Kurds

By Tutku Ayhan and Güneş Murat Tezcür | – It’s been five years since the Islamic State killed 3,100 Yazidi people in Iraq – mostly men and the elderly – forced 6,800 women and children into sexual slavery, marriage or religious conversion and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing. The Islamic State saw the Yazidis as […]

Donald Trump

Trump’s Debacle in the Desert: A Post Mortem on the Kurdish-American Military Alliance (1941-2019)

Brian Glyn Williams

(Informed Comment) – An “After-Action” Report on the Kurds’ Vital Role in The Defeat of ISIS and Death of “God’s Shadow on Earth”: On October 26th US Delta Forces, acting on intelligence provided to them by their trusted Kurdish allies, launched a dangerous, long-distance heliborne raid from Iraq, across a region in northern Syria that […]

Displaced and Refugees

Syrian Kurds charge Turkey with Ethnic Cleansing as US Military frets it will be “blind” without Kurdish Help

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northeast Syria today accused Turkish forces of conducting ethnic cleansing campaigns in the Kurdish region they have occupied between Tel Abyad and Ra’s al-Ayn. The communique said, “and after more than 300,000 civilians fled from its cities and villages and hamlets and houses and hospitals […]

Featured

Did US Officials Manipulate Trump into Sending Back Troops from Iraq to Syria “for the oil”?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) | – NBC reports that a US convoy of light armored vehicles carrying special operations forces has been sighted heading from Iraq into northeast Syria and then south to the oil-rich Deir al-Zor province, with attack helicopters hovering above. You have to wonder if the Kurds pelted them with rotten vegetables […]

Donald Trump

Unlike Trump, Putin faces down Turkey on Plans for Massive Syria Incursion

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – With Trump and his special operations troops out of Syria, it fell to Russia to deal with Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria to push back from its border the leftist Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). Trump has not only become irrelevant, but the troops formerly stationed in Syria now seem […]

Barack Obama

No, Trump’s Withdrawal from Syria is not Like Obama Leaving Iraq

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Some observers are likening Trump’s abrupt departure from Syria and President Barack Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq in 2011. The two events show no resemblance whatsoever, and the frequently-made charge that Obama could have stayed in Iraq is incorrect. Here’s the difference. 1. Obama did not betray America’s allies in Iraq, […]

Donald Trump

Trump Blows it Big Time in Syria: Dumps Kurds as the Empire Crumbles

Reese Erlich

In less than two weeks, President Donald Trump has managed to create a massive and avoidable crisis in Syria. By greenlighting the Turkish invasion of northern Syria, Trump’s policy forced more than 160,000 Syrians to flee their homes. And guess who emerged as the political and military winners? Russia, Iran, and the Syrian government of […]

Donald Trump

Dem Leadership brands as “Shameful” Pence’s Agreement for Turkey “Pause” in Kurdish Areas

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Mariam Khan at ABC News reports that yesterday speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority Leader Chuck Schumer lambasted the pause in fighting by Turkey negotiated by vice president Mike Pence “sham ceasefire.” They added, “President Erdogan has given up nothing, and President Trump has given him everything,” […]

Donald Trump

Blaming Victims, Trump attacks Syrian Kurds as “Communists,” “No Angels,” PKK as worse than ISIL

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Dispatches from the Great Trump Clown Parade, which would be gut-busting hilarious if it did not involve real-world dark horrors, including the displacement of some 130,000 Kurds along with deaths and woundings, and the escape of over a hundred ISIL detainees. An unprecedented bipartisan congressional resolution was passed Wednesday against […]