Trump Finds His Scapegoat for a Failed Iran Strategy: the Kurds

The US President Donald Trump accused “the Kurds” of diverting weapons he says were intended for Iranian anti-government protesters, claiming…

The Demographics That Doomed a Kurdish National Project in Syria

A micro-level look at the demographics of northern Syria reveals how much Kurdish nationalist expectations have diverged from ground realities,…

Amedspor and the Kurdish Question’s New Public Arena

For the first time in their history, Amedspor will play in Turkey’s top division. The promotion is a football story,…

Pentagon Zeroes Out Peshmerga Funding as Lebanon and Jordan Enter the Picture

The Pentagon’s budget request for next year proposes to end U.S. training and weapons support for the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs entirely. The line is worth $61…
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Iraq’s CEO Candidate

Iraq’s Coordination Framework on April 27 named businessman Ali al-Zaidi as prime minister-designate, and President Nizar Amede tasked him the same day with forming a government within the constitutional thirty-day window. Zaidi,…
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Why Turkey’s PKK Peace Process Has Stalled

More than a year after Abdullah Ocalan called for disarmament from his prison on Imrali island, Turkey’s peace process with the PKK has reached its first genuinely hard question: which…
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For the KDP, Mansour Barzani’s U.S. Bribery Case Comes at the Worst Possible Time

On April 22, the U.S. Justice Department filed a civil forfeiture complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California seeking to seize a Beverly Hills mansion…
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Courts, Coercion and Control: Why SDF-Damascus Integration Is Hitting Its Real Test

On the latest developments in the SDF-Damascus integration process, a clearer disagreement is emerging over the future of the judicial system in the parts of Hasakah province that remain under…
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Casualty Data Point to a Narrow Social Base for Iran’s Exiled Kurdish Parties

The exiled armed parties have built their strategy around merging with an internal Iranian uprising rather than sustaining a conventional insurgency. The recent casualty data show where that linkage could…
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How a Cross-Sectarian Bloc Led by Iraq’s Next Generation Is Reshaping the Country

Across-sectarian bloc led by five of Iraq’s next-generation political leaders has pushed a presidential vote through despite a boycott by Masoud Barzani and Nouri al-Maliki, and is now positioned to…
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