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  • kurds

SDF leader Mazloum Abdi (C) and Hamid Darbandi (C-R behind), envoy of Iraqi Kurdish politician Masoud Barzani, attend the pan-Kurdish "Unity and Consensus" conference in Qamishli in northeastern Syria on April 26, 2025. Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP

In U-turn, Syrian Kurds are now demanding federalism

Having agreed on an outline for integration with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa last month, Kurdish-led groups have now issued a raft of contradictory demands, angering both Damascus and Ankara

Omer Onhon 30 April 2025
Yusra Na'im

Mazloum Abdi agrees to merge the SDF into Syria's state army

Al Majalla interviewed the SDF commander who shared his thinking prior to the landmark decision, which also guarantees constitutional rights for Syrian Kurds

Ibrahim Hamidi 11 March 2025
Kurdish men in local dress in the Horaman Mountains, Iran. Open Source

Iran hunts down Kurdish Kulbars in Iraq borderlands

The smuggling industry is worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually, and few alternatives exist to earn a living in the area. Border guards are trigger-happy, and calls for change are ignored.

Rustum Mahmud 23 December 2023
AFP

Peacemaker or evil genius? Kissinger’s mixed legacy in the Middle East

Henry Kissinger will be remembered for his controversial legacy in the Middle East

Sami Moubayed 01 December 2023
Fighters from the Kurdish Peshmerga affiliated with the Iranian separatist Kurdistan Freedom Party, at a military base near Erbil. AFP

Border tensions, Kurdish separatists and an Iranian ultimatum

As a deadline on a security deal over Iranian Kurds in Iraq looms, Tehran is eyeing military action if camps are not disarmed and moved. That could provoke an international response, including the US.

Rustum Mahmud 17 September 2023
Turkey: Kurdish troops (cavalry). Getty

How a string of unjust treaties shortchanged the Kurds

From the 1639 Shirin Palace Agreement to the Lausanne Treaty of 1923, Kurdish self-determination was ignored by the world's dominant powers who were looking out for their economic interests.

Salih Muslim 22 July 2023
A proposal by the Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria (AANES) would also help to ease Arab fears of a Turkish incursion in northern Syria Shutterstock

Syria's Kurds offer solution for Syria

The primary focus of this initiative is to emphasise Syria's need for a second independence and to present nine key provisions for a comprehensive solution.

Sihanouk Dibo 13 June 2023
A Pro-Kurdish Green Left Party supporter holds a portrait of former leader of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas, 49, who remains a key political figure despite being in jail since 2016. Reuters

Kurdish nationalists suffer partial setback in elections

Their support prevented Erdogan — for the first time in his electoral history — from winning in the first round. However, this wasn't enough for a decisive win, and now the two candidates are heading

Rustum Mahmud 17 May 2023
Salih Muslim

Salih Muslim welcomes Syria’s rapprochement with the Arab world

In a wide-ranging interview with Al Majalla, one of the key figures in Syria's politics speaks out on diplomacy, the PKK's Abdullah Öcalan and the state of his own alliance with the US

Ibrahim Hamidi 17 May 2023
Members of exiled Komala Party inspect aftermath of bombing in the village of Zrgoiz, near Sulaimaniyah, Iraq, where the bases of several Iranian opposition groups are located, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022. An Iranian drone bombing campaign targeting the bases of an Iranian-Kurdish opposition group in northern Iraq has killed nd wounded dozens. (AP PhotoAla Hoshyar, Metrography)

Iran’s Biggest Fear: An Independent Kurdistan

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has frequently violated Iraqi sovereignty by firing missiles and drones at a number of targets in Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdistan region (KRG…

Suzan Quitaz 30 December 2022
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AFP / Al Majalla
Politics

Trump's Board of Peace gives hints of his vision for a new world order

24 January 2026

Critics worry the BOP is a bid to dismantle the post-1945 international order and replace it with structures under the US president's direct control, with scope stretching well beyond Gaza

Tarek Rashed
Opinion

The battle for the state is reshaping regional alliances

18 January 2026

From Yemen and Syria to Sudan and Libya, there is a concerted effort to reassert state authority and thwart moves toward the proliferation of quasi-states and fragmentation

Ibrahim Hamidi
Al Majalla
Politics

'Gaza has broken every record of modern warfare'

23 January 2026

Former Médecins Sans Frontières president Rony Brauman explains to Al Majalla how Israel's war on Gaza has produced unprecedented suffering and exposed the collapse of international law

Elie Kossaifi
Al Majalla
Culture & Social Affairs

Al Majalla's Film Watch: the best of Youssef Chahine

23 January 2026

On the centenary of his birth, Al Majalla highlights some of the many standout films of the legendary Egyptian director's illustrious career

Areej Jamal
A man walks past a mural depicting SDF supporters raising a flag showing the face of Abdullah Öcalan, the founding leader of the PKK, in Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli on December 16, 2024. Delil Souleiman/AFP
Politics

The SDF: from chosen US security partner to liability

21 January 2026

How a regional and international climate increasingly aligned with Damascus is placing pressure on the Syrian Democratic Forces to prioritise Syrian unity

Subhi Franjieh

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