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Today marks a somber milestone: the tenth anniversary of the Yezidi Genocide. It remains a dark chapter in human history, that unfolded on August 3, 2014, when ISIS launched a merciless assault on the peaceful Yezidi Kurds of Şengal, Southern Kurdistan (Sinjar, Iraq). On this solemn occasion, we at the Kurdish Center for Studies come […]

In November 1922, Ismet Pasha Inonu led the Grand National Assembly of Turkey delegation to the Lausanne Conference. The trip included an elite group of politicians, including Reza Nur, an Ottoman physician and minister in Ankara’s government at the time. The country was ruled by two capitals, Ankara, led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha (later named […]

With coverage of the Jin, Jiyan, Azadî (Women, Life, Freedom) Revolution and Jîna Amini’s murder fading from the Western press, many have forgotten that the Iranian regime continues to kidnap and execute women who defy its theocratic dictates. The following case is our latest tragic reminder. Pakhshan Azizi is a Kurdish social worker from Mahabad […]

On the 12th anniversary of the Rojava Revolution, Kurds and their supporters held the 2nd annual Rojava Street Festival in Vienna. For two days, Kurds and their friends took to the streets of Austria’s capital city. The first day of the festival was held outside the Kurdish Democratic Society Center of Vienna, stretching over two […]

July 19, 2024, marks the twelfth anniversary of the Rojava Revolution. Two years ago, on the tenth anniversary, I was asked by Hawar News Agency to give my thoughts on the occasion and what it signified for the world, based on my trips to the region. My time in Rojava (north and east Syria) witnessed […]

A Greek film-maker’s detention at the UK border under a controversial and little-known anti-terror power has raised concerns about both the increasing targeting of Left-wing journalists by UK police and the continued persecution and harassment of activists, volunteers, and community figures in and around the Kurdish political movement. Both groups face distinct but related challenges, […]

Statelet of Survivors: The Making of a Semi-Autonomous Region in Northeast Syria, a new book-length look at the establishment, evolution, and achievements of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) by academic Dr. Amy Austin Holmes, takes up two important challenges. First, Holmes’ observations based on hundreds of interviews conducted throughout North and […]

One cannot separate sports from politics. Though we like to believe football games are neutral apolitical spectacles, they are intertwined within a larger socio-political context that is inescapable (as all Kurdish fans of Amedspor are well aware). This past week, that notion was on full display, igniting a wider debate about the line between where […]

Burning down forests so you can build castles upon the ashes sounds like an ancient moral parable about the pitfalls of rapaciousness, not a modern occupation strategy by the second largest military in NATO. The recent massive wildfires that ravaged Northern Kurdistan / Bakur (southeast Turkey) between Amed and Mêrdîn killed 15 people and left […]

We are now living in a world where ethnic cleansing and war crimes have become the order of the day, where human rights and international law no longer matter, and where the so-called “global order” turns a blind eye towards injustices committed by powerful nations when it suits their geopolitical interests. In a series of […]

The defiant city of Şirnex (Şırnak) in occupied Northern Kurdistan (southeast Turkey) has always been a thorn in the side of the Turkish Republic and their desire to assimilate the Kurdish people. Figuratively, if Dersim (Tunceli) is the ‘brain’, and Amed (Diyarbakır) is the ‘body’, then Şirnex would be the ‘heart’ of Bakur. Taking its […]

On April 23rd, 2024, around 200 armed Belgian federal police officers amassed at 1 a.m. in the town of Denderleeuw, in East Flanders (Belgium). Anyone observing this massive show of force and the militarized posture of the small army that was preparing for a nighttime siege, would have assumed they were about to storm an […]

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recently released their 2024 Annual Report on May 1st, underscoring that the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), supported by its Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), continues “to highlight religious freedom as a governing principle.” This is in stark contrast to religious freedom conditions in […]

On April 24, 2024, the University of Rojava (founded in 2016) held its fourth Freedom Annual Lecture Series. The lecture, featuring the distinguished Kurdish historian Professor Hamit Bozarslan, Director of the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, France, was entitled: “Reflections on Anti-Democracy and War in the 21st Century.” With regards […]

With oppressive military occupations, state accusations serve as confessions. Since 1984, Kurdish guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have been fighting an asymmetric resistance war against the Turkish military. Consequently, anyone who has ever read or watched Turkish state media (which at this point is the only press allowed to freely operate in the […]

Turkey has shifted its foreign policy focus to Iraq, following rumors that the US-led Coalition forces may soon withdraw. Looking to fill the potential void, Turkey is ready to adopt a new approach to Iraq based on broadening the fields of trade and security-based economic projects and codifying their military occupation of the Kurdistan Region […]

I. Background Since 2011, cultural heritage in Syria has been under constant threat. Even though the civil war has raged on for more than a decade, there is still no end in sight. The involvement of various foreign actors has further complicated the country’s ongoing division between several rival factions. With around 5.2 million Syrians […]

At just 15 years-old, Shamima Begum left her home in London with two friends to travel to the Islamic State (IS). They would be smuggled through Turkey by a Canadian spy, where the three girls would be married off to foreign fighters. Two are presumed dead, and the survivor, Shamima Begum, ended up in a […]

On February 16, 2024, The Kurdish Center for Studies (KCS) organized a seminar on US policy towards the Middle East following the events of Oct. 7th and the war in Gaza, moderated by KSC fellow Shoresh Darwish. David Schenker, the Taube Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute and former US Assistant Secretary of State for […]

In two conferences in Amsterdam and Brussels, members of the Yazidi community tried to heal wounds and look at the future, finding strength in coming together. The genocide against the Yazidis, carried out by ISIS, happened ten years ago, in August of this year. Or, better phrased: it began ten years ago, but the violence […]

On January 30th, Arazw Abdullah (known as Beritan Ranya) and Mark Campbell were found guilty of a terrorism offence at London’s Westminster Magistrate’s Court. They were in court for displaying a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) flag. The PKK has been an illegal proscribed organisation in the UK since 2001. However, supporters point out that the […]

The war in Gaza has increased tensions between Iranian-backed proxies and the US military, with Iran-backed groups carrying out over 160 attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria since October. Iraqi PM Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani has repeatedly called for a timetable for US forces to leave Iraq and chaired a joint Higher Military Commission […]

A handful of historical reference points are commonly deployed to contextualise the Kurdish freedom movement for unfamiliar audiences. The jailed Kurdish figurehead Abdullah Öcalan is represented by his supporters as the ‘Mandela of the Middle East’ – while his detractors opt for less generous comparisons. Meanwhile, the Kurdish-led polity established around the Syrian Kurdish region […]

“The homogenic national society is the most artificial society to have ever been created and is the result of the social engineering project.” — Abdullah Öcalan[1] One of the defining characteristics of contemporary humanity is undoubtedly that of homogeneity. It is a phenomenon with global proportions that has affected, in varying degrees, almost all corners […]

Erdoğan’s regime in Turkey has continued its reign of terror on the Kurdish region of Rojava, which is governed by the DAANES (Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria). Ankara’s litany of weekly war crimes for the past several months involves ceaseless bombardments, airstrikes, and drone attacks across a wide range of civilian sites. […]

KCS conducted an exclusive interview with Semira Hac Eli, the co-chair of the Ministry of Education for the DAANES (Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria) – commonly referred to as Rojava. In the interview, she discussed the impact of the latest bombardments by the Turkish state, which began in October, their ongoing targeting […]

Is it possible to shame a state who proudly celebrates their lack of moral conscience? The answer is being sought currently, as on Tuesday, the Erdoğan regime in Turkey commenced their illegitimate show trial of Selahattin Demirtaş, the former co-chair of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP). To his credit, Demirtaş mounted a powerful defense in […]

On December 27th, 2023, The Kurdish Center for Studies (KCS) organized a discussion about the continued attacks of the Turkish state against Rojava. The program was conducted by KCS official Nawaf Khalil, and featured the co-chairman of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) Salih Muslim, who evaluated the repeated Turkish assaults on civilian infrastructure and the reason […]

The world is trapped in a vicious cycle of crisis. In other words, as Barry Gills and Hamed Hosseini claim, “we are living through a great implosion.” The environment is decaying, poverty is widening, inequality is growing, and war is spreading. The recent data from The Armed Conflict Survey indicates the growing number of armed […]

The death of the Kurdish woman Jina Amini in September 2022 sparked an inferno of protests throughout Iran, under the banner of “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi.” This Kurdish language slogan, which translates to “Women, Life, Freedom,” soon showed up on banners carried throughout the cities of Eastern Kurdistan (northwest Iran), and quickly became the official slogan […]