Rojava kurdistan

Kurds in Syria, Iraq fight against 'Arabization' with language, but might need to push harder

Both in Syria and Iraq, there are rising reports of pushes for Arabic to become a main language and demographic changes in Kurdish areas, with officials needing to tackle these issues.

|BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
Children hold signs on the day Syrian Kurds demonstrate to mark Kurdish Language Day, demanding constitutional recognition of the Kurdish language by the Syrian government, in Qamishli, Syria, May 14, 2026.
People wave Syrian flags as they gather at Umayyad Square in Damascus to watch a broadcast of Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa delivering a speech at the United Nations, in Syria, September 24, 2025.

Syria's Kurds demonstrate in multiple cities, government announces curfew

According to the Hasakah Media Directorate, groups attacked internal security headquarters in the cities of Hasakah and Qamishli, both of which contain a large number of Kurds.

|ByLEO FEIERBERG BETTER, ARIELLA ROITMAN
A man looks through a screen during a state funeral service in Enqelab Square, for military commanders and others killed in the recent war with Israel on June 28, 2025 in Tehran, Iran. Israel and and Iran traded daily aerial attacks over a 12-day period until a ceasefire took effect on June 24.

Senior IRGC Navy officer dies in car crash as insurgencies escalate across western Iran

This comes after four members of Iran's IRGC were killed, and several others were wounded in what the IRGC described as "terrorist" shootings in western Iran on the same day as the crash.

|ByMAARIV, JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Armed members of the Syrian Democratic Forces' (SDF) military police take part in a demonstration under the banner “With our will, we will protect our revolution.” in Qamishli, Syria, September 17, 2025.

Syria’s Kurds confront defeat after decades of resistance - opinion

Abandoned by allies and pressured by Turkey, Syria’s Kurds were forced to surrender autonomy to Damascus.

|ByDAVID L. PHILLIPS

Two senators reach across the aisle to tackle the Syria nightmare

The pushback Trump got from Democrats and Republicans alike in the wake of his abandonment of the Kurds would be tenfold were he to throw Israel to the wolves.

OCTOBER 13, 2019ByRON KAMPEAS/JTA
U.S. President Donald Trump attends Young Black Leadership Summit at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 4, 2019

Turkey’s Syria gambit show U.S. responds to threats and strength

Ankara deployed military forces and boasted that it would soon launch a military attack.

AUGUST 9, 2019BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of parliament from his ruling AK Party (AKP) during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara, Turkey, October 23, 2018

Iraq’s Kurdish region alarmed by U.S. withdrawal

Discussions to try and soften Ankara’s stance, dilute PKK role in eastern Syria came to naught.

DECEMBER 20, 2018BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
A KURDISH peshmerga soldier stands at a lookout near Bashiqa in northern Iraq

Traveler in Kurdistan

Pointing a lens at one of the Middle East’s least understood groups.

DECEMBER 8, 2016ByARIEL DOMINIQUE HENDELMAN
Not as risky or adventurous as one might think: ‘Yehuda’ discusses his recent trip to Iraqi Kurdistan, at the Abraham Hostel

What is preventing Kurdish independence?

If Kurds find a way to be a key US ally against Iran, the situation might change radically.

NOVEMBER 19, 2016ByFUAD SHAHBAZOV
Kurdish peshmerga forces on the way to Mosul

Iran: Dictatorship inside, instability outside

we believe there is a strategic convergence between the interests of nations inside Iran and the region’s main actors that can bring a new order to the Middle East.

JUNE 30, 2016ByMUSTAFA HIJRI
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

Kurdistan’s economic woes

Salaries for the Peshmerga is not the only vital area where funds have gone dry.

APRIL 9, 2016ByGLENN FIELD
Syrian Kurds from Kobani walk to the border fences as seen from the Turkish border town of Suruc

Those who face death: The kinship between Kurds and Israelis

From the security offices of Kirkuk to the front lines against Islamic State and the devastation left behind at Shingal, Peshmerga fighters remain stalwart in their battle against terrorist elements.

JANUARY 23, 2016BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
Hussein Yazdanpana, vice-president of the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) gestures as he shows the frontline position his soldiers occupy fighting Islamic State northwest of Kirkuk

A world against ISIS

All the countries on both sides of World War II have been united by a common scourge.

JANUARY 3, 2016BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
Two Kurdish members of the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) look through their gun sights toward Islamic State positions on the front lines northwest of Kirkuk

A look into the life of the Mount Sinjar Yazidis, one year post Islamic State siege

For the Yazidis, life has become a nightmare.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015ByAVA HOMA
Yazidi women and children at the United Nations refugee camp at Arbat, near Sulaimani, in the semiautonomous Kurdistan Region of Northern Iraq