KRG delegation arrives in Afrin as Turkey offensive softens Kurdish split - Al-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Amberin Zaman

Amberin Zaman

Feb 13, 2018

Syrian Kurds march in the northern Syrian city of Afrin during a demonstration on February 4, 2018 denouncing the military operation by the Turkish army against the Kurdish YPG forces in Syria's Kurdish enclave. / AFP PHOTO / DELIL SOULEIMAN (Photo credit should read DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images) — Syrian Kurds denounce the military operation by the Turkish army against the Kurdish YPG forces, Afrin, Syria, Feb. 4, 2018. — DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images

A picture taken on March 20, 2018 shows an Airbus plane on the tarmac at the airport in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, three months after the lifting of a ban on international flights.
Iraqi authorities had announced on March 13 the lifting of a nearly six-month air blockade imposed on Iraqi Kurdistan in response to its holding of an independence referendum. / AFP PHOTO / SHWAN MOHAMMED (Photo credit should read SHWAN MOHAMMED/AFP/Getty Images)

Turkey extends flight ban to Sulaimaniyah

Amberin Zaman

In London, reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Iraq's Kurdistan region's President Massoud Barzani gestures during a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel (not pictured) in Erbil, Iraq April 20, 2017. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari - RC1B15FF9BC0

Ankara still frosty toward KRG as Barzani exits

Amberin Zaman

In London, reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and his Iraqi counterpart Haider al-Abadi attend a welcoming ceremony in Ankara, Turkey, October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Umit Bektas - RC1B077637A0

Abadi, Erdogan meet to form Kurdistan game plan

Amberin Zaman

In London, reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Syrian-Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and members of the Rojava Forces Defence Units walk near the town of Faysh Khabur, which lies in Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region near the three-way border crossing between Iraq-Syria-Turkey on March 29, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / SAFIN HAMED (Photo credit should read SAFIN HAMED/AFP via Getty Images)

KRG asks US forces to deploy along Kurdish-controlled part of Iraqi-Syrian border

Amberin Zaman

In London, reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture