Ethnic/Religious Minorities

A Kurdish fighter from the Iranian Kurdish armed faction Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) stands with his rifle at a site near the Iraqi border with Iran in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, on March 8, 2026.

Interview

PJAK leader mocks Iran’s claim Turkey spiked US Kurdish-backed regime-change plan

The PJAK co-leader says he does not believe Washington or Israel would abandon a strategic objective as significant as toppling Iran's government because of Turkish objections.

Siamand Moeini

Siamand Moeini

PJAK Executive Council Member

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) welcomes France's President Emmanuel Macron for a joint press conference in Damascus on July 7, 2026.

Explainer

How Macron seeks to carve out France's role in new Syria

French President Emmanuel Macron became the first Western leader to visit Syria since the fall of the Assad regime, showcasing Paris' support for Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa while seeking to secure a share of the country's emerging reconstruction market.

Volunteers of the Druze-led National Guard manage traffic at a checkpoint, Suwayda, Syria, Jan. 22, 2026.

Clashes between Druze fighters, Syrian forces raise fears of renewed violence

The episodes in Druze-majority Suwayda escalated amid kidnappings, various disputes, and absent movement on integrating Druze into state institutions.

A Druze fighter stands at a roundabout draped with the Druze flag and a portrait of a local leader in the predominantly Druze city of Suwayda in southern Syria on July 21, 2025.

Druze gunmen, Syrian government forces clash in Suwayda: What to know

The United Nations recently said that the government has thus far failed to bring calm to the area of southern Syria following sectarian clashes last year.

Latest News

3 IRGC members killed in twin attacks as Iran intensifies Kurdish crackdown

Members of the crowd wave Iranian flags during a funeral procession held for IRGC Navy Chief Alireza Tangsiri.

Explainer

Israel's Armenian genocide recognition marks new front against Turkey

Members of the Jerusalem Armenian community hold placards as they march during commemorations for the 94th anniversary of mass killings of their kin under the Ottoman Empire, Jerusalem's Old City, April 24, 2009.

Culture

Turkey’s Erdogan meets Orthodox patriarch amid push for reopening Halki Seminary

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets with Orthodox Patriarch of Bartholomew at the presidential complex, Ankara, Turkey, June 16, 2026.

Feature

Backed by Trump and Turkey, Armenia's Pashinyan eyes third term in pivotal poll

US President Donald Trump (L) welcomes Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, on Aug. 8, 2025.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Christians make strong showing in Egyptian Parliament

More Christian candidates are running in this year’s parliamentary elections in Egypt.

A picture taken on February 5, 2019, shows a general view of the damaged buildings in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar. - For decades in the mountainous region of Sinjar in Iraq's diverse north, the lives of many revolved around their lands, but now many Sunni Arab farmers are estranged from their fields out of fear of reprisal attacks. The region, which borders Syria is home to an array of communities -- Shiite and Sunni Arabs, Kurds, and Yazidis -- which formed a patchwork that was ripped apart when the

Turkey targets Yazidi militia in Iraq over PKK links

The Sinjar Resistance Units have been targeted by Turkish forces in Iraq for its connection with the Kurdistan Workers Party.

Syriac manuscripts recovered from suspected Islamic State fighter in Mosul

Stolen manuscripts resurface as Iraqi security forces engage Islamic State cells, but safety concerns for minority communities still loom large.

US President Donald Trump speaks on Covid-19 testing in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC on September 28, 2020. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump mum on refugee admissions despite pleas from Congress

The administration has drastically reduced the number of refugees resettled annually in the United States.

image6 (1).jpeg

Iraqi Jews want to regain their citizenship

As the region witnesses a wave of normalization with Israel, Iraqi Jews demand restoration of their citizenship.

Turkey’s tilt toward Pakistan provokes India’s ire

An Indian intelligence reports sees Turkey as becoming a hub for anti-India activities second only to Pakistan.

Erdogan converts another historic church into a mosque

The centuries-old Chora church, which has served as a museum since 1945, will soon be open to Muslim worship.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - AUGUST 28: New Jewish immigrants walking down the airplane during a welcoming ceremony after arriving on a flight from Ethiopia, on August 28, 2013 at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel. Over 400 Ethiopian Jews arrived on the flight to Tel Aviv, the last of a series of monthly flights that were part of Operation Dove's Wings, an Israeli government initiative to bring to Israel the remainder of the Falash Mura, members of the Ethiopian Jewish community whose ancestors converted to C

Israeli-Ethiopian community divided on bringing 8,000 Falash Mura

Minister of Immigration and Absorption Pnina Tamano-Shata presented last week a plan to bring to Israel 8,000 Falash Mura from Ethiopia by the end of 2022.

Nubian Egyptian women sell souvenirs in the village of Gharb Suhail near Aswan in Upper Egypt, some 920 kilometres south of the capital Cairo, on February 5, 2020. - The Nubian language, according to locals, is unpractised by many in the generation born decades after their mass eviction from their ancestral lands to make way for the construction of the Aswan High Dam on the Nile in the 1960s. Built under Egypt's late president Gamal Abdel Nasser, the colossal project aimed to harness the Nile's annual flood

Egypt shows interest in Nubian community after years of marginalization

The marginalized Nubian community is back at the forefront in Egypt with a boat race festival to preserve Nubian heritage, held for a second time in Aswan governorate.

A general view shows the terraced gardens and the golden Shrine of Bab following renovation works at the Bahai World Center, in the Israeli port city of Haifa, on April 12, 2011. The restoration work in the Bahai Faith second holiest site began in 2008 and was carried out by volunteers from Mongolia, China, Ecuador, Kenya, Germany, Canada, U.S, South Africa, Vanuatu, India and New Zealand . The gardens, tucked into the steep slopes of mount Carmel, are designed in nine concentric circles around the shrine w

The lesser of two evils: Yemen’s Bahais from prison into exile

Shortly after their release, six members of the Bahai community in Yemen were sent into exile, in a stark example of the political climate in this war-ravaged country.

Intel: Syria to build Hagia Sophia replica with Russian backing

With support from Russian officials and the Orthodox Church, Syria will begin construction on a small-scale replica of the Hagia Sophia that will serve as an Orthodox cathedral.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - JULY 24: In this handout picture released by the Turkish Presidential press office, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and invited guests attend Friday prayers at Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque during the buildings first official prayers after being reconverted into a mosque on July, 24, 2020 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by Handout/Turkish Presidential Press Office/Getty Images)

Istanbul's Hagia Sophia holds first Friday prayers since reconversion to mosque

Is Turkey's reconversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque a politically expedient decision or part of Turkey’s growing global assertiveness?