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What is missing in President Barzani’s rhetoric for a Kurdish state-building enterprise?

By Yoosef Abbaszadeh The question before Masoud Barzani is what to do in order to turn state-building rhetoric into a future Kurdish state. The employment and distribution of wealth relies considerably on the loyalty that individuals and clans show to a certain political party. The preponderant nepotism stemming from the …

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The Hundredth years of Sykes-Picot and Kurds

  Dr. Necat Keskin  15th of May is celebrated as ‘Kurdish Language Day’ among Kurdish people in Turkey (North Kurdistan) since 2006 and also in the ‘North-affiliated’ Rojava. The day refers to the publishing of the Hawar journal in the Latin alphabet by the Kurdish linguist Celadet Bedirkhan in 1932. While that …

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Bookchin: Living legacy of an American revolutionary

  Interview by Federico Venturini low you will find an interview with Debbie Bookchin, daughter of the late Murray Bookchin, who passed away in 2006. Bookchin spent his life in revolutionary leftist circles, joining a communist youth organization at the age of nine and becoming a Trotskyist in his late …

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Can the Kurdish question be settled by killing people in Sur?

By Nurcan Baysal “Allow us, let us take these people out alive. The state will lose nothing if a civilian group is involved.” Part of Diyarbakir’s old city walls. Wikicommons/ Bertil Videt. Some rights reserved.We are in Surici district with Lale Mansur, Zeynep Tanbay, Ferhat Tunc, Aysegul Devecioglu, Bahri Belen …

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Declaration of the Conference of European Left Parties in Amed released

  The final declaration of the European Left Parties Solidarity Conference With Kurdish People in Amed has been released. The conference in the main Kurdish city Amed on 20 February was organised by HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party), DTK (Democratic Society Congress), DBP (Party of Democratic Regions) and KJA (Free Women’s …

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Blockade in Kurdish region in worse than Gaza

  by Ergun Babahan This article was originally published in Turkish on Özgür Düşünce with the title ‘Basement of shame’ and was translated to English by Kurdish Question. For many days now, 26 people, covered in blood and in need of water, have been awaiting an ambulance in a basement in the Kurdish …

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Behind Turkey’s war on the Kurds

  By Tony Iltis Turkey is rapidly descending into civil war as the government deepens its offensive against the Kurdish population. Turkey is rapidly descending into civil war as the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan deepens its offensive against the Kurdish population, left-wing opposition parties, journalists and academics. The …

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Sur: urban renewal in the Southeast Anatolian war zone

Defne Kadıoğlu Polat While the Turkish government claims that all original residents will be able to return to Sur, it is likely that, similar to what happened in New Orleans, many of those who have fled will not come back. The Turkish military operation against the PKK in Southeast Anatolia …

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From survival to diaspora: the Yazidis in North Kurdistan

  By Borja G. Moya* A prefabricated building hosts the school of the Yazidi refugee camp, located 20 kilometers outside Amed, the capital of North Kurdistan (Turkey). On a wall, drawings and words written by girls and boys in Arabic script can be seen: even if Sinjar’s Yazidis speak Kurmanji …

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Kurds resist state-imposed curfews in Turkey

      By Joris Leverink Since August, 52 curfews have been declared by the Turkish state in Kurdish towns and neighborhoods. Despite the repression, the resistance is thriving. The scenes of destruction in the Kurdish towns and neighborhoods placed under curfew by the Turkish authorities do not just resemble a war …

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Turkey threatens ‘whatever necessary’ to combat Kurdish autonomy ‘mindset’ in Syria

Alarmed by Kurdish territorial gains, Turkey fears that the latest creation of autonomous Tel Abyad canton could stir separatism among its own Kurdish minority. Threatening continued assaults on the Kurdish militia in Syria, the Turkish president has warned he will not request anyone’s permission to do whatever is necessary to …

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Welsh needs more speakers

        Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society) is a group of people who campaign for the Welsh language and communities in Wales. The society believes that the campaign for Welsh is part of a wider world-wide struggle for minority rights and freedoms. Recently, the Cymdeithas published …

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The Kurdish Storytellers

        Photo: In the Dengbêj House of Diyarbakir (by D. Bettoni) Dimitri Bettoni The Dengbêj represent the collective memory of the Kurdish people, having resisted the Turkish government attempts to assimilate them. A tradition that goes back many centuries, words that reverberate against the mountain walls and …

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140 communes formed in Cizre as part of building of self-rule

        In Cizre district of Şırnak, which was sort of devastated by Turkish state forces during the nine-day curfew between 4-12 September, which left 21 civilians dead, people haven’t given up on the idea of self-rule, the declaration of which was responded by the state with brutal …

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Targeting Democracy: An Armenian Account of Kurdish Ambitions

          Photo: PYD Congress Day by day, Turkey’s onslaught against the Kurds is intensifying. Just last month, Ankara launched over 500 air strikes against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), while targeting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) only 3 times. By now, even senior U.S. …

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Kurdistan, a small region with big problems

        The Iraqi Kurdistan dilemma: President Barzani’s term has ended, “Islamic State” jihadists are at the region’s doorstep; Turkey and the PKK are at war. Simple solutions are not in sight. If the number of migrants in the Autonomous Region Kurdistan in northern Iraq is any measure, …

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In bid to foster Iranian nationalism, Tehran launches first-ever Kurdish language program

        On his visit late last month to Sanandaj, the capital of Iran’s Kurdistan province, President Hassan Rouhani made an important announcement. For the first time, Kurdish language studies will officially be offered to university students. With the opening of a Kurdish Language and Literature program at the University of Kurdistan, Article …

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For Kurdish youth in Turkey, autonomy is no longer enough

    Diyarbakir’s Kurdish community has a long tradition of resistance. Many in the younger generation grew up with images of dead relatives – martyrs from the PKK-Turkey war of the nineties.   By Dominique Soguel DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY — In her flowing dress, leather sandals, and sunglasses, Ozgur Yesha, whose name …

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Murray Bookchin and the Kurdish resistance

Bookchin’s municipalist ideas, once rejected by communists and anarchists alike, have now come to inspire the Kurdish quest for democratic autonomy   Boris Leverink The introduction to the new book The Next Revolution: Popular Assemblies and the Promise of Direct Democracy (Verso, 2015), explains how Murray Bookchin – born to Russian Jewish immigrants …

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Water: source of life and conflict in the Land of Rivers

      By Joris Leverink On August 1, 2015   For years, the Turkish central government, led by the former prime minister and current president Erdogan, has claimed that there is no such thing as a “Kurdish problem”, denying the fact that the country’s Kurdish population has been discriminated against on the …

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Turkey of refugees, among the Yazidis in Diyarbakır

        In Diyarbakır, southeastern Turkey, there are at least 20,000 refugees, including many Yazidis, who dream of reaching Europe.  Dimitri Bettoni | Diyarbakır 24 July 2015 Refugees’ camp – Anna Pazos In Diyarbakır, euphoria for the electoral results [of the parliamentary elections of June 7th, ed.] is …

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