Kurdish controlled syria

Voices from the Arab Press: Iran, the Kurds, and the future of Arab power

A weekly selection of opinions and analyses from the Arab media around the world.

|ByTHE MEDIA LINE
VOTING IN Egypt’s parliamentary elections, in Giza, Nov. 2025.
DEMONSTRATORS RIDE through a street while waving Syrian flags during a rally in Hasakah, Syria, last Friday.

Syria’s Kurdish autonomy is fading as Arab unrest challenges Damascus’s control

BEHIND THE LINES: While the Kurdish-led authority was dissolved on paper, many of its institutions continued to function in reality.

|ByJONATHAN SPYER
Nechirvan Barzani, President of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region, gives a joint press conference with France's Foreign Minister in Arbil, the regional capital, on February 5, 2026.

Iran tensions, Syria talks put Iraqi Kurdistan at the center of Middle Eastern diplomacy - analysis

The Kurdistan Region is involved in a variety of discussions, in part due to its geographic position. It sits at the crossroads of major regional policies. 

|BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
Israelis from Kurdish origin take part in a rally in support of the Kurdish referendum outside the American consulate in Jerusalem September 24, 2017

Israel, Kurdistan, and the hopes for a strong political alliance - opinion

In a twisted way, the closer Kurds and Jews get, and the more visible that becomes, the more people start seeing Kurds as another kind of Jew: in how they frame the Kurdish political struggle.

|ByMEM HUSEDIN

The US still wants Kurdish 'unity' to help with eastern Syria - analysis

The Biden administration has inherited the chaotic Trump administration’s approach to eastern Syria.

DECEMBER 18, 2021BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
Displaced Kurds stuck at a border after a Turkish offensive in northeastern Syria, wait to try cross to the Iraqi side, at the Semalka crossing, next Derik city, Syria, October 21, 2019

Women of Rojava, Kurdish Syria suffering in the shadow of war

As Turkey contemplates another offensive against the Kurds, the dream of a just society in northeast Syria drifts further away.

NOVEMBER 6, 2021ByKSENIA SVETLOVA/THE MEDIA LINE
Rojava Peshmerga fighters from Syria are one of the forces guarding Mosul Dam in Iraq

Turkey accused of bulldozing cemetery to create 'mass grave' - analysis

It appears every time that Turkey has a high level meeting with US officials or a call with a US official Turkish state media is mobilized to invent or discover some new “YPG/PKK terror.”

JULY 18, 2021BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
Turkish soldiers deployed last month in the center of Afrin, a Syrian town bordering on Turkey

Kurdistan Region calls for unity against ISIS threats

ISIS attacked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters near Pirde in Iraq overnight.

MAY 1, 2021BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
A Kurdistan Region Peshmerga looks out at ISIS positions from his frontline near Kirkuk in 2015

Turkey botches raid, blames 'terrorists,' attacks domestic critics

How did all this begin?

FEBRUARY 15, 2021BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
A Turkey-backed Syrian rebel fighter walks next to a wall where is depicted the jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, in the border town of Tal Abyad

Displaced Syrians near Afrin say Turkish airstrikes terrorize civilians

The area has many displaced people, including Kurdish and Yazidi minorities, who fled Afrin when Turkey invaded northern Syria in January 2018.

FEBRUARY 12, 2021BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
A Turkey-backed Syrian rebel fighter walks next to a wall where is depicted the jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, in the border town of Tal Abyad

Two car bombs kill at least 11 in Syria's Northern Aleppo

Turkey, which is allied with some rebel groups opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is in control of the area where the explosion occurred.

JANUARY 31, 2021ByREUTERS
Cars stand in line at a gasoline station as they wait to fuel up in Aleppo, Syria, April 11, 2019

Kurds in Syria could also be reconciling as new US admin take shape

The US Embassy in Syria tweeted on January 15 that it supported the ongoing Syrian intra-Kurdish dialogue and looked forward to its continued progress.

JANUARY 19, 2021BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
Turkish Kurds look towards the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani from the top of a hill close to the border line between Turkey and Syria near Mursitpinar bordergate

Turkey-backed fighters clash with Kurdish forces in north Syria town

A rebel source with the Turkey-backed National Army said the faction seized some farmland after mounting an attack at the edge of the town.

DECEMBER 18, 2020ByREUTERS
KURDISH FEMALE fighters of the Women’s Protection Unit (YPJ) take part in a military parade as they celebrate victory over Islamic State, in Qamishli, Syria, in March 2019.

Kurdish official says thousands of Syrians to leave camp in northeast

He cited a need to reduce the burden on the camp and step up measures to curb security incidents which he said had risen.

OCTOBER 5, 2020ByREUTERS
Displaced Kurds stuck at a border after a Turkish offensive in northeastern Syria, wait to try cross to the Iraqi side, at the Semalka crossing, next Derik city, Syria, October 21, 2019