Category talk:Kurdistan

Syria

 * Aleppo's Kurds: Living Under Siege, Al Akhbar, January 12, 2014
 * Interesting article touching on many issues describing Kurdish life in rural Ifrin between the Turkish border and an ISIS siege. --CE (talk) 21:25, 12 January 2014 (UTC)


 * The Syrian Kurds Are Winning!, Jonathan Steele, New York Review of Books, November 4, 2015
 * Pretty detailed Rojava 101. --CE (talk) 11:14, 15 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Kurds cut a road from Raqqa to Mosul near a town of Al-Shaddadah in eastern Syria; also took control over a gas treatment plant and an oilfield Guna, located in the area  report and video
 * update and photos
 * Turkish artillery resumed shelling of Kurdis positions in Aleppo area -report
 * --Resup (talk) 23:06, 18 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Media reports: Kurds plan to storm Raqqa, panarmenian.net. Kurds conducted mobilization, their troops are ready. Leaflets were dropped from US planes advising civilians to leave Raqqa. (Resembles drum beat before Mosul which went slowly; but here are Kurds now, not Iraqis...) --Resup (talk) 23:34, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Should be called "Syrian Democratic Forces" (SDF), rather. --Resup (talk) 02:13, 21 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Rojava representation office to open in Paris, Firat News Agency, May 23, 2016
 * After the Russian capital Moscow, Swedish capital Stockholm and German capital Berlin, a Rojava representation office is being opened in the French capital Paris.


 * Hope and fear for Syria's Kurds, Amberin Zaman, Al Monitor, January 27, 2017
 * Little attention is being paid to the Syrian Kurds' history despite the wide fawning over their military prowess, so Al-Monitor's Amberin Zaman traveled to the northeastern Syrian town of Derik to explore the transitional and often contradictory nature of the Kurdish-administered territory still commonly called Rojava. 


 * The Secrets of the Syrian War: the Kurdish Factor, Dmitry Minin, Strategic Culture, July 24, 2017
 * The leaders of the Syrian Kurds must now grapple with the enormous responsibility of making a fateful decision for their people. They can either refrain from throwing obstacles in Damascus’s way, helping to build a new version of the state in which they will have far more rights than they used to have in Syria, or they can choose the opposite path, doing the bidding of what Robert Ford has called the «immoral» foreign politicians and embark on adventures that will end with them losing everything they have gained.

Turkey

 * Kurdish neighbourhoods take up arms as they declare autonomy in Turkey, Middle East Eye, August 27, 2015


 * --CE (talk) 12:38, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

"[...] Sur, which means “fortress walls” in Turkish, takes its name from the centuries-old walls encircling the old city of Diyarbakir, inscribed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List earlier this year. The district’s population numbers some 125,000 people, half of them residents of the ancient walled city, which is dotted by numerous monuments attesting to Diyarbakir’s millennia-old history.
 * Turkish Kurds flee 'self-rule' neighborhoods, Middle East Eye, December 14, 2015

The district has been in chaos for weeks. Urban unrest across the mainly Kurdish southeast has simmered since August, when PKK-linked groups moved to take control of certain residential areas and declared what they call “self-rule.” The authorities responded with security crackdowns. To stop the security forces from entering the neighborhoods, the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), the PKK’s urban youth branch, dug trenches and erected barricades. The curfews followed, and young people armed with light weapons clashed with the police. [...]

The brief lifting of the curfew revealed scenes out of a war zone. Though the number of fleeing people was smaller, many compared the exodus with last year’s Kurdish flight from the Syrian city of Kobani to Turkey, sparked by the Islamic State’s offensive. Some residents claimed police had urged them to evacuate their homes as soon as possible. [...]"

--CE (talk) 17:40, 15 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Turkey: Kurds Resist State-imposed Curfews, Joris Leverink, Syria360, December 15, 2015

"[...] During an earlier curfew several weeks ago, special forces had left a message on the wall of one of the neighborhood’s houses: “You will see the power of the Turk”, signed, the Esedullah Tim. There has been much ado about this special ops team, whose name translates to “lions of god”. In every town under curfew, the same graffiti appears on walls, and locals speak of bearded men shouting insults, and using extreme violence against the population.

So far, their existence remains shrouded in mystery, with the government refusing to comment. It is clear, however, that this is a special unit placed above the law, whose sole purpose is to terrorize the population. [...]"

--CE (talk) 11:09, 16 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Erdogan government is in full scale attack against its own Kurdish citizens, Sendika, December 22, 2015

"Only few days ago military forces were flown in huge numbers to the Kurdish towns. 10,000 troops under the rule of 36 colonels and 4 generals arrived at the regional airport and are now stationed at schools emptied by the government"

--CE (talk) 15:26, 23 December 2015 (UTC)


 * The Diyarbakir Massacre, Darya Aslamova, March 19, 2016

Things in northern Kurdistan seem to continue to escalate but it is difficult to find good sources as the Turkish state goes full-blown authoritarian now, even expelling German mainstream media correspondents and preventing activists from coming even close to the region. What's coming through are reports of use of chemical weapons by the army to enter the revolting neighborhoods. According to this, there was an incident yesterday with 30-40 dead, totally burned. Gever, Turkish name Yüksekova is in the very south-east of Turkey near to the borders of Iran and Iraq. --CE (talk) 15:49, 20 March 2016 (UTC)


 * What is the ‘TAK’ and who are its members?, Amed Dicle, Firat News Agency, March 24, 2016


 * The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (Teyrêbazên Azadiya Kurdistan - TAK) are the group that claims to have committed the recent terrorist attacks in Ankara. According to Dicle's report of their own words they were founded in 2004 and active between 2006 and 2012, then reactivated in December 2015. Considering the PKK as "too soft", they are seen as a "revenge organization" who has apologized for civilian deaths but obviously thinks they are justified in the fight against Turkish state "fascism". According to Dicle, the number of their members among young Kurds is in the thousands. --CE (talk) 22:41, 25 March 2016 (UTC)

"[...] In the cities, Kurds rose up against the genocidal politics of the state and they did so autonomously. Since the guerrilla’s movements are limited during the winter months, it wasn’t involved in many activities. The resistance rather took the form of a people’s uprising, led by youths who organized self-defense. Now, with the arrival of spring, the conditions for the guerrilla have become more favorable. Therefore, it is not surprising that the guerrilla’s activities have increased. From now on, the conditions will be even better. This means that activities both in the countryside and in the cities will increase further. The people’s uprising will also continue and intensify. We have decided to radicalize the struggle both in Northern Kurdistan and in Turkey. [...]"
 * “We will intensify the guerrilla’s activities”, Interview with leading PKK member Bese Hozat, Lower Class Magazine, May 22, 2016

--CE (talk) 12:36, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

Warfare
(...as presented on social media...)


 * Kurds shot down large transport helicopter, posted video on May 13. Helicopter was hit and was on fire, subsequent events unclear from the recording.--Resup (talk) 22:12, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Kurdish fighters shot down Turkish military helicopter (so two helicopters downed recently)- report and video--Resup (talk) 14:54, 14 May 2016 (UTC)
 * ...Attacked Turkish military base in the mountains 'in Northern Kurdistan' -report and video --Resup (talk) 22:12, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Turkey: deadly truck bomb hits Cizre police checkpoint, The Guardian, 26 August 2016
 * Video shows explosion (twitter).
 * HPG claims responsibility


 * 'Rocket' (ie anti-tank missile) attack on Turkish tanks in Syria kills soldier, wounds three: reports France 24, 27 August 2016

Iraq

 * By The Grace Of Israel - The Barzani Clan And Kurdish "Independence", Moon of Alabama, September 28, 2017
 * Meanwhile: 'Putin, Erdogan Pledge To Closely Cooperate On Syria, Increase Trade'
 * Iran, Iraq plan joint drills over Kurdish independence vote -AFP, September 29, 2017
 * 'Political Leadership of Kurdistan - Iraq replaces High Referendum Council' -Rudaw, October 1, 2017
 * ...(3) ''The meeting stressed the continuation of dialogue with Baghdad
 * ...(7) ''Depending on peaceful mechanisms, no threat or pressure could force the Kurdistan nation to withdraw from the decision it made on September 25, 2017.

Barzani?
I do not understand fully Kurds issues, being in principle supportive of self-determination. It does not seem to be US-driven, and was going on for a long time. But there seems to be an issue with the leadership (from a Westernized perspective at least), with quite negative press on Masrour Barzani and the family. One such example here. Which makes the whole thing even messier. And seems to be that the great powers are not in a huge rush to sort this out (surprise) more like riding on it when it goes their way, giving a Kissinger if it does not. --Resup (talk) 19:36, 20 October 2017 (UTC)

Lavrov, as half Armenian, can be better than this, but he is basically an employee --Resup (talk) 19:43, 20 October 2017 (UTC)


 * From reading the lead in to your posted article, the author is right. The KRG is a dictatorship under the Barzani clan. Given how US pundits are running around calling Putin or even Maduro dictators, I don't think Barzani gets a lot of negative press in "the West", which might have something to do with that the oil his clan illegally sends off through Turkey (including "ISIS" oil in recent years) often ends in Israel, which is the only country openly supporting the referendum that backfired so mightily now. I recommend this analysis in addition to the one by Pepe Escobar I posted in the news, for understanding current events. This is a very positive development, to my understanding, and it is to hope that something similar (Kurds peacefully retreating to the regions they culturally dominate and giving up the spoils they conquered during the war on ISIS) will happen in Syria, for the sake of peace and hopefully a strong autonomy but no balkanisation. --CE (talk) 20:50, 20 October 2017 (UTC)

Russia

 * Kurdish autonomy is asking for office recognition Syrian Kurdistan consular office can be opened in Moscow. Kommersant, October 20, 2015. --Resup (talk) 14:49, 25 December 2015 (UTC) "... the next steps in this direction could be discussed tomorrow at the Russian Foreign Ministry. Leaders of the party "Democratic Union" (PYD) - one of the leading political forces of Syrian Kurdistan, have arrived in Moscow, and have scheduled consultations ther. On the Kurdish side, co-chairman of the PYD Asya Abdullah will take part. "Kommersant" sources in the Foreign Ministry have not yet confirmed the information to open a Syrian Kurdistan office in Russia . The move could provoked a harsh reaction to leadership of Turkey, where Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was officially declared a terrorist organization."


 * Pain Spot, Cassad, December 25, 2015.
 * Discusses (in pro-Russian-against-Turkish way) and illustrates Stratfor report 'Why Pro Kurdish Russia Infuriates Turkey', December 23, 2015. Past curfew areas in the south-eastern part of Turkey is shown on the maps.  --Resup (talk) 14:49, 25 December 2015 (UTC)