Free Republic

Turkey’s top Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas, one of the few names who proved he could challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s charisma, has decided to run in the June 24 presidential elections, seemingly undaunted by the bars of his prison cell.Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) announced Demirtas’ candidacy May 4. “Our candidate is Selahattin Demirtas, who is being held as a hostage in Edirne Prison,” HDP Co-chair Pervin Buldan was quoted by Hurriyet Daily news as saying in a statement. Turkey’s westernmost province of Edirne is the farthest point from the predominantly Kurdish southeast where Demirtas’ main constituency is located. Demirtas ran...

The parliament speaker of Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan declared resignation on Tuesday, protesting the deterioration of political and economic situation in the region and the use of force against anti-government demonstrations. "I officially announce my resignation from the post of Parliament Speaker, and will continue my work in the parliament within the opposition group," Speaker Yousif Mohammed from the Gorran Movement said at a press conference in the city of Sulaimaniyah in northeastern Iraq. Mohammed accused the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) of using force to suppress the demonstrations that erupted in the Kurdish region amid widespread anger over unpaid...

Tehran and Baghdad have reached an agreement on a plan to export oil from Kirkuk in northern Iraq to Iran... Until recently, all oil from the fields around Kirkuk was shipped to the Turkish port of Ceyhan via a pipeline owned and operated by the Kurdistan Regional Government. ...With the Kurdistan autonomous region heavily dependent on oil revenues, chances are the government will seek to come to a mutually beneficial agreement with the central government in Baghdad.

Since late 2015, Syrian president Asad and his government have leveraged military, financial, and diplomatic support from Russia and Iran to improve and consolidate the Syrian government’s position relative to the range of antigovernment insurgents arrayed against them. These insurgents include members of the Islamic State, Islamist and secular fighters, and Al Qaeda-linked networks in Syria. While Islamic State forces have lost territory to the Syrian government, to Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups and to U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters since early 2016, they remain capable and dangerous. The IS “capital” at the Syrian provincial capital of Raqqah has been...

It can be argued that Kurdistan’s regional government (KRG) was ill advised to hold a referendum last week on creating an independent state. It may be the case that Masoud Barzani, veteran leader of the Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, is a foolish dreamer whose desire to bequeath a personal legacy has trumped common sense. It is conceivable that, had Barzani backed down, the government in Baghdad would have abandoned decades of hostility to Kurdish aspirations and entered into good-faith negotiations. This is the Middle East, after all. Anything is possible.

BAGHDAD — The United States on Friday declared illegitimate Monday’s Kurdish referendum on independence, as the Iraqi government imposed a ban on international flights to airports operated by the Kurdistan Regional Government and Iraqi troops prepared to seize the semiautonomous region’s border controls. “The United States does not recognize the . . . unilateral referendum,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in Washington’s first substantive statement on the vote, in which nearly 93 percent of voters in the Kurdistan region approved declaring an autonomous state in northern Iraq. “The vote and the results lack legitimacy,” Tillerson said, “and we continue to support...

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton joined SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam and co-host Steve Bannon on Thursday’s Breitbart News Daily to talk about Kurdish independence and the future of Iraq. “The Kurds are one of the largest ethnic groups in the world that has never had a nation in contemporary times,” Bolton explained. “Just two days ago, they held a referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan and voted well over 90 percent for independence. I think the United States should support independence for the Kurds. They’ve been friends of ours in the struggle against Saddam Hussein and the struggle against international terrorism. I...

The Kurds, generally, are Sunni Muslims, but they are not ethnically Arabs. Indeed, many Kurds have a deep hatred for the Arabs. Several decades ago, the world create a special, protected, autonomous region for the Kurds in the north region of Iraq, after Saddam Hussein repeated attacked and tried to destroy the Kurds, including with the use of chemical weapons. Ultimately, many Kurds want to create an independent country of their own, uniting Kurds living in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. Yet each of those national governments strongly oppose the creation of an independent Kurdistan. What’s fascinating is that the...

RAQQA, Syria — Mazlum Kobane is the chief commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and, as such, the chief interlocutor of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS). The 45-year-old commander, widely known as Gen. Mazlum, is at the helm of the campaign to retake Raqqa, the self-styled capital of IS, which is in its final stages. Kobane, who displays an avid interest in politics beyond his military skills, has earned himself fame in Washington, where his name is frequently mentioned at various panels. Coalition officials who know Kobane are full of praise for the SDF commander, who...

Large numbers of people have taken part in a landmark vote on independence for Iraq's Kurdistan region, amid growing opposition both at home and abroad. Votes are still being counted, with a big "yes" victory expected. Kurds say it will give them a mandate to negotiate secession, but Iraq's PM denounced it as "unconstitutional". Neighbours Turkey and Iran, fearing separatist unrest in their own Kurdish minorities, threatened to close borders and impose sanctions on oil exports. The referendum passed off peacefully across the three provinces that make up the region, and turnout was estimated at about 72%, according to the...

Kurdish journalist Noreldin Waisy explains why Britain should recognise an independent Kurdistan in the upcoming referendum Relations between Kurdistan and Britain go back nearly a century. However, it is a tragic and sorrowful history. Kurds hold Great Britain, more than any other party, responsible for their inclusion in the state of Iraq. We hope that the United Kingdom will support us: that you will correct an old, hoary mistake, when the better judgement of men such as Churchill was circumvented through determined bureaucratic manoeuvre.

Ezed Mihemed Ehmed is a Kurdish youth from Raqqa. He was 15 years-old when his family fled Raqqa after ISIS invasion. At that time he wanted to join the YPG ranks but was refused because of his young age. His family sent him to Turkey because they thought the conditions were better than Syria. After only 5 months Ehmed returned to his country. As soon as he turned 18 he joined the YPG and now all he wants is to return to the city where he was born and raised. “Real heaven for a person is the land where he...

A Belgian appeals court on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling tossing out an 11-year old complaint against a number of Kurdish politicians because of their alleged ties to the Kurdish Workers Party, the PKK. The 2006 complaint, filed at the behest of the Turkish government, sought to jail 36 Kurdish politicians, many of them living as political exiles in Belgium, under Belgium’s counter-terrorism laws. A lower court tossed out the case last November, but the Belgian state prosecutor lodged an appeal following vigorous protests from the Turkish government, which leaks bullets whenever someone mentions Kurds. The court found that...

Turkish government has arrested Mahmut Kahraman, a 47-year-old Kurdish bus driver, for wearing a T-shirt with the inscription ‘Kurdistan’.  Kahraman was accused by a Turkish court in Doğubayazıt district of Ağrı province of ‘propagating for a terrorist organisation.’It was reported that Kahraman was stopped by Turkish police as he passed by the municipality of Ağrı’s Doğubayazıt district because he was wearing a T-shirt with the inscription ‘Kurdistan’. Anti-terror police units were dispatched to the scene afterwards and detained Kahraman.Following three days in detention, Kahraman was referred to a local court with a demand for his arrest, and he was jailed...

WKI: Could you tell us about the status of Kurds in Iran?Arash Saleh: Let’s briefly view some information about Kurds. The majority of Kurds are residing in four western provinces of Iran. Sanandaj, Kermanshah, West Azerbaijan, and Ilam are the main Kurdish populated provinces in Western Iran. Kurds are 12% of Iranian population. Sometimes 14% have been mentioned which tells us that Kurds in Iran could be more than ten million. There are about two million Kurds in other places of Iran, Eastern Iran, Northeastern Iran and Northern Iran. So there have been Kurds that have historically immigrated.They still are...

YPG Commander Sipan Hemo said: “We don’t accept the Turkish state’s presence or invasion in this region in any form. I want to stress that we don’t recognize their alliances either. Our goal and struggle to liberate the Azaz-Jarablus area will continue.” YPG Commander Sipan Hemo spoke to the Yeni Özgür Politika newspaper and, stating that the Turkish state’s presence in Rojava/Northern Syria is illegitimate and to the disadvantage of the peoples therein, said: “They are invaders in every way. Nobody can turn away from this reality. The fact that their goal is to defeat the Rojava Revolution does not...

The Board of Europa Nostra deeply deplores the decision of the Turkish government to build a dam that would lead to the flooding of a site of world significance, without proper and transparent justification and without adequate compensation measures. The Board of Europa Nostra, the leading heritage organisation in Europe, made a statement about the Ancient city of Hasankeyf and its surroundings in Turkey, listed among the 7 Most Endangered heritage sites in Europe in 2016, following a nomination by the Cultural Awareness Foundation. In their statement, the Board of Europa Nostra deeply deplores the decision of the Turkish government...

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) prepare to launch a major operation aimed at liberating Raqqa city from ISIS militants. The key operation will start in a few days, the official spokesman of the Kurdish Peope’s Protection Units (YPG) said on Saturday. The YPG is a leading force within the US-backed SDF. ...After the fall of Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor province in eastern Syria will be ISIS’s last major foothold in Syria and Iraq.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said he hopes the United States will reverse its decision to arm Syrian Kurdish fighters who are perceived as terrorists by Ankara. Erdogan said the "fight against terrorism should not be lead with another terror organization" and that "we want to know that our allies will side with us and not with terror organizations." Erdogan's plea came the same day U.S.-backed Syrian Kurd forces said they've taken Syria's largest dam and a nearby town from ISIS. The U.S. announced Tuesday it would arm Syrian Kurdish fighters in a bid to recapture the ISIS...

Turkey's President Erdogan meets with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow, 4 May 2017. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said Russia’s Vladimir Putin did not look favourably on a Kurdish state in Syria.Responding to questions on his return flight following a meeting with Putin in Moscow, Erdogan said he had told the president of his displeasure at photos of Russian soldiers alongside Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters in northwestern Syria’s Afrin canton.Erdogan claimed that Putin had told him Russian soldiers “cannot be involved in something like this, I will look into the matter.”The Turkish president also added that Putin...