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Kurdistan

American Village entrance gates on the outskirts of Erbil, Iraq, the Kurdish defacto capital.

Kurds grapple with US troop drawdown in Iraq

Military

As the Taliban take control of Afghanistan, Kurdish allies in northern Iraq — where the US is also planning to draw down its combat forces — are watching with concern.

The Jaffar Mosque in the Daretu neighborhood of Erbil in 2015 where Imam Shawan preached before he left to join ISIS. 

In the wake of ISIS, Kurdish authorities are controlling religious messaging

Sacred Nation
A team of journalists gather around a table with laptops

‘All of us have been arrested at least once’: Kurdish press in Turkey walk a fine line

Media
Daniel Libeskind

The Kurds have no country of their own and their story is largely untold. A planned museum in Erbil aims to change that.

Culture
Residents of Erbil buy groceries in a local market.

Just 60 miles from ISIS, youth bowl, swim, see George Clooney in ‘Tomorrowland’

Lifestyle
Dutch journalist Fréderike Geerdink has been charged by Turkey with aiding a terrorist organization.

This Dutch journalist says she is doing her job. Turkey says she is helping terrorists

Global Politics

Turkey’s president claims the press has more freedom in Turkey than anywhere else. That doesn’t jibe with what’s happened to Fréderike Geerdink ever since the anti-terrorism police arrived at her door.

Turkish soldiers are silhouetted atop armoured vehicles near the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border on October 3, 2014.

The US has lots at stake in the Syrian border town of Kobane

Conflict

Syrians in the Turkish border town of Kobane say they’re on the verge of being overrun by ISIS militants. But while American warplanes are coming to their aid, the US is still reluctant to get involved — but may be forced into much wider action that it wants.

Fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, stand in formation in northern Iraq on May 14, 2013.

The US named this Kurdish party a terrorist group — now it needs its help to fight ISIS

Conflict

The American government is close with the Kurdish peshmerga in Iraq but considers the PKK, Turkey’s main Kurdish party, a terrorist group. Now that the PKK is playing a bigger role in fighting ISIS, the US may find itself helping those “terrorists.”

Female fighters from Colonel Nahida's peshmerga battalion view the front lines with ISIS.

Meet the female colonel leading Kurdish forces into battle against ISIS

Conflict

Nahida Ahmed Rashid began her military career years ago, fighting for the Kurdish separatist cause. Now she’s the highest-ranking woman in the Kurdish peshmerga and squaring off with her troops against Islamic militants who’ve taken northern Iraq by storm.

Female fighters from Colonel Nahida's peshmerga battalion view the front lines with ISIS.

Meet the female colonel leading Kurdish forces into battle against ISIS

Conflict

Nahida Ahmed Rashid began her military career years ago, fighting for the Kurdish separatist cause. Now she’s the highest-ranking woman in the Kurdish peshmerga and squaring off with her troops against Islamic militants who’ve taken northern Iraq by storm.

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Turkish MP: Turkey Nearing Civil War