Following WWI, a number of key Arab figures and tribesmen who had joined the Allied war effort took over the administration of former Ottoman territory in what is today’s Syria and Jordan. Led by recently coronated King Faisal of the Hashemites, they proclaimed
I first came to Kurdistan in late July of 2014. My first month was colored with constant conversations and anxiety surrounding ISIS and it’s seizure of Kurdish land. My television was fixed on news stations as my colleagues and I watched more and
It is not a mystery that all eyes are going to be turned on the residents of Kurdish-controlled areas in Northern Iraq as they are preparing to vote on 25 September in a referendum on their preference for the future of the Kurdistan Region of
Signed on 24 July 1923, the Lausanne Treaty divided Kurdistan between Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Azerbaijan. Even though we are entering its 94th anniversary now, one serious aspect of the Treaty has often, wittingly or unwittingly, been omitted. The dominant narrative maintains
Following the closure of Yazda, a Yazidi humanitarian and human rights organization, by the KDP asa’ish (security police affiliated with Kurdistan’s largest political party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party) on January 2, 2017 in Dohuk, people have been asking many questions about why this
(Note: The research below is a first draft of a paper that is being edited for academic publication) Abstract: The history of Armenian-Kurdish relations extends over centuries. In the 1800’s, Armenians were involved in the Kurdish rebellions in Kurdistan proper. The rebellions were
For some ten years now, Turkey’s regonal policies have been characterised by U-turns and changes of heart. Henceforth, Ankara is bogged down in the Syrian crisis, caught between Kurdish demands and the terrorist attacks of ISIS. On December 19, 2016, on the eve
On 27 December in the town of Rmeilan (Rimelan), the Northern Syria Constituent Assembly voted to remove “Rojava,” meaning ‘Western (Kurdistan), from the federal system; initially named the “Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria-Rojava and now called the “Democratic Federal System of Northern
Much ado about Kurds? When Gamal Abdel Nasser and later the Baath Party gave the Arabs a slight of hope of becoming a great Nation, the unachieved dream of becoming this important entity gave all the Arab populations more resentment towards their non-Arabs