Wladimir van Wilgenburg

3 weeks ago | globalresearch.ca | Wladimir van Wilgenburg |Steven Sahiounie

The PKK announced on May 12 that they have ended their armed-struggle and have disbanded. Kurdish issues “can be resolved through democratic politics,” according to the announcement. In February, Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the PKK, wrote a letter from Imrali prison in Turkey, where he has been jailed since 1999. He called on the PKK to lay down its arms, saying “there is no alternative to democracy in the pursuit and realization of a political system.

2 months ago | middleeasteye.net | Wladimir van Wilgenburg

As the new authorities in Damascus face their greatest challenge to credibility in western Syria, a surprise deal with the country’s Kurds could mark a new chapter in the northeast, though significant challenges remain. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls much of the oil-rich northeast, signed a deal with the government on Monday to integrate its civilian and military institutions with the new state.

Feb 28, 2025 | middleeasteye.net | Wladimir van Wilgenburg |David Hearst |Mohammad Abu Rumman

Thousands of Kurds in northeast Syria headed to public squares on Thursday to listen to a long awaited message from Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey. In a historic statement, Ocalan called on the group he founded to lay down its arms and disband. "All groups must lay down their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself," he said. Ocalan's call for "all groups" indicates that he likely means all PKK offshoots in Syria and Iran.

Dec 8, 2024 | eaworldview.com | Wladimir van Wilgenburg

Kurds, already displaced from Afrin, forced to leave the Tal Rifaat area because of recent rebel offensive in northern Syria (Izzadin Saleh)Assad Regime Is Over In SyriaThe Russia-Iran-Assad “Axis of the Vulnerable” Is Cracking in SyriaWill a Syrian transitional government, backed by Turkey, accept the Kurdish-led autonomous zone in the northeast of the country? It was not only the Assad regime which lost territory, from Idlib to Aleppo to Hama Provinces, in northwest Syria.

Dec 3, 2024 | middleeasteye.net | Wladimir van Wilgenburg

The dramatic rebel takeover of Aleppo and its countryside has sent tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds fleeing east and raised fears the community could be permanently displaced from the city. More than 100,000 Kurds live in the Aleppo neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh, with the towns of Tel Rifaat, Tel Aran and Tel Hassel also housing significant Kurdish communities.