We enter this world with certain predetermined facts—such as our sex, parents, and nationality. What we do with those facts can chart the course of our lives. A baby born to Kurdish parents in Turkey faces life-altering obstacles. A baby...
If you glance at the English newspapers on any given day, you will hardly come across the word martyr. If you do the same with the Turkish ones, the word will leap out at you and sometimes in bold letters. Turkish soldiers are dying in...
A coup may erupt in Turkey, where half of Middle Eastern Kurds live. At least that’s the prediction of the RAND Corporation, an American think tank. That should alarm those who believe, as I do, that the worst of civilian governments are...
Like many Kurds who dabble in politics, I was admittedly rattled upon hearing the news of Qasem Soleimani’s assassination in Baghdad. There is no other word for it, the man cast a large shadow over Kurdistan. Will his elimination mean...
On October 6, the presidents of America and Turkey spoke by phone. There is no transcript of what was said, but the White House issued a press release announcing the decision of Turkey’s president to attack northern Syria, and that of the...
In August 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary in a war against the Allied Powers of Great Britain, France and Russia. Nine months later, its pasha leaders, Enver, Talaat and Djemal, fearing...