Category Archives: USA

The American Presidential Election of 2016 and the Middle East: The Biggest Losers and Winners

By Dr. M. Koohzad: It was a “shock and awe” moment. But, it was good and great. I was delighted that Ms. Clinton, a war criminal, was unable to fool most of the Americans most of the time. Hillary or Killary, with all of the help and support from her political party, the White House,…

Free HDP and Divest From Turkish Fascism: International Appeal and Message of Solidarity

Joint Statement by Armenian, Kurdish and Ezidi Organizations in the USA: We express our outrage at the arbitrary arrests of Turkey’s opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, and its 10 MPs on November 4, 2016. With the charges of treason and association with terrorism, HDP MPs are the latest victims…

Syria’s Not So Civil War Explained – Neither in 2011 Nor a Sectarian War: Qatar-Turkey Gas Pipeline Design

By Dr. Koohzad: Many mainstream media reports, and even scholarly research works, mistakenly call the War on Syria a “Civil War.” They also believe that the war began in 2011, and is a sectarian conflict mainly between the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam. None of these three claims is true. The following arguments and…

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…

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…

Will the USA and EU Punish Turkey If It Doesn’t Commit To Democracy?

By Abdul-Qahar Mustafa: Most people including me know that Turkey has a bad history in dealing with minorities and has never had any true approach to democracy. It started from the time when their ancestors took the land by force from Kurds, Assyrians, Armenians, and Greeks in the 11th century. They have subjected and murdered…

Is The World Saying We Cannot Curb Terror Without Dictators?

By Chiman Salih: Mr.Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister, said in his statement about the Chilcot Report: “I will at the same time say why, nonetheless, I believe that it was better to remove Saddam Hussein and why I do not believe this is the cause of the terrorism we see today whether in…

Hunger in Rojava

By Dr Jan Best de Vries: Due to the whims of Mr Erdogan, individuals and trucks are frequently being prevented from using the sole, still accessible route into Rojava via the Semalka border crossing. Seemingly the latter is in the control of Mr Barzani of the Kurdish, so-called autonomous region of Bashur in Iraq; in…

Syrian Kurdish Refugees Start Over In Atlanta

By Benjamin Kweskin: (Special thanks to Mazlom Hassan for translating and to Ahmet Baran for facilitating) Family: Husband: Ali Abdo, 42; Wife: Aras, 31; Son: John Abdo, 12; Daughter: Jwana Abdo, 7 Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family background. Ali: We are originally from Afrin but lived in Aleppo (Syria’s second…

The West’s Immoral Refusal To Rescue Ezidi Women

By Dr. Amy L. Beam: On June 2, 2016, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon addressed the UN Security Council on sexual violence in conflict.  He stated “It is estimated that the Ezidi community gave the Islamic State up to $45 million in ransom payments in 2014 alone.” It is irresponsible for the UN Secretary General…

Interview with U.S. Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, Sponsor of Resolution on Genocide by ISIS

Exclusive Interview by Dakhil Shammo – VOA Kurdish Service: U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska’s 1st Congressional district talks to Dakhil Shammo of VOA about the Yazidi plight, the war against ISIS and the roles of the U.S. and the Kurds in the region. Here KT publishes a transcript along with the video of the…

The Case for Delisting the PKK as a Foreign Terrorist Organization

By David Phillips, Kelly Berkell: Published by Lawfare Removing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) would create conditions for greater security cooperation between the United States and the PKK in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In exchange for delisting, the…

Gulen Doesn’t Want to be Labeled Anti Anything So He’s For Everything: It’s A Dead End For Gulen’s Cult Missionaries

By Dr. Aland Mizell: I have been writing about Gulen’s cult in this journal and in other newspapers for some years. I have emphasized that Gulen’s cult is a threat to the national security of Turkey, to the United States, or to any country they are operating in, because their goal is to rule the world….

Kurdish Activities in the Los Angeles Area

By Yara Kamaran Ismael: News of the assassination of the prominent Kurdish lawyer, Tahir Elci, made it to the headlines. Although similar incidents happen occasionally in Kurdish areas in Turkey, this incident looked different, because Elci was openly calling for peace. He was shot dead after a press conference in Istanbul on November 18th. On that date, there…

The Kurdish Nation Deserves Statehood

By Dr. Norman Bruce Garber: Most Americans have been painfully observing for decades the terribly chaotic conditions reverberating throughout the Middle East, involving the countries of Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Turkey. And besides not being able to perceive clearly many of the interconnected but shifting reasons for all the violence and chaos between and within…