On Tuesday 25 August, Mazlum Abdi, General Commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), emerged from his latest meeting presided over by Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa and announced…

The long-anticipated Framework Law for the dissolution of the PKK was today brought before the Turkish Parliament. It has the signed support of DEM Party leaders, and the government majority would …

I have been away visiting family, but of course life in Kurdistan doesn’t stand still, so I will try and do a brief catch-up. I wish it could be more positive. Turkey What could be a more appropria…

After months of promises that things were about to happen, the Turkish Parliament recess has now been delayed from 1 July to 22 July in order to produce a Legal Framework Law to enable the final di…

Every day brings new threats from America’s new world order; however, for most of us, life goes on as usual and they appear as a distant nightmare. There are economic impacts, but these are creepin…

Democracy is under attack throughout the world, but, as a chronicler of Kurdish issues, I want to examine two recent blows in the Kurdish region of the Middle East. In Syria, where the revolutionar…

15 May is Kurdish Language Day, but the pressures and restrictions that Kurdish is facing ensure that there is little cause for celebration. This is not surprising as the fate of the Kurdish langua…

Today I want to focus on what isn’t happening – on the lack of movement in the process that it is hoped will bring peace to Turkey, and on the many hurdles in the way of “integration” in Syria. In …

My subject this week is far from the progressive ideals of direct democracy that persuaded me, and many others, to become involved with the Kurdish Question. I will look at the transactional politi…

Armageddon may be on hold for now – at least for Iran – but the Middle East remains in turmoil, and in amongst the wider upheaval, Kurdish prospects are far from encouraging. For the Kurds of Iran …

As Iraq’s pro-Iran Shia militias continue to show their strength, and target the Kurds, and as Sunni gangs rampage through the Syrian Christian town of al-Suqaylabiyya, sectarianism seems to have t…

Writing about Kurdistan today, it is difficult to know what to say – not because little has happened, but because the Kurdish lands are at the centre of world events so big that they are the focus …

Kurds have long described the violent upheavals in their region as the beginning of a third world war. Now this terrifying concept has become the subject of mainstream discussion, bringing fears th…

America has brought the Kurds onto the news agenda – and placed them at the centre of the war in Iran. On Tuesday, Axios reported that President Trump had spoken on Sunday to the leaders of the two…

It is difficult to be optimistic about Kurdish politics – or indeed any politics – but there are still just enough possibilities for positive change to keep some hopes alive. Iran In Iran, ca…

Not least among the many causes of concern arising from recent events in North and East Syria is a turn against the idea of brotherhood between different peoples. Multicultural coexistence is a centra...

If the joint report of Turkey’s National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission is not considered a disappointment, it is only because expectations were so low. This report marks the late…

Kobanê is still under siege. This has been a week in which Rojava has been recognised by international geopolitics, but we cannot forget – even as we look at the images of Mazloum Abdi and Ilham Ah…

It is now over a week since the ceasefire and integration agreement was signed by the Syrian Transitional Government (STG) on one side and the Autonomous  Administration of North and East Syri…

Under the auspices of cross-party MEPs, representatives of the different communities that make up Syria’s multicultural society came together at the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday. Their...

Sarah Glynn outlines the sequence of events that have reduced the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria to the main centres of Kurdish habitation and forced Kurds into an uncer...

This morning, an agreement was announced between the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and the Syrian Transitional Government (STG) for “the gradual integration of the m…

Sarah Glynn reports on the situation in Rojava, amid calls for Global Call for Solidarity – Days of Action in Defense of Rojava January 25th – February 1st 2026 – sign up here. #RiseUp4Rojava…

As I write this, the one region in the Middle East that prioritised inter-ethnic peace, women’s rights, and democracy is under existential threat. The Syrian Transitional Government, which has been…

A lot of blood has flowed since my last post, and it is some time since I have seen my Kurdish friends look so worried about the future. I will finish with a few words about events in Iran, but the…

“The same practices and massacres committed against the Alawites and Druze are now being attempted to be carried out in our neighbourhoods… The call issued by the forces of the Damascus Interim Gov…

Ongoing small-scale attacks against the autonomous Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods of Aleppo in Northern Syria took on a new and lethal dimension on January 6, reports Sarah Glynn.

While Abdullah Öcalan called for “a year of peace, not war”, Turkey ended 2025 encouraging Syria’s Transitional Government to attack the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, promising…

The internet has been abuzz with talk about an agreement emerging between the Syrian Transitional Government and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria – but when news concerns the M…

In the lockdown summer of 2020, I started to rewrite the housing lectures that I had given to students in Paisley with the aim of making a book on Scottish housing. I never finished this because th…

Kurdish émigrés talk about the possibility of one day returning home to Turkey – and if dedication to hope were enough to bring about change,…

Abdullah Zeydan, the deposed DEM Party co-mayor of the metropolitan city of Van, was in Strasbourg last week at the Council of Europe. The Council’s raison d’être is the preservation of human rights, ...

Abdullah Zeydan, of the pro-Kurdish leftist Peoples Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Parti), was elected in a landslide as co-mayor of the Turkish city of Van in 2024, before the Turkish government s...

When it comes to bringing Turkey to account for its attack on dmeocracy and human rights abuses against the Kurds, the Council of Europe has been "kicking the ball into the long grass", yet advocates ...

It is six months since imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan’s call for the disarmament and dissolution of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), giving rise to hopes of a new “peace process”, writes ...

Two days after meeting with Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, the Syrian government announced it was pulling out of a planned meeting with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, ...

Like other conflicts in the Middle East, Iran’s troubled relations with the US and Israel — and with Iranian Kurds — have their roots in imperialism, writes Sarah Glynn.

YouTube video by Tom Lehrer

A week of brutal sectarian violence in Suwayda, in southern Syria, has left more than 1000 people dead, during which disparate Druze factions united against the Syrian government and Israel further co...

Twenty to thirty Kurdistan Workers’ Party guerillas will come down from the mountains and destroy their weapons in front of witnesses from around the world, in a symbolic act of the PKK’s commitment t...

Sarah Glynn The twelve-day war between Israel and Iran seems to be over – for now. Since my last article

Sarah Glynn The twelve-day war between Israel and Iran seems to be over – for now. Since my last article

Sarah Glynn Is this what the beginning of a world war feels like? The sparrows are chirping from their nest

Sarah Glynn “The balances and the political system of the 21st century are being re-established. And this new design of

As followers of Medya News may have noticed, I spent last week in Kurdistan as part of a delegation led

Sarah Glynn On Monday, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) announced the decision taken at their twelfth congress, which was held