Grant Kurds an Autonomous State in Southeast Turkey Guest Opinion for Syria Comment by Evin Cheikosman, a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Syrian-Kurd who plans to pursue graduate studies in Germany or Turkey. TO: Recep Tayipp Erdoğan, Prime Minister, Turkey Honorable Prime Minister Erdoğan, as you are aware, the long-standing [...]

The Spillover from the Syrian civil war will be much greater in Iraq than Lebanon. by Joshua Landis, Syria Comment, Oct 28, 2012 Many Western journalists are based in Lebanon, few in Iraq. This explains why relatively small events in Lebanon get dramatic reporting and much larger increases of violence in Iraq, are largely overlooked [...]

Aron Lund from Sweden writes: (See his excellent Syrian Jihadism) Dear Joshua, I saw your latest post on Aleppo. Big things going on, but the situation in Kurdish Ashrafiye may have been misreported. The PYD/PKK is insistent that it remains in control of Ashrafiye, with no FSA or government presence at all. They blame the [...]

Kurdish Children wave Kurdish flags in Syrian Kurdistan to be. PKK Advisor: PKK Wants to Liberate Parts of Turkey and Launch the Movement from There – 20/09/2012 Rudaw Interview with Muhammad Amin Penjweni,  a founding member of the Kurdish National Congress in Belgium and a member of the Presidency Council of the Kurdistan Parliament in [...]

An Iraq intelligence specialist, who cannot use his name, wrote to disagree with my analysis of  “Assad’s Kurdish Strategy,” published two days ago. He writes: Joshua, I was reading your post on Syrian Kurdistan and noted that you judged that the regional Shia will probably support Syrian Kurdish aspirations.  I think this will not be [...]