Kurds To Vote On Independence In Referendum
Here’s an upcoming event which is receiving relatively little attention in the Western press, despite its potential importance for theContinue Reading
Tag: Kurdistan
The Battle Of Mosul Becomes Wartainment
The ongoing military contest for the city of Mosul, the formerly populous town in northern Iraq held by the Islamic State since 2014,Continue Reading
How One Turbulent City In Iraq Can Stand For The Whole Country
With some sections of the Western news media proclaiming imminent victory over the Islamic State (an entirely nebulous concept given theContinue Reading
Two Documentaries On The Kurdish War, Plus The Russians Get A Fright
A couple of recent video documentaries on the Kurdish struggle in Syria and Iraq. The first, “Kurdistan: Girls at War“, wasContinue Reading
The Tangled Politics Of The Iraqi Kurdistan Region
A fair degree of simplistic thinking exists in the Western news media and political classes when it comes to the position ofContinue Reading
Turkey’s Invasion Of Northern Iraq
The left-leaning blog, Moon Of Alabama, has published a number of insightful articles in recent days on a serious military escalation in the MiddleContinue Reading
Aylan Kurdi And The Heavy Hand Of History
It some ways it is a terrible comment upon the calibre of our political leaders that the harrowing images of a young Syrian KurdishContinue Reading
Kurdish Victories In Syria And Iraq Make For Nervous Turks
Just as things were beginning to look up for the various Kurdish factions fighting the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, reports out ofContinue Reading
Supporting The Kurds
Malcolm Harris in the New Republic focuses on the great anomaly of the conflict in Syria and Iraq: the United States’Continue Reading
Kurdish Factionalism Gives Turkey And IS The Advantage
Western journalism loves to simplify things for readers and audiences at home which is why so much nonsense gets writtenContinue Reading
Iraq, The Graveyard Of Western Journalism
With all due caution given the source this recent Q&A with Andrew MacGregor Marshall, a former senior correspondent with Reuters, featured on RussiaContinue Reading
The Yazidis And The Origins Of The Desert Religions
There are all sorts of crazy theories surrounding the rise of ISIS, now the Islamic State (IS), and its successesContinue Reading
The Age Of Wars
Couple of things caught my eye over the weekend. One is the low key presence of the regular Iraqi ArmedContinue Reading
The Peshmerga Factor
Talking of the conflict in Iraq there is a good piece in Vice magazine by Hetav Rojan on the militaryContinue Reading
The Rise Of The Islamic State
Reading Tom Holland’s stupendous (if controversial) history of the foundations of Islam, In the Shadow of the Sword, I wasContinue Reading
AN SIONNACH FIONN 