Mehmet Aytunç Altay was finally released last month after being arrested in Istanbul for his political activity in 1993. The world around has changed, even if his convictions stand firm.
Tag: kurdish
Turkey heads to the polls in May, with a newly formed opposition bloc hoping to dislodge President Tayyip Recep Erdogan. Despite some party infighting, many remain hopeful they can bring an end to Erdogan’s 20 years in power. But first, clarity from within a complicated coalition is needed.
Six years ago, when ISIS attacked Kobanî, in Syria, the Kurds put up a heroic resistance, as the Ukrainians are doing now. But the city was only saved because the West supported the Kurdish fighters – support that is not forthcoming for Ukraine today.
The U.S. president’s abrupt decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria was short-lived. But backpedal as he might, the damage is already done.
DAMASCUS — It is across an immense desert, between oil fields and Mesopotamian archeological sites overlooking the Euphrates, where Syria’s future may be decided. The question, as Damascus makes more and more ground against ISIS and jihadists fighters, is the following: After seven years of a devastating war will the nation remain united? Or will […]
-Analysis- Is there ever a good time to hold an independence referendum? Of course the answer to that question, from Kurdistan to Catalonia, depends on whom you ask. For those looking to declare a new nation based on ethnic, economic or political claims, there’s no time like the present to take destiny into your own […]
-Analysis- For the past 36 hours, Washington has been consumed by a pair of scandals that even eternally moderate commentators now say has spread the whiff of possible doom around the Trump presidency. On Monday it was the Washington Post that revealed that Donald Trump had divulged classified counter-terrorism information last week to Russia, potentially […]
Language, Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “is the blood of the soul.” When there is more than one language on the same land, it can also becomes a prime source of conflict. On Sunday, an Israeli government cabinet committee approved the wording of a nation-state bill that, among other things, would downgrade the status of Arabic, […]
-Analysis- PARIS — Could the trap of the Syrian crisis break up NATO? This question, which carries potentially grave implications for the security of the West, might sound overblown. After all, NATO’s unfailing cohesion eventually brought down one of the most formidable war machines of all time, the Soviet Union. Still, the spreading corrosive capacities […]
Northeastern Syria’s autonomous Kurdish leadership has informed schools in the area that they must teach core subjects in Kurdish. While proud to embrace their ethnic heritage, some worry that the change could create new conflicts.
The Kurdish victory over ISIS in the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad has brought out the worst instincts from Turkey’s leaders.
Kurdish commanders have broken earlier pledges to stop the forced recruitment of children, saying it is necessary to protect individual homes.
Recent beheadings highlight an ongoing exodus of Christians from territories targeted by ISIS. Some have taken refuge in Lebanon.
ISTANBUL — A one-page document. That’s it. All right, let’s include the appendix — that makes a total of two and a half pages. And with a big font too. I am talking about the Draft Law for Ending Terrorism and Increasing Social Unity, which the government recently presented to Parliament. Five articles in total, […]
ISTANBUL — Racism and discrimination have become a constant in Turkey’s top soccer league. The latest reminder are tweets from Umit Cinarli’s, a leading referee from the Turkish Football Federation (TFF), on the second anniversary of the Uludere Massacre where Turkish fighter jet bombs killed 34 Kurdish smugglers: “Happy second anniversary of the Uludere incident. […]
ISTANBUL – Turkey has finally passed a hotly-debated law that will allow Kurdish criminal defendants to speak their mother tongue in court. The drama leading up to Thursday’s vote is a reminder of how complicated — and charged — the broader “Kurdish Question” continues to be in Turkey. The final round of debate on pitting […]
The killing of three Kurdish activists in Paris shines new light on a longstanding fact of a millions of people spread across large swaths of terrritory, but with no nation of their own.