By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Kurdistan referendum held today is probably not as likely to produce immediate turmoil in the Middle East as some pundits would have it. The “Domino Theory” that if the Kurds secede from Iraq then they will secede from Turkey, Iran and Syria as well, may […]
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Kurds
Iraq Supreme Court strikes down Kurdistan referendum, Clashes in Kirkuk
Can Iraq survive Kurdistan nationalism?
Will Iraqi Kurdish Independence Referendum Further Roil the Middle East?
Kurds Iraq ISIS Middle East Iran
Turkey-Backed fundamentalist Militias attack US Troops in Syria
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – US troops in Syria operating north of Manbij have been fired on twice in the last couple of weeks. The attackers are fundamentalist remnants of the Free Syrian Army, backed by Turkey. The US has tried to persuade rebel groups to concentrate their firepower on ISIL […]
Who defeated ISIL? Obama’s Quiet Strategy, not Trump’s Bluster
Bryan G. Williams | (Informed Comment) | – – Book excerpt from the just-published Counter Jihad: America’s Military Experience in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria [CLICK]: At the time of the writing of this book [in July 2016], Iraqi Army ordinance specialists are cleaning the town (Ramadi) of thousands of IEDs planted by ISIS. ISIS fighters […]
Turkish Legislators hold Sit-in to protest Creeping Dictatorship
TeleSur | – – Under the changes, lawmakers can also vote to ban for three sessions fellow parliamentarians who use expressions such as “Kurdistan” or “Kurdish provinces.” Turkey’s main opposition staged a sit-in late Wednesday to protest proposed changes to parliamentary procedures which they say will restrict lawmakers’ ability to challenge President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling […]
Have Syria’s Kurds invented a Democratic Neo-Socialism?
Dmitry Petrov | (OpenDemocracy.net) | – – In an effort to get through to the Syrian Kurdish autonomous region, I met kindred spirits and found out more about the political and cultural landscape of Iraqi Kurdistan. Sulaymaniyah’s Market Square. Image courtesy of the author.Tossing about on a broken bed in a cheap hostel in the […]
Obama’s last Victory: Syrian Democratic Forces hold Parts of ISIL Capital
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper. – T. S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men” Whatever the fate of the world, Eliot’s verse is appropriate to […]
Trump sends US Troops to Patrol Turkish-Syrian Border as Ankara Threatens US Allies
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Only one fighting force in Syria is practically speaking taking on Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) on the ground, and that is the Syrian Democratic Forces, the bulk of whose fighters are leftist Kurds of the “People’s Protection Units” (YPG). They are joined by some rural Arab clans […]
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