Arab Belt Settlers Made Up About 5% of Hasakah, and Up to a Fifth of Its Border Countryside

Fifty-two years after the Regional Command of the Ba’ath Party, then Syria’s ruling body, issued Decision 521 on 24 June…

Turkish bases are thinning Kurdistan’s border woodland, satellite data show, but far less than claimed

Trucks carrying freshly felled timber have been filmed leaving the mountains of northern Amedi district, in Duhok province, for Turkish…

Damascus Moves From Nominal to Physical Security Control in Hasakah

New on the SDF-Damascus integration agreement: Yesterday and today, a sizable number of Damascus-linked Syrian Interior and Defence Ministry personnel…

What happens now after Turkey’s PKK framework law has been approved?

A new phase has opened with the Turkish parliament’s approval of a framework law on PKK disarmament. It is the first law to come out of direct negotiations conducted with…
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Turkey’s PKK Framework Law Sets a Controlled First Stage in a Wider Regional Project

Parliament is expected to pass the 12-article law governing the PKK’s dissolution within days. Its provisions are narrow, tightly sequenced and placed under state control at every stage, while the…
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KRG Cabinet Formation Deadlock Passes 653 Days, Longer Than Brussels or Belfast

Six hundred and fifty-three days have passed since the Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections on 20 October 2024, and the tenth cabinet has still not been formed. The figure exceeds every…
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Turkey’s Kurdish peace process presses ahead after breakthrough over the ‘framework law’

Following months of slowdown caused by the Iran war and by disagreement over the nature of the draft bill that will pave the way for the return of PKK-linked fighters,…
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How Damascus Is Trading Institutional Manning for Coercive Penetration in Hasakah

The Syrian government has announced a provisional executive office in Hasakah province with a roughly 6:4 ratio favouring SDF-linked appointees over Damascus appointees. This has provoked criticism from some Arab…
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Tehran’s Quiet Campaign on the Kurdistan Border

At least nine Iranian Kurdish fighters from the Komala movement were killed today in an Iranian attack in Sulaimani province. The strike caps a violent stretch inside Iran’s majority Kurdish…
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Where Turkey’s PKK Framework Law Stands

Negotiations over the legal framework for the PKK peace process have entered their final stage, with the ruling bloc aiming to pass the law before parliament rises for its summer…
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