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The United States' partnership with Syrian Kurdish groups has greatly complicated its interactions with Turkiye. While the US and Turkiye initially worked together to dislodge Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, their interests diverged when countering the Islamic State (ISIS) became the main US concern and countering Kurdish autonomy Turkiye's chief aim. Over Turkish objections, the US trained and equipped Syrian Kurdish forces, which became the principal element of the Syrian Democratic Forces - the US-engineered umbrella group that was instrumental in ousting ISIS from its Syrian strongholds and continues to function as a deterrent, backstopped by a light US presence. The Turkish government would now prefer that the Assad regime re-establish its authority in northern Syria and extinguish Kurdish aspirations for autonomy. The US military presence in Syria prevents such an eventuality. If Syrian Kurds see an opportunity to advance Kurdish autonomy, tensions between the US and Turkiye in the region could significantly increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the approaches and challenges to Kurdish autonomy in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. Accommodation of Kurdish rights via autonomy arrangements has a long history as an idea but negotiating actual autonomy agreements was often a fruitless task. However, the weakening of state power in Iraq since 1991 and in Syria since 2011 has created opportunities for Kurdish movements in these states to develop and consolidate their autonomous administrations. Consequently, in recent years, the debate on Kurdish autonomy in the Middle East has taken center stage in the regional political discourse. This article first discusses the literature on approaches to autonomy to set out the main models and assess their strengths and weaknesses. It then provides accounts of the models of autonomy that are either practiced or proposed by Kurdish actors or entities in Iraq, Turkey, and Syria. The final section assesses the ability and suitability of the proposed or practiced models for the accommodation of Kurdish rights and demands and develops insights into how the current difficulties preventing the accommodation of Kurdish rights in the Middle East may be overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses aspects about the U.S. strategy to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Topics include the not well organized Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga in June 2014 which they had multiple command chains at the time of the fall of Mosul, Iraq, the recruit of undercut extremist to disaffected Sunni Arab population, and the various tribal figures in Anbar and Hawija, Iraq.

The article discusses Kurdish nationalists' efforts to form a state and the Kurdish autonomous movements in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran, referencing Kurdish history from World War I through the early 21st century. An overview of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq, including in regard to their profession of loyalty to Iraq while pursuing autonomy, is provided.

The article discusses the issues of sovereignty and unilateralism between Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in 2013. Topics include the contested Kirkuk and Diyala governorates, the KRG's unilateralism regarding the control and exploitation of oil reserves in the nation, and competition over natural resources between Baghdad and the KRG. Other issues mentioned include the establishment of the KRG and the relations between Arabs and Kurds in post-2003 Iraq.

This article discusses the evolution of the struggle between the Kurdish people in Turkey under the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the central Turkish government to incorporate political and legal arenas. Topics include the history of the Kurdish rebellions fought largely in the mountains of the Bingol Province in Turkey, the efforts that pro-PKK advocates have made through their involvement and nonviolent activism with the legal Kurdish political party, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), and the actions taken by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to try and resolve the Kurdish conflicts.

This article discusses the volatile nature of the relationship between the semiautonomous Kurdish minority population and the central government under Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki in Iraq. Topics include the history of the Kurdish people's struggles for a unified nation state from the time of the initial Arab conquest of Mesopotamia through World War I, the establishment of a Kurdish government in the areas of Erbil, Suleimaniyah, and Duhok in the aftermath of the Gulf War, and the complications that the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 imposed on the Kurdish Regional Government's attempted economic and international trade developments.

The Gulf War caused important changes in the Middle East, influencing the economic, political and social conditions of regional countries such as Turkey. This article analyzes the events related to this war in northern Iraq that affected Turkey in the 1990s. The specific purpose of this article is to identify how regional changes caused by the War are reflected in ethnic conflicts in Turkey and in Turkish political decision making and application processes. This article fills a gap in the literature by covering events from 1991-2003. In doing so, it aims to make a modest contribution to global political analysis literature by clarifying the position of Turkey during and after the Gulf War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses a historical puzzle: Why did the insurgent PKK (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan), which was militarily defeated, which renounced the goal of secession, and whose leader was under the custody of the Turkish state, remobilize its armed forces in a time when opportunities for the peaceful solution of the Kurdish question were unprecedented in Turkey? The PKK’s radicalization at a period of EU-induced democratization in Turkey counters the conventional argument that fostering democracy would reduce the problems of ethnic conflict. Explanations based on resource mobilization, political opportunity structures, and cognitive framing fail to provide a satisfactory answer. The article argues that democratization will not necessarily facilitate the end of violent conflict as long as it introduces competition that challenges the political hegemony of the insurgent organization over its ethnic constituency. Under the dynamics of competition, the survival of the organization necessitates radicalization rather than moderation. As long as the insurgent organization successfully recruits new militants, democratization is not a panacea to violent conflict. The findings indicate that research on the micro-level dynamics of insurgency recruitment will contribute to a better understanding of ethnic conflict management. Data come from multiple sources including ethnographic fieldwork, statistical analyses of quantitative data (i.e. spatial clustering and ecological inference), and systematic reading of original documents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article aims to shed light on the modern history of the Kurds in Iran, with particular reference made to the main Kurdish political and social movements of the 20th century following World War I and the establishment of an Iranian nation-state. The modernization and centralization of the new state deprived the non-Persian ethnic groups, including the Kurds, of democratically expressing their national aspirations. The consequences of this policy and the struggle of the Kurds against it throughout the remainder of the century and up to the present are the main issues discussed in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the nature of the educational schemes in the Kurdish resistance in Turkey. Teachings and theories on ethnic nationalism emphasized by Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan; Organizational structure of the Kurdish party, Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK); Educational framework and program of the PKK which features the influence of Marxist-socialist ideology.

The article discusses the decision made by Kurdish government to participate in the U.S. military attacks and its consequences to Kurdish society. The author mentions that hundreds of Kurdish families had a hard time resettling in the northern Kurdish areas. He explains that Kurds received a cold welcome from the local people who treated them with suspicion. The author explains that many Kurds lived for decades in Arab regions but they were discriminated after KDP and the PUK were involved in U.S. military attacks.

The article examines the political and military strategy of Turkey in regards to its invasion of Kurdish territories in Syria, following the upheaval of the Syrian Civil War. Turkey took the policies of American president Donald Trump to withdraw troops involved in the Syrian Civil War as an opportunity to seize the region and aimed at stamping out Kurdish nationalist efforts, an ongoing concern of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The article presents questions and answers related to Kurdish Parliamentary including the reason for the establishment of Kurdistan Parliament, the reason behind the establishment of Parliament of Kurdistan in Exile and the failure of Turkish Democracy.

The article discusses the reign of Shah Tahmasp I in Persia including the history of Sophi and the invasion of Ottoman. The author explains that Shah Tahmasp I created the usual impression on Tahmasp reign held by Western Europeans including the Carmelite missionaries of Isfahan and Venetian Vincentio D' Alessandri. He mentions that Shah Tahmasp I can be considered in two contradicting views namely peace and war. The author describes that Tahmasp was considered as a bad king who committed crimes, injustice and corruption. He explains that Tahmasp can also be considered as a person who conducted himself as an able prince in wars.

The article offers the history of the Sheikh Ubeydullah movement as the first movement for the Kurds with national aspirations in 1880. The author mentions that the Sheikh Ubeydullah's movement does not seem to have any political agenda, however it gained significant attention due to its unexpected appearance in the middle of a sensitive period. Also discussed is the influence of Sheikh, his role in the war between the Ottoman and the Russian in 1877 to 1878, and the international conditions that heightened his career. The author concludes that Sheikh's movement was the first nationalist uprising by the Kurds.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles within the issue on topics including the U.S.'s political and economic relationship with India, the anti-American attitudes of individuals younger than 30 years old in South Korea, and the Kurdish people's autonomous aspirations.

The article discusses the recruitment of General Joseph Ralston as anti-PKK coordinator by the Bush administration. According to the author, the recruitment of General Ralston is aimed to develop a plan for forcing Kurdish guerillas out of from Turkey from their bases in Iraqi Kurdistan. It is suggested that Ankara has grown impatient with the reluctance of the American forces to take on the PKK in the Quandril mountains and verbalize intentions to do perform the Kurdish eviction using its own Ankara army.

The article discusses on the political aftermath in Turkey after the arrest of Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) president Abdullah Ocalan in February 16, 1999. Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Echevit called on the PKK guerillas to surrender themselves after the fall of Ocalan and assured them of reduced sentences based on the Act of Repentance. The government also announced its intended development project in the Kurdish southeast. However, these efforts were seen as contradictory. Turkish troops were sent to Northern Iraq to track PKK guerillas. Kurdish demonstrations were put out by Turkish security forces. The interim government in Ankara called on European leaders to take legal actions against the PKK basing on the alleged terrorist instigations against Turkey from Western Europe through publications and a London-based TV channel MED-TV.