The Kurdish Struggle – An Interview with Dilar Dirik

Dilar Dirik interviewed by George Souvlis George Souvlis: By way of introduction, could you explain what personal experiences strongly influenced you, politically and academically? Dilar Dirik: As a Kurd, you can never run from your identity, because your identity is essentially political and

The Nineveh Plains and the Future of Minorities in Iraq (By Yousif Kalian)

When the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) stormed northern Iraq and took over Mosul in the summer of 2014, it ran a parallel campaign of genocide against the minorities of the Nineveh Plains. For many of these groups, including Christians and

The fall of Eastern Aleppo (By Polat Can)

Eastern Aleppo has fallen today, but looking at the root causes that paved the way to that fall you will realize it was inevitable not because the Baath forces and their allies are stronger or the Islamist factions are weaker but because the

The Kurdish issue and Ankara’s policy (By Ümit Güneş)

The Kurdish issue and Ankara’s policy The Turkish Army with the support of the airforce of the coalition led by USA on August 24th launched an operation to liberate Jarablus city in the northern Syria from militants of the terrorist group “Islamic State.”

Mistakes that Machiavelli would have avoided in the Arab world (By Yeghia Tashjian)

“He who causes another to become more powerful ruins himself” The Prince, Machiavelli The unrealistic and miscalculated strategic mistakes that some Gulf monarchs committed from 2003 till now are one of the main factors that lead to the fragmentation of some Arab countries and the

The collapse of the Sykes-Picot borders (By Yeghia Tashjian)

After the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) invaded and captured the northern cities of Iraq, it became apparent that they intended to eliminate the artificial borders that were drawn as a result of the Sykes-Picot agreement. The territory ISIS controls stretches