Foreign Policy Blogs

The future of Kurdistan

The Legality of Refusing to Assist Oppressed Groups

The Legality of Refusing to Assist Oppressed Groups

With atrocities taking place in Iraq and Syria, the international community must stop the oppression against certain groups. Indeed, the lesson of Rwanda has been almost entirely ignored in 2015.

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Politically-backed Fighting Forces: The Key to Kurdistan’s Future?

Politically-backed Fighting Forces: The Key to Kurdistan’s Future?

Iraqi Kurdistan is protected by its fierce and respected military forces, the peshmerga. Yet, each of the two main political parties in Kurdistan controls its own peshmerga regiments, using them to gain influence over other political agencies.

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Could another ISIS surge hasten a Kurdish exit from Iraq?

Could another ISIS surge hasten a Kurdish exit from Iraq?

After a perilous roller coaster ride in 2014, the question of independence for the Kurdistan Region moves back to the front burner.

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Turkish Kurds: The Predicament of Opportunity

Turkish Kurds: The Predicament of Opportunity

Turkey’s historically troubled relationship with its Kurdish population has become less tense since the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) founder and current President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, became prime minister in 2003.

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Kurdish Human Rights Activist Wants Iran to Pay for Its Crimes

Kurdish Human Rights Activist Wants Iran to Pay for Its Crimes

Kurdish human rights activist Keywan Faramarzi raised awareness about human rights abuses experienced by Iranian Kurds and called on the international community to take action to change the situation.

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Twenty-seven Kurdish political prisoners on hunger strike in Iran

Twenty-seven Kurdish political prisoners on hunger strike in Iran

Sectarian tensions between Kurds and Persians in the Islamic Republic of Iran continue to be ignited.

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Why Turkey supports Iraq’s Kurds, but not its own

Why Turkey supports Iraq’s Kurds, but not its own

To say the least, the government of Turkey has long had a contentious relationship with the country’s Kurdish population.

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Kurdish Leader Stresses America Is Supporting Terrorists in Syria

Kurdish Leader Stresses America Is Supporting Terrorists in Syria

Syrian Kurdish Leader Sherkoh Abbas calls on the U.S. to stop supporting the PYD and the Islamists in Syria. He rejects the replacement of one dictator for another and emphasized that the U.S. needs to stand behind those that support democracy and human rights within the country.

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Rethinking Kurdistan

Rethinking Kurdistan

It is time that the United States takes a hard look at supporting an independent Kurdistan.

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Kurds eye independence in oil

Kurds eye independence in oil

To the south, Iraqi Kurdistan sees an unstable Baghdad struggling to maintain control against a violent insurgency, all the while seeking to exert control over the Kurdish region’s vast oil wealth. It is to the west, though, where Kurds see a brighter future, eyeing the opportunity for independence through a pipeline to Turkey to sell […]

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