Nytimes.com | By The Editorial Board

An Iranian Kurdish writer, detained for six years on a remote island for seeking asylum in Australia, proves that words are more powerful than fences.

theguardian.com | By Calla Wahlquist | 31 Jan 2019

Guardian writer on Manus Island wins $125,000 after sweeping non-fiction prize and Victorian prize for literature at Victorian premier’s literary awards 2019

reuters.com | Bye Robin Emmott and John Irish | January 18, 2019

BRUSSELS/PARIS (Reuters) - In Tehran on Jan. 8 during a meeting with European envoys, Iranian officials abruptly stood up, walked out and slammed the door in an extraordinary break with protocol.

washingtonpost.com | Bye Brett McGurk(*) |  January 18, 2019

The president decided to withdraw U.S. forces without consulting allies or understanding the facts on the ground.

Telegraph.co.uk | By James Badcock, Madrid

A Swiss MP has accused the Turkish government of passing off olive oil plundered from Syria as Turkish in order to sell it in European Union countries, including Spain.

Theguardian.com | Ranj Alaaldin

The US, Turkey, the YPG and desperate Syrian Kurds would all lose if Assad and his backers regained control

Foreignpolicy.com | By Aykan Erdemir, John Lechner

The Turkish president’s racist conspiracy theories are a threat to economic stability.

nytimes.com | By Carlotta Gall | Jan. 2, 2019

As Erdogan tightens grip, brain drain threatens to set country back decades

ISTANBUL — For 17 years, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won elections by offering voters a vision of restoring the glories of Turkey’s Ottoman past. He extended his country’s influence with increased trade and military deployments, and he raised living standards with years of unbroken economic growth.

haaretz.com | By Akil Marceau | Dec 20, 2018

After all the blood that's been shed and lives lost fighting ISIS, Trump is taking us back to square one - and renewed, disastrous terror attacks on the streets of Europe and America

Donald Trump's big lie on Syria will come back to haunt America

Trump abandons Syria's Kurds: Will Turkey now crush their dream of a 'secular utopia?'

U.S. withdrawal from Syria shows Washington is an ally, but only to a point

France says troops to remain in Syria, ISIS not defeated

washingtonpost.com | By Thomas S. Kaplan, Bernard-Henri Lévy | January 3, 2019

Thomas S. Kaplan and Bernard-Henri Lévy are the co-founders of Justice for Kurds.

“Our only friends are the mountains.” So goes the fatalistic Kurdish proverb, encapsulating the catalogue of duplicity and betrayal by allies that has punctuated and ultimately defined the history of this valiant people. The stateless ethnic group, numbering approximately 30 million, straddles the borders of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. It is the Kurds in Syria who suffered the most recent treachery, when President Trump on Dec. 19 announced the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, where the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, were among America’s most faithful and effective partners in the fight against Islamic State terrorists.