Shnrwe Mountain under a fresh coat of snow—Halabja, Kurdistan
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Ex–al-Qaeda Leader in Damascus Accused of War Crimes Against Kurds |
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In mid-January 2026, Kobane in Western Kurdistan experienced widespread power outages. Winter conditions worsened as roads were blocked, water pumps stopped working, and fuel supplies disappeared. Many families were left without heat. The Kurdish Red Crescent reported that five children died due to exposure and lack of medicine. According to , Rojava "is facing a coordinated campaign of annihilation."
This is not collateral damage from a civil war. This is Damascus’s deliberate starvation policy towards Kurds and other minorities that is tantamount to war crimes, according to Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
President Ahmed al-Sharaa, also called Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the ex-al-Qaeda leader, is now Washington’s partner in the region. Drawing from his experience from al-Qaeda, Jolani uses siege tactics like starvation and freezing to force Kurdish concessions, making humanitarian suffering his tool of diplomacy.
The West seemingly has abandoned its loyal Kurdish allies to the brutality of the "Syrian Army," a front for extremist Islamist groups, creating a moral and strategic disaster. As Washington and European capitals withdraw their support from the Kurdish autonomous region in Syria, Kurdish forces have no choice. They must fight a desperate, multiple-front war for survival.
These worsening conditions in Kobane are deliberate acts of war. The new regime in Damascus has sealed the city for days and even blocked U.N. convoys to deliver essential aid to test international indifference. Protecting the Kurds must be a central pillar of Western policy, as it alone determines if Syria's new order brings peace or instability.
This instability creates the vacuum ISIS needs to grow. Since the Caliphate's fall, Kurdish forces have been solely responsible for containing thousands of detainees and their families. But U.S. Special Envoy Tom Barrack recently ended this arrangement, stating, "The time of Kurdish partnership has expired."
The consequences were immediate on multiple fronts. As Damascus expanded into SDF-held territories, they committed gross human rights violations, including killing women, capturing Kurdish girls as spoils of war, and gifting them to their Jihadist commanders. Furthermore, the control over the ISIS detention system has been slipping since. Reports indicate that Syrian forces have already seized prisons holding thousands of ISIS militants, with hundreds allegedly released or "lost" during the turmoil. Regardless of the varying accounts, the trajectory indicates that disruption leads to escape, re-link networks, and renewed recruitment. This will be detrimental to regional and international security.
The current U.S. military response is to move detainees from Syria to Iraq. While this shows distrust of the Islamist-led Damascus government, it poses dangers: moving thousands of radicals puts a strain on Iraq’s already burdened judiciary and prison system, compounding existing problems.
At the end, these transfers do not neutralize the threat; they merely export it. The Western Syria policy, by de-prioritizing established security partners in favor of engagement with hostile Islamist factions, is a strategic miscalculation. It may allow a resurgence of ISIS, potentially negating the stabilization achieved by Kurdish forces, who sustained 25,000 combat fatalities during prior counter-insurgency operations.
Yerevan Saeed,
Barzani Scholar-in-Residence
Director of the Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace
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In the spring semester, Barzani Scholar-in-Residence and Director Yerevan Saeed began teaching a graduate course titled "The Foundation of International Political Economy," which examines the interactions among states, markets, and societies on a global scale. Saeed was interviewed by DW News regarding a recent scientific paper addressing the impacts of the 1988 chemical weapons attack in Halabja. On December 10, Saeed attended a discussion with concerning the first year of a new global trade system. The event was followed by a reception commemorating the fifth anniversary of the GeoEconomics Center at the Atlantic Council.
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Anthony Avice Du Buisson's research paper "Who Is in Command? The Civil-Military debate over U.S. troop presence in Syria" was published by American University's Journal of International Service. In his paper, he analyzed the importance of civilian decision-making surrounding U.S. troop presence in Syria.
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Sirwan Kajjo published an article with the Middle East Forum titled "The Palmyra Attack Reveals the Limits of U.S.-Syria Military Partnership." In the article, he called for the U.S. to increase its involvement in integration talks between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
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Meghan Bodette and Sirwan Kajjo were featured on Rudaw English's podcast episode titled "The future of Syria after Aleppo." They discussed what's next for Syrian Kurds after Damascus attacked SDF-controlled neighborhoods in Aleppo.
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Art and Culture: Dara Aram |
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| "The artistic process isn’t just about creating something visually interesting; it’s about the responsibility you take on when you decide to represent a community’s pain, joy, and history."
Dara Aram’s art begins with a life shaped by exile. Born in Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, he trained as a young artist before political upheaval forced him to leave. In this interview, Aram retraces the escape that carried him across borders and through uncertainty, traveling through Iran, Syria, and Türkiye before reaching the Canadian Embassy and resettling in Canada in 1989.
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He speaks about what it means to survive persecution, rebuild a life, and keep creating when your identity is treated as a threat.
That history sits at the center of his mixed-media practice. Aram describes how Kurdish cultural references, personal memory, and the Canadian landscape come together in work that is both intimate and political. He discusses the responsibility he feels to address the Kurdish struggle, and why he believes art can do what policy debates and news cycles often cannot: make viewers feel the human cost of statelessness, repression, and displacement.
The conversation also turns to the realities of being a Kurdish artist in diaspora, including community tensions, pressure to stay silent, and the risks of speaking publicly. Aram reflects on why he continues to make work that names injustice, including his response to Kurdish issues and events such as the death of Kurdish girl Jina Amini in Iran. Across it all, he returns to a steady purpose: to protect memory, insist on visibility, and create images that invite understanding beyond borders.
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NextGen Voices: Sirwan Kajjo |
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"For me, the value of journalism lies in informing the public, reporting accurate information, and helping people understand what is happening and why it matters. As someone covering U.S. foreign policy, I know that many people in my region want to understand what is happening in Washington and what it means for them."
Sirwan Kajjo has spent his career tracking the stories many people miss, often because he has lived them. A Kurdish journalist and researcher from Amuda, Syria, he now studies Global Governance, Politics, and Security at American University’s School of International Service, while writing and researching Kurdish identity politics, Middle East security, and Islamist militancy.
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His work has appeared in policy papers and research articles for several think tanks, and he is currently a fellow at the Middle East Forum. He is also the author of Nothing But Soot, a novel set in Syria.
In this interview, Kajjo looks back on the moments that set his path. He describes growing up in Amuda, becoming politically active during the 2004 uprising, and putting early energy into Kurdish language advocacy. From there, he moved into journalism in Lebanon with Kurdistan TV, before relocating to the United States. At Voice of America, he covered U.S. foreign policy, Kurdish affairs, press freedom, and regional conflict, later joining the Extremism Watch Desk during the fight against ISIS.
What makes this conversation compelling is how Kajjo connects reporting, research, and lived experience without separating them into neat categories. He speaks about displacement and political pressure, but also about the discipline of getting facts right when the stakes are high. He explains why graduate study, including his time as a Barzani Peace Fellow, matters to him: it is a way to sharpen his research tools, deepen his journalism, and contribute to serious scholarship on Kurds. As he considers a PhD and the next phase of his work, Kajjo makes a clear case for why Kurdish issues demand sustained attention, not just in moments of crisis, but as a core part of understanding the region.
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Iraq
Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Masrour Barzani attended the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, promoting peace, economic reform and foreign investment as part of a push to raise the Kurdistan Region’s international standing. In meetings with world leaders, he highlighted the importance of dialogue, regional stability, and deeper economic cooperation.
Protests continue in cities throughout the Kurdistan Region and internationally in support of Kurds in Rojava, northeastern Syria, following attacks by extremist forces aligned with the Syrian government and allied armed groups. Demonstrators from Kurdistan, Europe, and the United States are demanding recognition of Kurdish rights and urging international intervention. Many believe these attacks directly threaten Kurdish identity and survival.
Türkiye
Clashes between the Syrian government and the SDF unsettled Kurds in Türkiye, prompting domestic protests. In response to the situation in Kobane, Türkiye's pro-Kurdish DEM Party called for an end to what it called a military and humanitarian siege . Subsequently, police in Diyarbakir used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protests, making 20 arrests. Elsewhere, protests outside the DEM party headquarters led to police involvement and 10 arrests.
Syria
The Kurdish-majority town of Kobane from the United Nations after the ceasefire between the SDF and Damascus was . Earlier this month, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a recognizing Kurdish as a national language in Syria and restoring citizenship to Kurdish Syrians.
In response to gross human rights violations by extremist forces aligned with Syria, Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday he will introduce the Save the Kurds Act, aiming to impose “crippling sanctions” on any foreign government or group hostile to Syrian Kurds. He said Damascus is aligned with Turkey, warned that the situation is worsening, and argued the Kurds were the U.S.’s key partner against ISIS. Graham hasn’t released the bill text but expects bipartisan support.
The Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces declared a ceasefire after weeks of fighting and reached an agreement to merge the SDF into the national military forces. The clashes in Aleppo, which led to the withdrawal of the SDF in their former territories, left at least 23 people dead and forced more than 140,000 people from their homes.
Iran
erupted in Iran in early January 2026, with in support. The protests started over economic grievances and soon grew to encompass broader frustration with the government. Since then, have been killed in crackdowns against the protests, including an estimated .
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The Barzani Peace Fellowship |
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Established in honor of the Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani, the Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace offers the Barzani Peace Fellowship, a prestigious scholarship for graduate students dedicated to Kurdish affairs. Beyond financial support, it empowers future leaders through academic excellence, professional development, and opportunities to engage directly with the program and its mission for peace.
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