Kurds

A police speed boat patrols the port as oil tankers and high speed crafts sit anchored at Muscat Anchorage near the Strait of Hormuz on March 30, 2026 in Muscat, Oman.

Analysis

Hostage to Hormuz, can Gulf rewire future energy flows to bypass Iran’s chokepoint?

As the US-Israel-Iran war disrupts around 20% of global oil supply, experts point to opportunities and challenges facing a renewed push to develop alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz.

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to MPs at his party's group meeting in the Turkish parliament on Jan. 21, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey.

Analysis

How the Iran war is giving Turkey's Erdogan a big boost

Opinion polls show Turks turning to Erdogan as a steady hand during the war, even as the country's finances remain fragile.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

An Iranian Kurdish peshmerga member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran inspects the damage sustained at the Azadi Camp following an Iranian cross-border attack in the town of Koye, east of Erbil district, on March 3, 2026.

Analysis

Iran's first strike on Iraqi Kurdish forces since war began a warning to US allies

The deadly strike on Kurdish forces underscores Tehran’s readiness to pressure US partners as Erbil is caught between Iran, Baghdad and Washington.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

A view of the oil refinery on March 17, 2026 in Erbil, Iraq.

Exclusive

Iraqi oil flows to Turkey after US pledges role in Baghdad-Kurds customs dispute

A US-brokered breakthrough between Baghdad and Erbil has restarted Iraqi oil exports through Turkey after a weeklong standoff.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Latest News

Exclusive

Dana Gas evacuates Khor Mor staff in Iraq's Kurdistan Region after Iran threats

A picture shows smoke billowing from the Central Production Facility 1 gas refinery in Iraq's southern Maysan province on May 29, 2022.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Desperate to sell its oil, Iraq turns to Turkey amid standoff with Kurds

An Iraqi oil tanker waits at the Khawr Abd Allah canal leading up to Al-Faw port in southern Iraq, on June 6, 2024.

Top Kurdish critic of Damascus named Syria's deputy defense minister

Sipan Hemo

Why Israel's looking to Kurds to make gains against Iran regime

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters affiliated with PAK train on Jan. 18, 2026, near Erbil, Iraq.

A Turkish military truck patrols next to a Turkish flag hoisted at the border with Syria on Aug. 14, 2019, in Akcakale, in Sanliurfa, southeastern Turkey.

Turkey’s Sinjar strikes carry stern messages to Tehran, Baghdad

As the United States braces to withdraw its combat forces from Iraq, the country’s Kurdistan Region is emerging as the scene of a mounting struggle for control between Turkey and Iran.

Qubad Talabani, deputy prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Family feud in Iraqi Kurdish party may undercut election chances

A dispute between the son of the founder of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party's former leader, and his cousin might reduce the chances of victory in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Members of the Cabinet of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) headed by Prime Minister Masrour Barzani pose for a photograph in Erbil.

Family power grab in Iraqi Kurdistan raises fears of intra-Kurdish violence

Talabanis strip their cousin of all powers amid a power struggle in the Kurdistan Regional Government's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Party.

A woman looks on at the waste dump of Diwaniyah where families live in the rubbish with no electricity or drinking water, on March 25, 2018.

Iraqi Kurdistan water crisis blamed on climate and Iran

Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government has asked citizens to ration water.

Victoria Nuland

US senator says Turkish actions against pro-Kurdish party like ‘if Biden banned the Republican Party’

Democratic and Republican senators voiced heavy criticism of the Turkish government to a State Department official during a Wednesday hearing. The lawmakers accused Ankara of abusing the international police system, being an “aggressor” toward Greece, and much more.

Reports highlight crackdowns on press in Kurdistan Region

The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government has rejected the charges, citing the independence of courts and media partnerships.

Iraqi riot police protect the Turkish embassy in Baghdad on Feb. 18, 2021 after calls on social media to gather outside the Turkish embassy to protest Turkey's vows to invade the northwestern enclave of Sinjar.

Turkey’s anti-PKK assault leaves Kurds more divided

Turkey’s unremitting assault against the PKK is destabilizing Iraqi Kurdistan, weakening the rebels on the one hand while bolstering support for them among disaffected locals on the other.

Iraqi mourners attend the funeral of a fighter of the Hashid Shaabi paramilitary alliance following US airstrikes on the Syrian-Iraqi border, on June 28, 2021, in the northern Ninevah province.

Iraq-Syria border strikes on pro-Iran ‘militias’ spark retaliation

Airstrikes on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border near Qaim conducted by the United States were followed by retaliatory strikes by Iran-linked groups against a Kurdish-led SDF base housing coalition forces in eastern Syria.

A man holds HDP flags as members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) take part in a protest against the detention of HDP members, in Istanbul, on Sept. 25, 2020.

Top Turkish court accepts revised indictment to ban pro-Kurdish party

Turkey’s Constitutional Court on Monday accepted a case seeking the closure of the nation’s second-largest opposition party, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), after a top prosecutor revised and resubmitted an indictment alleging members collude with terrorists.

A Kurdish female peshmerga fighter carries her weapon while walking in the foothills of the Qandil Mountains located along the Iraq-Iran border, May 5, 2006.

Deadly attacks stoke KDP-PKK tensions in Iraqi Kurdistan

Turkish Kurdish militants entrenched in Iraqi Kurdistan face mounting calls to leave the region after the killing of six members of the Iraqi Kurdish armed forces.

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters arrive in the northern Iraqi city of Dahuk on May 14, 2013.

KRG puts PKK on notice for killing of peshmerga forces

The Biden administration slams PKK attack on Iraqi Kurdish allies as 'brutal.'

Biden, Putin

Will Syria come up in Biden-Putin summit?

US pressing to maintain humanitarian corridors into Syria; Erdogan’s issues with US Syria policy; UN envoy refers to Syria’s "tragic irony."