Middle East 4 ChangeStand with Rojava, oppose Turkey’s war
Saturday, January 26, 2019
Internationalist Commune of Rojava. The threat of yet another war looms over northern Syria once again. Turkish troops and their Islamist mercenaries are massing on the borders of…
Iran’s Policy In Post-US Syria Is To Block Kurdish Left
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
Maysam Behravesh. US President Donald Trump’s abrupt announcement last week of the withdrawal of American troops from Syria caught many people off guard, including his own administration officials. It…
Reflection of a Kurdish feminist
Monday, December 31, 2018
Dr Hawzhin Azeez If you want freedom you have to take it! You cannot appeal to the conscience of the imperialists, the colonialists, the oppressors, and the creators…
Syrian army says it has entered key city of Manbij after appeal from Kurdish fighters
Sunday, December 30, 2018
Bianca Britton and Gul Tuysuz. Syria’s army said Friday it had entered the northern city of Manbij for the first time in years after Kurdish fighters called on…
US sanctions have caused a crisis for Iranian Kurds
Friday, December 14, 2018
Douglas Gerrard. Of the four countries into which Kurdistan is divided, the region spanning Iran is the least prominent in western consciousness. Rojava is well known amongst leftists due…
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition struggles to be heard
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Ayla Jean Yackley. ISTANBUL — Five months ago, Selahattin Demirtas, a popular Kurdish politician jailed for his fiery speeches targeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, staged an unlikely challenge…
The Women of the Revolution: inside the Kurdish Rojava Revolution
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
David Pratt. A remarkable story is unfolding that defies the usual narrative about Syria. In contrast to the misogyny and anti-democratic values of the jihadists of the Islamic…
Turkey: A vindictive and pitiless regime
Monday, October 1, 2018
Esen Uslu. The Turkish army of the modern republican era has never withdrawn from any piece of land it has occupied on whatever pretext. A former British army…
Iran missile strike opens door to escalation with Kurdish armed groups
Saturday, September 15, 2018
Fazel Hawramy. Posted on Al-Monitor Sept 14, 2018. The patience of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) with Iranian Kurdish groups operating from northern Iraq was wearing thin. Spiraling…
Iranian Kurds begin strike against executions and missile attacks
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Wladimir van Wilgenburg. Posted on Kurdistan24, September 12 2018. ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iranian Kurdish shopkeepers on Wednesday began Rojhilat-wide (Iranian Kurdistan) strike against the executions of Kurdish…
Poems by two poets from Iraqi Kurdistan
Sunday, July 1, 2018
Three Poems by Hero Kurda translated by Alana Marie Levinson-LaBrosse, Pshtewan Kamal Babakir and Shene Mohammed Posted on World Literature Today July 20§18. You in Me On the shore…
Erdogan has used same techniques as Trump to de-democratize Turkey
Monday, June 25, 2018
Juan Cole. Posted on Informed Comment 25th June 2018. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, began his legitimate political career at the turn of this century with…
Erdoğan’s ‘new’ Turkey: Purges and Paranoia
Saturday, June 2, 2018
Ella George. Published by London Review of Books Vol. 40 No. 10 · 24 May 2018 The elections due to be held on 24 June, brought forward abruptly…
Syria is not exceptional: interview with Joseph Daher | Part 2
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Joe Hayns & Joseph Daher. Posted on RS21 May 10, 2018. This is Part 2 of an interview with Joseph Daher, on revolution and counter-revolution in Syria. In…
The Syrian Revolution and the Emancipation of Palestinians and Kurds: Interview with Joseph Daher
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Joseph Daher and Ela Liberta. Posted on Alliance of Middle East Socialists May 19, 2018. Below, we reprint an interview which the Greek socialist collective Ela Liberta conducted…
Turkey: Erdoğan’s Cesspit
Thursday, May 3, 2018
Daniel Finn. Editorial in New Left Review number 107. For the gatekeepers of established wisdom in the West, the rise of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) was…
Bread, water and roses: The guerrillas of Shengal (Sinjar)
Sunday, April 8, 2018
Marcel Cartier. Posted on The Region on April 4, 2018. Powerful, sobering and heart-wrenching images are once again to be seen from the Yazidi heartland of Shengal, otherwise…
Iran, Russia and Turkey plan Syria’s future as Trump seeks an exit
Friday, April 6, 2018
Erin Cunningham Posted on Washington Post on April 4. 2018 ISTANBUL — The leaders of Iran, Russia and Turkey met Wednesday for high-level talks on ending the Syrian…
Survivors of the Syrian Wars
Thursday, April 5, 2018
Patrick Cockburn. Published in London Review of Books Volume 40 number 7 April 5, 2018. When I first visited Kurdish-held territory in northern Syria, early in 2015, it…
The Fall of Afrîn
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Güney Işıkara and Alp Kayserilioğlu. Posted on Jacobin 22nd March 2018. On January 20, the Turkish military launched its invasion of the Syrian-Kurdish canton of Afrîn in northwest…
Climate & Capitalism Interview with Zafer Ülger: Ecological crisis and capitalism in Turkey today
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Zafar Ugler and Arielle Conclio. Posted on Monthly Review on March 5, 2018. Originally on Left Voice. Zafer Ülger is a member of the Başlangıç socialist collective in…
Turkey: The struggle Continues
Monday, March 26, 2018
Esen Uslu. Posted on Weekly Worker number 1195, March 22 , 2018. After the surrender of Afrin, Esen Uslu says that the Turkish left and Kurdish movement must…
Turkish War Planes Strike Northern Syria As Assad Continues Bombing South
Sunday, March 18, 2018
Ellen Frances. Posted on Huffington Post on March 17, 2018. BEIRUT, March 17 (Reuters) – Thousands of civilians streamed out of their towns on Saturday to escape battles…
Syria’s war of ethnic cleansing: Kurds threatened with beheading by Turkey’s allies if they don’t convert to extremism
Saturday, March 17, 2018
Patrick Cockburn. Posted on the Independent and on ZCommunications 17 March 2018. Syrian Arab militiamen leading the Turkish attack on Afrin in northern Syria are threatening to massacre…
Turkish armed forces meet determined resistance
Monday, February 26, 2018
Esen Uslu. Posted on Weekly Worker Issue 1191 February 22, 2018. ‘Operation Olive Branch’ has given rise to increased repression and an intense outburst of chauvinism, writes Esen…
The Wounds of Afrin, the Promise of Rojava: an Interview with Nazan Üstündağ
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Nazan Üstündağ. Posted LeftEast Februry 14, 2018. LeftEast interviewed sociologist and feminist Nazan Üstündağ on Afrin, Rojava and the social stakes of the resistance to Turkey’s current military…
Shifting Relations Between Turkey and the U.S. and the State of the Turkish Left
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Foti Benlisoy. Posted on left voice January 4, 2018. Left Voice recently spoke with Foti Benlisoy of Başlangıç Dergisi, a socialist organization in Turkey, to discuss the political…
On the front line in Syria, a confusing conversation with a doctor who may be an official of the YPG
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Robert Fisk. Posted by the Independent on February 2, 2018. Dr Heddo – trained as a doctor at the Aleppo medical school, he confided – wouldn’t exactly confirm…
Female Kurdish Fighter Kills Turkish Troops in Likely Suicide Bombing in Syria
Monday, January 29, 2018
Rod Nordland. Posted on New York Times, January 28, 2018. QAMISHLI, Syria — A female Kurdish fighter carried out what appeared to be a suicide bombing attack on…
Showdown in Afrin: Turkey’s Attack on Syria’s Kurds Threatens That Country’s Most Democratic, Pluralist Force
Saturday, January 27, 2018
Meredith Tax. Posted on the Nation 26th January 2018. The Kurds have said they will fight to the death before they give up an inch of Afrin. Last…