Tag: featured

The Syria Crisis Triggered a Different Battle in the Kurdistan Region: Over What It Means to Be Kurdish

When fighting between the Syrian Democratic Forces and Damascus-aligned forces escalated in early-to-mid January, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq responded…

Iraq’s Power Struggle Has Two New Wildcards: A U.S. Veto and a Weakened Iran

Three months after Iraq’s November 2025 parliamentary elections, the country remains without a government. The Coordination Framework — the umbrella…

The Perception Bubble: How an Echo Chamber Shaped the SDF’s Strategic Miscalculation

Following the SDF’s major territorial losses last month, much of the commentary has argued that the March 10 integration agreement…

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Arivan

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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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