Southern Kurdistan

The grim reality of journalists working in Turkey is now well-known. The country is one of the world’s most notorious jailers of journalists, taking the top spot as the country with the highest number of imprisoned journalists in 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Only in 2023 did Turkey drop below the 5th place spot, […]

Iran’s purportedly ‘reformist’ President Masoud Pezeshkian inherited a multitude of internal and external challenges shortly after succeeding his late predecessor, Ebrahim Raisi. Additionally, he faced numerous border issues with neighboring countries. The water crisis caused by Turkish dams on the Aras River continues to trouble Tehran. Security concerns with the Republic of Azerbaijan, the strong […]

Where does ‘security’ end and ‘occupation’ begin? Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan signed the initial letters of a memorandum of understanding for military and security cooperation and counterterrorism on August 15th, 2024. This marks a continuation of the security agreements signed in Baghdad on April 22nd, during a visit […]

At the Table with Rushdi Anwar Rushdi Anwar (b.1971-) is a Kurdish artist from Halabja, Kurdistan whose upcoming exhibition, in collaboration with Artes Mundi and the British Council, will be presented at the National Museum Cardiff, UK. A round table was held by Artes Mundi with Dr. Omar Kholeif, Professor Shahram Khosravi, and Dr. Hawzhin […]

[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. […]

Background In 2014, I took part in a pilot initiative aimed at gathering stories from Kurdish women. The project “Many Women, Many Words” sought to uncover the untold stories of women in Kurdistan during the period of Saddam Hussein’s rule and the Kurdish resistance. Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous region within Iraq, experienced a deliberate genocide orchestrated […]

Prelude Until the 1800s Kurds lived in autonomous principalities on the fringes of the Ottoman and Safavid empires, the contiguous region providing a buffer between the two fierce rivals. After the spread of nationalism and World War I, in 1920, the defeated Ottoman Empire and victorious allies signed the Treaty of Sevres, which outlined a […]

The youth in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) remain one of the most marginalized groups within society; their voices muted, barely able to rise above a whisper among the ruckus and clamor of the older conservative generation whose views on tradition, culture, religion and politics continue to suffocate the young and the brave. Born […]

Elections for the Parliament of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Southern Kurdistan (north Iraq) are currently scheduled for November 18, 2023, more than a year after they were originally planned for October 1, 2022. However, the prospect for either another delay or a deeply flawed election both remain possible due to continued tensions between […]

Twenty years ago, American-led forces launched their fateful invasion of Iraq: a campaign of devastating shock and awe that shattered the Iraqi state and overthrew Saddam’s dictatorship in under two months. The story, one of Iraqi disintegration, sectarian conflict, and ultimately American failure to produce a flourishing democracy, is by now well known. However, the […]

In that year (1988), three newborn babies (all female) and the football team of our village were named ‘Halabja’. Although incomprehensible to us – at such an early age – it was in that year too when we first heard of chemical weapons, when they were used by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein near the end […]

The year 2022 saw the rise of the plight and situation of the Kurds to international attention. From South Kurdistan (Northern Iraq, Basur) being repeatedly bombed and subject to drone strikes both from Turkey and Iran, to Northern Syria (Rojava) subjected to chemical weapons use, airstrikes and drone attacks and the Kurds in Iran (Rojhilat) […]