The Struggle for Syrian Kurdistan - Al-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Week in Review

Week in Review

Jul 21, 2013

A Free Syrian Army member inspects his weapon beside a checkpoint to siege the Kurdish city of Afrin, which is under the control of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), in the Aleppo countryside June 30, 2013. REUTERS/Hamid Khatib (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT) - RTX117H8 — A Free Syrian Army member inspects his weapon beside a checkpoint to siege the Kurdish city of Afrin, which is under the control of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), in the Aleppo countryside June 30, 2013. — REUTERS/Hamid Khatib

Turkey’s Troubles in Syrian Kurdistan

The leading Syrian Kurdish group, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is close to the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) of Turkey, has proposed an autonomy plan for governance in the Kurdish held areas of Syria, reports Wladimir van Wilgenburg for Al-Monitor.

People buy potatoes from a street vendor on the first day of Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, at the Karaj Al-Hajez crossing, a passageway separating Aleppo's Bustan al-Qasr, which is under the rebels' control and Al-Masharqa neighborhood, an area controlled by the regime, July 10, 2013. REUTERS/Muzaffar Salman (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST RELIGION) - RTX11J4H

Aleppo Starves Under Siege

Edward Dark

Iraqi men walk past posters advertising a pornographic film at a cinema
in Baghdad, April 30, 2003. Pornography and prostitution was officially
banned under the regime of Saddam Hussein until his ousting from power
by U.S.-led forces two weeks ago.

REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra - RTRMOD7

Iraq’s Sex Trade Thrives

Wassim Bassem

Wassim Bassem

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu addresses the media in Ankara June 13, 2013. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX10M6J

Ankara Warns Against Kurdish Autonomy in Syria

Tulin Daloglu

Tulin Daloglu

An officer of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) stands guard near the Syrian-Iraq border October 31, 2012. Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani warned Kurds in Syria against being sucked into the "fires of discord," urging them to preserve Kurdish unity as tensions between rival factions threaten to spillover into violence. Syria's Kurds see the war ravaging their country as an unprecedented opportunity to gain the kind of freedoms enjoyed by their ethnic kin in neighbouring Iraq, where they

Turkey targets US-backed Syrian Kurdish peace talks

Amberin Zaman

Amberin Zaman

In London, reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture