Category Archives: Syria

Support a Federal State or a Democratic Confederate States of Syria!

Rebwar Reshid

By Rebwar Rashed: Authoritarianism, dictatorship, centralism, ethnic aggressive nationalism and racism have been the history of the Middle East in the past hundred years since the Sykes-Picot agreement. Countries in the upper Middle East, such as Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq have always been shifting between various dictatorships and fascistic regimes. The fact that there…

Kurds the Betrayed Race

By Manish Rai: The Kurds as we know, thanks to the Sykes-Picot order which drafted the modern-day map of the Middle-East after World War I, are the largest stateless people in the world, spread between four nations in the region— Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, along with a wider Kurdish diaspora spread mostly across Europe….

The Region’s Two Triangles and the Future of the Kurds

By Saman Shali, Ph.D., former President of Kurdish National Congress in North America (KNC): One could reasonably say that many countries of the Middle East, especially, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, have recently been enjoying a period of political and economic peace and tranquility. It can also be said that these states have enjoyed a…

A Tank Is Clearly Visible

By Dr Jan Best de Vries: On Syrian soil Turkish tanks are deployed. The question is who is going to stop these and how. On the ground Islamic State (IS) and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are Mr Erdogan’s proclaimed targets but the  SDF is unlikely to have enough anti-tank missiles to deal with them…

World’s Democracies Must Support Kurds in Rojava Now!

Rebwar Reshid

By Rebwar Rashed: How often do not the Turkish president Erdogan and his prime minister Ben Ali Yldirim lift their forefingers to threaten Kurds and repeat: We are not allowing a Kurdish entity on our border? As a matter of fact, Erdogan, especially after the collapse of his neo-Ottoman dreams of occupying Kurdish lands and…

Aleppo is the Epicentre of Syrian Conflict

By Manish Rai: Aleppo, once Syria’s industrial and economic hub before the war, has emerged as the civil war’s latest high-stakes battlefield as the warring parties pour in all of their military might to try to strike a definitive blow against their opponents. In the first year of the revolution Aleppo saw neither the large-scale…

Joint Statement of Kurdish & Allied Parties in Syria on Turkish Invasion

Joint Statement: Following the defeat of extremist forces, such as Daesh, conspiratorial plans have started to unfold. Turkey’s latest attack on the Syrian territory in Jerablus city is a continuation of its old/new imperial policy. It is also a plan to occupy more Syrian territory under the pretext of fighting terrorism, i.e. Daesh. However, Turkey’s…

After Hatay, Aleppo?

By Dr Jan Best de Vries: Turkish tanks, neither invited by the secular Syrian regime nor by the democratic administration of Rojava, roll on Syrian soil. In former days a journalist would have written that Turkey is at war with Syria, but nowadays the extent of Turkey’s ‘self-defense’ is measured by which towns along the…

The Southern Route to Sheikh Maksoud

By Dr Jan Best de Vries: The predominantly Kurdish district Sheikh Maksoud in Aleppo is since half a year under attack from rebels who have the blessing of Mr Erdogan because they fight against the present regime of Mr Assad and against the Kurds. The YPG and YPJ units in Aleppo have over the last…

Aleppo and Hatay

By Dr Jan Best de Vries: During the Ottoman Empire the now allegedly Turkish province of Hatay formed part of the Vilayet of Aleppo and on the basis of geography rightly so (just have a look on the map of West Asia). Now that Salafist Turkey, after the failed coup by remaining secular parts of…

Choosing Between Afrin and Raqqa

By Dr Jan Best de Vries: Analyzing the political situation after the capture of Manbij by the SDF and the Americans, the latter will be requested by Mr Erdogan to force the SDF to withdraw behind his red line of the Euphrates in the hope that the Americans and SDF may decide to direct their…

Rojava – ‘Protection Zone’ for Religious and Ethnic Minorities in Northern Syria?

By Dr Kamal Sido: Report on a research trip by the Society for Threatened People’s (STP) Middle East expert Introduction “The causes for flight must be resolved locally. We expect Germany, Europe and the United States of America to help us. We are going to establish a multiethnic and multi-religious project in Rojava – northern…

Nusra is Rebranding Old Wine in a New Bottle

By Manish Rai: Jabhat-Al-Nusra Front, once al-Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, has cut ties with the parent organisation with the approval of the al-Qaeda central leadership. Nusra Front is one of the largest and most effective rebel groups in Syria. It controls territory in the north, west and south of the country and commands approximately…

Politics of Demography: Worldwide Total Kurdish Populations Approaching 41 million in 2015

By Dr. M. Koohzad Preface We need to forcefully press on the accuracy of fact and figures related to the abuse of statistics in politics as bargaining chips. Perhaps, you have heard Staffan de Mistura, the UN Rep. for Syria, has recently said that ONLY five percent of Syria’s population is Kurdish. Unfortunately, nobody has asked…

IS Can’t Be Defeated by Military Means Only

By Manish Rai: The Islamic State stormed Iraq and whole world in 2014 with its takeover of major Iraqi and Syrian cities by exploiting Sunni Arab grievances in Iraq and chaos in neighbouring Syria. But the militant group is now steadily losing ground in both these countries. The so-called Caliphate is on the back foot….