PKK

At its twelfth congress, held from May 5 to 7, 2025, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) explained the reasons that led it to disband and end its armed struggle. In the final statement of the congress, the PKK reflected on the previous phase that drove Kurds in Turkey to adopt armed resistance and confront the […]

On the night of Sunday, March 16, 2025, Turkish army forces committed a massacre in the village of Barukh Butan in the Kobanê region by bombing the house of a Kurdish family. The bombing resulted in the deaths of nine family members, most of whom were children. This atrocity fits into a seemingly consistent policy […]

The concept of the nation-state has not succeeded in Atatürk’s Turkey, Pahlavi’s Iran, the Baathist republics in Syria and Iraq, nor has the Islamic Republic of Iran managed to solve the issue of nationalities while maintaining the dominance of Persian nationalism within its regime. From these five experiences, confrontational rifts emerged among the four major […]

This year marks the 26th anniversary of the capture of Abdullah Öcalan, the founder of the PKK, in Kenya. Since February 15, 1999, the Kurdish leader has been detained in the maximum-security prison island of İmralı. Twenty-six years later, Öcalan continues to play an important role in solving the Kurdish issue, as evidenced by the […]

In conjunction with developments in the Syrian and regional context following Bashar al-Assad’s escape and the fall of his regime in Damascus, attention is now focused on the changing Kurdish political scene in Turkey, particularly in light of recent statements and actions from political leaders. Despite differing circumstances, the implications of the Turkish government’s potential […]

The Turkish state has begun launching comprehensive and targeted attacks on the infrastructure in Northern and Eastern Syria, destroying dozens of electricity and water stations, grain silos, hospitals, police headquarters, and civilian facilities belonging to the Autonomous Administration. In addition to causing infrastructural destruction, these attacks have resulted in the deaths and injuries of dozens […]

The scorched earth policy is a military tactic that involves the deliberate destruction of resources that could be beneficial to enemy forces during either an advance or a retreat. This strategy encompasses the demolition of agricultural crops, infrastructure, transportation networks, and other assets that might aid the opposing side. This strategy often results in significant […]

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 […]

In the shadows of the global media, the Kurdish freedom struggle continues. Muted by mainstream narratives that favour more palatable resistance movements, the extremity of Turkish violence goes on without condemnation from world leaders. While the steadfast and unwavering resilience of the Kurdish people is undeniable, it may not be enough against NATO’s second-largest army. […]

[names in this article have been changed to protect their identities] “Biji Kurdistan, Biji Kurdistan, Biji Kurdistan!” “şehîd namirin, şehîd namirin, şehîd namirin!” Somehow I had gotten sidetracked from my post-Uni holiday and found myself in the middle of a crowd of PKK members rushing an ambulance carrying their martyred friend back from the mountains. […]

A report recently released by the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) revealed that 120, 000 Yazidis (Êzidî) have fled the country since the genocidal campaign by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) perpetrated against the Yazidi enclave of Mount Shingal in August 2014. Many have chosen relocation in countries such as Germany, Sweden, […]

Historical Significance Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14th are historic. They come 100 years after Kurdish leaders were betrayed after they supported Kemal Ataturk to establish the nation state of Turkey because they trusted he would fulfil his promise of giving Kurds’ autonomy in the newly created nation. General Ihsan Nuri Pasha was […]

[Excerpt from the 1966 film The Battle of Algiers] Reporter: “Mr. Ben M’hidi, isn’t it a filthy thing to use women’s baskets to carry explosives for killing people?” Larbi Ben M’hidi: “Doesn’t it seem even filthier to drop napalm bombs on defenseless villages, wreaking even greater havoc? It would be better if we, too, had […]

On December 28, 2011, the Dutch journalist Fréderike Geerdink was in Istanbul when the Turkish army massacred members of a Kurdish convoy transporting goods between Turkey and Iraq. Witness reports revealed during the investigation that it occurred with the knowledge of the authorities. The government of northern Kurdistan made sure that people remained absorbed in […]

Dear Znar, How are you? did you sleep last night in yet another bed in the house of friends who gave you a temporary place to hide? How long does it take the European Court of Human Rights to decide whether Sweden can put you on a plane to Turkey? I hope and pray that […]

Since the far-right government, Justice and Development Party (AKP), and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Coalition has tightened its grip on the reins of the Turkish state following the failed coup, two colonial projects have clearly dominated foreign policy. First, the “Misak-ı Millî (National Oath)” document signed in 1920, which sought a partnership with the Kurds […]

“I don’t like having to shoot my gun. I wish there was another way to stop Turkey’s inhumanity, but there isn’t. We shoot to live. They shoot to kill.”  — A PKK guerrilla woman I interviewed in 2014 To paraphrase Arundhati Roy and Stokely Carmichael’s observations on the issue, non-violence is a piece of theatre […]