On January 4th, al-Monitor published an analysis into a possible conflict in the Turkish army’s top brass over the operation in Syria. According to the author, Fehim Tastekin, while Turkey was negotiating with the US over the roadmap for the area east of the Euphrates River and Manbij, while also coordinating with Russia to get their approval…

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from Syria last month has been met with no shortage of condemnation over the perception that America would be abandoning its Kurdish partners on the ground in the country. The move would open them up to an incursion from NATO ally Turkey, which has…

Last Friday President Trump had another long phone call with the Turkish President Erdogan. Thereafter he overruled all his advisors and decided to remove the U.S. boots from Syria and to also end the air war. This was the first time Trump took a decisive stand against the borg, the permanent neoconservative and interventionist establishment in his administration, the…

DAMASCUS, SYRIA — For over a year, much of northeastern Syria has found itself under de facto occupation by the United States and its military proxy, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The occupied territory, accounting for nearly a third of Syria’s total landmass and including large portions of the al-Hasakah, al-Raqqa and Deir Ez-Zor regions,…

NEW YORK – On Monday, the New York Review of Books published an open letter and petition aimed at securing Western support for putting pressure on Turkey to end its occupation of Afrin, opposing further Turkish incursions into Syria, and backing autonomy for Rojava — the region of Northern Syria that has functioned autonomously since…

AFRIN, SYRIA (Analysis) —  In less than two months since Erdoğan’s Operation Olive Branch kicked off, the Kurdish “Rojava Project,” which aims for a unified Kurdish-controlled area in northeast Syria, has been delivered a strong blow. Kurdish militias have shown their inability to unite in the face of Turkish aggression. Even with forced conscription by the…

AFRIN, SYRIA — On Saturday, Syrian news agency SANA reported that six men had been hospitalized after an alleged Turkish chemical weapons attack on a small town near the city of Afrin in Northern Syria. Jiwan Mohammad, the director of the Afrin Hospital, told SANA that the men’s symptoms were indicative of those experienced after contact…

Sarah Abed is an independent journalist and political commentator.  She covers a broad range of issues relating to the Syrian war, Kurdish issues in Iraq and Syria, as well as U.S policy in the Middle East.  The following is an account of Sarah’s conversations with Aramean Christians living under Kurdish rule in occupied northern Syria, as…

Sarah Abed is an independent journalist and political commentator.  She covers a broad range of issues relating to the Syrian war, Kurdish issues in Iraq and Syria, as well as U.S policy in the Middle East.  The following is an account of Sarah’s conversations with Assyrian Christians living under Kurdish rule in occupied northern Syria,…

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (Analysis) — The war in Syria has been relatively absent from media coverage in recent weeks following the declared victory of Syrian, Russian and Iranian militaries in their battle against the U.S.- backed rebels and terror groups, including ISIS and al-Qaeda. Now Washington is changing its strategy to draw Syria further into chaos and…

The only thing that has ever been faithful to the Kurds is history: it has faithfully, without fail, betrayed them. The Kurds have been cast in the role of the pawn in powerful countries’ games of chess. They do much of the hard work only to be sacrificed when checkmate is in sight. Most recently,…

Chicago, IL – Chicago-based anti-war leader Joe Iosbaker is speaking out against the latest...