Kurds
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Kurdish Art Rock band Adir Jan
Rainbow's hope in hell
The music of Adir Jan, a Kurdish singer-songwriter and saz player born in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin successfully brings together the diverse worlds of queer poetry, Kurdish folk, Sufi mysticism and psychedelic art rock in a music whose hypnotic rhythms bring together many different communities. By David Siebert
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Attack on opposition leader Kilicdaroglu
Return of the lynch mob in Turkey?
Turkish opposition party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu was attacked by an angry mob in public and nearly killed – the latest in a spate of such violence. What does the incident say about the political culture in the country? By Burcu Karakas
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The end of the "Islamic State"
Entering a new chapter in Syria
The appeal and the peculiarity of Islamic State always lay in its claim that it already existed as such, not that it was a work in progress. But the capture of the last IS bastion on the Euphrates must now represent the final nail in the coffin for the jihadistsʹ state-building project. By Ulrich von Schwerin
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The geopolitics of the Syrian conflict
Getting Erdogan on board
Recently, while considering the future of war-torn Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin invoked the Adana agreement signed over two decades ago between Turkey and Syria. How this should be interpreted depends on which side you are on, as Ayse Karabat explains
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The Kurdish YPG and the future of northeastern Syria
Assad smiles from the sidelines
In northeastern Syria, the U.S. and Turkey are wrangling over how to deal with the Kurdish militias. The regime could score points from this – and gain control with Russian support. An analysis by Kristin Helberg
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The language of migrants
Being a stranger in a second language
Kurdish writer and translator Nabaz Samad Ahmed reports on his ambivalence towards second languages as a result of his socialisation in Iraq
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"Islamic State" in Iraq
Beware the jihadist hydra
Kurdish peshmerga in Iraq say that IS is rising like a phoenix from the ashes. The organisation is re-grouping to fill the void left by its quarrelling adversaries. Judit Neurink reports from Irbil and Mosul
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IS fighters in Iraqi prisons
The next terror generation?
Numerous former IS junior fighters are now serving long prison sentences in Iraqi prisons. There they continue to radicalise themselves. The Dutch author and journalist Judit Neurink visited a juvenile detention centre in Erbil
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Mr. Erbil Gentlemanʹs Club
The Kurdish hipsters are in town
The fashion bloggers of "Mr. Erbil Gentlemenʹs Club" from Kurdistan are a worldwide success. They wish to tell the true story of life in their homeland. At the invitation of the German Foreign Office, they came to Berlin for a visit. By Annette Walter
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Yazidis mourn their devastated community
Sinjar is not Mosul
Where can Iraq's Yazidis live in the future? Their home, Sinjar, has been liberated, but the Islamic State genocide that began on 3 August 2014, has left an indelible mark on their city. Sandra Petersmann reports
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Assad and the future of northern Syria
Syriaʹs Kurds hold the cards
International politics are subject to strange twists and turns. As Middle East expert Neville Teller writes, with a shared enemy and perceived advantages from co-operation, the outcome of current negotiations between the Syrian Democractic Council and Damascus could well be a continued Assad presidency, sustained by Kurdish support
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Iraqʹs wrangle over natural resources
The battle for Kurdish oil
Tensions between Iraqi federal government and the Kurds centres around a long-running dispute over the countryʹs oil revenues. While Baghdad denies Kurdistanʹs right to conclude production contracts without prior central government approval, the Kurdistan Regional Government claims this as a constitutional right. By Stasa Salacanin