Nytimes.com | By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT

Nytimes.com | By ROD NORDLANDDEC. 24, 2016

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — It was the end of the day in an underground tavern with no name. Beneath a domed Ottoman ceiling, with the lights down low and the music muted, patrons could just hear a distant rumbling through the basalt block walls, five centuries old.

Euronews.com

ISIL survivors-turned-activists Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar will receive the 2016 Sakharov Prize in a ceremony in a ceremony in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

Nytimes.com | By ROD NORDLANDDEC

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — When Kurdish officials here in Diyarbakir, the biggest Kurdish city in the world, say they’ve been “unavoidably detained,” it is not just an excuse for lateness.

Nytimes.com | By Peter W. GALBRAITHDEC - TOWNSHEND, Vt. — The civil war in Syria is over. Now it is time to stop the fighting.

Aided by Russia, Iran, Shiite militias and Hezbollah, the government of President Bashar al-Assad is on the verge of taking Aleppo, once Syria’s largest city. Supported by its powerful allies, the Syrian Army will then move to eliminate the remaining pockets of resistance, notably around the northern city of Idlib. While Iran has been Mr. Assad’s most important military ally, the Syrian regime would still want to have Russian airpower to finish its reconquest of the country’s populous west.

The New York Times International | By ROD NORDLAND - November 19-20, 2016

Turkey’s Free Press Withers as Erdogan Jails 120 Journalists

ISTANBUL — A prominent columnist wrote recently about how President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey hates cigarettes so much that he confiscates packs from his followers, lecturing them on the evils of smoking.

The columnist, Kadri Gursel, then urged his readers to protest the president’s anti-democratic ways by lighting a cigarette and not putting it out.

Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq (cabinet.gov.krd) – In a statement, Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister, Nechirvan Barzani, called for the release of the co-presidents and a number of Parliamentarians of the Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party, HDP, after their arrest in Turkey.

The-american-interest.com | Henri J. Barkey

They came in the early hours of the morning to arrest members of the parliament belonging to the People’s Democracy Party (HDP), a pro-Kurdish party that received more than five million votes and 59 seats in the latest elections. This is part of major countrywide crackdown initiated by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s mercurial authoritarian leader. Erdogan has been on a tear since the failed coup attempt of this past July 15.

Brookings.edu | BLOG | Kenneth M. Pollack

I spent last week in Irbil, Iraq along with Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. We met with a wide range of senior Iraqi and Kurdish officials, as well as journalists, analysts, and academics. The trip included a visit to Kirkuk after the terrorist attack there on October 21 as well as time spent near the frontlines, observing Peshmerga military operations against the Islamic State (also known by its Arabic acronym, Da’esh) and discussing the campaign with U.S. and Kurdish military officers.