Written by
Blog
The Maverick Playbook: How Bafel Talabani Is Trying to Turn Kurdistan’s Math Against the KDP
Bafel Talabani is running a two-front strategy against the KDP that has eliminated Masrour Barzani’s path to forming a government on his own terms. In the Kurdistan parliament, Bafel has…
Read More (3 min. read)
Written by
Arivan
ENKS Seeks Its Own Lane as Damascus Plays Kurdish Factions Against Each Other
A delegation from the Syrian Kurdish National Council, known as ENKS, met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Shara and Foreign Minister Asad al-Shaybani in Damascus yesterday. The visit marks the first…
Read More (3 min. read)
Written by
Arivan
Four Maps That Explain Iran’s Complex Kurdish-Populated Provinces
To outsiders, the Kurdish region of Iran, often called Rojhelat (eastern Kurdistan) among Kurds, might appear as a monolithic ethnic block clinging to the Zagros Mountains along the Iraqi and…
Read More (3 min. read)
Written by
Arivan
What the SDF-Damascus Deal Really Says About Kurdish Autonomy
As more details of the SDF-Damascus agreement become available, the contours of the deal can be summarised in five points: 1. Integration and the Hasakah division. The text states that…
Read More (3 min. read)
Written by
Arivan
Trump’s Veto Throws Iraq’s Prime Minister Race Into Turmoil
After Iraq’s Shia-led Coordination Framework bloc, following lengthy deliberations, announced controversial former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki as its candidate, US President Donald Trump publicly opposed the move, further deepening the…
Read More (3 min. read)
Written by
Arivan
How Turkey Turned the Smelka Crossing Into One of the Middle East’s Most Surveilled Borders
As intermittent clashes in Syria’s Hasakah province move closer to Al-Jawadiyah (known in Kurdish as Çil Axa), a key route connecting the Smelka border crossing between Iraq’s Kurdistan Region and…
Read More (3 min. read)
Written by
Arivan
As ISIS Detainees Move Out, Pressure Mounts on the SDF in Hasakah
Despite the ceasefire extension for an additional 15 days, both the Damascus-led Syrian Army and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), continue sending reinforcements to the Hasakah area, suggesting the prospect of…
Read More (3 min. read)
Written by
Arivan
Damascus’s Hasakah advance threatens the KDP’s border leverage
The KDP, the dominant party in the Kurdistan Region, has made a dramatic shift in its approach to the SDF since the collapse of the Assad-era order in Syria. Masoud…
Read More (3 min. read)
Written by
Arivan
Syrian Kurdish Leaders Say They Were Promised One Thing. The Deal Says Another.
As the Syrian army advances toward Hasakah city and presses deeper toward Syria’s core Kurdish areas, the SDF is increasingly on the diplomatic defensive. Its leadership is being pushed toward…
Read More (3 min. read)
Written by
Arivan
Syrian Army Presses Toward Tabqa as SDF Seeks U.S. Lifeline in Erbil
The Syrian army is continuing its westward pressure on SDF-held Tabqa, the last Kurdish-controlled pocket west of the Euphrates, after the SDF withdrew from the Deir Hafir–Maskanah salient in eastern…
Read More (3 min. read)