Five reasons US should change policies toward Syria’s Kurds

Amberin Zaman*

Syria’s most influential Kurdish group, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which has been running a belt of mainly Kurdish settlements along the Turkish border since July 2012, has been knocking on Washington’s door for some time, but it remains firmly shut. The situation was driven home on Oct. 28 when Kurds from across the globe gathered for a groundbreaking conference called “The Kurdish Role in the New Middle East” held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

Türkiye Üzerindeki ‘Radikal Örgüt’ Baskıları Artıyor

Semih İdiz*

Türkiye, Suriye’de İslam devleti kurmak için savaşan örgütlere doğrudan destek olduğuna ilişkin iddiaları reddederek, bu örgütlere en ufak bir müsamaha bile gösterilmediğini belirtiyor. İlk zamanlardaki tutumunu değiştiren Başbakan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan da bu örgütlere yönelik eleştirilerini yüksek sesle dile getiriyor.

Hükümet ayrıca BM Güvenlik Konseyi tarafından El Kaide ve Taliban ile bağlantılı olduğu tespit edilen 349 kişi ve 67 tüzel kişiliğin Türkiye'deki mal varlıklarını dondurdu. Karar 10 Ekim’de Resmi Gazete’de yayımlandı.

Syrian Kurdish leader urges Turkey to end support for Salafists

Amberin Zaman*

Saleh Muslim, co-chair of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) — which controls a string of mainly Kurdish-populated towns and villages in northern Syria and administers them through "popular councils" — has a few tempered messages for Turkey in an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor on Oct. 7. A few days later, on Oct. 9, as this article was about to be published, news emerged that Muslim's son Shervan, a fighter with the Popular Defense Units (YPG), had been shot and killed in the town of Tel Abyad by a sniper from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Muslim could not be reached for comment.