Tag Archives: Turkey
Erdogan’s neo-ottoman visions: out in the open now
There is certainly no shortage of writings on Turkey today regarding that country’s “drift” away from its Western orientation and floating towards pan-Islamism and Neo-Ottomanism, strengthening ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. While Turkey itself has launched an “Asia Anew” policy, the outsized focus on this and other alleged signs of Turkey’s “drift from the West” […]
PKK detains civilian from Duhok on spying allegations
Relatives of a Kurdish man detained for spying by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Duhok province have called for his release after an alleged video confession was published on Tuesday. The PKK, which captured Jutiyar Muhsin in Amedi on January 29, issued a statement on Monday accusing him of spying on behalf of Turkish […]
Turkey: PYD/ENKS peace talks is a conspiracy to create international representing space for the PKK in North-East Syria
Turkey is openly disgruntled over the US-backed effort to unite disparate Syrian Kurdish rival political factions that kicked off last month. Turkish disgruntlement was palpable in a May 11 dispatch in Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency. It characterized the effort to unite disparate Syrian Kurdish factions as more of a conspiracy aimed at creating “international […]
Tensions keep rising in North-Iraq as fears for Turkish invasion grow
Fears are growing of a major confrontation between Kurdish factions in northern Iraq, as tensions continue to rise between Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) over control of a strategic territory. Speculations say that KRG and the Turkish government are conspiring to drive the PKK out of its Qandil headquarters, […]
KCK releases second statement on Zini Werta situation
The KCK has released a statement on the Zini Werta stand-off. It said it would show responsibility. “As a matter of fact, although the area where the peshmergas were sent to is very important for us, we try to respond to the aspirations of the Kurdish people by showing the necessary patience, common sense and […]
Zini Werta: PUK deescalates the situation
After a military stand-off between KDP, PUK and PKK in the Zini Werta area, PUK has decided to deescalate the situation. Even though KDP invaded PUK territory here, setting up a KDP checkpoint only meters from a PKK camp and gave coordinates to Turkey which led to airstrikes, PUK decided not to be lured into […]
Turkey bombs Makhmour camp
Makhmur Refugee Camp, which was founded in 1998, lies in the Makhmour district of North Iraq. It hosts about 12,000 Kurdish pro-PKK refugees, who fled the civil war between the PKK and the Turkish state in the 1990s. Reportedly, several Iranian families with PKK ties have been tricked and moved to Makhmour Camp in the […]
Barzani-Turkish ties reconfirmed: Peshmerga Roj fighting in Libya
Peshmerga Roj is a KDP-backed militia that is formed and trained in KDP areas of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq. At its formation, it was meant to be a force that could counter the YPG in North-Syria. It was made up from Syrian Kurdish refugees and PKK defects that had surrendered themselves to KDP in […]
Havoc in Afrin; an analysis
Two years ago, during January 2018, Turkey threatened to launch a major operation in northwestern Syria’s Afrin region. Eventually Turkey did launch the operation, leading to tens of thousands fleeing the Kurdish area. Syrian rebels, some of them linked to religious extremists, vow to defeat the mostly Kurdish fighters who have been working with the […]
Member of banned Turkish music group dies after hunger strike
A member of a popular folk music group that is banned in Turkey has died on the 288th day of a hunger strike. The singer and a colleague had started the strike while imprisoned to protest at the government’s treatment of their band, according to a post on the group’s Twitter account. Grup Yorum, known […]