Category Archives: YPG

After the Fall of Raqqa

By Dr Jan Best de Vries: The military situation on the ground around and in Raqqa is clear: the villages north of Raqqa have been taken by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) led by the YPG and YPJ, the villages south of Raqqa by Assad̉΄s Arabian Army with the support of Iranian elite troops, whereas…

‘Syria Won’t Return to Dictatorship Post War’ – Salih Muslim

Mr Salih Muslim is co-president of the Democratic Union Party or PYD. The PYD is one of the most dominant players in Syria; currently this is mostly because of its control over that most effective and formidable Kurdish militia YPG/YPJ, significant popular support, and its effective organization. In an exclusive interview with Manish Rai, Editor,…

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….

YPG Statement on Recent Attack in Ankara – Turkey

Statement by YPG General Command: Introduction by PYD Foreign Relations Office: The General Command of YPG (People’s Defense Units) has released a statement in response to Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu who blamed the YPG for yesterday’s attack in the heart of Turkish capital Ankara which left 28 people dead and 64 others wounded. YPG General…

Girê Spî Liberated From Daesh: Kobani Celebrates, And Mourns

KT Report From Kobani: Girê Spî (Tel Abyad) has been liberated from Daesh (ISIS) by the YPG. The mainly Kurdish forces made a lightening advance into the town today (Monday) and the surviving jihadists have beat a retreat north into Turkey or south towards Raqaa, their stolen Syrian ‘capital’, 78 km away, reportedly without having…

US Volunteer ‘Died Fighting For Humanity’ Says Kobani PM, As YPG ‘Enters’ Girê Spî

By John Hunt: Hundreds of Kurds gathered in the ravaged centre of Kobani last Thursday to honour US citizen Keith Broomfield who died on 3rd June while fighting in the ongoing war between the YPG forces of Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) and Daesh (ISIS). Women, men and children stood around his coffin or above it on…

The Hague Declaration: Joint Diplomatic Committee of Kurdistan Political Groups

By Joint Diplomatic Committee of Kurdistan Political Groups: Freedom-loving Kurdish nation, Political forces, Families and relatives of the martyrs of Kurdistan, In this crucial phase of our history in which the entire region of the Middle East and gulf states are suffering civil, ethnic, religious and regional war, with the big threat against the struggle of…

This Newroz is Different

By Ramyar Hassani: On Saturday, the Kurdish new year will be celebrated all over Kurdistan. People will welcome the spring and the resurrection of the planet that wakes up from a deep winter sleep. Photos of its signs are already posted all over the social media. Although in exile, I can imagine that trees have got…

The Rojava Revolution

By Evangelos Aretaios: This article was first published by Open Democracy News of the fight of the Syrian Kurds has reached many homes in Europe and the US over the last year as TV channels around the world have covered the resistance of the Kurds against Daesh (self-proclaimed “Islamic State”) in Kobane. The fighting was…

Picket Outside Holloway Prison for Shilan Ozcelik, Imprisoned for Allegedly Wanting to Join Fight Against ISIS, 13th March 2015, 6PM!

KNK Press Release: The Kurdish community and supporters of the Kurdish struggle are incensed at the arrest and imprisonment of 18 year old Shilan (Silhan) Ozcelik, who is accused of wanting to join the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS). The UK government in its steadfastness…

ISIS (with Turkey’s help) MUST free ALL Kurdish hostages or face Peshmerga in Mosul+ and likely PKK in Ankara

By Steve Tataii: Kurdish people have run out of patience, when none of the captive Yezidis numbering in 10,000 Kurdish hostages taken from Sinjar (Shengal) held captive in Mosul, Talafar, Raqqa, and other locations, nor some 50 Pehsmerga, of which 17 or more recently shown in cages in Hawija, have been freed as apparent so…

This is our war and the KRG must give top priority to defence strategy

By Arian Mufid: The opening weeks of 2015 have involved heavy bloodshed and martyrdom for Kurds in the south of Kurdistan. While in west Kurdistan ISIS (Daesh) forces were forced to retreat from Kobani, in the southern, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), areas ISIS has been on an almost continual offensive on several fronts, to an…

Powerful, yet are they Useless?

Evin Cheikosman

By Evin Cheikosman: The revolutions throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have opened many doors that have been locked for centuries; and one of those doors leads into the topic of women’s rights.  If we take a moment to reflect on the uprisings that have taken place this past year and the numerous…

The future of Rojava

 Dr. Jan Best de Vries: Sunday afternoon 30 November, Salih Muslim, the male co-president of the PYD (the largest party in Rojava), who normally lives in Kobane, flew in from Stockholm to attend at The Hague a Kurdish feast in celebration of the anniversary of the foundation of the PKK, which is regarded by the government…

Sirnak Says Farewell to Şiwan Bayar, YPG Kobane

By Amy L. Beam, Ed.D: Mersin University student Şiwan Bayar was given a martyr’s funeral in his hometown of Şirnak, Turkey, on November 23, 2014. Şiwan (also Şivan) was studying history education when he decided to leave university and join the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS or ISID) to defend the Syrian Kurdish town…