Kurds

Youths play the daf, an Iranian frame drum, during a protest demanding the right to education in the Kurdish language in Al-Qamishli, Syria, on September 22, 2026. The demonstrations follow a decision by the Syrian Interim Government to allocate only Kurdish language classes in schools. (Photo by Amjad Kurdo / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)

Culture

Syria's Kurds, Arabs find common cause in battle for language rights

As Kurdish students protest language restrictions, unexpected alliances are emerging between Syria’s Kurds and Arabs.

Mazloum Kobane, leader of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), speaks during a televised speech at the People's Palace in Damascus on Aug. 25, 2026.

Analysis

Capitulation or compromise? What SDF's dissolution means for Sharaa, Turkey and Syria's Kurds

The Syrian Democratic Forces' dissolution ends an era of Kurdish self-rule while opening a new political chapter in Damascus.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Equality and Democracy Party lawmakers

Explainer

Turkey’s Kurdish peace process moves to implementation: What to know and what’s next

Turkey’s peace process with Kurdish militants has entered the implementation phase this week, with authorities setting up working groups to verify the Kurdistan Workers Party’s disarmament.

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Kobane speaks during a press conference in Syria's northeastern city of Hasakeh on Dec. 6, 2024.

Explainer

SDF chief Kobane’s Damascus visit a high wire act for Syria’s Kurds

The SDF says its integration with Damascus is complete, but major questions remain over its fighters, weapons and the future of Kurdish self-rule.

Latest News

Interview

Barzani calls for enhanced air defense for Kurdistan Region to counter drone attacks

Masrour Barzani, Prime Minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government, gives a press conference in the autonomous region's capital Arbil on June 25, 2025.

Masrour Barzani

Masrour Barzani

KRG Prime Minister

Explainer

Why Iran targeted Barzani family stronghold in Iraqi Kurdistan

Smoke rises after explosions were heard and air defences activated near the airport in Erbil, on July 24, 2026.

Analysis

How Turkey's PKK amnesty law entwines Kurds' hopes with Erdogan's ambitions

Fighters with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) line up to put their weapons into a pit during a ceremony in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, on July 11, 2025.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Iraqi Kurdish president’s meeting with Syria’s Sharaa signals shift in SDF dynamics

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani in Damascus, Aug. 3, 2026. IKRPresident/X

Smoke billows on the horizon in the village of Altrun Kupri, in the Sherawa region, south of Erbil in Iraq's Kurdistan, where a base of the Kurdistan Freedom Party is located, on Sept. 28, 2022.

Tehran strikes Kurdish opponents in Iraq as protests over Mahsa Amini’s death convulse Iran

Iran ramps up its bombing campaign in northern Iraq in what Iraqi Kurds argue is an attempt to divert the world's attention from the killing of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.

Banner supporting Mahsa Amini.

Turkish celebrities, including jailed Kurdish politician, cut hair for Mahsa Amini

Women activists, celebrities and jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas cut their hair in solidarity with Mahsa Amini, the Iranian Kurdish woman who died in detention by Iran’s morality police.

Free Aleppo University

Culture

Syrian opposition launches program to teach Kurdish language in Aleppo

Syrian Kurds in the areas of the Syrian opposition welcomed the decision to launch a program to teach the Kurdish language at the opposition-affiliated Free Aleppo University in the city of Azaz.

Iraqi-Kurdish peshmerga officers.

US extends military support for Iraq’s Kurdistan Region

The renewed agreement entails further steps to reform peshmerga forces as Pentagon aims to prepare Iraq’s forces for long-term self-sufficiency.

Iraqi-Kurdistan

Supporters of Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rest during a protest.

Deadly intra-Shiite violence rattles Iraq’s Kurds

Kurds are "deeply troubled by the new cycle of violence in Iraq" and look to be peacemakers.

Masoud Barzani

Barzani says former Turkish president wanted federation with Iraq’s Kurds

In his memoir, Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani shares that Turkey's former President Turgut Ozal had once floated the idea of "annexing" Iraqi Kurdistan.

A picture taken on October 20, 2017, shows Islamic State group writing on a wall.

Islamic State threatens Kurdish workers in northeast Syria

The Islamic State is threatening to kill employees in the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria in the countryside of Deir ez-Zor if they continue to report to their jobs.

Supporters of Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr continue their sit-in.

Will Iraq's Sunnis, Kurds support early elections?

Iraq’s Sunni and Kurdish forces are closely watching developments between the Sadrist movement and the Coordination Framework, so as to take a political position on whether to dissolve parliament and hold early elections.

LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images

Turkey grapples with policy change on Syria

Ankara's complex ties with Moscow, the political cost of Syrian refugees and looming elections are all dictating dialogue with Damascus on Ankara, but it has yet to come up with a plan to proceed.

Supporters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party celebrate with the KDP party flags during Iraq's parliamentary election in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, Oct. 10, 2021.

Kurdish leaders meet as Iraqi political deadlock continues

Iraq’s two major Kurdish parties have been trying to reach a compromise between the two, but to no avail.

Iraqi-Kurdistan

Pervin Chakar

Kurdish diva brokenhearted but resolute in face of language discrimination in Turkey

The "brutal" quashing of Kurdishness in Turkey continues to be state policy — even in entertainment.

Security forces deploy during a rally called for by the New Generation movement.

US 'concerned' about response to protests in Kurdistan Region

Press freedom issues are not new in the autonomous Iraqi region.