Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi has been hailed in many western circles as the unifier of Iraq but in reality, he is merely another sectarian leader, who murders and threatens his own people in order to hold a failed state together utilizing brute force. To the contrary, Kurdistan’s Prime Minister Nichervan Barzani is […]
The Economist published a piece this week on the actions by Iraqi forces against Kurdish interests in the Kurdish region of Iraq after a referendum for independence from Iraq took place recently. With dwindling ISIS control of territory in Iraq and Syria, the interests of those who have allied themselves with Iran, Saudi interests and […]
Neither a Putin-Assad hegemony nor an inclusive transitional government of a united Syria are solutions after Aleppo. Partition is the solution.
The new U.S. president will have to address the issue of religious minorities in the Middle East, from humanitarian and geostrategic perspectives.
An independent Kurdistan under U.S. protection would unite Iraqi and Syrian Kurdistan as well as minority areas of Assyrians, Turkomans, Yezidi and others.
Inflicting a series of defeats on ISIS, Kurds have emerged from obscurity to become a major force in the Syrian conflict.
Current governments of Syria, Iraq and Kurdistan should rule over their ethnic populations while Sunni areas should be occupied by foreign Sunni powers.
The Kurds are often hailed as the West’s most reliable partner in the fight against the Islamic State. At the same time, they have taken advantage of the chaos in the region to get closer to achieving their dream of statehood.
The multiplicity of Kurdish national movements throughout the Middle East adds an additional layer of complexity in the fight against ISIS.
Much has been written and discussed about Kurdistan and its place (literally and figuratively) in the Middle East. Yet it’s challenging to see through rhetoric and conjecture, and learn what it is actually like to be in Kurdistan.
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.
After a perilous roller coaster ride in 2014, the question of independence for the Kurdistan Region moves back to the front burner.
With two new armed forces opposing the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Iraqi politics and security continues to get even more complicated.
As a U.S. ally and member of NATO, Turkey has a large, well-trained, and well-funded military with more than a half-million personnel in uniform. It is also the only NATO nation that shares a border with both Iraq and Syria, where the Islamic State continues to take and hold significant territory.
It is time that the United States takes a hard look at supporting an independent Kurdistan.