On January 26, Kurdish locals in northern Iraq's Dohuk province began to peacefully protest the presence of a Turkish military base in the village of Sirye. Over the previous year, Ankara had killed dozens of locals in regularly bombings on the nearby mountain headquarters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has fought an armed insurgency in Turkey for decades.

President Donald Trump’s announcement at the end of 2018 that he would withdraw U.S. troops from Syria came as a surprise to all parties involved, sparking particular concern among America’s Syrian Kurdish allies. The move followed President Trump’s declaration of victory over ISIS after a four-year military campaign fighting alongside Syrian Kurdish forces. This sudden and unexpected decision has been widely criticized not only by allies but also those inside the White House, with many analysts arguing that the U.S. withdrawal will expose the Syrian Kurds to an attack by Turkey.

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar in Ankara today ahead of a trilateral summit on Syria in Russia’s Sochi between the presidents of Turkey, Russia and Iran due to be held Feb. 14.

Undergraduate and graduate enrollment has increased spectacularly at Turkey's universities in recent years. And while the infrastructure has kept pace, the same can't be said of the quality of education.

“The story of the fall in Kurdish carpets is a sad one but nothing new,” said Lolan Sipan, the director of the Textile Museum in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. The decline in textile production is uniquely tied to Kurdish history and conflict. It also highlights the irony that while the Iraqi Kurds have greater sovereignty now than ever before in modern history, they are also simultaneously experiencing cultural decline. Today, only a few weavers remain and there is a risk that their knowledge will not be passed on to the next generation.

Masoud Abdul Khaleq, the Head of Standard Kurds Media Research Studies warned Kurds not to take any side in the regional tensions in the case of any attack on the regional states as such a move would backfire.

As Turkey and the Syrian Kurds lobby the Donald Trump administration on rival visions of a safe zone in northern Syria, a new proposal to deploy 10,000 Arab and Kurdish fighters to man it has prompted fresh speculation that a deal may be on the table.

A US-backed Kurdish group fighting to stop the US withdrawal from Syria has scored an unlikely invite to tonight’s State of the Union address from a congresswoman well known for her stance against American interventionism.

The developments have been fast evolving in the autonomous administration areas in northern and eastern Syria since US President Donald Trump’s announcement Dec. 19, 2018, of the withdrawal of US troops from Syria. A few days earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to invade the areas east of the Euphrates River, which forced the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) and the Syrian regime to revitalize a dialogue process that had been halted since late last year. Simultaneously, the Kurdish leaders spoke of resumed contacts with Russia to fill the void caused by the withdrawal of US troops.

Reeling from President Donald Trump’s decision to pull US troops out of Syria, the political wing of the Pentagon-backed Kurdish group that has spent the past four years fighting the Islamic State started the public portion of their 13-day tour of Washington with a bang on Monday, greeting the commander in chief at Trump International Hotel.

President Donald Trump’s announcement at the end of 2018 that he would withdraw U.S. troops from Syria came as a surprise to all parties involved, sparking particular concern among America’s Syrian Kurdish allies. The move followed President Trump’s declaration of victory over ISIS after a four-year military campaign fighting alongside Syrian Kurdish forces. This sudden and unexpected decision has been widely criticized not only by allies but also those inside the White House, with many analysts arguing that the U.S. withdrawal will expose the Syrian Kurds to an attack by Turkey.

The Donald Trump administration has asked European allies to participate in a safe zone to protect the US-backed Syrian Kurds, the Wall Street Journal reports.

In the wake of the death of yet another group of Kurdish civilians in a Jan. 23 attack by Turkish jets and the unprecedented violence that engulfed the occupying Turkish soldiers based in the area, anger is simmering among many Iraqi Kurds living in these highlands toward both the Turkish government and the militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) as well as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi state for failing to protect them.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his pledge to launch a military offensive in northern Syria, saying on Monday that his military aims to create a safe zone in the area so that the 4 million or so Syrian refugees sheltering in Turkey can return home.

Kurdish political parties in northern Iraq are taking big strides in hammering out their differences in order to form a new regional government, pledging to bring stability and prosperity to the people of this semi-autonomous region.