except maybe Trump
- Turkey weaponizes refugees against Europe
- Assessing the threat that Syria’s Kurds pose to Turkey and the US
- Criminalising solidarity for the Rojava struggle: An epitome of failure to stand up to Turkey’s dictatorship and ethnic cleansing
- Turkey used a new weapon in Syria that was so effective it looks like Russia won’t dare confront Turkey directly
- Fighting in the End Times
VIDEO
- Panel Discussion: The Unfinished Wars: America, ISIS, Iran, Kurdistan and the Middle East
NEWS
- Co-chair of the PYD: SDF could join government forces in Idlib after an agreement on role in Syrian Armed Forces
24 Mar 2020 | Mohammad Abdulssattar Ibrahim, Syria Direct
During the most recent military escalation by Syrian government forces and their allied militias in northwest Syria, which led to the displacement of more than one million people, media outlets—mostly opposition-leaning—reported that the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fought alongside the Syrian government forces. The SDF, however, has denied these claims.
- The relationship between ecology and the system is unsustainable
24 Mar 2020 | ANF English
The book The Sociology of Freedom: Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization, Volume III, written by Abdullah Öcalan and translated by Havin Guneser, will be published by PM Press. Here we publish an excerpt called Society’s Ecological Problem:
- Turkey must release political prisoners: Human Rights Watch
24 Mar 2020 | Rudaw
Turkey’s Human Rights Watch Director Emma Sinclair-Webb has called for the release of prisoners regardless of their political affiliation in the face of a potential coronavirus outbreak in overcrowded prisons.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/240320202
- Kurdish-led SDF calls for truce in Syria amid coronavirus pandemic
24 Mar 2020 | Wladimir van Wilgenburg, Kurdistan24
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on Tuesday voiced support for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ call the previous day for a global ceasefire in order to focus on fighting the coronavirus.
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/36baafd8-e08b-4e7f-bedc-3acb28c5ba90
- Russia sends ship with military ambulances towards Syria after virus outbreak
24 Mar 2020 | Middle East Monitor
A cargo ship operated by the Russian Navy transited Turkey’s Bosphorus strait en route to Syria on Tuesday loaded with ambulances, a Reuters reporter saw.
- UN calls for total ceasefire in Syria to focus on coronavirus
24 Mar 2020 | Al Jazeera
The United Nations special envoy for Syria has called for an immediate nationwide ceasefire across the war-torn country to enable an “all-out-effort” to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
- Iran-backed militias beef up presence in Syria’s Idlib, Aleppo: monitor
24 Mar 2020 | i24 News
Pro-Iranian forces make use of lull in fighting to send fighters, heavy weapons to Syria’s north.
- Turkey using drug from China for coronavirus
24 Mar 2020 | AFP, Jakarta Times
Turkey’s health minister said Monday that the country is using a drug sent from China on patients suffering from the novel coronavirus.
https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/03/24/turkey-using-drug-from-china-for-coronavirus.html
- Turkey tightens restrictions to curb coronavirus outbreak
24 Mar 2020 | Ayla Jean Yackley, Al-Monitor
Turkey introduced additional restrictions today to keep people at home and contain the coronavirus outbreak as the number of confirmed cases mounted rapidly and spread throughout the country. The government also pledged to ramp up diagnostic testing, production of ventilators and efforts to find a vaccine.
- Turkey dismisses eight pro-Kurdish party mayors in east
23 Mar 2020 | Ahval
Turkey has dismissed eight mayors elected in last year’s local elections for the mainly-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) from their posts on Monday, Diken new site reported.
https://ahvalnews.com/dismissed-hdp-mayors/turkey-dismisses-eight-pro-kurdish-party-mayors-east
- EU leaders to review 2016 deal with Turkey on migrants
23 Mar 2020 | Middle East Monitor
A new EU report on the 2016 deal with Turkey on migrants is due out this Thursday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told an online press conference after a videoconference with European foreign ministers on Monday.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200323-eu-leaders-to-review-2016-deal-with-turkey-on-migrants/
- UN expert raises alarm over migrant, asylum seeker ‘pushbacks’ at Turkey-Greece border
23 Mar 2020 | UN News
“I am very concerned about the reported pushbacks of asylum seekers and migrants, which constitutes a violation of the prohibition of collective expulsions and the principle of non-refoulement,” said Felipe González Morales, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/03/1059992
- Fears mount as Syria reports first coronavirus case
23 Mar 2020 | Al Jazeera
Health officials in war-battered Syria have announced the first case of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, as authorities in the country prepare to halt all public transportation in a bid to curb the spread of the virus.
- Kurdish-led northeast under lockdown as Syria announces first coronavirus case
23 Mar 2020 | Amberin Zaman, Al-Monitor
The Kurdish-led autonomous administration in northeast Syria announced a lockdown in the broad swath of territory under its control today, just hours after the Syrian government confirmed its first case of the coronavirus.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/03/syria-northeast-kurdish-lockdown-coronavirus.html
- Turkish-backed group’s disruption of water puts 460,000 people at risk, UNICEF warns
23 Mar 2020 | Wladimir van Wilgenburg, Kurdistan24
A United Nations representative in Syria on Monday said interruption to a key water station in the country’s northeast puts at least 460,000 people at risk as efforts ramp up to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease.
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/cfa20d02-03e5-4ea3-968f-f65e08d86311
- Iraq, Kurdistan crack down on coronavirus curfew violators as infections rise
22 Mar 2020 | Kosar Nawzad, Kurdistan24
Iraqi security forces on Saturday detained dozens of people for curfew violations and Kurdistan Region police units fined families picnicking in rural Erbil, as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases across the nation rose to 221.
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/f246138d-2d20-43c7-b005-bcd17499bf1c
- Turkey’s Coronavirus Death Toll Up Nine to 30 as 289 New Cases Diagnosed-Health Minister
22 Mar 2020 | Reuters, New York Times
Turkey’s death toll from coronavirus increased by nine to 30 on Sunday as the number of confirmed cases rose by 289 to 1,256, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.
- Turkish-backed group, again, cuts water supply to 460,000 people in northeastern Syria
22 Mar 2020 | Wladimir van Wilgenburg, Kurdistan24
On Saturday, Turkish-backed armed groups cut the flow from a reservoir that supplies water to areas in northeastern Syria’s Hasakah province that are controlled by the Kurdish-led local government, depriving some 460,000 people in the region of the essential resource.
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/5fdd9539-d4c9-4219-af1a-aa73f4a3434b
- Syrian President Issues Amnesty, Reduces Sentences
22 Mar 20 | AP, New York Times
Syrian President Bashar Assad granted amnesty and reduced sentences for all crimes committed before Sunday, while also offering amnesty to military deserters who turn themselves in within the next few months.
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/03/22/world/middleeast/ap-ml-syria.html
- Syria Confirms First Coronavirus Case as Fears Grow It Could Spread
22 Mar 2020 | Reuters, New York Times
War-ravaged Syria on Sunday confirmed its first case of the coronavirus after weeks of rejecting opposition allegations that the disease had already reached a country with a wrecked health system and thousands of Iranian-backed militias and Shi’ite pilgrims.
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/03/22/world/middleeast/22reuters-health-coronavirus-syria.html
- Iraqi forces take over US base along Syrian border
21 Mar 2020 | Al Masdar News
On Thursday, the Iraqi security forces took over the Al-Qa’im military base in the Al-Anbar Province after the U.S.-led international coalition forces withdrew from the area.
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/watch-iraqi-forces-take-over-us-base-along-syrian-border/
- High-risk Syria ups measures against coronavirus
21 Mar 2020 | Middle East Online
Government of war-torn Syria says it has yet to document any infections in the country despite presence of thousands of foreign fighters and outbreaks in all its neighbouring countries.
https://middle-east-online.com/en/high-risk-syria-ups-measures-against-coronavirus
- Russia Satisfied with Turkey’s Military Patrols Along Syria’s M4 Highway
21 Mar 2020 | Raed Jaber, Asharq al-Awsat
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Friday unveiled some details on the Russian military patrols in areas falling outside the control of the Syrian regime, expressing satisfaction with joint patrols with Turkey along the M4 highway between Aleppo and Latakiya.
- Turkey Imposing Curfew for People Over Age 65
21 Mar 2020 | Asli Kandemir, Bloomberg
Turkey’s coronavirus deaths rose to 21 on Saturday as expanded testing, including kits from China, accelerated the infection count. Confirmed cases increased by almost 300 from Friday to 947, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. The government is expanding testing across Turkey with the arrival of 15-minute diagnosis kits from China on Friday and a gradual increase in the number of labs to 36 from 16.
- War-ravaged Syria takes steps against coronavirus
21 Mar 2020 | Reuters, Jerusalem Post
Syria, already shattered by nine years of war, has banned entry for foreigners arriving from many countries hit by the coronavirus as part of widening measures to combat the epidemic.
- War-Ravaged Syria Takes New Steps Against Coronavirus, Says No Recorded Cases Yet
20 Mar 2020 | Reuters, New York Times
Syria, already shattered by nine years of war, has banned entry for foreigners arriving from many countries hit by the coronavirus as part of widening measures to combat the epidemic.
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/03/20/world/middleeast/20reuters-health-coronavirus-syria.html
- Syrian Kurdish authorities ease military draft demands for Kurds abroad
20 Mar 2020 | Wladimir van Wilgenburg, Kurdistan24
The co-chair of the Defense Board of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, Zeidan al-Assi, has announced that Syrians living in Iraq can return to northeastern Syria without serving as conscripts by paying a yearly fee, reports the local news agency North Press.
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/7403538e-a2e7-4704-97e4-d79ea55dad41
- Greece: 11 Arrests, Arms Seized in Turkey-Linked Terror Raid
20 Mar 2020 | AP, New York Times
Police in Greece said Friday they have seized grenade launchers and other weapons in raids against suspected members of a far-left Turkish armed group.
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/03/20/world/europe/ap-eu-greece-turkey-weapons-seized.html
- Turkey denies reports of troop pullback in Syria
20 Mar 2020 | David Sands, Washington Times
Turkish officials on Friday rejected reports that the country was pulling back from its military incursion into northern Syria, even as Ankara insisted it was honoring a recent cease-fire deal brokered with Russia.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/mar/20/turkey-denies-reports-troop-pullback-syria/
- Turkey to suspend all scientific and culture events in latest coronavirus measure
20 Mar 2020 | Al-Monitor
Amid a surge in confirmed coronavirus infections, Turkey is postponing all events related to science, culture and the arts, its president announced Friday.
- PKK: Let’s celebrate Newroz!
20 Mar 2020 | ANF English
The PKK issued a statement to urge people to “celebrate this unusual Newroz.”
https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/pkk-let-s-celebrate-newroz-42418
- Doctors in northwest Syria brace for ‘devastating’ coronavirus
19 Mar 2020 | Elizabeth Hagedorn, Al-Monitor
In rebel-held northwest Syria, where a year of sustained attacks on hospitals has crippled the health care infrastructure, doctors warn that a looming coronavirus outbreak would be devastating to the large numbers of Syrians living in makeshift homes and squalid, overcrowded camps along the Turkish border.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/03/syria-northwest-doctors-brace-coronavirus.html
- Turkey says it sent 500,000 coronavirus test kits to United States
19 Mar 2020 | Reuters
Turkey has sent 500,000 coronavirus test kits to the United States upon their request, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Thursday.
- Turkey-backed rebels violate ceasefire in Syria’s Idlib
18 Mar 2020 | The Statesman
The Turkey-backed rebel groups violated the cease-fire in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, according to the media report on Tuesday. The rebels shelled several military positions in the Kafr-Nubul and Hazarin areas in Idlib countryside, causing damage, SANA news agency reported.
- Students under investigation for refusing to sing Turkish national anthem
18 Mar 2020 | Morning Star
Turkish prosecutors have opened investigations into nine students who allegedly refused to stand up and sing the national anthem at an event supporting the country’s illegal war on northern Syria.
- US slaps sanctions on Syria defence minister for Idlib assault
18 Mar 2020 | Middle East Monitor
The United States State Department yesterday slapped sanctions on Syria’s Defense Minister Imad Ali Abdullah Ayoub for his role in the violence and the disastrous humanitarian crisis in northern Syria.
- Turkey Confirms First Coronavirus Death, More Than Doubles Cases to 98
17 Mar 2020 | Reuters, New York Times
Turkey confirmed late on Tuesday its first death related to the coronavirus and the country more than doubled its confirmed cases to 98, from 47 a day earlier.
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/03/17/world/europe/17reuters-health-coronavirus-turkey.html
- Coronavirus in Syria: WHO to test for coronavirus
17 Mar 2020 | Middle East Monitor
The World Health Organisation will start testing for coronavirus in opposition-held north-west Syria later this week, the agency’s regional head said yesterday. WHO team are hoping to have the machinery and the examinations sometime this week so they can start testing said Dr. Rick Brennan, emergency director for the region, Reuters reported.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200317-coronavirus-in-syria-who-to-test-for-coronavirus/
- France Unlocks Extra €50 Mln for Humanitarian Aid to Syria
17 Mar 2020 | Asharq Al-Awsat
France said on Tuesday it had unlocked an extra 50 million euros for humanitarian aid to Syria, half of which will be destined for the Idlib region.
- Gulf Keystone Petroleum suspends drilling activities at well in Iraqi Kurdistan
16 Mar 2020 | Nicholas Woodroof, Oilfield Technology
In an attempt to limit the spread of Coronavirus (Covid-19), the Kurdistan Regional Government, in line with many other jurisdictions, has put in place a series of tight controls on the movement of personnel into and around the region. With these controls, along with the increasing global restrictions on movement, it has become difficult to ensure Gulf Keystone has the appropriate drilling personnel and equipment onsite in order to continue safe drilling operations.
- Journalists start Twitter campaign in Turkey
16 Mar 2020 | Steve Sweeney, Morning Star
Journalists in Turkey have launched a social-media campaign to raise awareness of the detention of 28 media workers, including eight held this month.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/journalists-start-twitter-campaign-turkey
- Top Kurdistan Region officials commemorate 32nd anniversary of Halabja genocide
16 Mar 2020 | Hiwa Shilani, Kurdistan24
Senior officials in the Kurdistan Region extended their condolences on Monday while commemorating the 32nd anniversary of the Halabja genocide.
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/6d0edd32-f8ce-4482-ad3e-7a75778d9341
- Greece hopes EU-Turkey talks will ease tension over refugee crisis
16 Mar 2020 | Helena Smith, The Guardian
Greece is hoping critical talks between the EU and Ankara will help ease the border crisis that has weighed heavily on the country since Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, declared he had “opened the gates” to Europe for migrants and refugees.
- Government scrambles to contain coronavirus as Turkish cases triple
16 Mar 2020 | Ayla Jean Yackley, Al-Monitor
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Turkey tripled overnight to 18 on Monday, and the government ushered in a slate of restrictions to curb the spread of the pandemic that has enveloped much of the world.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/03/turkey-coronavirus-spread-case-triple.html
- Russia, Turkey curtail first joint military patrol in Syria’s Idlib
16 Mar 2020 | Middle East Monitor
Russia and Turkey yesterday were forced to cut short their first joint military patrol along the M4 highway linking Syria’s east and west near the north-western province of Idlib due to “rebel provocations”.
- Syria elections postponed over coronavirus
16 Mar 2020 | AFP, The Daily Star
Syria said Saturday its parliamentary elections scheduled for next month would be postponed as part of measures to protect the war-battered country against the coronavirus epidemic.
https://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/news/syria-elections-postponed-over-coronavirus-1881283
- UN says concerned about recent escalation in Iraq
15 Mar 2020 | Hiwa Shilani, Kurdistan24
On Sunday, the United Nation’s Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, expressed his “deep concern” over a recent uptick in attacks in Iraq and the wider region.
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/d8558f01-7fd8-470a-8ab9-d99c33676220
- More than 4.8 million children born into war in Syria: UN
15 Mar 2020 | Al-Jazeera
More than 4.8 million children have been born into war since Syria’s brutal conflict erupted nine years ago, the UN children’s agency has said, adding that thousands of others were killed or wounded in the conflict.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/48-million-children-born-war-syria-200315104901254.html
- Coronavirus: Turkey quarantines thousands of pilgrims from Saudi Arabia
15 Mar 2020 | Middle East Eye
Turkey has quarantined 10,330 pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia to guard against the spread of the coronavirus, the youth and sports ministry announced on Sunday.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/coronavirus-turkey-quarantines-10300-returning-pilgrims
- Turkey-Russia Patrols Start Amid Protests on Syrian Highway
15 Mar 2020 | AP, New York Times
Turkish and Russian troops began joint patrols Sunday on a key highway in northwestern Syria, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said, while both the Russian government and Syrian opposition activists said the patrols were shortened because of protests.
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/03/15/world/middleeast/ap-ml-syria.html
- Syria, insisting it is coronavirus-free, takes broad steps to prevent spread
14 Mar 2020 | Reuters
Syria has delayed parliamentary elections, shut schools and canceled most public events to prevent any spread of the coronavirus, as officials said the war-ravaged country was still free of the virus despite reports it was hiding cases.
- KRG imposes curfews, orders quarantine of those returning from abroad as infections continue
14 Mar 2020 | Kosar Nawzad, Kurdistan24
The Kurdistan Region’s health ministry announced on Friday that nine out of 251 coronavirus tests conducted in the autonomous region came back positive, while the interior ministry announced a list of new measures aimed at curbing the further spread of the infection, including curfews and mandatory quarantines.
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/eb0d1352-3fa3-45bf-a1fe-82ffbe224a4f
- Russia, Turkey set joint patrols
14 Mar 2020 | AP, Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Turkish and Russian troops will begin jointly patrolling a key highway in northwest Syria on Sunday as part of a fragile truce brokered by the countries, Turkey’s defense minister said Friday.
https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2020/mar/14/russia-turkey-set-joint-patrols-2020031/
- New law abolishes honor killings’ mitigating excuse in Syria
14 Mar 2020 | Enab Baladi
The Syrian People’s Council repealed Article 548 of the 1949 Syrian Penal Code, known as the “mitigating circumstances excuse” for the so-called “honor killings.”
- Kurdish-led northern Syria says no coronavirus cases, implements countermeasures
13 Mar 2020 | Kosar Nawzad, Kurdistan24
The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria announced on Thursday that there had been no known coronavirus infections in the territories under their control amid growing regional and international cases of the contagious disease that first appeared in China in late 2019.
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/8390dc93-6139-4d22-867c-eb16cb763001
- Egypt helping Kurdish-led troops in Syria fighting Turkish forces
13 Mar 2020 | Mohammed Ayesh, Middle East Eye
Egypt has opened a communication channel between the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his main Kurdish opposition militant group in a bid to confront the Turkish role in northern Syria, a report by the London-based Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper said on Friday.
- Turkey detains Kurdish human rights lawyers on terror claims
12 Mar 2020 | Amberin Zaman, Al-Monitor
At least nine lawyers were detained on terror charges in early morning raids in the mainly Kurdish provinces of Urfa and Diyarbakir today, part of an ongoing campaign of repression targeting human rights defenders, said Abdullah Oncel, the president of the Urfa Bar Association.
- Turkish police detain HDP co-mayor of Kurdish city
12 Mar 2020 | Steve Sweeney, Morning Star
Police swooped to detain the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-mayor of the largely Kurdish city of Cizre today as the Turkish state continued its attacks on democracy.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/turkish-police-detain-hdp-co-mayor-of-kurdish-city
- Turkey Blames Kurdish Fighters for Syria Blast That Killed 4
12 Mar 2020 | AP, New York Times
A car bomb exploded at a checkpoint manned by Turkey-backed opposition fighters in northeast Syria killing at least four people Thursday, local officials and Syrian opposition activists said.
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/03/12/world/middleeast/ap-ml-syria.html
- US prepares biting Syria sanctions as Assad pummels Idlib
12 Mar 2020 | Bryant Harris, Al-Monitor
A frustrated American photographer verbally sparred with Senate staffers Wednesday over restrictions at a hearing that prevented him from getting too close to the Syrian witness — who also happened to be a photographer himself.
- Turkey-based Kurdish publisher shortlisted for international ‘courage’ award
12 Mar 2020 | Karwan Faidhi Dri, Rudaw
Turkey’s Kurdish Avesta Publishing House was shortlisted Tuesday for an international award “recognizing exemplary courage in upholding the freedom to publish.”
https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/turkey/12032020
- American, British soldiers killed in fresh rocket attack on Iraqi base
12 Mar 2020 | Kosar Nawzad, Kurdistan24
On Wednesday evening, a barrage of rockets landed inside an Iraqi base outside Baghdad where troops from the US-led coalition against the Islamic State are stationed, killing three service members and wounding at least ten others.
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/12ebd83e-a61e-4992-b521-420b62c49871
- Babacan’s new party vows Turks can tweet without fear of arrest
11 Mar 2020 | Ragip Soylu, Middle East Eye
A former top official from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government on Wednesday unveiled his much-anticipated new political party, DEVA, with a programme centred upon fiscal reforms and social freedoms.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-opposition-party-democracy-progress-deva-remedy-launched
- Report: Greece secretly detains, abuses refugees
11 Mar 2020 | Middle East Monitor
The Greek authorities have been discovered to be secretly detaining refugees and migrants in a black site where they beat them, steal their belongings and deport them back to Turkey without trial.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200311-report-greece-secretly-detains-abuses-refugees/
- Turkey threatens ‘heavy’ retaliation if Idlib ceasefire is broken
11 Mar 2020 | Al Jazeera
Turkey is expecting Russia to take measures over “small violations” of a week-long ceasefire by its allied Syrian government forces in Idlib province, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said, warning that Ankara will respond heavily if its military observation posts in the region come under attack.
- Turkey jails Kurdish ex-mayor for nine years for ‘terrorism’ links
10 Mar 2020 | The National
A Turkish court sentenced the ex-mayor of a major Kurdish city to more than nine years in prison after convicting him of “membership in an armed terror group”. Turkish authorities removed 31 mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party last year over alleged ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, only months after they won local elections in March.
- Turkey says U.S. offering Patriot missiles if S-400 not operated
10 Mar 2020 | Tuvan Gumrukcu and Orhan Coskun, Reuters
The United States has offered to sell Turkey its Patriot missile defense system if Ankara promises not to operate a rival Russian system, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said, in what he called a significant softening in Washington’s position.
- Turkey hopes for new refugee deal with EU before March 26
10 Mar 2020 | Al Jazeera
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said a 2016 refugee deal between Turkey and the European Union needs to be updated, expressing Ankara’s hopes to reach a new agreement in time for a summit of the bloc’s leaders later this month.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/turkey-hopes-refugee-deal-eu-march-26-200310094525364.html
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
- Between Erdogan and Assad, Kurds remain reliable ally
24 Mar 2020 | Washington Kurdish Institute
On March 11, the Department of State (DOS) released its annual Human Rights Practices report of Turkey highlighting, in diplomatic language, the Turkish government’s oppression and atrocities. The Kurds of Turkey have been disproportionately targeted by the oppressive policies of Turkey’s authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who now has virtually unchecked control over all of the country’s institutions.
https://dckurd.org/2020/03/24/between-erdogan-and-assad-kurds-remain-reliable-ally/
- Inside one Duhok refugee camp under coronavirus lockdown
24 Mar 2020 | AP, Rudaw
Syrians in a refugee camp in the city of Duhok have to live with a new reality: a lockdown. The Duhok governorate, which lies in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, has placed all camps on lockdown because of the new coronavirus.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/24032020
- Is Turkey planning a new invasion of eastern Syria? – analysis
24 Mar 2020 | Seth Frantzman, Jerusalem Post
Turkey is now turning to this oil policy during the coronavirus crisis as a possible new way to distract local media and create a new nationalist cause.
https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Is-Turkey-planning-a-new-invasion-of-eastern-Syria-analysis-622158
- 21 stunning images from a photojournalist’s harrowing ordeal in Iraqi Kurdistan
24 Mar 2020 | Ben East, The National
It’s a photograph that could have been taken anywhere in the world, and yet is intrinsically Kurdish. A man sits at his well-appointed desk in his business wear. Next to him is a MacBook … and a box of tissues, because Hazhar Omar is sobbing.
- Kurdish Crackdown Continues in Turkey, Despite Health Emergency
24 Mar 2020 | New Delhi Times
Turkish security forces detained five elected Kurdish mayors Monday in anti-terror raids, a move that was condemned by human rights groups, as Turkey is grappling with the coronavirus pandemic. The mayors are members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which swiftly attacked the detentions.
https://www.newdelhitimes.com/kurdish-crackdown-continues-in-turkey-despite-health-emergency/
- The UK Hasn’t Bombed Iraq or Syria Since Last September. What Gives?
24 Mar 2020 | Darius Shahtahmasebi, MPN News
The UK’s involvement in the U.S.-led air war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria has slowly and quietly wound down over the last few months. Official figures show that the UK hasn’t dropped a single bomb as part of this campaign since September last year.However, where those bombs have caused significant civilian harm is still uncertain, even after some of these sites have been investigated.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/thuk-hasnt-bombed-iraq-syria-since-last-september-what-gives/265982/
- Intel: What was Russia’s defense minister doing in Syria?
24 Mar 2020 | Maxim Suchov, Al-Monitor
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu paid a visit to Damascus on March 23 for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The official readout of the meeting states that the Russian military leader traveled to Syria “on President Putin’s instructions.”
- Turkey’s Economy Seemed Safer From Virus Than Most. Then Outbreak Hit Home
23 Mar 2020 | Reuters, New York Times
Only a few weeks ago, Turkey seemed a better bet than many other emerging markets to withstand a global economic slowdown over the coronavirus. Its economy was roaring back from a recession on the strength of surging domestic lending and state support for the lira, able to shrug off market mayhem abroad and even benefit from tumbling prices for imports.
- If coronavirus spreads to this population, it could be catastrophic
23 Mar 2020 | Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, KITV
“I have no idea where my friends are,” the teenage girl told me as we stood under the bright sun of a brisk winter morning. It was last December, and I was visiting Washokani camp, a displaced persons’ camp housing Arab and Kurdish families who lost their homes to the Turkish offensive into northeastern Syria last year.
- Coronavirus: ‘Islamic State’ seeks to profit from pandemic
23 Mar 2020 | Lewis Sanders and Tom Allinson, Deutsche Welle
As public health authorities across the globe struggle to manage a devastating pandemic, the mayhem caused by the novel coronavirus has increasingly figured in the strategy of the “Islamic State” (IS) militant group.
https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-islamic-state-seeks-to-profit-from-pandemic/a-52886753
- Amid US uncertainty in Syria, Kurdish YPG eyes bolstering ties with Russia
23 Mar 2020 | Matthew Ayton, Atlantic Council
Insofar as it exists, international attention on Syria in recent weeks has been fixated on the country’s northwestern province of Idlib and surrounding areas. Attention is of course needed considering that since December 2019, upward of 1 million internally displaced persons, have been pushed north toward Turkey’s border by the Bashar al-Assad regime and its allies advancing from the south and the east.
- One year after ISIS was defeated in Syria, it has yet to be eradicated
23 Mar 2020 | The National
One year ago today, ISIS was deprived of its last territorial stronghold in Baghouz, eastern Syria. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces declared victory over the extremists, who were vanquished with the help of their American allies and the global coalition to fight ISIS.
- Why Gerald Knaus’s proposal for a second EU-Turkey migration deal cannot work
22 Mar 2020 | Kester Ratcliff, Ahval
The Syrian regime’s advance on Idlib brought Europe’s attention sharply back to the issue of migration, as Turkey and the European Union squared off on who should accept responsibility for 3.5 million people who could be killed or displaced if Syrian dictator Bashar Assad were allowed to conquer the country’s last opposition-held province.
- EU inaction on Syrian refugees is a stain on human conscience
22 Mar 2020 | Mevlut Cavusoglu, Financial Times
The EU was meant to be a world power that stood as a beacon for human rights and respect for the international rules-based order. But unless something is done about Greece’s treatment of refugees, and the frenzied support it still receives from the EU, that claim will collapse.
https://www.ft.com/content/43bcdc3c-694b-11ea-a6ac-9122541af204
- What Are Iraqi Refugees Doing in Syrian Camp?
22 Mar 2020 | Al Bawaba
The al-Hol camp in northeastern-most point in Syria is home to thousands of refugees, the majority of whom are Iraqi women and children. Some came there willingly, while a few sought refuge after fleeing their homeland when the ISIS extremist group swept through the region. Others were forced to flee to the camp when the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq fought back against the terror group.
https://www.albawaba.com/news/what-are-iraqi-refugees-doing-syrian-camp-1346089
- Will Coronavirus Slow the World’s Conflicts — or Intensify Them?
22 Mar 2020 | Philippe Rater, Times of Israel
Syria, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, the Sahel… with the great powers focused intently on the COVID-19 virus, will armed conflicts across the world decrease in severity or intensify? Experts as well as diplomats at the United Nations say there is a serious risk of the latter.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/will-coronavirus-slow-the-worlds-conflicts-or-intensify-them/
- Turkey’s intervention has created new possibilities in Syria – analyst
22 Mar 2020 | Ahval
Turkey’s recent military intervention in Syria has created new possibilities both on the battlefield and at the negotiating table, said an analyst writing in The National Interest on Saturday.
https://ahvalnews.com/idlib/turkeys-intervention-has-created-new-possibilities-syria-analyst
- Turkish soccer team lands in political hot water
22 Mar 2020 | Mahmut Bozarslan, Al-Monitor
A soccer team in Diyarbakir, Turkey’s largest Kurdish-majority city, has found itself accused of links to armed Kurdish militants and suffers routine harassment by rival fans. The team’s woes have steadily grown amid Ankara’s crackdown on Kurdish militants and politicians alike and rising nationalist fervor in the country.
- Abdullah Öcalan and the Spirit of Newroz
21 Mar 2020 | Komun Academy
Newroz is an ancient festival celebrated by many different peoples in the Middle East and different parts of Asia. For the Kurdish people, the first day of spring has important political meaning, as it symbolizes the day on which Kawa the Blacksmith is said to have defeated the tyrant kind Dehak (or Zehak). The heirs of Kawa are creating a revolution of peoples against the contemporary Dehaks today. The Diyarbakir prison uprising was launched on Newroz day in 1982, when Mazlum Dogan, one of the founding members of the PKK, set his cell on fire and hanged himself in protest, with the words: ‘Resistance is life!’
https://komun-academy.com/2020/03/21/abdullah-ocalan-and-the-spirit-of-newroz/
- Recep Tayyip Erdogan blackmailing Europe by threatening a flood of refugees
21 Mar 2020 | Jed Babbin, Washington Times
Rahm Emmanuel, once former President Obama’s White House chief of staff, is remembered for saying that politicians should never let a serious crisis go to waste. While the European Union is trying to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and the trade effects of Brexit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is following Mr. Emmanuel’s advice by blackmailing the EU and trying to rope NATO into his scheme.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/mar/21/recep-tayyip-erdogan-blackmailing-europe-by-threat/
- Turkey’s Drone Air Force Is Spreading Its Wings In Syria To Great Effect
21 Mar 2020 | David Axe, The National Interest
Ankara’s drones might not be capable of defeating the most capable Russian defenses. But against the lightly-armed Syrians, the UAVs can be deadly.
- Has the coronavirus reached Syria?
21 Mar 2020 | Sami Moubayed, Gulf News
Over the past week, Syrian authorities have taken a series of preventive measures against coronavirus, insisting meanwhile that the pandemic has not yet reached the war-torn country.
https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/has-the-coronavirus-reached-syria-1.70539898
- 5,000 Terrorists Detained In One of The Toughest Prisons Worldwide
21 Mar 2020 | Kamal Shayko, Asharq al-Awsat
In al-Hasakah, the United States and the international alliance against ISIS have established the largest prison in the world for extremists, holding around 5 thousand inmates. These are men who fought alongside ISIS until its final days in Baghuz last spring before turning themselves in and ending up in this place.
- Turkey’s Intervention in Syria and the Art of Coercive Diplomacy
21 Mar 2020 | Ranj Alaaldin, The National Interest
It is inconceivable that Turkey’s military intervention will open up fresh prospects of reviving the U.S.-Turkey alliance, at least not on a sustained basis. But that does not mean the United States should not evaluate how it might respond and engage the Idlib crisis the next time there is another Turkish intervention and another round of conflict with the Assad regime.
- Ten years on Syria is still deep in wars
21 Mar 2020 | Durdana Najam, Tehran Times
Having barely risen from the menacing impact of Bashar al Assad’s poor economic policies during the drought from 2007 to 2010, that brought more poverty, unemployment and social distress, a spiral of conflict, in 201, took Syria from one warring episode to another. Ten years on, with most of the country in the rubble, there was little respite even in the news in 2018 that the US would reduce its footprints in Syria.
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/446268/Ten-years-on-Syria-is-still-deep-in-wars
- Iraq’s pro-US PM-designate faces challenge from Iran-backed factions
21 Mar 2020 | Alex MacDonald, Middle East Eye
The recent nomination of a pro-US prime minister-designate in Iraq has raised political tension with the country’s pro-Iran political factions in the past week, at a time when tensions between Tehran and Washington remain extremely high.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/Iraqs-prime-minister-designate-zurfi-united-states-iran
- The Geopolitics of COVID-19
20 Mar 2020 | Sarah Glynn, Bella Caledonia
As the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reminded us on Thursday, ‘for many people around the world, everyday life has come to a standstill, or is being transformed in ways that we had never envisaged. But wars and persecution have not stopped…’ Filippo Grandi was warning of the risk that border controls against the spread of COVID-19 will also block people’s ability to seek asylum – and calling for solutions to this in the form of testing and quarantine.
https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2020/03/20/the-geopolitics-of-covid-19/
- Deir ez-Zor residents protest rule by Syrian Kurdish group
20 Mar 2020 | Khaled al-Khateb, Al-Monitor
Security conditions are deteriorating in the areas controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province amid ongoing SDF raids and arrests of civilians. At the same time, SDF officials accuse the Syrian regime of working to turn public sentiment against them.
- Life in Syria’s Baghouz a Year After the Fall of Last ISIS Flag
20 Mar 2020 | Asharq Al-Awsat
A year after the last black flag of the ISIS group was lowered in the Syrian village of Baghouz, local farmer Hamad al-Ibrahim is trying to restore his damaged land.
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2189961/life-syrias-baghouz-year-after-fall-last-isis-flag
- The Challenges Of Preparing For Coronavirus In Syria
20 Mar 2020 | Alice Fordham, NPR
The World Health Organization has begun working with doctors to test for coronavirus in opposition-held areas of Syria. So far, three tests have been conducted.
- Syria war: The myth of Western inaction in Idlib
20 Mar 2020 | Christopher Phillips, Middle East Eye
Amid the global crisis over the coronavirus pandemic, the Syria conflict has quietly entered its tenth year. Over the span of a decade, the same sad images have become familiar: bombed-out towns, bereaved families and flows of refugees.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/syria-war-myth-western-inaction-idlib
- Intel: Turkey targeted by both sides in northern Syria conflict
20 Mar 2020 | Al-Monitor
The Turkish troops in northern Syria have become a target of all warring parties in the area in less than a month, after a rocket attack by a radical group killed two Turkish soldiers and wounded one in the region yesterday.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/03/intel-turkey-target-north-syria-conflict.html
- US blames Russia, not Assad, for Turkey’s loss
20 Mar 2020 | Menekse Tokyay, Arab News
The US believes Russia has killed dozens of Turkish military personnel in the course of its operations in Syria, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, without specifying the place or the date of the incident.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1644031/middle-east
- Eastern Syria defeated ISIS but has been given no coronavirus test kits
19 Mar 2020 | Seth Frantzman, Jerusalem Post
The region lacks an ability to test for coronavirus and does not have the hospital capacity to deal with a new crisis.
- U.S. Court Exposes Turkey’s Role in Iran’s and Venezuela’s Sanctions Evasion Schemes – Again
19 Mar 2020 | Aykan Erdemir and Philip Kowalski, Foundation for the Defense of Democracy
A Manhattan federal jury on Monday convicted Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, the Iranian owner of the now-defunct Pilatus Bank of Malta, of evading U.S. sanctions against Iran by conspiring to transfer payments from a Venezuelan construction project to Iran. Hasheminejad’s use of an Istanbul-based front company to conceal the Islamic Republic’s connection to the funds is further evidence of how Iranian and Venezuelan sanctions busters have taken advantage of the permissive environment provided by the Turkish government.
- Why Ankara’s Syrian refugee threat has lost its impact
19 Mar 2020 | Kadri Gursel, Al-Monitor
The governor’s office in Turkey’s western border province of Edirne announced March 17 that 147,132 migrants had crossed into EU territory from the province since Feb. 28, when Ankara said it would no longer stop refugees from moving on to Europe. The statement might have been passed over as routine were it not an implicit declaration that Turkey’s “operation” of sending refugees to Europe via Greece had tacitly come to an end.
- Russia, Turkey conduct first joint patrol in Idlib
19 Mar 2020 | Kirill Semenov, Al-Monitor
Two days after Russia and Turkey agreed to cease-fire details for the Idlib de-escalation zone, the first Russian-Turkish military patrol took place along the M4 highway March 15. “As part of the preparations for the joint Russian-Turkish patrol of the M4 highway, engineering reconnaissance of the patrol route was carried out in the Saraqeb area,” said Rear Adm. Oleg Zhuravlev, the head of the Russian center for reconciliation of opposing sides in Syria.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/03/russia-turkey-syria-idlib-m4-patrol.html
- They Defeated ISIS. Now Syrian Kurds Gear Up to Fight Coronavirus
19 Mar 2020 | Michael Rubin, National Interest
In January 2014, during my first visit to northeastern Syria, I watched as more than a dozen local leaders—men and women; Christians, Muslims, and Yezidis; Kurds and Arabs—met in a conference hall in Amuda, Syria, to affirm a provisional constitution for Rojava, an autonomous region formed against the backdrop of the Syrian civil war.
- Steeped in history
18 Mar 2020 | Jaye Beeler, Grand Rapids Magazine
At Café de Miro, mornings and midday are lovely, comforting and often made to eat right out of the skillet. Husband-and-wife owners Apo Alagoz and Fatosh Alagoz are busy scrambling eggs with a grilled Armenian sausage called sujuk in cute cast-iron skillets or with the traditional Kurdish combination of tomatoes, peppers, garlic and aromatic spices into shakshuka/menemen, a popular Mediterranean breakfast.
https://www.grmag.com/food-drink/steeped-in-history/
- The US census and the Kurdish diaspora
18 Mar 2020 | Amir Sharifi, Rudaw
Amid fears and mounting uncertainty about Coronavirus, the U.S 2020 census will soon be underway on April 1. Most American households must have received the census mailings that went out in March, with instructions reminding us how to pencil in responses on those funny folding papers every ten years. Most Kurdish-Americans have probably heard of it, but may be asking themselves: ‘why should we take the census seriously?’
https://www.rudaw.net/english/opinion/census-kurdish-diaspora-18032020
- Turkey’s actions in Syria’s Afrin amount to ethnic cleansing – Kurdish analysts
18 Mar 2020 | Paul Iddon, Ahval
Turkey’s invasion of the northwest Syrian district of Afrin two years ago led to widespread ethnic cleansing of its Kurdish inhabitants and their replacement by Syrian Arabs displaced from fighting elsewhere in the country, Kurdish analysts said.
https://ahvalnews.com/afrin/turkeys-actions-syrias-afrin-amount-ethnic-cleansing-kurdish-analysts
- Turkey’s geostrategic orientation at crossroads amid Idlib tangle
18 Mar 2020 | Metin Gurcan, Al-Monitor
Turkey remains faced with a major dilemma on how to proceed in Syria after its latest deal with Russia led to a fragile lull in the rebel stronghold of Idlib but fell short of a lasting solution. Contrasting visions appear to be under discussion in Ankara, calling for choices that could bear on Turkey’s foreign policy in the long run.
- The Irish Times view on the war in Syria: the world must not forget
18 Mar 2020 | Irish Times
‘I feel everything has ended, and this is a final migration, not displacement. I feel let down by the world.” So says one of the million opponents of the Syrian regime now forced into Idlib and expecting a final assault from Syrian and Russian forces who have captured most of the north-eastern province and surround the city’s three million inhabitants.
- Mission impossible 2.0: Idlib plan stumbles at outset
18 Mar 2020 | Fehim Tastekin, Al-Monitor
The latest Russian-Turkish deal on Syria’s rebel stronghold of Idlib brings to mind a popular Turkish saying: “One should not say amen to a forlorn prayer.” Developments on the ground have reinforced misgivings over the fragility of the arrangement, which Ankara insistently calls a cease-fire but, in fact, contains commitments that require military action.
- Turkish Use of Water as a Weapon Demonstrates Willingness to Pressure Kurds
18 Mar 2020 | Phoebe Sleet, Future Directions
There have been concerns that the fragile security situation in parts of north-eastern Syria could be undermined by a lack of water. According to Al-Monitor, Turkey increased its pressure on Kurdish-controlled north-eastern Syria last month, by stopping the Alok pumping station from operating in Turkish-occupied Ras al-Ain.
- Europe Turns Its Back on Refugees—and Its Own Values
17 Mar 2020 | Alexander Clapp, Foreign Affairs
Five years ago, hundreds of thousands of refugees fled from Syria and elsewhere to the countries of the European Union, sparking what was widely described as a “migrant crisis.” Today, another influx of people may be coming as the humanitarian situation in northern Syria worsens.
- Another prime minister nominee in Iraq: Will this one take?
17 Mar 2020 | Abbas Kadhim, Atlantic Council
On March 17, Iraqi President Barham Salih appointed Adnan Al-Zurfi, a member of the Council of Representatives and former governor of Najaf, to be the new prime minister. This is the president’s second attempt to replace Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, who resigned in November 2019 and is currently presiding nominally over a caretaker government, though he has delegated all his executive duties to his deputies.
- What to Make of Turkey’s Recent Dust-Up in Syria
17 Mar 2020 | Brandon Patrick, Small Wars Journal
Putin’s effort to divide NATO through the recruitment of Erdogan has run aground in Syria, where the Russian-backed forces of Bashar al-Assad were recently battered by superior Turkish aircraft and weaponry. After Syrian and Russian aircraft attacked a Turkish column and killed 33 (some report as many as 100) Turkish troops, Erdogan’s forces downed Syrian fighter planes, destroyed Syrian tanks and artillery pieces and killed Syrian soldiers.
https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/what-make-turkeys-recent-dust-syria
- Beyond the end
17 Mar 2020 | M Shakeel Ahmed, Millenium Post
Approaching end of the Syrian Civil War will raise different challenges, opportunities and implications for all the international and regional actors that are involved.
http://www.millenniumpost.in/opinion/beyond-the-end-405588
- Rojava Film Commune: Forms of Freedom
17 Mar 2020 | E-Flux
On February 21, 2020 at e-flux the Rojava Film Commune, a collective of filmmakers founded in 2015 and based in the Rojava region of northern Syria, inaugurated their first exhibition in an art institution in the US. For the exhibition Forms of Freedom, curator iLiana Fokianaki and the Commune drew from the Commune’s vast archive of collectively and individually produced films to arrive at a selection reflecting the methodologies, thinking process, and radical imaginaries of the collective.
https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/324081/rojava-film-communeforms-of-freedom/
- Erdogan determined to achieve goals in Syria despite setbacks
17 Mar 2020 | Talmiz Ahmad, Arab News
The last fortnight has been particularly trying for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. At the end of February, his troops in the Idlib area were subjected to heavy bombardment by Russian-backed Syrian forces, in which about 40 soldiers were killed. Erdogan responded by dispatching several thousand troops to the Idlib front.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1642696
- Integration through sport: The story of Dalkurd FF
17 Mar 2020 | Eddy Prugh, Stumptown Footy
Seemingly brought to life by Donald Trump’s controversial proposal of a border wall with Mexico, the debate on immigration policy has turned into one of the most divisive and exhausted topics in all political discourse. But even if it seems that the majority of headlines come from Texas or California, the discussion is not reserved for North America.
https://www.stumptownfooty.com/2020/3/17/21175838/integration-through-sport-the-story-of-dalkurd-ff
- Syrian opposition split over Russia-Turkey patrols in Idlib
17 Mar 2020 | Khaled al-Khateb, Al-Monitor
The Turkish forces and Russian military police conducted their first joint patrol mission on the M4 highway in Idlib March 15. The move comes as part of the countries’ implementation of a March 5 cease-fire agreement. Yet the patrols were met with popular rejection and created division among the Syrian armed opposition.
- Turkish Government Responsible for Torture, Arbitrary Killings, and Disappearances
17 Mar 2020 | Aykan Erdemir and Philip Kowalski, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
In its annual human rights report, released on March 11, the State Department documents egregious violations by the Turkish government, including arbitrary killings, suspicious deaths of persons in custody, forced disappearances, and torture. Along with similar findings in last year’s report, the latest assessment shows that systematic violations of human rights continue with impunity under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
http://createsend.com/t/r-8A752A265F310E902540EF23F30FEDED
- Gambling with 80 Million Lives: Why Erdoğan Lied about Coronavirus
16 Mar 2020 | Michael Rubin, National Interest
As coronavirus spreads along Turkey’s borders, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ministers remained in denial. Just last week, Turkey’s health minister denied any cases existed in the country, a claim made against evidence that travelers to Turkey had been infected there. Ergin Kocyildirim, a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon at the University of Pittsburg’s School of Medicine, wrote a brilliant essay describing both the Turkish government’s claim to have established an effective testing kit and the fraudulence of its claims.
- What Is Behind Turkey’s Proposal for Syria’s Oil?
16 Mar 2020 | Sirwan Kajjo, Voice of America
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Syrian oil revenues should be used to rebuild the war-torn country, raising concerns among Kurdish forces — which control most of the oil fields in eastern Syria — that such Turkish plans could threaten their own presence.
https://www.voanews.com/extremism-watch/what-behind-turkeys-proposal-syrias-oil
- Children bear brunt of Syrian conflict
16 Mar 2020 | Gulf Today
While the world attention remains focussed on the fight against COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Syria marked a grim milestone this weekend with the beginning of the tenth year of brutal war.
https://www.gulftoday.ae/opinion/2020/03/16/children-bear-brunt-of-syrian-conflict
- Syrian refugees deserve better than to be used as political pawns
16 Mar 2020 | Ramzy Baroud, Arab News
What transpired after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened his country’s borders with Europe at the end of last month was one of the most tragic, heart-rending episodes of the Syrian war and the subsequent refugee crisis. Greece, with tacit political support from the rest of the EU, was determined not to allow any of the 100,000 or so refugees who gathered at its borders to cross into its territories.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1642191
- ’We Don’t Know Where To Hide’: The Day-To-Day Struggles For Civilians In Idlib
16 Mar 2020 | Jane Arraf, NPR
Etab Hadithi comes home from work, climbs the steps in an unlit stairwell to her fifth-floor apartment in the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib and points out the doorways of neighbors displaced from other parts of the country.
- ’I Feel Let Down by the World’: In Syria’s Idlib, a Bloodier Phase Is on the Horizon
16 Mar 2020 | AP, Haaretz
Over the past three months, government troops have recaptured nearly half of the last area under opposition control, forcing nearly 1 million to flee their homes as the specters of more fighting looms.
- Analysis: Nine years on, we still dream of a free Syria
16 Mar 2020 | Zaher Sahloul, Public Radio International
Last month, I stood in a muddy field of one of the 1,250 camps for the internally displaced people in Idlib, an embattled city in northern Syria. It was raining and the mud was a couple feet deep. Children were wearing light shoes and slippers.
https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-03-12/analysis-nine-years-we-still-dream-free-syria
- With Cease-Fire in Place, Syrians Return for Belongings, but Not to Stay
16 Mar 2020 | Carlotta Gall, New York Times
Families sifted through the bombed-out ruins of their shops and homes on Thursday in the front-line Syrian town of Balyoun, using a fragile cease-fire between Russia and Turkey to retrieve their belongings but voicing little trust that it would last.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/world/middleeast/syria-ceasefire.html
- How Turkey lost Russia and the West
16 Mar 2020 | Can Dundar, Washington Post
This month, as Russia and Turkey teetered on the edge of a direct military confrontation in Syria, Vladimir Putin welcomed Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Turkish counterpart, to the Kremlin — but I don’t think “welcomed” is the right word.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/16/how-turkey-lost-russia-west/
- How long will the Turkish-Russian deal on Idlib last?
16 Mar 2020 | Galip Dalay, Al-Jazeera
Over the past few years, Turkey and Russia have had to repeatedly sit at the negotiating table to strike a deal on opposition-held areas in northwestern Syria. Yet, in spite of these agreements, the situation in the area, particularly the northwestern province of Idlib, has only gotten worse, with no clear solution in sight.
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/long-turkish-russian-deal-idlib-200316135110613.html
- War in Syria enters tenth year
15 Mar 2020 | Deutsche Welle
Fighting has entered its tenth year as Russian and Turkish troops began joint patrols of the northwestern Idlib province as part of a fragile ceasefire. Over 100,000 civilians have been killed since the conflict began.
https://www.dw.com/en/war-in-syria-enters-tenth-year/a-52783819
- Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria ill-prepared for coronavirus outbreak
15 Mar 2020 | Wladimir van Wilgenburg, Kurdistan24
The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East of Syria is poorly prepared for the coronavirus crisis due to an already overtaxed and fragile health system that has no testing facilities, according to international organizations and experts.
https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/c8dc5da3-a2b9-4161-a8e4-de0e67b2121b
- Syria Weekly: The Struggle for the State in Syria
15 Mar 2020 | The New Arab
The New Arab collates key points from Chatham House’s series of panel discussion entitled ‘The Struggle for State’ , marking nine years since the start of the brutal Syria war.
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2020/3/15/syria-weekly-the-struggle-for-state-in-syria
- Bloodshed, unrest, poverty: Syria’s war nine years on
15 Mar 2020 | Michael Jansen, Irish Times
Syrians at home and abroad are marking the ninth anniversary of the war that has killed tens of thousands of compatriots, rendered half the population homeless and devastated the country.
- ’There is nothing now’: Syrians in Idlib fear end nearing
15 Mar 2020 | Sarah El Deeb, AP News
“There’s nothing now. Nothing at all,” said Yasser Aboud, as he looked away from his family’s few remaining belongings, dumped on the floor of the bare single room that would now be their home in the northwest Syrian city of Idlib.
https://apnews.com/33bdd59520acc25bda7ca8d0a956c99f
- In pictures: Nine years of Syria’s war
15 Mar 2020 | Yasmina Allouche, Middle East Eye
Middle East Eye takes a look back at the key events that shaped the Syrian civil war as it enters its tenth year.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/pictures-9-years-syrias-war
- Turkey cannot make a terrorist out of Kurdish mayor Selçuk Mızraklı
15 Mar 2020 | Nurcan Baysal, Ahval
On Monday, we were at court again. This time, it was the final hearing to announce the court’s verdict for Selçuk Mızraklı, Kurdish former mayor for Turkey’s southeastern province of Diyarbakır . Previously, Mızraklı had refused to attend the hearings if audio-visual surveillance systems would be recording the proceedings. This was again the case at this hearing as well. Mızraklı’s attorneys spoke for him.
- Jinwar, the Middle East’s first feminist commune for Arab, Kurdish, and Yazidi victims of Islamic State
14 Mar 2020 | JM Lopez, ABC News
Coming to Jinwar in northern Syria was Bedra Darwish’s “only chance to have a better life”.
The 35-year-old Arab woman from the Syrian town of Deir Ezzor has seven children. Her husband died one year ago fighting with the YPG — a Kurd-majority militia in Syria battling the Islamic State.
- Syrian war, rumbling into 10th year, still has global impact
14 Mar 2020 | Zeina Karam, AP
In a world gripped by a pandemic, global unrest and a fast-moving news cycle, it can be difficult to remember that the war in Syria is still happening.
https://apnews.com/6c4411b17c8cff0c6052e029a9437b7a
- Russia’s Strategy for the Middle East: Stabilize, Revitalize, Create Chaos
14 Mar 2020 | Robert Rabil, National Interest
Russia is attempting to have a say in the geopolitical realignment of the Middle East, provoked by instability, sectarianism and Iran-Saudi rivalry. It has been able to simultaneously support conflicted parties and project itself as a force of stability.
- Northeast Syrian airwaves home to radio tower of Babel
14 Mar 2020 | Rana al-Ahmde, Al-Monitor
A small radio station in the town of Qamishli, on the border of Turkey and Syria, has been broadcasting in the ancient Christian liturgical language of Syriac. The station, run by a husband-and-wife team, is a newcomer to the multilingual radio scene in Rojava, ruled by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
- The way to Rojava – A way back to your own history
14 Mar 2020 | Internationalist Commune
Germans comrades writing about the history of resistance in central Europe and today’s Germany. their search for this almost lost quest is inspired by the Kurdish freedom movement. The text is first published in the Kurdistan Report.
https://internationalistcommune.com/the-way-to-rojava-a-way-back-to-your-own-history/
- Inside one man’s secret mission to rescue jihadi brides from ISIS
14 Mar 2020 | Brad Hamilton, New York Post
It was a good thing John Carney came strapped for combat. His life hung in the balance.
Decked out in a Kevlar vest, an AK-47 slung over his shoulder, Glock at his hip and Ray-Bans shielding his eyes, the former British infantryman found himself pinned down in the world’s most dangerous battlefield during the retaking of the ISIS-held city of Mosul, Iraq, in 2016.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/14/inside-one-mans-secret-mission-to-rescue-jihadi-brides-from-isis/
- Campaign of the Week: Turkey and Kurdistan Solidarity Initiative
13 Mar 2020 | Steve Sweeney, Morning Star
TUC Women’s Conference discussed and debated a range of issues facing the labour movement when it gathered in London last week. Domestically it passed motions on equal pay, with the gender pay gap still seeing women disadvantaged 50 years after the Equal Pay Act was passed.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaign-week-turkey-and-kurdistan-solidarity-initiative
- Erdogan turns to oil in a bid to salvage Syria policy
13 Mar 2020 | Fehim Tastekin, Al-Monitor
Fresh from a fruitless military intervention in Idlib, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pitched a proposal to Moscow to strip the Syrian Kurds of oil revenues and use the money to finance Turkish construction projects in Syria.
- Syria: Is the Endgame Approaching?
13 Mar 2020 | John McLaughlin, The Cipher Brief
Eight years of war in Syria have come down to an epic struggle in a northwestern province the size of Delaware. Idlib is the last piece of territory standing in the way of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regaining control of the country.
https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column_article/syria-is-the-endgame-approaching
- Iraqi Kurdistan reaches out to EU while keeping independence dream alive
12 Mar 2020 | M Apelblat, Brussels Times
2,5 years have passed since the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraqi Kurdistan organised a referendum on independence on 25 September 2017. For the Kurds the referendum was a first step towards fulfilling an old dream of national self-determination and a state of their own. The referendum took place without EU support and was opposed by Iraq and neighbouring countries.
- The Turkish poet imprisoned for 26 years for a crime he did not commit
12 Mar 2020 | Georges Szirtes, The Guardian
The good news is that last year the Turkish poet İlhan Çomak won a major award, the Sennur Sezer poetry prize, for his eighth and most recent book of poems, Geldim Sana (I Came to You). The bad news is that he is in prison and has been in prison for 26 years, since his arrest as a geography student at the age of 22. All his books have been written in prison.
- What game is Turkey playing in Syria?
12 Mar 2020 | Neville Teller, Jerusalem Post
Three basic factors underlie Turkey’s stance in the confused military situation in northwest Syria. The first is that Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a Sunni Muslim while Syria’s President Bashar Assad adheres to the Shia branch of Islam.
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/What-game-is-Turkey-playing-in-Syria-opinion-620790
- Baghdad fears escalation after attacks in Iraq and Syria
12 Mar 2020 | Middle East Online
Iraqi and United Nations officials scrambled Thursday to contain the fallout from an unprecedented rocket attack that killed three US-led coalition members and threatened yet another escalation of Iran-US tensions.
https://middle-east-online.com/en/baghdad-fears-escalation-after-attacks-iraq-and-syria
- Coronavirus climbs up Turkey’s economic risk ladder
12 Mar 2020 | Mustafa Sonmez, Al-Monitor
The global fallout from the coronavirus outbreak is turning up pressure on the struggling Turkish economy, which has long been stuck in a roller coaster of domestic and foreign tensions. On March 11, Ankara confirmed its first infection case, with the virus scare coming hot on the heels of war jitters from Turkey’s military involvement in Syria.
- Erdogan may be the world’s most ‘insulted’ leader
12 Mar 2020 | Orhan Kemal Cengiz, Al-Monitor
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s harsh rhetoric against his opponents is widely known at home and abroad. Yet a dramatic incident at the Turkish parliament last week provided insight into the fates of those who dare use the same rhetoric against him.
- Is COVID-19 lurking in Syria’s Kurdish northeast?
11 Mar 2020 | Shivan Ibrahim, Al-Monitor
A health official in Syria’s northeastern Jazira province told Al-Monitor that no cases of coronavirus have been documented in the province. Yet residents of the largely Kurdish region, governed by an autonomous administration, are not reassured by local officials’ measures to protect the province from coronavirus, which has led to the deaths of 4,000 worldwide.
- Erdogan’s war in Idlib faces uphill battle on the home front
11 Mar 2020 | Semih Idiz, Al-Monitor
Having returned from Moscow last week with less than half a victory in Idlib, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan now faces an uphill battle domestically where the results of his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin are proving to be a hard sell to the public.
- What’s happening in Syria is genocide
11 Mar 2020 | Keenan Kassar, Washington Post
I am a Syrian American, and I have an urgent message. You do not have the full story on Syria. The truth will shake you to the bone. The president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, is committing genocide.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/11/whats-happening-syria-is-genocide/
- Far-Right Terrorists Want Syria Crisis to Bring on Race War
10 Mar 2020 | Rita Katz, Daily Beast
The indifference of Europeans and the West to the long Syrian civil war is once again blowing up in their faces. The Assad regime and its backer, Russia, are bombarding Idlib province, the last “safe haven” for the rebels, pushing nearly a million displaced Syrians to flee to the Turkish border.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/far-right-terrorists-want-syria-crisis-to-bring-on-race-war
- Syria is the war nobody wins, except maybe Trump
10 Mar 2020 | James Carafano, Fox News
Many forces are waging war in Syria, all of them willing to fight to the last Syrian. But in this conflict, the United States is MIA. Thank goodness for that. The war in Syria is likely to devolve into another interminable, unwinnable conflict.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/syria-war-trump-james-carafano
- Turkey weaponizes refugees against Europe
10 Mar 2020 | Seth Frantzman, The Hill
Turkey has encouraged Syrian refugees to move to Europe as part of a policy that appears to use refugees to wring concessions and support from European countries for Ankara’s role in Syria.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/486291-turkey-weaponizes-refugees-against-europe
- Assessing the threat that Syria’s Kurds pose to Turkey and the US
10 Mar 2020 | Zeidon Alkinani, Middle East Monitor
The Kurds are one of the population groups that are native to Mesopotamia, numbering between 25 and 35 million people. They mostly live in south-east Turkey, north-east Syria, northern Iraq, north-west Iran and south-west Armenia. Race, culture and language unite the Kurds across different nation state borders, although there are naturally different dialects, political affiliations and some religious minorities within the Sunni Muslim majority.
- Criminalising solidarity for the Rojava struggle: An epitome of failure to stand up to Turkey’s dictatorship and ethnic cleansing
10 Mar 2020 | Velraj Vaikunthan, Tamil Guardian
Paul Newey and his son, Dan Newey were both charged for terrorism-related offences in a pretrial hearing last month, as the British government continues to clamp down on people involved with and in support of the Rojava revolution.
- Turkey used a new weapon in Syria that was so effective it looks like Russia won’t dare confront Turkey directly
10 Mar 2020 | Mitch Prothero, Insider
The Turkish military’s devastating display of power against the Syrian army last week — which saw the destruction of hundreds of regime tanks, artillery pieces and armored vehicles — came from a cheap but effective domestic drone program that NATO officials say has changed the military equation against Russia in Syria’s Idlib Province.
https://www.insider.com/turkey-drones-syria-russia-wont-confront-directly-2020-3
- Fighting in the End Times
13 Oct 2019 | Steve Russell, Medium
Daesh went out of their way to take over Dabiq, a town in Northern Syria. This in spite of the fact that Dabiq has no apparent strategic value in the lay of the land and probably contains as many goats as humans.They also named their principal propaganda organ Dabiq. What this tells us about Daesh theology can inform both how much danger they pose and how best to fight them.
https://medium.com/@steverussell_9575/fighting-in-the-end-times-fec57f84eaf0
VIDEO
- Panel Discussion: The Unfinished Wars: America, ISIS, Iran, Kurdistan and the Middle East
08 Mar 2020 | Sirwan Kajjo and Seth Frantzman, Washington Kurdish Institute
On March 4, the Washington Kurdish Institute hosted a roundtable panel hosting Seth Frantzman, analyst and author of After ISIS: America, Iran and the Struggle for the Middle East. The panel focused on Syria, Iraq and the Kurds, featuring on-the-ground insights from Frantzman’s experiences and moderated by Sirwan Kajjo who works at the Extremism Watch Desk as Voice of America.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JL4bvvCoi4
Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: estella24@tiscali.co.uk
www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com
Contacts Estella Schmid 020 7586 5892 & Melanie Gingell – Tel: 020 7272 7890
Fax: 020 7263 0596
Patrons: John Austin, Baroness Blower of Starch Green, former GS NUT, Prof Bill Bowring, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Prof Mary Davis, Lord Dholakia, Simon Dubbins, UNITE International Director, Jill Evans, former MEP, Desmond Fernandes, Lindsey German, Convenor STWC, Melanie Gingell, Christopher Gingell, Rahila Gupta, Nick Hildyard, Dafydd Iwan, Former President Plaid Cymru, James Kelman, Bruce Kent, Jean Lambert, former MEP, Elfyn Llwyd, Aonghas MacNeacail, Scottish Gaelic poet, Mike Mansfield QC, David Morgan, Doug Nicholls, General Secretary, GFTU, Dr. Jessica Ayesha Northey, Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy, Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley, Kate Osamor MP, Margaret Owen OBE, Ali Gul Ozbek, Former Councillor and Mayor of Haringey; Gareth Peirce, Dr Felix Padel, Maxine Peake, actor, Trevor Rayne, writer, Lord Rea, Joe Ryan, Tony Simpson, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Stephen Smellie, Jonathan Steele, Steve Sweeney, Gianni Tognoni, General Secretary Permanent People’s Tribunal, Dr Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Dr Tom Wakeford, Dr Derek Wall, Julie Ward, former MEP, Hywel Williams MP.