Clashes broke out between Syrian rebel factions and Kurdish fighters in Aleppo province,Ā as Arabs and Kurds are further pitted against each other by Great Power manipulation.
Authorities in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region announced that a referendum on independence will be held in September—drawing immediate harsh criticism from Baghdad.
Several civilians were killed when US air-strikes reportedly targeted ISIS-held Raqqa with white phosphorus—banned by the Geneva Convention as a weapon of war.
Despite pledges to allow education in minority languages, Iranian authorities banned publication of a Kurdish language instruction book, and threatened the authors and publisher.
After Kurdish guerillas attacked an Iranian border patrol, Tehran blamed Turkey for failing to prevent "terrorist" infiltration—even as Turkey is building a security wall along the frontier.
Hardliner Ebrahim Raeesi reluctantly accepted Hassan Rouhani's victory after a bitter campaign, with cultural rights for Kurds and other ethnic minorities a critical dividing line.
In his White House meeting with Erdogan, Trump was sure to pledge support against the PKK "terrorists"—even as the US is backing PKK-aligned Kurds against ISIS in Syria.
TheĀ Rojava Kurds, caught in a pincer between Turkey and ISIS, are being forced to accept superpower aidābut with costs for Syrian revolutionary unity against ISIS and Assad.
Following Turkish air-strikes on their forces in northern Syria, Kurdish leaders in the region issued a call for a "no-fly zone"—heightening the contradictions for Washington.
Turkish air-strikes on Kurdish militants both in Iraq and Syria place the US in an increasingly contradictory position—torn between its NATO ally and the most effective anti-ISIS forces.
Insistence on regional autonomy and a federal solution for Syria is straining the de facto alliance between the Rojava Kurds and Damascus, despite their mutual enmity for Turkey.
The ultra-hawkish Henry Jackson Society warnsĀ that the US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria are allied with anarchists and elements of the Turkish and European armed left.
