It is very unfortunate and worrying for Turkey and Turkish politics to observe a mass physical attack against Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), in Çubuk district of Ankara during the funeral of a soldier who was martyred by the PKK on April 19. The footage of the attack reveals that Kılıçdaroğlu nearly escaped lynch by a nationalist group obviously in a rage. 

The mass media has been widely covering the details of the disastrous humanitarian situation in Rukban refugee camp over recent months.

The Kurds’ rapid rise in Syria has been remarkable by any standard. With the U.S. military now pulling back, can their experiment in autonomy last?

Two weeks after they voted, Turks are still waiting to know whom the Supreme Electoral Council will declare to be the mayor of Istanbul. Not a day passes without the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) finding a reason to discredit the provisional result, which favors the opposition by a narrow margin. Some days the council orders a recount in a certain district; other days it dismisses the objection.

The Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council issued an official order to the Erbil Appeals Court on April 8 to implement an arrest warrant for the former governor of Ninevah province, Nawfal al-Akoub. A conflict over the post of governor ensued in the city of Mosul, which is at the heart of Ninevah province.

The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) of Turkey — which has a predominantly Kurdish base and has suffered heavy government oppression since 2015 — played a decisive role in the government’s loss of the big cities, including the crucial Istanbul, in the March 31 local elections. As part of its political strategy in the country’s west, the HDP sat out the mayoral races in big cities such as Istanbul, Izmir, Adana and the capital city of Ankara. Paradoxically, the HDP absence from the ballots became the party’s way of proving its political presence and weight.

The interview had ended. But as Al-Monitor prepared to leave his office, the interviewee waited until it was clear the digital recorder was turned off to say: “If (President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan loses in these elections, Turkey will have a hard time.”

A researcher working at Carnegie Foundation believes the threat of the Islamic State is jeopardizing Syria, including the Kurds at a time that neither the opposition nor the central government in Damascus is not ready to accept Kurdish demands at a time that the US pullout issue has complicated the situation in the war-torn Syria.

The commander of the Kurdish forces of Women Protection Units (YPJ) stated that women played a critical role in fight against the Islamic State (IS) in the past years.

During his election campaign appearances, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated one sentiment over and over again: An AKP loss in big cities would cause chaos in Turkey. Now that the local elections are over, there seems to be more to it than that: The political survival of the president could be at stake, because these elections were one of the biggest defeats Erdogan has yet suffered.

On the rooftop of a building in the city of Afrin in northwestern Syria, Keilistan Afrini celebrated Nowruz in protest against a decision by Syrian armed opposition factions to ban celebrations of the Kurdish New Year that falls on or around March 21 every year.

Kurdish politicians have called on prisoners to stop taking their own lives after a spate of suicides and an ongoing hunger strike while the Turkish government refuses to meet their demands.

The co-Leader of the Syria Kurdistan Democratic Communities, Ayshe Afandi, stated that the festival of Newruz is the celebration of freedom.

Syrian Kurdish officials say they remain opposed to any US plans for a safe zone that would foresee the further injection of Turkish forces and their rebel opposition Free Syrian Army allies in territories currently under their control along the Turkish border, saying any such arrangement would escalate tensions and add to instability. “A safe zone that allows for Turkish troops to come into our areas is completely unacceptable. The US goal should be to prevent Turkish aggression against us as we have no aggressive intentions towards Turkey,” a senior official in the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) told Al-Monitor in a telephone interview.

Max Abrahms, an assistant professor of political science and public policy at Northeastern University, told Kurdpress in an interview about the future of the alliance between the US and the Syrian Kurdish forces that there is a sentiment in White House to continue working with the Kurds in Syria even though the original strategic rationale has changed. Strong U.S.-Kurdish ties are also seen as important for keeping IS down.