Free Republic

(AINA) -- The Kurdish Democratic Party (PYD), a branch of Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK), recently declared that they want to form a Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria. The area in Syria called al-Jazeera is now called Rojava in Kurdish media. At first I thought it was the name of a Kurdish village outside Qamishle, but a friend explained that Rojava means the "West" in Kurdish and the Kurds see it as the western part of "Kurdistan." If such autonomy becomes a reality, is there any place for Assyrians? Is there room in a future ruled by Kurds, considering what happened...

The Kurdish Democratic Party (PYD), a branch of Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK), recently declared that they want to form a Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria... is there any place for Assyrians? Is there room in a future ruled by Kurds, considering what happened in northern Iraq? Analysts I talked to are optimistic and see a difference from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in north Iraq. Assyrians make up about 30% of al-Jazeera's population and should have better conditions, they say. But the biggest threat to Assyrians is emigration, since many are fleeing to seek a better life in the West....

On August 10, Circassian activists in Moscow picketed the offices of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Emergency Situations Ministry and the Migration Service. The initial request to hold a protest rally was turned down by the Moscow city authorities, so the activists reverted to one-person pickets that cannot be banned under Russian legislation. The activists demanded that the Russian government give a clear response to the plight of the estimated 150,000 Circassians in Syria, who have been in danger since the hostilities began there. Only about 400 Circassians have managed to relocate to the North Caucasus over the past several months,...

Dec. 22, 2004 1:29 | Updated Dec. 22, 2004 16:30 The Druse & Jewish soul searching By AMNON RUBINSTEIN Azzam Azzam, an Israeli-Arab jailed in Egypt since 1996 after being convicted for spying for Israel, surrounded by family members, arrives to his village of Mughar in northern Israel, Sunday Dec. 5, 2004. Photo: AP Barely did we have time to catch our breath after the release of Azzam Azzam from Egypt than we were jolted out of our euphoria by news of the deaths of five Beduin soldiers killed in the bombing of the Rafah outpost. Both cases involve non-Jewish...