Dan Wilkofsky

Dan Wilkofsky is a Syria analyst and former editor at Syria Direct. On Twitter: @Dwilkofsky1

Syria | May 12, 2022

Syrian Kurdish unity talks crumble as Turkey escalates anti-PKK campaign

The breakdown between sides serves Turkey’s agenda of keeping its Kurdish foes divided and weak.

Syrian Kurds demonstrate on June 10, 2021, in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli.

Syria | Mar 2, 2022

Family ties fuel Islamic State to rebel pipeline in northern Syria

The stories of fighters who turned from the Islamic State to Syria's rebel opposition forces show the how kinship ties, regionalism, and material concerns often trump ideology in the Syrian war.

Syria | Jan 20, 2022

Child recruitment leaves parents heartbroken in northeast Syria

The PKK-linked Revolutionary Youth movement has continued its campaign of child recruitment in northeast Syria despite efforts from local authorities, and SDF chief Mazloum Kobane to stop the practice, leaving a trail of anguished parents in its wake.

Syria | Jul 22, 2021

Turkish-backed rebels leave trail of abuse, criminality in Syria’s Afrin

The serene topography of the Syrian enclave of Afrin belies the power vacuum and violence now afflicting many of the territories under the control of Turkish-backed forces in the war-torn country’s northeast.

Turkish-backed Syrian fighters of the Sultan Murad Turkoman brigade are pictured during a military show in the Afrin region in the rebel-held northern countryside of Syria's northern Aleppo province on Nov. 17, 2020.

Syria | Feb 22, 2021

In Syria’s Deir ez-Zor, SDF conscription ‘severs livelihoods’

The Syrian Democratic Forces' recent campaign to conscript youth for military service is compounding economic hardship in Deir ez-Zor province, one of the poorest areas of Syria. In villages where the campaign is most active, young men are staying home for fear of arrest, forgoing daily wages and delaying grocery purchases to avoid passing by checkpoints.

Members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) attend the funeral of an Arab fighter in SDF who was killed the previous week in the eastern Deir Ezzor province, in northeastern Syrian Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli on April 10, 2019. (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP) (Photo credit should read DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Syria | Dec 7, 2020

Child recruitment casts shadow over Syrian Kurds' push for global legitimacy

Failed efforts to secure the return of a recent spate of Kurdish youth recruited to fight in northeast Syria shows the delicate path the region's autonomous administration must navigate in its relations with the PKK.

Fighters from the Kurdish Women's Protection units (YPJ) participate in a military parade on March 27, 2019, celebrating the total elimination of the Islamic State (IS) group's last bastion in eastern Syria, in the northwestern city of Hasakah, in the province of the same name. (Photo by Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP) (Photo credit should read DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Syria | Sep 10, 2020

For Syria’s opposition activists, Turkey 'best of the bad'

While initially welcoming millions of refugees and supporting opposition activists after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, the Turkish government has since shifted positions to further its own interests in a manner that dismays many Syrians living in the country.

Turkish anti-riot police officers run as Kurds protest against Turkish military operation in Syria, in Istanbul, on October 13, 2019. - Fighting has engulfed the border area in northeastern Syria since Turkey launched an offensive on October 9 to push back the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), displacing 130,000 people so far according to the United Nations, amidst warnings from aid groups of another humanitarian disaster in Syria's eight-year-old war if the offensive is not halted. (Photo by Yasi

Syria | Jun 30, 2020

US troops 'secure' northeast Syria oil, as contamination from it imperils lives

Dilapidated pipelines and oil waste coat polluted rivers and streams in Kurdish-run northeast Syria.

HOLE, SYRIA - NOVEMBER 09: November 9, 2015 in Hassica, Rojava, Syria. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Syria | Apr 7, 2020

US-led coalition ally targets State Department-funded Syrian Arab activists

Syrian civil society activists in the country's largely Kurdish northeast are being arrested and held by the Syrian Democratic Forces, possibly as part of a campaign of intimidation.

A fighter of Syrian Democratic Forces stands amidst the ruins of buildings near the Clock Square in Raqqa, Syria October 18, 2017. Picture taken October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro - RC1E4E003870

Syria | Mar 20, 2020

Profit, necessity spur trade across conflict lines in north Aleppo

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and Turkish-backed rebels have reopened trade crossings in northern Aleppo, bringing a sigh of relief to residents.