Kurds

BARBOD KHORSHIDI/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Grenade attack on IRGC kills 2 in Iran’s Kurdistan province: What to know

The deadly assault comes amid recurring tensions and clashes in Iran’s Kurdish-majority western region.

Manifest

Culture

Turkey's women, LGBTQ artists top targets of Erdogan's drive for cultural hegemony

From pop stars to performers, Turkey’s secular arts scene faces increasing pressure under Erdogan’s conservative push.

Richard Moore

UK’s top spy uses farewell from Turkey to lure Russian recruits, sparks fury

The outgoing MI6 chief called on Russians with "truths to share" to contact the agency, sparking diplomatic unease just days before Erdogan’s White House meeting.

Turkish Presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin gives a press conference following talks with Sweden and Finland over their bids to join NATO at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, on May 25, 2022.

Turkey’s spy chief in Damascus as Israel, Syria weigh new security map

Ibrahim Kalin’s visit comes as Israel presses Syria on a buffer zone plan and Turkey frets over Kurdish autonomy.

Latest News

Syria holds first post‑Assad parliamentary vote: What to know

Interim Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa appears in the Citadel of Aleppo in Syria, on May 27, 2025.

Exclusive

UK-based oil firm victim of standoff between Damascus, Syria’s Kurds

This picture shows pumpjacks in an oil field and smoke plumes rising in the background, following reported Turkish drone strikes near the town of al-Qahtaniyah in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province, close to the border with Turkey, on Nov. 23, 2022.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM party to meet jailed PKK leader Ocalan

Kurdish Syrians demonstrate in the Syrian eastern city of Qamishli to demand the release of the jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan in Turkey, on May 29, 2025.

Analysis

Iraqi Kurdish factional feuds erupt anew with violent arrest of Lahur Talabani

Smoke billows over a neighborhood of Sulaimaniyah, east of the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, after security forces arrested opposition figure Lahur Sheikh Jangi, following several hours of armed clashes on Aug. 22, 2025.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

The Manbij Military Council members are seen during a news conference in Manbij, Syria June 6, 2018. REUTERS/Rodi Said - RC119372D1F0

Will Manbij fighters heed the call to return home?

The Manbij Military Council has called on rebel fighters from Manbij to desert their militias and return to their cities and villages.

Displaced yet again, Syrians flee Idlib for Manbij

With intense shelling and catastrophic conditions in Idlib province, the Syrian Democratic Forces are welcoming refugees into areas they control to the east around Manbij.

Iraqi Kurdistan authorities decry protest suppression

In clear contrast to its past treatment of Kurdish demonstrators, the Kurdistan Regional Government denounces the use of lethal force against Iraqi protesters.

Iraqi-Kurdistan

Following Russian expansion, roadblocks in northeast Syria delineate zones of US control

US forces have been preventing Russian patrols from advancing along the M4 highway and around al-Malikiyya in northeastern Syria near the Turkish and Iraqi borders.

Kurdish and Arab protesters flash the victory sign and chants slogans against Turkish President Tayip Erdogan during a protest in front of the United Nations Headquarters in the town of Qamishli, Syria October 23, 2019. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed - RC1B8D106F20

Syria’s Kurds embrace resilience, beauty in wake of Turkish attack

Turkey's invasion of northeastern Syria has changed the lives of Kurdish residents in myriad ways, from a bump in confidence-boosting cosmetic surgery to pervasive anxiety over whether Turkey will strike again.

'There's no mercy': Kurdish Red Crescent perseveres in northern Syria

Heyva Sor a Kurdistane, the Kurdish Red Crescent, has been doggedly rescuing the wounded and attending to the sick in northeastern Syria since 2012.

Men, suspected of being affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) group, gather in a prison cell in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh on October 26, 2019. - Kurdish sources say around 12,000 IS fighters including Syrians, Iraqis as well as foreigners from 54 countries are being held in Kurdish-run prisons in northern Syria. (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP) (Photo by FADEL SENNA/AFP via Getty Images)

SDF benefits from letting IS prisoners go, capturing more

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are said to be releasing Islamic State prisoners in Raqqa through mediation with Arab tribes, raising concerns among locals about a resurgence of the group.

A member loyal to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) waves an ISIL flag in Raqqa June 29, 2014. The offshoot of al Qaeda which has captured swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria has declared itself an Islamic "Caliphate" and called on factions worldwide to pledge their allegiance, a statement posted on jihadist websites said on Sunday. The group, previously known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as ISIS, has renamed itself "Islamic State" and proclaimed its leader

Syrian Kurdish center sets out to defang 'cubs of the caliphate'

Former Islamic State child soldiers who are being reeducated at a Kurdish center face an uncertain future.

Interview

SDF commander says Kurds ready for dialogue if Ankara is sincere

In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor in northeast Syria, Gen. Mazlum Kobane speaks on a range of issues including prospects for reviving dialogue with Turkey, US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw US troops from Syria and the impact of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani's killing in Iraq.

Mazlum Kobane

Mazlum Kobane

SDF commander in chief

Iraqi Christians pray during a mass on Christmas Day at St. George Chaldean Church in Baghdad, Iraq December 25, 2019. REUTERS/Khalid al Mousily - RC292E9455EU

Iraqi minorities concerned about possible US troop withdrawal

Iraqi minorities are afraid that rising tensions between Iran and the United States might end the US troop presence in the country.

President of the Kurdistan region in Iraq Nechirvan Barzani sits in a shaft of window light as he greets U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in the VIP terminal at Erbil International Airport in Erbil, Iraq November 23, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst - RC23HD91WQR6

Interview

Iraqi Kurdistan president: 'We are not scared of Iran, but we respect Iran'

Assessing the aftermath of Qasem Soleimani's death, KRG President Nechirvan Barzani, in an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, calls for a reasoned, negotiated approach to Iraq's problems and for the Kurdish issue in the region.

Nechirvan Barzani

Nechirvan Barzani

President of the Kurdistan Regional Government

Iraqi PM urges Kurds to help rid Iraq of US troops

Baghdad expects Iraqi Kurdistan to abide by its decision to remove foreign troops from the country, though Kurdish leaders say the US-led coalition is still helping to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State.