All in Kurdistan

Analysis | Operation Olive Branch: Turkey's Afrin Offensive

Analysis | Operation Olive Branch: Turkey's Afrin Offensive

Pranav Jain
American Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Foreign Policy, Kurdistan, MENA, Security Affairs, Terrorism, United States, Turkey, Syria, MESA

As ISIS crumbles in the Levant and the variety of anti-ISIS operations reach their crescendo, the Syrian civil war appears to have acquired yet an additional degree of complexity—Operation Olive Branch, a Turkish military campaign against Syrian Kurdish forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces.

Commentary | The Uncomfortable Politics of the Kurdish Referendum

Commentary | The Uncomfortable Politics of the Kurdish Referendum

Chris Mullaney
American Foreign Policy, Foreign Policy, MENA, Kurdistan

In the wake of the Iraqi Kurdish referendum on independence the international community has predictably come out in opposition to both the vote and the results. Meanwhile, Iraqi Kurdistan’s neighbors have forcefully opposed the referendum, with Ankara considering cutting off Kurdish access to a lucrative oil pipeline, Tehran threatening further blockade and isolation, and Baghdad contemplating military action. Given this intense opposition from its neighbors, it is difficult to imagine the landlocked Iraqi Kurdistan functioning as an independent state.