International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

On the Recent Agreement Between Damascus and the Kurdish Administration

Gilbert Achcar — 2026-02-03T07:44:00Z

“There is therefore little doubt that the present compromise has not resolved the conflict but has instead shifted it from a military to a political phase. This new phase will involve a political struggle that continues the war by other means, just as war itself is a continuation of politics by other means, as the maxim goes.”

- IVP613 - February 2026 / Syria, Kurdistan

The Kurds and the Syrian Regime

Gilbert Achcar — 2026-01-29T13:03:35Z

Recent developments in northern Syria – particularly east of the Euphrates – carry grave implications for both the Kurdish condition and the broader Syrian situation. Let us examine these implications, beginning with the Kurdish issue.

- IVP612 - January 2026 / Syria, Kurdistan

Should Kurdish freedoms be sacrificed for Syria's centralisation?

Joseph Daher — 2026-01-28T14:29:18Z

Despite a ceasefire between al-Sharaa's government & SDF, the president is not providing enough assurances that Syrian Kurds are protected.

- IVP612 - January 2026 / Syria, Kurdistan

Rojava: Political Autonomy, Social Bases, and Imperial Dynamics

Foti Benlisoy — 2026-01-27T10:54:40Z

“Debating the lessons of the experience of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria should not take precedence over our duty of solidarity; on the contrary, it should complement it.”

- IVP612 - January 2026 / Syria, Kurdistan

Türkiye: From the Kurdish movement to mass mobilizations

Uraz Aydin — 2025-09-06T06:46:00Z

On the occasion of the agreement on the dissolution of the PKK, Uraz Aydin presents the history of this movement and the evolution of the protest against the Erdoğan regime.

- IVP608 - September 2025 / Turkey, Kurdistan

Dissolution of the PKK and new perspectives

Mireille Court — 2025-06-01T12:41:30Z

On February 2025, from the Turkish island of Imrali where he has been held in solitary confinement since 1999, Abdullah Öcalan, “Apo” (uncle) as he is affectionately known to the Kurds, called for the dissolution of the Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê (PKK – Kurdistan Workers' Party) and an end to the armed struggle in Turkey. The stunned reaction of some international opinion showed the extent to which the PKK's political evolution had been ignored.

- IVP605 - June 2025 / Kurdistan

Kurdistan/Turkey: A Newroz of hope against a backdrop of coup d'état

Mireille Court — 2025-04-17T07:09:51Z

This year's Newroz festival in Diyarbakir drew huge crowds with one hope: to finally find a political solution to the decades-long conflict in the Kurdish region. A Newroz message from the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, was broadcast over the loudspeakers, something that had not happened for several years, as Öcalan has been in total isolation. The portrait of the charismatic PKK president was everywhere, which was not previously allowed. So was the portrait of Selahettin Demirtas, former chair of the HDP party (now DEM). Negotiating a ceasefire is no simple matter.

- IVP603 - April 2025 / Turkey, Kurdistan

Türkiye: Political Crisis and Democratic Movement

Emre Öngün — 2025-04-09T06:57:34Z

The mass democratic movement in Turkey following the arrest of Ekrem Imamoğlu, mayor of Istanbul and candidate of the centre-left Republican People's Party (CHP), is a major social and political event on the doorstep of the European Union. Rallies and demonstrations are taking place throughout the country, with very large turnouts, particularly in Saraçhane Square in Istanbul in front of the town hall.

- IVP603 - April 2025 / Turkey, Kurdistan

Kurdistan: ‘Turkey must choose between the status quo, endless war and peace with the Kurds'.

Salih Azad — 2025-03-17T07:08:54Z

Following the appeal by Abudllah Öcalan, leader of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), for his movement to lay down its arms, what are the prospects for the Kurdish people? L'Anticapitaliste spoke with Salih Azad, head of the Kurdish Democratic Centre in Marseille.

- IVP602 - March 2025 / Turkey, Kurdistan

The Turkish State and the Kurdish Question: Contradictions and fragilities of a new hope

Uraz Aydin — 2025-01-30T18:58:00Z

More than nine years after the failure of negotiations between PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan and the Turkish state and the end of the ceasefire, the Erdogan regime is once again trying to force the PKK (and its forces in Syria, in Rojava) to lay down their arms. However, this new "process", initiated by the leader of the far right Devlet Bahçeli, remains unclear for the moment about what rights the Kurdish people could obtain, apart from a possible release of Öcalan, if he calls for the dismantling of the Kurdish armed forces. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has summed up his approach to the "resolution" of the conflict as follows: "Either they will bury their weapons or we will bury them with their weapons."

- IVP600 - January 2025 / United States (USA), Syria, Turkey, Kurdistan