Timeline Kurdistan
Return to home
History: http://www.akakurdistan.com/
WHA: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/index-b.html
Kurds are an ancient people whose language is related to Farsi, which is spoken in Iran.
(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A7)
Almost all Kurds are Sunni Muslims.
(SFC, 9/2/96, p.A12)(Econ, 9/2/06, p.12)
Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, centered in the poor northeastern provinces of Hasakeh and Qamishli, wedged between the borders of Turkey and Iraq. Areas of the capital Damascus and Syria's largest city of Aleppo also have sizable Kurdish communities. The Kurdish ethnic group stretches into contiguous areas of Turkey, Iraq and Iran.
(AP, 4/18/12)
1169 Mar 23, Shirkuh, Kurd General, vizier of Cairo, Saladin's uncle, died.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1193 Mar 3, Saladin [Salah ed-Din]) Yusuf ibn Ayyub (52), Kurdish sultan of Egypt and Syria (1175-1193), died.
(WUD, 1994 p.1261)(SC, 3/3/02)(SSFC, 9/29/02, p.M6)
1800-1825 Kurdish emir Bedr Han rose up against the Ottomans in the early 19th century.
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.46)
1835 Lt. Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (25) began examining the ancient inscriptions on the rock of Behistun in the Kurdish foothills of the Zagros mountain range. He soon found that they had been made to honor Darius the Great, Persian ruler in the 5th century BCE.
(ON, 4/04, p.7)
1894 Nov 16, 6,000 Armenians were massacred by Turks in Kurdistan.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1894-1896 Thousands of Armenians were massacred by the Turks after attempts for autonomy and self-defense failed. This issue was then referred to as the “Armenian Question."
(Compuserve Online Enc. / Armenia)
1915 Kurdish tribes took part in the mass slaughter by the Ottomans of around 1 million Armenians. Tens of thousands of Syriacs fell with them.
(Econ, 12/4/10, p.64)(Econ, 11/3/12, p.52)
1917 Lord Curzon of Britain stated: “No Kurd appears to represent more than his own clan."
(WSJ, 11/28/97, p.A8)
1918 The Yazidis of Sinjar (Iraq) saved hundreds of Armenians and Assyrian Christians as they were being slaughtered by Ottoman Turks and their Kurdish proxies. The Ottomans retaliated by sending a small army to Sinjar and capturing the revered Yazidi leader, Hamo Sharro, who was sentenced to five years of har labor.
(Econ, 8/23/14, p.38)
1920 Aug 10, The Ottoman sultanate at Constantinople signed the Treaty of Sevres with the Allies and associated powers. It promised a homeland for the Kurds, but the nationalist government in Ankara did not sign the treaty. It set the borders of Turkey recognized Armenia as an independent state. France and Britain backed the treaty and a Kurdish state, but refused to allow Kurds in Iraq and Syria to join it.
(SFC, 2/17/99, p.A10)(www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/versa/sevres1.html) (EWH, 4th ed, p.1086)(Econ, 7/13/13, SR p.5)
1920-1990 Turkey virtually outlawed the Kurdish language.
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A1)
1922 Kurds declared their own state only to see stronger powers crush it within months.
(Econ, 7/9/16, p.38)
1923 Jul 24, The Treaty of Lausanne, which settled the boundaries of modern Greece and Turkey, was concluded in Switzerland. It replaced the Treaty of Sevres and divided the lands inhabited by the Kurds between Turkey, Iraq and Syria. Article 39 allowed Turkish nationals to use any language they wished in commerce, public and private meetings, and publications. The treaty specifically protected the rights of the Armenian, Greek and Jewish communities. The former provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul were lumped together to form Iraq. Both countries agreed to a massive exchange of religious minorities. Christians were deported from Turkey to Greece and Muslims from Greece to Turkey. A Muslim community of at least 100,000 was allowed in northern Greece. In 2006 Bruce Clark authored “Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsions that Forged Modern Greece and Turkey."
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A17)(AP, 7/24/97)(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A14)(Econ, 3/19/05, Survey p.9)(Econ, 10/14/06, p.50)(Econ, 12/9/06, p.92)(Econ, 10/16/10, p.72)
1924 Mar 3, Kemal Ataturk forced the abolition of the Muslim caliphate through the protesting assembly and banned all Kurdish schools, publications and associations.
(WSJ, 2/11/99, p.A24)
1925 Apr 28, Kurd rebels surrendered to Turkish army.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1930-1937 Kurdish revolts in Turkey were harshly suppressed.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A14)
1936-1939 Turkish forces used a bombing and strafing campaign to crush a Kurdish rebellion. Some 13,806 people were killed in the southeastern town of Dersim, now known as Tunceli. The military's campaign in Dersim was followed by forced migrations and massacres as well as policies of assimilation.
(AP, 11/23/11)
1938 Turkey’s army crushed a rebellion in the southeastern province of Tunceli and villagers were burned alive of gassed. The government later admitted that some 15,000 Alevi Kurds died. Survivors spoke of least twice as many dead. In 2010 documentary titled ‘Two Locks of Hair: The Missing Girls of Dersim,’ which sheds light on the painful incidents of the 1938 Dersim Operation, four 80-year-old women tell of the trauma they experienced during the tragedy.
(Econ, 4/30/11, p.55)(www.kurdishcinema.com/DersimsLostGirls.html)
1946 Jan 22, Kurds again declared their own state, the Republic of Mahabad in northwestern Iran, only to see stronger powers crush it on December 15.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Mahabad)Econ, 9/30/17, p.45)
1945 The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) was founded by Mullah Mustafa Barzani (1903-1979). He played a major role in establishing the short-lived Kurdish Republic of Mehabad (Mahabad), “Red" Kurdistan, in Iran. It lasted for just ten months. In the 30s and 40s he had organized “Pesh merga" guerrillas from clans in the Zagros region.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)(WSJ, 12/20/02, p.A14)(Econ., 2/21/15, p.14)
1946 Mustafa Barzani fled with hundreds of followers to the Soviet Union.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)
1961 Syria revoked the citizenship of its native Kurds.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.46)(http://tinyurl.com/7zamn)
1962 Jun 23, The Syrian government conducted a special population census only for the province of Jazira which was predominantly Kurdish. As a result, around 120,000 Kurds in Jazira were arbitrarily categorized as aliens.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurds_in_Syria)
1970 Mar 11, Iraq’s Ba’ath Party agreed to an autonomy accord with the Kurd nation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Kurdistan)
1974 Mar 11, Iraq's "Law for Autonomy in the Area of Kurdistan" was promulgated. It stipulated that: "The Kurdish language shall be the official language of education for Kurds ... Kurdish shall be the official language of education for the Kurds."
(www.jafi.org.il/education/actual/iraq/4.html)
1975 Mar 6, OPEC held a meeting in Algiers attended for the first time by its members’ top leaders. Here the Algiers Accord between Baghdad and Teheran put an end to their border dispute and brought all Iranian help to the Kurdish rebellion to a halt. The United States abruptly withdrew its support for the Kurds and the rebellion collapsed. Many thousands of Kurdish fighters and their families were forced to flee to Iran to escape the pursuing Iraqi army.
(http://mondediplo.com/2002/10/06timeline)(SFC, 11/19/07, p.A11)
1975 Mar 9, Iraq launched an offensive against the rebellious Kurds.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1975 Mar 18, Mulla Mustafa gave the order to the Kurdish army to abandon the struggle. This time round, Mulla Mustafa obtained refuge in the United States.
(www.tamilnation.org/intframe/india/kurds.htm#a1)
1975 Jun, The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) broke off from the KDP after Iran and Iraq resolved a border dispute and the US ended support for a Kurdish rebellion. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) was founded by Jalal Talabani as a breakaway faction of the KDP. The PUK favored armed struggle with other Kurdish groups against Saddam Hussein.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/country_profiles/2893067.stm)(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)
1978 In Turkey Abdullah Ocalan and some fellow Turkish university students founded the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, PKK. It was based on a Marxist, separatist platform that targeted Kurdish landlords as well as Turkish agents.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A11)(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A7)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.100)
1979 Mar 3, Mustafa Barzani (b.1903), Iranian Kurd leader (KDP), died in Washington, DC. He was succeeded by his son Massoud.
(SFC, 9/4/96, A7)(WSJ, 12/20/02, p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Barzani)
1979 Aug 18, Iran Ayatollah Khomeini sent the army to attack and occupy Paveh, Sanandaj and Saghez. Having defeated the Kurds in the cities, he appointed Khalkhali, as head of security for Kurdistan, who proceeded with a series of summary trials and executions.
(www.sarbazan.com/Massacre.asp)
1979 Aug 23, Iranian troops entered Iraqi Kurdish territory.
(www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373658&printthis=1)
1979 Aug 27, In Sanandaj, Iran, 11 Kurdish prisoners were executed by a firing squad following a 30 minute trial under Shiite cleric Sadegh Khalkhali. Jahangir Razmi, a photographer for Iran’s independent Ettela’at newspaper, captured the execution on film. Within hours an anonymous photo of the execution ran across 6 columns of the paper. On Sep 8 the newspaper was seized by the Foundation for the Disinherited, a state-owned holding company. On April 14, 1980, the photo won a Pulitzer Prize. In 2006 Razmi made public 27 images from the execution that he had kept hidden.
(WSJ, 12/2/06, p.A1)
1979 The government of Iran began fighting the Kurdish Democratic Party. Iran put down a Kurdish rebellion leaving around 10,000 dead.
(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A10)(Econ, 9/30/17, p.46)
1980 Abdullah Ocalan (b.1948), leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) crossed the border to Syria just before the September 12 Turkish military coup.
(WSJ, 3/7/97, p.A10)(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A7)
1980-1991 Publications in Kurdish were banned in Turkey.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.A12)
1983 Turkey began battling a Kurdish insurgency in the southeast.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)
1984 Abdullah Ocalan, founder of the PKK, turned the group toward armed struggle.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A11)
1984-1996 Turkey was grappling with an 12-year old Kurdish insurgency. More than 21,000 people have died since fighting began.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-6)(SFC, 9/6.96, p.A13)
1985 Mehmed Uzun published his 1st attempt at a modern Kurdish novel: “You." He followed it with an anthology of Kurdish literature in the Kermanci dialect.
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A16)
1987-1988 Some 50-100 thousand Kurds were killed by poisonous gas from Iraqi forces. The Hussein regime bulldozed some 4,000 ethnic Kurd villages due to suspicions of Kurds siding with Iran.
(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B6)(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A11)
1988 Mar 16-1988 Mar 17, Iraqi jets dropped a variety of chemical weapons on the Kurdish town of Halabja and some 5-7,000 residents were killed immediately. The Kurdish city of Halabja, held by Iranian troops and Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas allied with Tehran, was bombed by Iraq. Estimates of casualties varied from several hundred to several thousand.
(SFC, 7/1/02, p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack)
1988 The Iraqi assault on Kurdish villages was part of a campaign known as Anfal. Estimates held as many as 182,000 Kurds dead or missing.
(SFC, 4/18/03, p.A18)
1989 Jul 13, Abdul Rahman Qassemlu, Kurd leader in Iran, was murdered.
(http://tinyurl.com/ecm98)
1991 Jan 17, The Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) began as Coalition planes struck targets in Iraq and Kuwait. The first Iraqi Scud missile attacks on Israel were launched. There were reports of death and injury, and possibly even chemical weapons being used. For a few tense hours, it looked as though Israel would retaliate against Iraq, causing the allied coalition to break up. Six months of preparation and diplomacy might be undone by a few poorly aimed, 1950s-vintage ballistic missiles. Later that evening, U.S. Patriot surface-to-air missiles were launched against the incoming Scuds, and for the first time in history, a ballistic missile was shot down by another missile. The use of Patriot missiles in Israel's defense helped to keep that country out of the Gulf War, thereby safeguarding the integrity of the American-European-Arab coalition.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)(SFEC,12/797, p.A1,16) (HN, 1/17/99)(HNPD, 1/17/99)
1991 Mar 2, The Kurds rose up against Iraqi forces but were crushed by Iraqi armor that killed 50,000 and forced more than a million Kurds to flee to Turkey and Iran.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)
1991 Apr 2, Iraqi state media reported that only a few more days were needed to stamp out fighting with Kurdish rebels, who reported renewed skirmishes around the strategic oil center of Kirkuk.
(AP, 4/2/01)
1991 Apr 5, The UN adopted Resolution 688, which condemned Sadam Hussein’s suppression of the Kurds and demanded respect and political rights for all citizens. A safe haven was established above Iraq’s 36th parallel.
(www.fas.org/news/un/iraq/sres/sres0688.htm)(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)
1991 Apr 7, US military planes began airdropping supplies to Kurdish refugees who were facing starvation and exposure in the snow-covered mountains of northern Iraq. The United States warned Iraq not to interfere with the relief effort.
(AP, 4/7/01)
1991 Apr 10, The US and Britain imposed a no-fly zone to protect 3 Kurdish provinces in northern Iraq.
(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A11)
1991 Apr 12, Kurdish rebels reported the Iraqi army was attacking guerrillas in northern Iraq.
(AP, 4/12/01)
1991 Apr 16, President Bush announced that US forces would be sent into northern Iraq to assist Kurdish refugees.
(AP, 4/16/01)
1991 Apr 20, US Marines landed in northern Iraq to begin building the first center for Kurdish refugees on Iraqi territory. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the US commander of Operation Desert Storm, left Saudi Arabia for home.
(AP, 4/20/01)
1991 Apr 24, A Kurdish rebel leader announced the guerrillas had reached an agreement in principle with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to end the Kurds’ two-week rebellion.
(AP, 4/24/01)
1991 Apr 27, A group of 250 Kurds became the first refugees to move into a new US-built camp in northern Iraq.
(AP, 4/27/01)
1991 In Turkey a ban on the use of the Kurdish language in unofficial settings was lifted.
(SFC, 2/18/99, p.A10)
1991 The UN set up a modest Kurdish haven in the mountains of Iraq.
(Econ, 7/9/16, p.38)
1992 Iraqi Kurdistan held free elections, but the Kurdish government was never formally recognized.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A14)
1992 Rival Kurdish leaders Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani expressed unity. They agreed to share power and held elections where each faction received 50% of the vote.
(SFC, 9/1/96, p.A8)
1992 Musa Anter, author of an early Turkish-Kurdish dictionary, was murdered by assassins. He had taught Mehmed Uzun to write Kurdish while they were in jail.
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A16)
1993 May 24, Separatist Kurdish rebels fatally shot 33 Turkish soldiers and two civilians after forcing them and about two dozen other persons off a bus in the southeastern province of Bingol. This ended a unilateral cease-fire and led the military to intensify a campaign to annihilate the PKK. Testimony in 1999 by Abdullah Ocalan said a regional PKK commander carried out the slaying.
(www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-948140.html)(SFC, 6/2/99, p.C2)
1993 Jul 5, Kurd guerrillas murdered 32 villagers in East Turkey.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1993-1996 Turkey spent $50 million on drug dealers and assassins to kill a Kurdish rebel leader and others considered threats to the state. Abdullah Ocalan, a Kurdish rebel leader in Syria, was targeted as was Dursun Karatas, a leftist terrorist in Europe.
(SFC, 1/24/98, p.A8)
1994 Jul 26, The Turkish air force bombed Kurds in Iraq and 79 people were killed.
(www.hrw.org/reports/1994/turkey2/)
1994-1997 Iraqi Kurds in the east and west fought a fratricidal war.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.51)
1996 Apr 18, Kani Xulam, alleged head of the Kurdish guerilla group, the Kurdistan Worker’s Party PKK, was held in jail in Washington DC on charges of passport fraud.
(SFC, 4/18/96, p.a-15)
1996 May 16, UN and Iraqi officials have reached a tentative agreement to resume oil sales of $4 billion a year to buy food and medicine. The food for oil program mandated that 13% of the UN resources go to northern Kurdish areas.
(SFC, 5/16/96, p.A-9)(SFC, 9/3/01, p.A9)
1996 Jun 30, A young Kurdish rebel disguised as a pregnant woman blew herself up in the midst of a military ceremony and killed 9 soldiers.
(SFC, 7/2/96, p.A12)
1996 Aug 31, Rival Kurdish forces under leaders Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union and Massoud Barzani of the Kurdish Democratic Party clashed. Barzani’s forces participated with Sadam Hussein’s troops in taking Irbil, a Talabani stronghold. Talabani’s forces were reportedly assisted by Iran.
(SFC, 9/1/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug, The KDP invited Saddam into northern Iraq.
(USAT, 3/24/99, p.18A)
1996 Sep 4, The US again launched Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iraqi air defense sites. The 2nd launch was deemed a success after the first launch failed to destroy intended targets. The Tomahawks were made by Hughes Aircraft Co. and cost about $1 mil apiece. Kurdish leader Barzani wrote a latter to Sec. of State Christopher Warren and asked that the US mediate.
(SFC, 4/9/96, A1)(SFC, 9/5/96, p.A8)
1996 Sep 5, Turkey declared a new security zone inside northern Iraq and air attacks were staged on suspected Kurdish rebel bases.
(SFC, 9/6.96, p.A13)
1996 Oct 13, In Iraq the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) regained Sulaymaniyah, its former headquarters.
(SFC, 10/14/96, p.A12)
1996 Oct 29, In Turkey a Kurdish separatist suicide team of 2 killed themselves, 3 policemen and a civilian in the town of Sivas.
(SFC, 10/30/96, p.A10)
1996 Dec 27, In France the foreign ministry said that it would no longer participate in the Operation Provide Comfort after the end of the year. The operation was a multi-national air reconnaissance effort to safeguard Kurdish civilians in northern Iraq.
(SFC, 12/28/96, p.A12)
1997 May 18, In Turkey on the 5th day of a military offensive, the military reported 1,081 guerillas killed as 25-50 thousand Turkish troops crossed the Iraqi border to attack rebels of the Kurdistan workers Party (PKK).
(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A14)
1997 May, Turkish commando units took control of the Bikhayr mountains used by Kurdish rebels as an escape route into Syria.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Jun 26, Turkey announced the end of the 10-week Operation Hammer, its cross-border operation against the Kurds. The Turks reported to have lost 113 men and it was estimated that 3,000 guerrillas of the PKK were killed.
(WSJ, 6/27/97, p.A13)
1997 Jul 20, Turkish troops killed 50 Kurdish guerrillas in the southeast. That raised the weekly total to 84.
(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A9)
1997 Sep 25, Iraq demanded that Turkey pull back some 15,000 troops who crossed its border in pursuit of Kurdistan Workers Party guerrillas.
(WSJ, 9/26/97, p.A1)
1997 Sep 29, Turkish planes attacked Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq and drove the guerrillas toward the Iran border.
(WSJ, 9/30/97, p.A1)
1997 Oct 3, Turkish jets bombed escape routes used by Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Over the last 13 days the army reported 415 rebels dead vs. 6 of its own soldiers.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Nov 28, The book “After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? My Encounters With Kurdistan" by Jonathan C. Randal was reviewed.
(WSJ, 11/28/97, p.A8)
1997 Dec 27, Some 825 illegal immigrants, mostly Kurds, were rescued by Italian tugboats from the Turkish ship Ararat. They were attempting to smuggle into Italy from Turkey.
(SFEC,12/28/97, p.A19)
1998 Feb 17, A UN refugee agency reported that 6,800 Kurds have fled their homes in northern Iraq following reported Turkish air raids on rebel positions.
(SFC, 2/18/98, p.C3)
1998 Apr 13, Turkish army forces captured Semdin Sakik, a field commanded of the PKK, Kurdistan Workers Party, in a secret raid in northern Iraq.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.C12)
1998 Apr 15, Turkish troop clashed with Kurdish separatists near the Iraqi border and claimed to have killed 64 with a loss of 11.
(WSJ, 4/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 8, It was reported that Turkish soldiers had killed 37 Kurdish insurgents in the southeast provinces of Sirnak, Siirt, and Diyarbakir.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 16, In Turkey some 2000 soldiers were flown into northern Iraq to hunt Kurdish rebels who fled there after killing 22 Turkish troops in a raid.
(SFC, 7/17/98, p.A16)
1998 Oct 3, Turkey sent some 10,000 troops into northern Iraq to attack Kurdish rebels.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 21, Turkey and Syria signed an accord whereby Syria agreed to brand the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) as a terrorist group.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.C5)
1998 Oct 23, In Turkey 5 Kurdish rebels burned themselves to death in loyalty to their leader Abdullah Ocalan, who was expelled from Syria.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 12, Abdullah Ocalan, head of the PKK, was arrested in Rome.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A11)
1998 Nov 17, In Turkey a Kurdish guerrilla killed herself and wounded 6 others in a suicide bombing in Yuksekova. In Moscow 2 men were seriously injured when they set themselves on fire, and in Rome some 10,000 marched to oppose the extradition of Ocalan.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 27, In Germany Chancellor Schroeder said he would not seek extradition of Abdullah Ocalan from Italy and called for an int’l. court to try Ocalan on murder and terrorism charges.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 16, In Italy Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party, was freed by an appeals court in Rome. Turkish officials were outraged and renewed threats of economic retaliation.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C4)
1999 Feb 15, Abdullah Ocalan was captured in Kenya while being transferred from the Greek embassy to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, in an operation by the Turkey’s Milli İstihbarat Teskilatı reportedly with the help of CIA. George Costoulas, the Greek consul who protected him, said that his life was in danger after the operation. By 2015 Ocalan authored some 40 books including “To Kill a Man," which became something of a feminist bible.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_%D6calan)(Econ., 3/7/15, p.53)
1999 Feb 16, Turkish commandoes reported the capture of Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya. Kurds seized Greek missions around Europe and took hostages. It was later reported that US data helped the Turks capture Ocalan.
(SFC, 2/17/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/17/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/22/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 17, In Berlin Israeli security guards shot and killed 3 Kurds who forced their way into the Israeli consulate over the arrest of Abdullah Ocalan.
(SFC, 2/18/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 23, Turkey formally arrested Abdullah Ocalan on treason charges.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 24, In Iran 3 Kurds died while fighting police during a protest over the capture of Ocalan.
(WSJ, 2/25/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 21, In Turkey the Kurdish New Year began with unrest and police arrested 1,500 people across the country with the southeast under a virtual state of siege.
(SFC, 3/22/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 3, In Turkey Abdulah Ocalan called on the PKK to abandon its armed struggle and pull forces out of Turkey by Sept. 1.
(SFC, 8/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 5, Kurdish separatist rebels agreed to accept a cease-fire call by Abdullah Ocalan.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 13, Iran agreed under pressure to join Turkey for simultaneous military operations against the PKK.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.A10)
1999 Nov 28, Turkey reported that some 70 Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq had been killed over the last 5 days by Turkish forces in 15 operations.
(SFC, 11/29/99, p.A16)
1999 The Kurdistan KDP and PUK agreed to share power.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A14)
2000 May, The Turkish government banned 12 Kurdish language journals.
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.D4)
2000 Oct 18, In southern Italy the bodies of 6 illegal immigrants, believed to be Kurds, were found dumped on the side of a highway.
(SFC, 10/19/00, p.C10)
2000 Dec 11, In Iraq Saddam Hussein sent troops into the northern Kurdish zone. Kurds and other non-Arab Iraqis were being displaced further north.
(WSJ, 12/12/00, p.A1)(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B6)
2001 Jan 7, Iraqi Kurdish officials reported that at least 500 Turkish troops had pushed 100 miles into northern Iraq in response to a call for help from the PUK. The PUK was fighting the PKK and had lost 200 soldiers in recent weeks. Some 10,000 Turkish troops had entered northern Iraq since Dec 20.
(SFC, 1/8/01, p.A9)
2001 Sep 26, Turkey approved constitutional reforms that eased restrictions on broadcasting and publishing in the Kurdish language.
(SFC, 9/27/01, p.A11)
2001 Ansar al-Islam, blamed for attacks in Iraq and supported by a network of members in Europe, was founded in late 2001 in Kurdish part of northern Iraq by Mullah Krekar, who had lived as refugee in Norway since 1991.
(AP, 1/8/05)
2002 Mar 20, In Italy 928 illegal immigrants, mostly ethnic Kurds, arrived on a rusty cargo ship. A state of emergency was declared to deal with the problem.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 21, In Diyarbakir, Turkey, thousands of Kurdish youths battled Turkish police after authorities banned the celebration of Nowruz, the Zoroastrian New Year.
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 3, Turkey's parliament approved a reform package aimed at boosting its chances of joining the European Union by abolishing the death penalty and granting greater rights to the nation's Kurds.
(AP, 8/3/02)
2002 Aug 31, Five Kurdish migrants were found dead in the back of a cargo truck after they apparently suffocated during a harrowing ferry crossing from Greece to Italy.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2002 Sep 8, The leaders of the two main Kurdish factions, KDP and PUK, that control northern Iraq signed a reconciliation agreement as the United States tries to forge a united front against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
(AP, 9/9/02)
2002 Oct 3, Turkey formally commuted Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's death sentence to life in prison after parliament abolished capital punishment two months ago in a bid to join the European Union.
(AP, 10/3/02)
2002 Oct 4, Lawmakers from rival Iraqi Kurdish factions met for the first time in 8 years, in a rare show of political unity ahead of a possible U.S. attack on Iraq.
(AP, 10/4/02)
2002 Oct 27, Kurdish rebels clashed with Turkish soldiers in the mainly Kurdish southeast, leaving an insurgent dead and five soldiers wounded.
(AP, 10/27/02)
2002 Nov 30, Turkey lifted curfews and restrictions on gatherings in two predominantly Kurdish provinces, ending 15 years of emergency rule in southeastern Turkey and fulfilling a requirement toward joining the European Union.
(AP, 11/30/02)
2002 Dec 4, Kurdish militiamen of the PUK battled Islamic militants (Ansar al-Islam) believed to be linked to al-Qaida in northern Iraq, and as many as 30 militiamen were killed or wounded.
(AP, 12/4/02)(SFC, 12/6/02, p.A18)
2003 Feb 8, In Iraq gunmen posing as defectors from an Islamic extremist group killed Gen. Shawkat Haji Mushir, a political leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and two other Kurdish officials.
(AP, 2/9/03)
2003 Mar 4, In northern Iraq Kurdish soldiers killed 5 Muslim men in a possible case of mistaken identity.
(AP, 3/4/03)(SFC, 3/5/03, p.A10)
2003 Mar 20, Norwegian police arrested Mullah Krekar, the leader of a Kurdish guerrilla group suspected of links to al-Qaida, on kidnapping charges. After settling in Norway in 1991, Krekar founded the Kurdish Ansar al-Islam during visits to Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)(AP, 2/14/12)
2003 Mar 20, Turkey’s parliament approved a motion allowing over-flights for US warplanes. Turkey announced plans to send thousands of troops into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 May 12, The Kurdish regional parliament in Erbil declared Apr 9, the date of the fall of Baghdad to US forces, as a national holiday.
(USAT, 5/13/03, p.11A)
2003 Jul 10, In southeastern Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels raided a village, killing four villagers and injuring another.
(AP, 7/11/03)
2003 Aug 22, Turkish troops clashed with Kurdish rebels in Batman province. 7 Kurds and 2 Turkish soldiers were killed.
(SFC, 8/23/03, p.A3)
2003 Nov 11, The Kurdish guerrilla group that battled the Turkish army for some 15 years announced that it was dissolving itself and was planning to form a new group that would likely would pursue Kurdish rights through negotiations. The Kurdistan Workers Party changed its name to the Congress for Freedom and Democracy in Kurdistan, or KADEK, last year.
(AP, 11/11/03)
2004 Jan 2, Norwegian police arrested Mullah Krekar, Muslim Kurd leader of Ansar al-Islam, on charges connected to 2 suicide bombings in Iraq 2 years ago. Norway ordered Krekar deported in 2005 after declaring him a national security threat, but postponed the move because of worries he could face execution or torture in Iraq.
(SFC, 1/2/04, p.A3)(AP, 2/14/12)
2004 Jan 6, President Bashar Assad began the first-ever visit to Turkey by a Syrian head of state, hoping to further improve ties forge a joint position on growing Kurdish autonomy.
(AP, 1/6/04)(WSJ, 1/7/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun 2, In southeast Turkey Kurdish guerrillas fired on troops a day after announcing an end to a 5-year cease fire.
(WSJ, 6/3/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun 9, Kurdish parties warned that they might bolt Iraq's new government if Shiites gain too much power.
(AP, 6/9/04)
2004 Jun 9, State-run Turkish TV aired its 1st ever broadcast in the Kurdish dialect of Kurmandji. Hours later Leyla Zana and 3 colleagues were released after spending 10 years in jail for belonging to the PKK rebel group.
(Econ, 6/12/04, p.50)
2004 Jun 28, Iran’s Deputy Interior Minister Ali Asghar Ahmadi said two Iranian soldiers and eight rebels were killed in clashes with Kurds. A pro-Kurdish news agency said 16 soldiers and four rebels died.
(AP, 7/10/04)
2004 Jul 8, Iranian troops killed two Turkish Kurdish rebels in clashes close to the Iraqi border, amid reports of a major offensive by Tehran on Ankara's behalf.
(AP, 7/10/04)
2004 Oct 2, About 100,000 Kurds demonstrated outside provincial government offices, demanding that the turbulent, oil hub of Kirkuk be made part of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/2/04)
2004 Oct 2, Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels clashed in southeastern Turkey in fighting that killed two soldiers and a guerrilla.
(AP, 10/3/04)
2004 Nov 12, Dutch police raided a suspected Kurdish separatist training camp in a small village in the southern Netherlands, arresting 29 people. 38 members of the group were arrested nationwide.
(AFP, 11/12/04)(SFC, 11/13/04, p.A18)
2004 Nov 20, Ugur Kaymaz (12) and his father Ahmet Kaymaz (30), a Kurdish truck driver from Kiziltepe, Turkey, were reportedly shot dead by police officers in front of their house. In 2007 all 4 members of the special forces implicated in the killings were exonerated.
(www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/communications/turkey.html)(Econ, 6/23/07, p.60)
2004 Dec 1, Unidentified gunmen in Iraq killed 5 leading members of a Kurdish group that led a 15-year rebellion in southern Turkey.
(WSJ, 12/2/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 3, In Germany 3 Iraqi citizens of Kurdish origin were arrested for plotting to kill Iraqi PM Ayad Allawi. In 2008 the 3 men were convicted and sentenced to prison. The Stuttgart state court convicted the three men of attempted participation in murder and membership in terrorist organization Ansar al-Islam, a radical Islamic group linked to al-Qaida.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2004 Hiner Saleem, filmmaker, authored “My Father’s Rifle," a memoir of his life growing as the son of a Kurdish peshmerga (“those who confront death") fighter.
(WSJ, 12/22/04, p.D8)(Econ, 5/7/15, SR p.3)
2004 Mike Tucker authored “Hell Is Over: Voices of the Kurds After Saddam."
(SSFC, 1/30/05, p.C3)
2005 Jan 26, A suicide car bomber attacked an office of a major Kurdish party, killing or injuring at least 20 people.
(AP, 1/26/05)
2005 Feb 2, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani outlined a set of demands for Shiite political parties and said Kurds would back only Shiites willing to maintain the current Kurd autonomy.
(WSJ, 2/3/05, p.A15)
2005 Mar 10, Iraq's main Shiite party and a Kurdish bloc reached a deal that sets the stage for a new government to be formed when the National Assembly convenes next week.
(AP, 3/10/05)
2005 May 4, An Iraqi carrying hidden explosives detonated them outside a police recruitment center where people were applying for jobs, killing at least 60 Iraqis and wounding some 100. The Iraqi militant group Ansar al-Sunnah claimed responsibility for the bombing at a police recruitment center that killed about 50 Iraqis and wounding about 100, saying in a Web statement the attack was revenge for the Kurds' alliance with US forces.
(AP, 5/4/05)(SFC, 5/5/05, p.A1)
2005 May 13, Turkish soldiers killed 9 Kurdish rebels in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast. Automatic weapons, plastic explosives, grenades, and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher were seized in the operation. A Syrian citizen was among those killed.
(AP, 5/14/05)
2005 May 16, In Turkey 2 Kurdish guerillas trying to attack the home of a Turkish governor were killed after police fired on them as they approached the building.
(AP, 5/16/05)
2005 cJun 4, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish rebels killed 4 Turkish soldiers in a clash near Tunceli.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jul 9, In southeastern Turkey a land mine believed to have been planted by Kurdish rebels killed 3 soldiers. Two other land mines injured seven people in separate explosions.
(AP, 7/10/05)
2005 Jul 11, Kurdish guerrillas kidnapped a Turkish soldier after stopping dozens of cars at a makeshift roadblock in the southeast.
(AP, 7/11/05)
2005 Jul 19, A top Turkish general said the US had given direct orders for the capture of rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leaders in Iraq.
(AP, 7/19/05)
2005 Jul 21, A Kurdish party official said Kurdish leaders have presented a redrawn map with a larger Kurdistan to the Iraqi National Assembly for consideration in the new constitution.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 21, Turkish forces killed 5 Kurdish rebels, including a woman, in a gunbattle in the southeast.
(AP, 7/23/05)
2005 Aug 1, The directors of Turkey's eight privately owned Kurdish language schools announced they were closing them due to bureaucratic hurdles and Kurdish demands for the language to be part of the regular school curriculum.
(AP, 8/1/05)
2005 Aug 5, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish rebels killed 5 Turkish soldiers in a rocket attack.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 13, In Iran at least 17 people were reported killed and many more wounded during anti-government protests in the western province of Kurdistan.
(AP, 8/13/05)
2005 Aug 19, A Kurdish rebel group fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast announced a one-month cease-fire and said it planned to pursue indirect negotiations with the government.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2005 Sep 4, In Turkey a group of nationalist Turks attacked dozens of buses carrying pro-Kurdish demonstrators with stones, following violent clashes between Kurdish demonstrators and police in Istanbul.
(AP, 9/4/05)
2005 Nov 9, In Semdinli, Turkey, 2 government intelligence officers and a PKK informant were caught trying to blow up a bookshop owned by a PKK sympathizer. The affair was said to have been organized by the “deep state," a shadowy coalition of rogue officers and bureaucrats whose powers were being sapped by EU-inspired laws.
(Econ, 4/15/06, p.54)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.52)
2005 At least 68 people, including 9 children, were killed this year in landmine blasts in Turkey’s Kurdish areas bordering Iran and Iraq.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.52)
2006 Jan 24, Banaz Mahmod (20) was raped, beaten, strangled, stuffed in a suitcase and buried in a back garden in Birmingham, England, on her father's orders for becoming involved with a man of whom he did not approve. Mahmod's father was given a life sentence in 2007 for ordering the killing. In 2010 two of her Kurdish cousins were jailed for life by a London court for murdering Mahmod because her family disapproved of her boyfriend.
(www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5263475.ece)(AP, 11/10/10)
2006 Feb 9, In Turkey a bomb attack wounded at least 17 people at an Internet cafe in Istanbul. A hardline Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Turkey a bomb exploded at an Istanbul supermarket during the afternoon rush, injuring 15 people. A Kurdish news agency reported that a Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 15, Kurdish protesters armed with firebombs and stones battled with Turkish police to mark the seventh anniversary of guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's capture.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb, Iranian security forces, according to a Kurdish group, killed 10 demonstrators.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.42)
2006 Mar 4, Iraq's Kurdish president said that he joined Sunni Arab and secular politicians in trying to block the Shiite Muslim prime minister from a second term because Ibrahim al-Jaafari has become a divisive figure.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 11, Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals gathered under tight security for a major 2-day conference in Istanbul to discuss a peaceful resolution to the 22-year-old Kurdish conflict.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 21, More than 100,000 Turkish Kurds celebrated the ancient spring festival of Newroz with dancing, singing and calls for political reform and the release of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 24-2006 Mar 25, In southeastern Turkey government troops killed 14 Kurdish guerrillas near the hamlet of Senyayla.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 28, Thousands of Kurdish protesters rampaged after funerals for Kurdish guerrillas killed by Turkish troops, hurling firebombs at armored police vehicles and smashing windows at a police station. Forty people were injured.
(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Mar 29, In southeastern Turkey riot police fired water cannons and used pepper spray to disperse stone-throwing Kurdish rioters in a second day of violence that an official said left at least three people dead and 250 injured.
(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Mar 30, In southeast Turkey violent protests by thousands of Kurdish demonstrators left at least 20 hurt as protesters hurled firebombs and police opened fire to disperse the crowds.
(AP, 3/3006)
2006 Mar 31, In Turkey a bomb hidden in a garbage can exploded near an Istanbul bus stop, killing a street vendor and injuring 13 people.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Apr 1, Fresh clashes between Kurdish protesters and police in southeast Turkey killed one protester and injured 10.
(Reuters, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 2, In southeastern Turkey one protester died after police opened fire to disperse Kurdish demonstrators, raising the death toll in six days of street violence to nine. A group of men stopped a passenger bus and tossed gasoline bombs at it, sending the vehicle careening into pedestrians and killing 3 in Istanbul as pro-Kurdish riots continued to spread. The countrywide death toll from nearly a week of unrest climbed to 15.
(AP, 4/2/06)(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 8, Local security sources said Turkish security forces had killed seven Kurdish rebels in the past 24 hours in the southeast of the country.
(AP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 27, Turkey said it has deployed more than 30,000 additional troops in its predominantly Kurdish southeast and along its rugged border with Iraq and Iran to fight Kurdish guerrillas and stop them from coming across the frontier.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Jul 16, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled that his government was planning a tough response to mounting violence by Kurdish rebels after 13 members of the security forces were killed in the southeast over the past week.
(AFP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 21, Turkey killed 4 Kurdish rebels after a soldier died in an attack.
(WSJ, 7/22/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 19, A suspected Kurdish rebel attack caused an explosion and huge fire on a natural gas pipeline in eastern Turkey.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 23, A leader of Kurdish rebels battling Turkey's government said in a rare interview that his guerrillas will not give in to US pressure to disarm without a "political project" that fulfills their calls for autonomy. PKK party officials met with a group of journalists in the rugged, isolated Qandil Mountain in Iraq's northeast corner where the group is based.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 29, An extremist Kurdish militant group warned that "the fear of death will reign everywhere in Turkey" and it urged tourists to avoid travel to the country.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Sep 1, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani ordered the Iraqi national flag to be replaced with the Kurdish one in his northern autonomous region. Gunmen fatally shot one policeman in each of two towns outside of Baghdad in separate incidents. Police said they found the body of a Saddam Hussein-era intelligence officer who had been kidnapped and shot. A US soldier died from wounds sustained during action in Anbar province.
(AP, 9/1/06)(AP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 19, The Iraqi government said it will shut down all offices belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) around the country. A rocket attack on a Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad killed 10 people and wounded 19. In northern Iraq at least 17 people were killed and 11 wounded in twin bombings in the town of Al-Shurqat.
(AP, 9/19/06)(AFP, 9/20/06)
2006 Sep 23, In eastern Turkey suspected Kurdish guerrillas set off an explosive-laden minibus across from a police guest house, injuring 17 people.
(AP, 9/23/06)
2006 Sep 26, In Turkey 56 Kurdish mayors stood trial, accused in a freedom-of-speech case on charges of helping terrorists by arguing to keep a Kurdish TV station on the air.
(AP, 9/26/06)
2006 Sep 28, Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has appealed to his Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to call a ceasefire in its separatist campaign against the Turkish government.
(AFP, 9/28/06)
2006 Sep 30, A Kurdish guerrilla group declared a new unilateral cease-fire in its war for autonomy in Turkey's southeast, heeding a call from its imprisoned rebel leader.
(AP, 9/30/06)
2006 Sep, The English-language Univ. of Kurdistan opened in Kurdish controlled Iraq with some 300 undergraduates and 50 graduate students.
(SFC, 8/3/07, p.A10)
2006 Dec 7, In Armenia 3 teenagers and their grandmother set themselves on fire in Yerevan to protest what they said was authorities' inaction on investigating a relative's death, a family member said. Two of them were injured. They argued that the case was not being investigated because of discrimination against the Yazidi, a Kurdish ethnic group. About 50,000 Yazidi live in Armenia.
(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 The Kurdish populace was spread across Turkey (14m), Iran (4m), Iraq (5m), Syria (2m), Armenia and Azerbaijan. They claimed to be the world’s largest ethnic populations without a state of their own. Almost all Kurds are Sunni Muslims.
(SFC, 9/2/96, p.A12)(Econ, 9/2/06, p.12)
2007 Apr 12, Turkey's army chief said the military had launched several "large scale" offensives against rebels in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, and he asked the government for approval to launch an incursion into neighboring northern Iraq.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 25, A UN report was released that said that violence in Baghdad remains at high levels. The UN Assistance Mission in Iraq singled out Kurdistan in its 10th human rights report on Iraq, expressing concern over infringements on freedom of expression by the regional government. A suicide bomber wearing a hidden belt of explosives attacked a police station in Iraq's volatile province of Diyala, killing at least four policeman. Roadside bombs, mortar rounds and drive-by shootings also killed 10 Iraqis and wounded 23 in the Baghdad area and the cities of Kirkuk, Mosul and Fallujah.
(AP, 4/25/07)(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 May 25, Kurdish guerrillas bombed and derailed a Syria-bound train from Iran near the town of Genc in Turkey’s southeastern Bingol province. Turkish authorities later seized weapons hidden among construction materials found on the train following the attack.
(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 May 31, Turkish lawmakers approved again a constitutional amendment that would see the president elected by popular vote, a change vetoed last week by the outgoing head of state. Turkey's top general said the military was ready to stage a cross-border offensive to fight Kurdish guerrillas in Iraq and that he already had sought government approval to mount military action.
(AFP, 5/31/07)(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 Jun 1, In southeast Turkey soldiers killed two Kurdish militants overnight in Tunceli, where troops massed along the border threatened an incursion into Iraq.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Jun 3, Turkish troops shelled a border area in northern Iraq in an attack on Kurdish rebels based there.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 4, Seven Turkish paramilitary police were killed when Kurdish militants attacked their headquarters in eastern Tunceli province.
(AP, 6/4/07)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.58)
2007 Jun 6, A premature report said several thousand Turkish troops had crossed into northern Iraq to chase Kurdish guerrillas who operate from bases there. Turkey declared several areas near the border with Iraq to be "temporary security zones" in a sign of increasing activity by the military in its campaign against Kurdish rebels. Turkey's foreign minister denied there was a cross-border operation.
(AP, 6/6/07)(AP, 6/7/07)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.58)
2007 Jun 11, In London, England, Mahmod Mahmod (52), a Kurdish father who ordered his daughter brutally slain for falling in love with the wrong man in a so-called "honor killing," was found guilty of murder. Banaz Mahmod (20) was strangled with a boot lace, stuffed into a suitcase and buried in a back garden.
(AP, 6/11/07)
2007 Jun 12, Kurdish separatist rebels declared a "unilateral cease-fire" in attacks against Turkey and said they were ready for peace negotiations, but the group maintained the right to defend itself.
(AP, 6/12/07)
2007 Jun 23, In Turkey a separatist Kurdish rebel and a civilian were killed in a botched suicide attack in the eastern province of Tunceli. Paramilitary troops opened fire on the truck as it was approaching a military outpost at which point the vehicle exploded. Fighting elsewhere left five rebels and a government militia member dead.
(AFP, 6/24/07)
2007 Jun 27, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, Turkey's military chief, asked his government to set political guidelines for an incursion into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish guerrillas.
(AP, 6/27/07)
2007 Jul 3, A human rights group said Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq routinely torture detainees with methods including electric shock and hold them in overcrowded facilities without formal charges or access to legal aid.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 6, Turkey's foreign minister said his government and military have agreed on plans for a possible cross-border operation against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 11, Kurdish leaders spoke out against a key oil law, raising further doubts over efforts to pass one of the political benchmarks sought by the United States.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Turkey's ambassador to Washington said that US weapons have been turning up in the hands of Kurdish guerrillas staging attacks in Turkey.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 12, Iranian artillery shelled near Iraqi Kurd villages as Iranian troops clashed with Kurdish guerrillas making an incursion across the border.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Aug 7, Kurdish guerrillas killed a Turkish lieutenant in the southeast, as the Iraqi prime minister arrived for a visit. Turkey and Iraq agreed to try to root out a Kurdish rebel group from northern Iraq, but Iraq's prime minister said his parliament would have the final say on efforts to halt the guerrillas' cross-border attacks into Turkey. Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish government approved a regional oil law, paving the way for foreign investment in their northern oil and gas fields even as similar US-backed legislation for the entire country remained stalled. Two US Marines died west of Baghdad, one in fighting and the other in a non-combat incident that was under investigation.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 10, A car bomb struck a market in a Kurdish area in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens. Scattered violence struck Iraqis nationwide, with at least 15 people killed or found dead. South of Baghdad, the US military said a helicopter was forced down, leaving two soldiers injured.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 12, In southeast Turkey 12 were injured, three of them seriously, when Kurdish guerrillas detonated a roadside bomb.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 26, A US helicopter attacked two Kurdish police outposts, killing four policemen and wounding eight. A spokesman for the Kurdish Peshmerga militia believed the attack was mistaken friendly fire. Waves of Shiite pilgrims descended on Karbala for the Shabaniyah festival marking the birth of the 9th century Hidden Imam. A woman making the 50-mile trek from Baghdad was shot to death by men in a passing car in the southwest of the capital.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 30, Turkish legislators said that American weapons have been turning up in the hands of Kurdish guerrillas staging attacks in Turkey.
(SFC, 8/31/07, p.A17)
2007 Sep 10, It was reported that the regional government of Kurdistan had signed a deal with Dallas-based Hunt Oil Co. to explore for oil in their region.
(WSJ, 9/10/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 12, Turkish troops killed 4 Kurdish guerrillas in the southeastern province of Siirt.
(AP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 26, Officials said Turkey and Iraq have agreed to sign a counterterrorism deal cracking down on separatist Kurdish rebels holed up in bases in northern Iraq.
(AP, 9/26/07)
2007 Sep 30, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish rebels ambushed a minibus carrying pro-government village guards and civilians and killed 12 people.
(AP, 9/29/07)
2007 Oct 7, Kurdish rebels killed 13 Turkish soldiers in a clash in the country's southeast, and troops responded by shelling an area near Iraq to try to stop the rebels from escaping across the border.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 9, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan gave the green light for a possible military incursion into northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels hiding there after several deadly attacks on Turkish security forces.
(Reuters, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 10, It was reported that Turkey had begun shelling suspected Kurdish rebel camps across the border in northern Iraq. The government appeared unlikely to move toward sending ground troops until next week.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 17, Turkey’s Parliament gave the government a one-year window in which to launch cross-border offensives against Turkish Kurd rebels who've been conducting raids into Turkey. The vote removed the last legal obstacle to an offensive.
(AP, 10/18/07)(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 18, Thousands of Kurds and supporters took to the streets in northern Iraq to protest the Turkish parliament's decision to authorize the government to send troops across the border to root out Kurdish rebels who have been conducting raids into Turkey.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 21, Kurdish rebels ambushed a Turkish military convoy less than three miles from the Iraqi border, killing 12 soldiers with 8 missing. The rebels said they are holding them hostage. Turkey shelled the border region in response to the attack, and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, ordered the rebels to lay down their arms or leave Iraq.
(AP, 10/21/07)(WSJ, 10/22/07, p.A1)(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 23, Turkey's foreign minister rejected any cease-fire by Kurdish rebels as he met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad to press them to crack down on the guerrillas. Turkish forces massed on the border and tensions rose over a threatened military incursion.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 24, Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships reportedly attacked positions of Kurdish rebels just inside Turkey along the border with Iraq, as Turkey's military stepped up its anti-rebel operations. Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq’s Kurdish region, called on the PKK to end its violence in Turkey.
(AP, 10/24/07)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.61)
2007 Oct 26, A high-level Iraqi delegation held talks with Turkish officials to try to defuse tensions over Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq. Turkish helicopters and fighter jets pounded Kurdish rebel positions as diplomatic efforts began in Ankara.
(AP, 10/26/07)(Reuters, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 28, Turkish troops killed some 20 Kurdish guerrillas in fighting in eastern Tunceli province. Turkey's PM Erdogan called for unity between Turks and Kurds against the rebels.
(Reuters, 10/28/07)(AP, 10/29/07)(WSJ, 10/29/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 29, Turkey's state-run news said soldiers battled separatist Kurdish rebels across southeast Turkey, trapping about 100 in caves near the Iraqi border after blocking escape routes across the frontier. Helicopter gunships bombed Kurdish rebel positions in southeast Turkey and the government flexed its military muscle with big national day parades and flypasts in major cities.
(AP, 10/29/07)(Reuters, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 30, Turkish Cobra attack helicopters blasted suspected Kurdish rebel targets near the southeastern border with Iraq in a second day of fighting in the area. PM Erdogan said an escalation of military action was unavoidable.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 31, The Turkish army said it killed 15 Kurdish separatists near the Iraqi border, as ministers discussed possible economic sanctions against Iraq's autonomous Kurdish government.
(AFP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, The US acknowledged that it had undertaken military moves against Kurdish rebels in Iraq, including spy planes and providing Turkey with more intelligence.
(WSJ, 11/1/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 2, Iraqi police found only six bodies dumped in three Iraqi cities, and no reports of shootings or bombings. The prime minister of Iraq's northern Kurdish region condemned attacks by Kurdish rebel fighters inside Turkey and said he hopes a weekend summit in Istanbul will reduce the threat of Turkish military strikes inside Iraq.
(AP, 11/2/07)(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 3, Some 5,000 Turkish Kurds protested against a military incursion into Iraq, saying such a move would enflame ethnic tensions in the region and plunge the local economy into ruin. Iraq said it was ready to hunt down and arrest Kurdish guerrilla leaders responsible for cross-border raids into Turkey in an effort to avert a major incursion by the Turkish military.
(AFP, 11/3/07)(Reuters, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 4, Two carloads of gunman ambushed a top aide to Iraq's Finance Ministry in Baghdad, killing him and his driver. The two were among 15 people killed or found dead in Iraq. Kurdish rebels released eight Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq two weeks after they were captured in a deadly ambush that intensified pressure on the Turkish government to attack the guerrillas in Iraq.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 6, Kurdish rebels released another Iranian soldier captured two months ago in northern Iraq.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 13, Turkish helicopter gunships attacked abandoned villages inside Iraq, the first such airstrike since border tensions have escalated in recent months. Kurdish guerrillas killed four Turkish soldiers in a clash in southeastern Turkey.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 16, Turkish authorities took steps to ban the country's leading pro-Kurdish political party and expel several of its lawmakers from parliament on charges of separatism.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Dec 1, The Turkish military said it fired on 50 to 60 Kurdish rebels inside Iraqi territory, inflicting "significant losses."
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 5, Turkish soldiers killed eight Kurdish rebels, increasing the rebel death toll to 14 in a two-day clash near the border with Iraq.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 16, Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish rebel targets, marking an escalation of force against the outlawed separatist group. An Iraqi official said the planes attacked several villages, killing one woman. Turkey’s military later said up to 175 rebels were killed on this day. A Kurdish leader said the figure was exaggerated.
(AP, 12/16/07)(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 18, The Turkish army sent soldiers about 1.5 miles into northern Iraq in an overnight operation. A Turkish official said the troops seeking Kurdish rebels were still in Iraq by midmorning.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 22, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in the third confirmed cross-border offensive by Turkish forces in less than a week.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 23, Turkish fighter jets bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 26, Turkish warplanes hit eight suspected Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq, the third cross-border air assault in 10 days. Troops killed 6 rebels near the Iraqi border.
(AP, 12/26/07)(WSJ, 12/27/07, p.A1)
2007 Ian Klaus authored “Elvis Is Titanic: Classroom Tales from the Other Iraq," an account of his time as a teacher in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Klaus, a former boyfriend of Chelsea Clinton, taught there in 2005.
(WSJ, 9/1/07, p.P9)
2007 Aliza Marcus authored “Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence."
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.100)
2007 In western Iran Kurdish Law student Habibollah Latifi was arrested accused of carrying activities on behalf of "anti- revolutionary" groups. He was sentenced to death in 2008.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2007 The Kurdish population in Turkey numbered about 14 million.
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.60)
2008 Jan 3, In Turkey a car bomb exploded in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern city of Diyarbakir, killing 6 people, including 5 students. 67 people were wounded, including military personnel.
(AP, 1/3/08)(Reuters, 1/4/08)(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 7, In Turkey an accused Kurdish rebel suspected of detonating a deadly car bomb last week in Diyarbakir was captured. Six other suspects also were detained.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 8, Pres. Bush met with Turkey’s Pres. Abdullah Gul to discuss US policy on Turkey's fight against Kurdish rebels. Bush prepared to leave later in the day on his first major trip to the Mideast to try to build momentum for peace.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 15, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in the latest in a series of cross-border air strikes.
(AFP, 1/15/08)
2008 Feb 4, Turkey’s warplanes bombed some 70 Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 15, In southeast Turkey hundreds of Kurdish protesters battled police, leaving a young demonstrator dead and dozens injured on the ninth anniversary of guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's capture.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 21, Turkish troops launched a ground incursion across the border into Iraq in pursuit of separatist Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 25, Turkey's military said it had killed 41 more separatist Kurdish rebels in clashes in northern Iraq, raising the reported guerrilla death toll in a cross-border operation to 153.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 26, The Iraqi government demanded for the first time that Turkey immediately withdraw from northern Iraq, warning it feared the ongoing incursion could lead to clashes with the official forces of the semiautonomous Kurdish region.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 27, Turkey said the death toll for rebels reached 230 during the operation in northern Iraq that began last week. The death toll for soldiers stood at 24. Troops killed 77 Kurdish rebels in night-long clashes with 5 Turkish soldiers killed.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 29, Turkey's military said it has ended a ground offensive against Kurdish rebels in Iraq, but said that foreign influence did not play a role in its decision.
(AP, 2/29/08)
2008 Mar 6, A Kurdish demonstrator wounded a day earlier in clashes with police in eastern Turkey died of his injuries.
(AP, 3/7/08)
2008 Mar 7, Suspected Kurdish rebels killed a civilian and took another hostage in a southern Turkish province near the border with Syria.
(AP, 3/7/08)
2008 Mar 12, Turkish troops killed 11 Kurdish rebels during clashes near the border with Iraq.
(WSJ, 3/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 20, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 21, In Turkey unrest erupted when celebrations marking Newroz day, or the Kurdish new year, degenerated into demonstrations in favor of the armed separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara lists as a terrorist group.
(AFP, 3/22/08)
2008 Mar 22, In Turkey dozens of people were injured and scores detained as police used truncheons and tear gas to break up violent Kurdish protests in several eastern cities.
(AP, 3/22/08)
2008 Mar 23, Iranian artillery shelled three border towns in northern Iraq where Iranian Kurdish rebels are believed to be operating.
(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 23, In southeast Turkey Kurdish protesters clashed with police for a 4th day. Two people have been killed In the clashes and dozens injured.
(WSJ, 3/24/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 27, Turkey's armed forces killed 15 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq using long-range land weapons.
(Reuters, 3/29/08)
2008 Mar 28, Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/29/08)
2008 Mar 31, Turkey's top court decided to put the Islamist-rooted ruling party on trial for alleged anti-secular activity, in a case that could threaten national stability and Ankara's bid to join the EU. Clashes between Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels left nine rebels and three soldiers dead in Turkey's southeast.
(AFP, 3/31/08)(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 16, Turkish warplanes hit a group of Kurdish rebels reportedly trying to infiltrate Turkey from the Avasin-Basyan region of northern Iraq. A clash between Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels near Turkey's southeastern border with Iraq left a Turkish soldier dead.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 25, Turkish warplanes and artillery units struck Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq who were preparing to cross the border to carry out attacks. The strikes continued the next day.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 May 2, A rebel spokesman said Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel bases deep inside Iraq for three hours overnight. The Turkish military said the raid in northern Iraq killed more than 150 Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 9, In southeast Turkey a land mine explosion killed 3 people and injured 3 others. Air strikes launched in retaliation for a rebel raid killed 19 Kurdish fighters. Six soldiers died in the violence. The PKK denied the military's claims of 19 rebel deaths saying "not a single guerrilla was killed."
(AP, 5/9/08)(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 10, Turkish warplanes and artillery units destroyed key Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq, including a communications center, in a second day of raids on rebel positions.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 12, Iraqi Kurdish officials said Turkish jets overnight struck suspected Kurdish rebel targets close to the border in northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 17, In eastern Turkey a clash between soldiers and Kurdish rebels left 6 rebels dead in Van province.
(AP, 5/17/08)
2008 May 22, Two Turkish soldiers were killed in an overnight clash with Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey. Troops killed two Kurdish rebels near the southeastern city of Sirnak,
(AP, 5/22/08)(AP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 23, In Turkey one rebel and one village guard were killed in a clash near the border with Iran.
(AP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 28, Turkey's state-run media said soldiers killed two Kurdish rebels during a clash near the border with Iran.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 29, Turkish warplanes attacked several Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq. No casualties were immediately reported. Air raids destroyed 16 Kurdish rebel facilities.
(AP, 5/29/08)(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 Jun 5, A Turkish TV station quoted a senior military commander as saying that Turkey and Iran have carried out coordinated strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jul 8, In eastern Turkey Kurdish guerrillas kidnapped three German tourists on a climbing expedition. The Germans were released on July 20.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 9, In Istanbul, Turkey, men armed with pistols and shotguns attacked a police guard post outside the US consulate, sparking a gunbattle that left 3 attackers and 3 officers dead.
(AP, 7/9/08)(Reuters, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 11, A Turkish news agency reported that army troops clashed with Kurdish rebels in the southeast and that 10 of the rebels were killed.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 16, Turkey’s military said 11 Kurdish rebels were killed in an ongoing operation in Hakkari province, near the border with Iraq.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 18, In southeastern Turkey 10 members of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in clashes with Turkish military forces.
(Reuters, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 23, Iraq's Kurdish government has denounced a draft law paving the way for US-backed provincial elections and urged the presidential council to reject it. The 18-year-old son of the chief editor of a US-sponsored newspaper was shot to death as an American patrol passed nearby in the northern city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 7/23/08)(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 23, Turkish warplanes bombed 13 Kurdish rebel targets in the Zab region of northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 27, In Istanbul, Turkey, bomb blasts killed 17 people in a crowded square in the residential neighborhood of Gungoren. 5 of the dead were children. Turkish warplanes bombed 12 Kurdish rebel targets on Mount Qandil in northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/28/08)(AP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 29, Turkish warplanes attacked Kurdish rebels in Iraq's north, killing a group of guerrillas gathered at a mountain cave.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Aug 5, In Turkey an oil pipeline that has allowed the West to tap the rich fields of Azerbaijan, bypassing Iran and Russia, was set on fire. A Kurdish rebel organization later admitted sabotaging the pipeline.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 13, In northwest Iran three Kurdish separatists and one Iranian soldier were killed in a shootout.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Sep 25, Turkish warplanes bombarded Kurdish rebel territory in northern Iraq, damaging a school and wounding three people.
(AP, 9/26/08)
2008 Oct 3, Fighting between Kurdish rebels and Turkey's army and air force in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq killed 15 soldiers and at least 23 insurgents, in the deadliest battle between the longtime enemies this year.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 6, Turkish warplanes bombed a Kurdish rebel hideout in northern Iraq, the third air strike in retaliation for an attack that killed 15 soldiers three days ago.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 7, Turkish warplanes bombed suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey, in new air strikes responding to an attack that killed 17 soldiers at a military outpost four days ago.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 8, In Turkey rebels ambushed a police bus, killing four policemen and the driver in the Kurdish-dominated city of Diyarbakir, further escalating tensions.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 10, In Iraq Diyar Abbas Ahmed (28), a Kurdish journalist, was gunned down in Kirkuk. A New York-based journalists' group said it was the 136th killing of a reporter since the US-led invasion of Iraq five years ago.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 11, Turkish warplanes and artillery bombed dozens of Kurdish rebel targets overnight in northern Iraq following an escalation in rebel attacks. Engin Ceber (29), a left-wing activist, was tortured and beaten to death in an Istanbul prison.
(AP, 10/11/08)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.61)(http://erkansaka.net/blog2/2008/10/engin_ceber.html)
2008 Oct 15, The Turkish military clashed with Kurdish rebels near the Iraqi border in battles in which four soldiers and five rebels were killed. A Turkish helicopter crashed during the clash. A soldier was killed and 15 security personnel were slightly injured in the crash.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 17, Turkish warplanes carried out successful airstrikes inside Iraq on the main bases used by Kurdish rebels. The air strikes on Qandil Mountain killed 25 Kurdish rebels and wounded many more. Earlier in the day, the military said it intercepted Kurdish rebel radio chatter indicating that up to 35 guerrillas had been killed in clashes with troops earlier this week in southeastern Sirnak province.
(AP, 10/17/08)(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 19, Turkish warplanes again bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts across the border in northern Iraq. The bombings targeted four towns near the Turkish border.
(AP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 20, A Kurdish demonstrator died after a clash with police in eastern Turkey. Kurdish protesters staged demonstrations in many parts of Turkey over the weekend following allegations that Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan was mistreated in prison.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 21, Turkish soldiers killed two Kurdish guerrillas during a clash near the village of Dallitepe in the country's southeast.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 28, Turkey's warplanes and artillery struck Kurdish rebel targets inside northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Nov 19, Iran's official news agency said Iranian border guards have killed several Kurdish separatists in a shootout in the western part of the country. The gunmen were said to be part of the Kurdish separatist group, known as the PEJAK, the Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Dec 7, A Kurdish rebel group declared a nine-day holiday cease-fire in their fight against Turkey, calling it a "first step toward peace."
(AP, 12/7/08)
2009 Jan 19, In Turkey Abdulkarim Kirca committed suicide. He was found shot in the head in his apartment in Ankara, following allegations in the Turkish press that he had been involved in extra-judicial killings of Kurds.
(Econ, 1/31/09, p.58)(www.journalistinturkey.com/date/2009/01/)
2009 Jan 23, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said Turkey, Iraq and the United States have agreed to set up a joint command center in northern Iraq to gather intelligence to fight Kurdish PKK rebels in the region.
(Reuters, 1/23/09)
2009 Feb 15, In Turkey police clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators across the country's predominantly Kurdish southeast during protests marking the 10th anniversary of a separatist rebel leader's capture.
(AP, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 24, A Kurdish politician spoke to lawmakers in Turkey's parliament in the Kurdish language, openly defying the law, to celebrate UNESCO world languages week. State-run television immediately cut off the live broadcast.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Mar 12, Turkish warplanes carried out new bombing raids against Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq. The strike targeted hideouts of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the Zap-Avashin region of the Kurdish-held autonomous north of Iraq.
(AFP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 23, Turkey's president began the first visit to Iraq by a Turkish head of state in more than 30 years, seeking to press Iraqi leaders to stop Kurdish rebels from launching cross-border attacks on Turkey. In northern Iraq a suicide bombing against a Kurdish funeral in Jalula killed 27 people. 8 people were killed in a bombing at a bus stop west of Baghdad. A suicide blast in Tel Afar killed police officer and wounded 8 people.
(AP, 3/23/09)(AP, 3/24/09)(SFC, 3/24/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 24, Kurdish rebels rejected calls by Iraq's president to stop fighting against Turkey and leave Iraqi territory as the visiting Turkish president stepped up pressure on the Baghdad government to act against the group.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Apr 27, In Turkey a five-hour police shootout with a leftist militant in Istanbul left three people dead, including the militant described as a top member of a group tied to the Kurdish separatist PKK. The militant was identified as Orhan Yilmazkaya, one of three top members of the Revolutionary Headquarters.
(AP, 4/27/09)
2009 Apr 29, In southeastern Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels detonated a roadside bomb that killed nine soldiers in a US-made armored personnel carrier.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 30, Turkey's military said its warplanes struck Kurdish rebel targets overnight in northern Iraq.
(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 May 4, Iraq’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad and handed him a letter of protest, demanding that Iran halt shelling against Kurdish rebels in the country's north and warned the "extremely dangerous violations" of Iraqi territory could harm relations between the two countries.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 28, Turkish warplanes attacked Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, hours after a land mine blast on the Turkish side of the border killed six soldiers.
(AP, 5/28/09)
2009 Jun 13, A Turkish soldier and a Kurdish rebel were killed in fighting in the southeast of Turkey near the border with Iraq.
(AFP, 6/14/09)
2009 Jul 25, Iraqis voted in elections in the self-ruled Kurdish north. Regional Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, who has been a consistent critic of the central government, won re-election with almost 70% of the vote, while the leading candidate from the opposition party, Kamal Mirawdeli, received 25%. A coalition of the two ruling parties, Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, received a little over 57% of the vote for the 111-seat parliament, while the opposition Gorran, or Change, party took about 23%.
(AP, 7/25/09)(AP, 7/29/09)
2009 Jul 29, Turkey's government said it is prepared to grant more rights to the nation's Kurds in an effort to end the 25-year insurgency by Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 7/29/09)
2009 Aug 25, Turkey's military indicated that it would back government efforts to grant more rights to Kurds and improve the economy of their region. The military, however, drew the line at moves that would involve negotiating with Kurdish rebels, harm Turkey's unity or make Kurdish an official language.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Sep 5, In Iraq hundreds of Sunni Arabs opposed to the presence of Kurdish troops in disputed areas of northern Iraq demonstrated against a plan to deploy a mixed force of American, Kurdish and Iraqi soldiers in the area.
(AP, 9/5/09)
2009 Oct 15, Iraq’s PM Nouri al-Maliki warned Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stop conducting military operations across Iraq's northern border targeting Kurdish rebels and stressed that Iraq's sovereignty can not be violated. The two met in Baghdad and were to sign agreements boosting economic ties between their countries. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol in Baghdad, killing one Iraqi soldier.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 19, In Turkey tens of thousands of Kurds flocked to the Iraqi border to greet 34 PKK fighters and their sympathizers, who gave themselves up following a call by PM Erdogan to return home.
(Econ, 10/24/09, p.63)
2009 Oct 20, Turkish prosecutors sought charges against 5 Kurdish rebels who surrendered in a peace gesture, raising questions about whether thousands of other guerrillas can be persuaded to end their decades-long fight. The 5 were later released on the orders of a judge.
(AP, 10/20/09)(Econ, 10/24/09, p.63)
2009 Oct 28, Kurdish President Massoud Barzani said the Kurds would not accept a proposed "special status," referring to distinct voting rules specifically for Kirkuk in Iraq's January election, which Kurds say would favor other ethnicities.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Nov 11, Iran executed Ehsan Fattahian (28), a Kurdish activist, at a prison in Sanandaj. He was a member of the Party of Free Life in Kurdistan, a militant group outlawed by Iran.
(SFC, 11/12/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 13, Turkey's government announced new measures aimed at reconciling with minority Kurds and ending a 25-year-old insurgency, but there was no mention of the sweeping amnesty sought by Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 11/13/09)
2009 Dec 1, Turkey's government approved a plan to open the country's first Kurdish-language department at a university as part of its efforts to reconcile with the Kurdish minority. Small scale violence continued for the third day in a row as stone-throwing Kurdish militants clashed with police across the nation in the wake of last week's anniversary of the 1978 founding of the PKK rebel group.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 7, In Turkey a Kurdish rebel group, acting on its own initiative, carried out an assault in the central city of Tokat killing 7 Turkish soldiers. 3 soldiers were also wounded in the rebel ambush on a military vehicle.
(AP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 12, In Turkey angry Kurds battled Turkish police with rocks and firebombs to protest a decision by the country's top court to shut down a pro-Kurdish political party on charges of ties to militants.
(AP, 12/12/09)
2009 Dec 13, Turkish nationalists and Kurdish activists clashed in Istanbul, leaving at least one person injured from a gunshot during street battles.
(AFP, 12/13/09)
2009 Dec 15, In Turkey two Kurds were killed in Bulanik after a shop-keeper fired on protesters.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.91)
2009 Dec 19, An Iraqi official said a mass grave discovered in northeast Iraq contains dozens of bodies, mostly of women and children, believed killed during a crackdown against Kurds by former dictator Saddam Hussein. The grave was originally found nearly two years ago west of Kirkuk, though its discovery was only made public this week after forensic pathologists began examining it.
(AP, 12/19/09)
2009 Dec 24, Turkish police detained 31 people, including eight Kurdish mayors, in a sweeping dawn operation targeting Kurdish separatists.
(AP, 12/24/09)
2009 Syria’s population numbered about 22 million people, including about 1.5 million Kurds.
(Econ, 11/28/09, p.50)
2010 Jan 22, Some 124 refugees, who said they are Kurds and Tunisians, landed on the southern shore of Corsica after a lengthy journey at sea.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Feb 21, Iranian state television reported that intelligence agents have killed four members of an armed Kurdish separatist group near the Kurdish town of Sardasht. The report accused the four of killing three policemen in a clash on Dec 26.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Spain Hokman Joma tried to hit Turkey’s PM Erdogan with a shoe as the Turkish leader got into a car during a visit to the southern city of Seville. Hokman shouted "Long live Kurdistan" in Spanish before being arrested. In June the Syrian Kurd was sentenced to three years in jail in Spain.
(AP, 9/22/10)
2010 Mar 21, Syrian police opened fire at a group of Kurds celebrating the new year, killing at least one person despite signs that tensions were easing between the government and its restive Kurdish minority.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Apr 30, Kurdish rebels killed four Turkish soldiers and wounded seven others in eastern Turkey in the largest attack on troops in several months.
(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 May 3, In Iraq two American soldiers died from injuries sustained in separate incidents unrelated to combat. Sardasht Othman (23), a Kurdish journalist, was kidnapped in front of the campus of University of Salahuddin in the regional capital of Irbil. His handcuffed and bullet-riddled body was found four days later outside the Kurdish region in Mosul.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, In Iran 5 Kurdish rebels, including two women, were killed after they battled Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards in the western province of Kermanshah.
(AFP, 5/5/10)
2010 May 7, The Turkish air force struck Kurdish rebel hideouts in neighboring northern Iraq after an attack inside Turkey left two soldiers dead.
(AFP, 5/8/10)
2010 May 9, Iran hanged five Kurdish activists, including one woman, convicted of membership of armed opposition groups and involvement in bombings.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 12, In Iraq more than a thousand Kurds poured into the streets of the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah in a growing wave of outrage, blaming authorities for the kidnapping and murder of a young Kurdish journalist. A late night car bomb tore through a cafe in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood killing nine people. It appeared to have detonated prematurely, also blowing up three suspected militants in the vehicle. The dead included young people who had gathered to drink tea and play dominoes. A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in Baghdad's central al-Nahda square, killing a bystander and wounding 8 others, including five policemen. An Iraqi army lieutenant was shot dead by a sniper in the afternoon while manning a checkpoint in New Baghdad.
(AP, 5/12/10)(AP, 5/13/10)(SFC, 5/13/10, p.A2)(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 20, Twenty Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebels in northwestern Iraq.
(SFC, 5/21/10, p.A2)
2010 May 29, A Kurdish newspaper said imprisoned Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan has accused Turkey of ignoring his calls to establish dialogue with his rebels and that he would withdraw from the process, leaving his rebel command in charge.
(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 May 29, Turkey’s military said 3 security forces members were killed and two soldiers were wounded in clashes with Kurdish rebels in southeast Turkey.
(Reuters, 5/29/10)
2010 May 31, Kurdish rebels launched a rocket attack on a military vehicle near naval base in southern Turkey, killing six soldiers and wounding seven.
(AP, 5/31/10)
2010 Jun 4, Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq announced they had ended their unilateral ceasefire with Turkey a day after Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani met Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and pledged "all efforts" to stop rising rebel violence.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 5, A senior Kurdish official in northern Iraq said Iranian troops have crossed the Iraqi border in pursuit of Iranian Kurdish rebels. Jabar Yawar, a deputy minister in the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq, said that 35 Iranian soldiers remain in the Iraqi village of Perdunaz after crossing the border on June 3.
(AP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 10, An Iranian state-owned newspaper said three policemen in western Iran have been killed by a roadside bomb detonated by Kurdish rebels. Members of the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PEJAK) were blamed.
(AP, 6/10/10)
2010 Jun 16, Human Rights Watch called on Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq to ban the practice of female genital mutilation, and said in a new report that the majority of women in the self-ruled region undergo the medically risky and emotionally painful procedure.
(AP, 6/16/10)
2010 Jun 18, Turkey's military said it killed as many as 120 Kurdish rebels in an air raid on rebel hideouts in northern Iraq last month and a daylong incursion by elite commandos into Iraq this week. Maj. Gen. Fahri Kir said another 30 Kurdish rebels were killed inside Turkey since March in anti-rebel operations. He said the Turkish losses were 43 in the same period.
(AP, 6/18/10)
2010 Jun 19, Turkish warplanes launched air raids at suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq after a rebel attack on a military outpost in Turkey touched off clashes in which eight soldiers and 12 PKK rebel fighters died.
(AP, 6/19/10)
2010 Jun 20, Turkish forces pushed into northern Iraq, killing 4 people, including a girl (15), as they hit back against hideouts of Kurdish rebels who killed 12 soldiers over the last 2 days.
(AFP, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 21, Turkish commando units rappelled down from helicopters and mechanized infantry units blocked escape routes of Kurdish rebels in a major operation along the Iraqi border.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 22, In Turkey Kurdish rebels detonated a remote-controlled bomb in Istanbul, killing 5 people and wounding 12 on a bus carrying military personnel and their families.
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jul 1, The Turkish military said fighting near the border with Iraq killed 12 Kurdish guerrillas, 2 government soldiers and 3 government-paid village guards. Clashes erupted after rebels fired long range weapons and rockets at a military unit in Slirt province.
(WSJ, 7/2/10, p.A10)
2010 Jul 13, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said the cabinet had decided to summon representatives of the Kurdish regional government to discuss oil smuggling to Iran and "to put an end to it, as it harms Iraq's national and economic interests." Reports about the oil smuggling surfaced just over a week after the US imposed new sanctions barring the export of refined fuels to Iran.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 20, Kurdish rebels killed six Turkish soldiers and wounded 15 in an overnight raid on a military outpost along the border with Iraq. Another soldier died in a separate attack.
(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Aug 10, In Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels blew up part of an Iraqi-Kurdish pipeline killing 2 people and cutting the flow of oil in Sirnak province.
(SFC, 8/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 13, In Iran PJAK Kurdish rebels killed a commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards and two Islamist militiamen in clashes near northwestern Orumieh city.
(AP, 8/14/10)
2010 Sep 4, Iran’s hardline Kayhan newspaper reported that security forces have killed four members of an outlawed Kurdish group in the western province of Kordestan. Nasrin Sotoudeh (45) was summoned by official notice to Tehran's Evin Prison, and did return home. He has represented opposition activists and political figures on suspicion of spreading propaganda against the ruling system.
(AFP, 9/5/10)(AP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 16, In Turkey a roadside bomb attack killed 10 people traveling on a minibus near the village of Gecitli in the rugged Hakkari province, where Kurdish guerrillas have been fighting for autonomy for decades.
(AP, 9/16/10)
2010 Sep 22, Iran’s pro-reform Sharq daily said that Emadoddin Baghi (48), a human rights activist, was convicted of "spreading propaganda" against the ruling establishment as well as planning to "violate national security." He was sentenced to 6 years in prison. Baghi has been on trial or in jail almost continually since 2000 over similar charges. In the northwest a bomb exploded at a military parade in Mahabad killing 12 people. One official blamed Kurdish separatists who have fought Iranian forces in the area for decades. In 2014 Iranian authorities detained three suspects over the deadly bombing in Mahabad.
(AP, 9/22/10)(Reuters, 9/26/10)(AP, 5/18/14)
2010 Sep 26, Iran media said elite Revolutionary Guards said they had killed the "main elements" behind the Sep 22 bomb attack in the Mahabad. Gen. Abdolrasoul Mahmoudabadi of the elite Revolutionary Guards said the "terrorists" were killed the previous day in a clash "beyond the border" and that his forces were still in pursuit of two men who escaped the ambush.
(Reuters, 9/26/10)(AP, 9/26/10)
2010 Sep 30, The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebel group extended a ceasefire with Turkey by one month in a move it said is aimed at giving a chance to efforts to end a war that has killed 40,000 people.
(Reuters, 9/30/10)
2010 Oct 7, In Iran a pair of gunmen opened fire on a police patrol in its Kurdish region, killing four officers and a bystander.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 31, In Turkey a suspected suicide bomber wounded 15 officers and 17 civilians in Istanbul's main square, as an extended unilateral ceasefire by the separatist PKK came to an end. The radical Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) later claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 10/31/10)(AP, 11/1/10)(AFP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 1, Turkey's main Kurdish rebel group extended a truce until elections next summer, denying responsibility for a suicide attack in Istanbul thought to have been the work of its own hardliners.
(AP, 11/1/10)
2010 Nov 4, Thousands of Iranians chanted "Death to America" as they staged a mass protest against the "Great Satan" to mark the 31st anniversary of the capture of the American embassy by Islamist students. Iran reported the arrest of four Kurdish rebels of the banned Komala group, who worked for commander Jalil Fattahi, a militant based in Britain. They were arrested in Iran's western city of Marivan.
(AFP, 11/4/10)
2011 Jan 5, In Turkey authorities searching for mass graves of Kurds, who disappeared in the 1990s, unearthed the bones of eight people in a field in Bitlis province in southeast Turkey.
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Feb 17, In Iraq Kurdish security forces opened fire in Sulaimaniyah on a crowd of protesters surrounding the headquarters of the party affiliated with Kurdish President Massoud Barzani. At least five people were injured in the incident. Hundreds of demonstrators massed in the southern city of Basra to demand the local governor's ouster. Protesters in Nasir stormed a local government building. Gunmen in a speeding car shot and killed a spokesman for the provincial government in the northern city of Mosul.
(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 20, In Iraq gunmen burst into the Kurdish NRT television station in Sulaimaniyah, shooting up the equipment and setting fire to the building, apparently in retaliation for footage they aired earlier in the week of a deadly protest.
(AP, 2/20/11)
2011 Feb 24, In Iraq a suicide bomber trying to assassinate the deputy head of the provincial council killed 11 people including 7 policemen and a bodyguard in Ramadi, Anbar province. Security forces killed al-Nasser Lideen Allah Abu Suleiman, the top military leader of an al-Qaida front group, surrounding his hideout and firing shots that blew up his booby-trapped getaway car in Hit, Anbar province. The Kurdish government sent thousands of its troops into positions around Kirkuk saying it feared that demonstrations planned for the next day could turn violent.
(AP, 2/24/11)(AP, 2/25/11)(AP, 3/9/11)
2011 Mar 15, In northern Iraq 2 top Kurdish politicians resigned from local government in what appeared to be a political maneuver to challenge Arabs for control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Apr 7, Syria’s Pres. Bashar Assad granted citizenship to thousands of Kurds living in a northeastern province. Kurds, the largest ethnic minority in Syria, made up 15 percent of the country's 23 million population and have long complained of neglect and discrimination. Assad also sacked Governor Mohammad Iyad Ghaza of central Homs province, the scene of clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in the past three weeks.
(AP, 4/7/11)
2011 Apr 17, Iraqi police opened fire on stone-throwing crowds protesting corruption in the northern Kurdish region. At least 35 people were wounded.
(SFC, 4/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 19, In Turkey Kurdish protesters clashed with police in two cities and the main Kurdish party threatened to boycott the upcoming election because of a decision the previous day to bar some Kurdish candidates.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 20, In southeastern Turkey one person was killed when police opened fire on Kurdish protestors in Bismil town.
(AFP, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 23, A Kurdish protester (28) died of gunshot wounds, becoming the tenth person killed in more than two months of rallies in Iraq's northern autonomous region. Hardi Farukh was wounded by a bullet to the head during demonstrations on April 18 in Sulaimaniyah.
(AFP, 4/23/11)
2011 May 14, Turkey's military in Sirnak province killed 12 Kurdish rebels over the last 24 hours who trying to infiltrate the country from northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/14/11)
2011 Jun 2, New York-based Human Rights Watch said Iraq's central government and regional Kurdish leaders are beating and illegally detaining protesters to try to stop demonstrations calling for reforms.
(AP, 6/2/11)
2011 Jun 21, Iraqi Kurdistan approved a draft law banning female genital mutilation by the regional government. The Family Violence Bill has to be ratified by the regional president, Massud Barzani.
(AFP, 7/26/11)
2011 Jul 6, In Iraq two police officers were killed in a suicide bombing outside a car dealership in al-Hedaid, just outside Baqouba, Diyala province. Authorities uncovered a mass grave with 900 corpses near the central city of Diwaniyah, believed to be Kurds killed during the rule of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
(AP, 7/6/11)(AFP, 7/6/11)
2011 Jul 14, An umbrella group that includes Turkey's Kurdish party proclaimed Kurdish autonomy in Diyarbakir, hours after a clash left 13 soldiers and seven Kurdish guerrillas dead.
(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 15, Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation into a Kurdish proclamation of autonomy in the country's southeast as the military deployed elite forces to the region where tensions are running high following the deadliest clash between troops and rebels in about three years.
(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 17, Several Iranian Kurdish rebels based in Iraq were wounded in hours of clashes with Tehran's forces along the two countries' border.
(AFP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 18, Iran’s state news said Revolutionary Guard forces have taken control of three bases of an Iranian Kurdish opposition group in neighboring Iraq and that "a large number" of members of the Iranian Kurdish opposition group PEJAK have been killed in fierce ongoing clashes over the past two days. PEJAK claimed to have killed 53 Iranian soldiers and wounded 43 while only two PEJAK members were killed and seven wounded in clashes.
(AP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 25, Iranian forces shelled suspected rebel outposts in Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region, killing two Iraqi civilians.
(AP, 7/25/11)
2011 Jul 28, In Iraq a suicide bomber and a car bomb struck an Iraqi bank in Tikrit where policemen were picking up their paychecks, killing 12 and wounding 34 people. An Iraqi Kurd boy (10) was killed in shelling by Tehran's forces of Iranian Kurdish separatist bases in Battas, northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/28/11)(AP, 7/29/11)
2011 Aug 3, Turkey said it would put 106 more Kurdish politicians on trial for alleged terrorist propaganda, choosing to go ahead with prosecutions despite lingering tensions over the trial of dozens of others accused of fanning separatist violence.
(AP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 17, In Turkey Kurdish PKK rebels ambushed a military convoy in Cukurca township near the border with Iraq killing 9 soldiers. Officials vowed strong military retaliation. Turkey's air force attacked 60 suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq. The military it vowed to continue the assault until the guerrilla group is "rendered ineffective."
(AP, 8/17/11)(AP, 8/18/11)(Econ, 8/27/11, p.43)
2011 Aug 18, In southern Turkey the PKK attacked police and military stations in simultaneous overnight rocket strikes in Siirt province, killing two soldiers and wounding three civilians. Turkey's air force attacked 28 suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, in a second day of cross-border strikes in retaliation for stepped up attacks by the guerrillas.
(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 19, Turkey's military hit 85 rebel targets with artillery fire. Warplanes bombed 20 suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in a third day of cross-border strikes.
(AP, 8/20/11)
2011 Aug 21, Turkish airstrikes on suspected rebel targets in northern Iraq killed seven Iraqi civilians, including five children and a woman, in an attack on Kortak mountain. Police used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse Kurdish protesters who tried to march to a main square in Istanbul to denounce the Turkish raids. In demonstrators marched to protest the PKK.
(AP, 8/21/11)
2011 Aug 23, Turkey's military said air strikes on suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq this week have killed an estimated 90 to 100 guerrillas and warned that it would press ahead with offensives against the group both inside Turkey and across the border.
(AP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 28, Nechirvan Barzani, deputy chief of the most powerful political party in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, called on separatist groups in the area to lay down their arms in an interview published.
(AFP, 8/28/11)
2011 Aug 29, Turkey’s military said its air strikes and artillery fire on suspected Kurdish rebel targets this month killed up to 160 guerrillas.
(SFC, 8/30/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 3, A young Kurdish shepherd was killed by an Iranian sniper on the Iraq-Iran border. Iran also shelled the border area, appearing to target bases of the Iranian Kurdish rebel group PEJAK, which has been involved in sporadic cross-border clashes with Iranian forces in recent years.
(AP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 3, Around 50 expatriated Syrian Kurds gathered in Sweden for a two-day conference on how to strengthen Kurds inside Syria and get them more involved in efforts to overthrow Bashar al-Assad's regime.
(AFP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 5, Iran said its Revolutionary Guard soldiers have killed at least 30 members of Kurdish opposition group in fighting outside the border city of Sardasht in an operation that began on Sep 2. Inside Iraq a PEJAK spokesman declared an immediate, unilateral cease-fire, which Iran rejected.
(AP, 9/5/11)
2011 Sep 11, Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region halted crude exports, nearly a week after it rejected a new oil and gas law approved by the central government.
(AFP, 9/11/11)
2011 Sep 12, Kurdish rebels attacked a police station and a paramilitary police headquarters near Turkey’s border with Iraq killing 5 people including 3 civilians.
(SFC, 9/13/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 21, Turkey reportedly bombed the main Kurdish rebel base in northern Iraq and chased rebels in a mountainous area in the southeast in response to escalated attacks by the autonomy-seeking guerrillas.
(AP, 9/21/11)
2011 Sep 24, Kurdish rebels attacked a Turkish army outpost, killing 5 soldiers and wounding 10 in the country's southeast. Three rebels also were killed.
(AP, 9/25/11)
2011 Sep 28, In Turkey a pro-Kurdish party said it is ending its four-month-old boycott of parliament, even as tensions grew over a surge in attacks by Kurdish separatist rebels.
(AP, 9/28/11)
2011 Oct 4, Turkish police detained over 140 pro-Kurdish political activists in a nationwide sweep. The detainees included a number of elected mayors in the Kurdish southeast.
(SFC, 10/5/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 7, Syrian security forces opened fire at protesters in several parts of the country, killing at least eight people and wounding scores. Leading opposition figure Riad Seif was beaten up by pro-government gunmen and rushed to a hospital in Damascus. Russia’s Pres. Dmitry Medvedev told Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to either reform or resign. In Qamishli Mashaal Tammo, a prominent and charismatic Kurdish opposition figure, was gunned down by masked gunmen.
(AP, 10/7/11)(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 8, Syrian security forces opened fire on tens of thousands of mourners who turned out for the funeral of a slain Kurdish opposition leader in Qamishli, killing at least 5 people. Kurds, the largest ethnic minority in Syria, make up 15% of the country's 23 million people and have long complained of neglect and discrimination.
(AP, 10/8/11)(AP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 10, Turkish air raids in northern Iraq reportedly killed 7 Kurdish rebels including three senior operatives.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 13, Turkey's foreign minister said that Iraq should move to prevent Kurdish attacks on his country from Iraqi soil as the two countries renewed their commitment to fight the rebels.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 16, In Iraq hundreds rallied in the disputed town of Khanaqin to demand the reversal of a central government ruling barring the flag of the autonomous Kurdish region in official buildings.
(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 18, Turkey shelled northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, in the first report of Turkish bombardment there in more than two weeks. The shelling began the previous evening. A roadside blast killed five policemen and two civilians in Turkey's southeast Bitlis province.
(AFP, 10/18/11)(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 19, Turkish soldiers, air force bombers and helicopter gunships launched an incursion into northern Iraq, hours after Kurdish rebels killed 24 soldiers and wounded 18 in attacks along the border. The United States and NATO both issued statements supporting the offensive, the largest in more than three years.
(AP, 10/19/11)(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 20, About 10,000 elite Turkish soldiers took part in a ground offensive against Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey and across the border in Iraq, making it the nation's largest attack on the insurgents in more than three years.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 21, Turkish jets kept up bombing raids on Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq overnight, as the rebels confirmed that some Turkish troops crossed into Iraq. Turkey and Iran vowed to collaborate against the PKK and its Iranian wing, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, or PJAK, during a visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.
(AFP, 10/21/11)(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, Turkey’s military said its troops over the last 2 days have killed at least 49 Kurdish rebels in a valley near the Iraqi border, as hundreds of troops also pursued Kurdish fighters within northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 25, In Turkey crowds of Kurds pelted journalists and police with stones in the quake-hit city of Van as their anger at the media's coverage of the disaster boiled over. The stoning of the reporters in the eponymous provincial capital, which left several people injured, was brought to a halt only after police used pepper-spray.
(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Nov 12, Turkish commandos in civilian clothes slipped onto the Kartepe, a hijacked passenger ferry, and posed as hostages before fatally shooting a suspected Kurdish rebel carrying explosives in a 12-hour drama that ended before dawn.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 13, Turkish warplanes bombed the Qandil border area in Iraqi Kurdistan for about an hour.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Dec 3, The London-based Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organization (IKWRO) reported that more than 2,800 so-called honor attacks, punishments for bringing shame on the family, were recorded by Britain's police in 2010.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 19, A Turkish news agency reported that security forces may have killed as many as 20 Kurdish separatist rebels in the country's southeast.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 20, Turkish police detained 48 people, including journalists, as part of a growing investigation into a Kurdish group that prosecutors accuse of links to Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 12/20/11)(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 24, Turkish authorities released an AFP photographer, along with 12 other people who were detained as part of an investigation into a group prosecutors accuse of having links to Kurdish rebels. A court ordered 35 other suspects formally arrested pending trial over their alleged involvement in the Union of Kurdistan Communities.
(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 28, Turkish warplanes killed at least 34 people and 59 mules in an air strike on the Iraq border in an attack which a pro-Kurdish political party described as a "massacre" of civilians. Ankara's joint military command said in a statement that its jets bombed an area inside Iraq "regularly used" by PKK rebels. Those killed were smugglers aged 18-28, who routinely brought in Iraqi fuel and cigarettes with the full knowledge of local authorities. On Jan 2 Turkey said it will compensate the families of the civilians mistakenly killed in the airstrike in Uludere township.
(AFP, 12/29/11)(AP, 1/3/12)(Econ, 1/7/12, p.46)(Econ, 6/9/12, p.59)(Econ, 5/9/15, p.49)
2012 Jan 19, Turkish authorities exhumed the bodies of three Kurds near the village of Yagizoymak as part of their investigation into alleged extrajudicial killings by Turkish security forces in the 1990s. Lawyer Ridvan Dalmis, who witnessed the excavation, said the remains allegedly are those of civilians who were killed by security forces in June 1993 and hastily buried by Kurdish villagers before they were forced to evacuate the area.
(AP, 1/20/12)
2012 Jan 28, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani backed minority Kurds in Syria, who have rallied against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad during 10 months of nationwide protests. He spoke at a two-day conference of Syrian Kurds in the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Arbil.
(AFP, 1/28/12)
2012 Feb 11, Turkish warplanes bombed suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 2/12/12)
2012 Feb 13, A clash in Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast has left 15 Kurdish rebels and two Turkish soldiers dead.
(AP, 2/14/12)
2012 Feb 27, Iraqi Kurdistan said it has granted refugee status to 30 Kurdish Syrian troops who defected to the region in the first such instance in the revolt against Bashar al-Assad's regime.
(AFP, 2/27/12)
2012 Mar 8, Turkey's air force carried out air strikes on border areas of north Iraq.
(AFP, 3/9/12)
2012 Mar 18, In Turkey thousands of Kurds massed in Diyarbakir and Istanbul to celebrate the Kurdish new year (Nowruz). A Kurdish politician and Turkish policeman died as riot police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds.
(Econ, 3/24/12, p.54)
2012 Mar 23, Turkish forces killed 15 female Kurdish rebel fighters in Bitlis province.
(SSFC, 3/25/12, p.A6)
2012 Mar 29, In Bulgaria Massud Barzani, the leader of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan, sought investment in the region's farming, health and construction sectors during a meeting with PM Boyko Borisov.
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar, In Norway Mullah Krekar (56), Iraqi founder of the Iraqi Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, was sentenced to five years in jail for issuing death threats against a former government minister and others. In July Krekar, whose real name is Najmeddine Faraj Ahmad, faced three new charges of inciting terrorist acts, threatening witnesses in a case against him and criminal damage.
(AFP, 7/12/12)
2012 Apr 2, Iraq’s Kurdish region said it has halted oil exports over a payment quarrel with the central government, which reportedly has failed to send any money since May even as the region has been exporting 50,000 barrels per day.
(SFC, 4/3/12, p.A2)
2012 Apr 5, In south-eastern Turkey overnight blasts temporarily shut down a pipeline pumping oil from Iraq. Kurdish rebels were suspected to be behind the explosions.
(AFP, 4/5/12)
2012 Apr 5, US President Barack Obama dropped in on a meeting between Vice President Joe Biden and Massud Barzani, the visiting leader of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. Barzani, also met with US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
(AFP, 4/5/12)
2012 May 13, The Philippines foreign ministry said it has lifted an 8-year ban on its nationals working in Iraq, but only for the Middle Eastern country's autonomous Kurdistan region.
(AFP, 5/13/12)
2012 May 27, In southeast Turkey Kurdish rebels killed a soldier in a clash, prompting the military to launch a large-scale offensive in the area.
(AP, 5/27/12)
2012 Jun 4, Turkish security officials said two security personnel were killed when they stepped on an improvised explosive device laid by PKK militants in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province. One of the men killed was the commander of Lice's military police force.
(Reuters, 6/4/12)
2012 Jun 12, Turkey announced plans to introduce elective Kurdish language instruction in schools, a step aimed at easing tension that Kurdish minority activists argued didn't go far enough. Activists and Kurdish politicians insisted on full Kurdish education in schools.
(AP, 6/12/12)
2012 Jun 19, Kurdish rebels attacked Turkish military units with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades in southeastern Turkey, sparking clashes in which 10 rebels and eight soldiers died.
(AP, 6/19/12)
2012 Jun 24, Turkey’s army said its warplanes have carried out strikes on suspected Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq. Air strikes had hit 9 PKK targets over the last 3 days. Kurdish rebels killed one policeman and wounded 3 others in a roadside bomb attack.
(AFP, 6/24/12)(SFC, 6/25/12, p.A2)
2012 Jul 3, The Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) pulled out of the Cairo conference, citing political disputes. The Syrian Kurdish National Council stormed out of the meeting, protesting that the final document failed to specifically mention the Kurds.
(AFP, 7/4/12)
2012 Jul 8, Iraqi Kurdistan said it has begun sending oil produced in its three-province autonomous region out of the country without the express permission of the central government. It was being exported to Turkey so it could be refined into various products before being brought back to Kurdistan.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 19, Chevron made public a deal to hunt for oil in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
(SFC, 7/20/12, p.A1)
2012 Aug 2, Turkish warplanes and attack helicopters are pounding Kurdish rebel positions in a major clash in a rugged area near Turkey's borders with Iraq and Iran. Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels have been clashing in the area for about two weeks.
(AP, 8/2/12)
2012 Aug 5, Turkey’s interior minister said security forces have killed as many as 115 Kurdish rebels during a major offensive over the past 2 weeks. Rebels fired on military posts in Hakkari on the Iraq border triggering clashes that left dead 22 rebels, soldiers and village guards.
{Turkey, Kurds}
(AFP, 8/5/12)(SFC, 8/6/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 6, In southeastern Turkey an overnight blast interrupted oil flow from Iraq. Kurdish rebels were suspected to be behind the explosions. The blast hit the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline in Mardin province close to the border with Syria. Repairs were expected to take up to 10 days. The oil flow was reported restored on August 28.
(AFP, 8/6/12)(AFP, 8/28/12)
2012 Aug 13, A government spokesman says Iraq has asked French oil giant Total S.A. to choose between working with the self-ruled northern Kurdish region or to quit developing one of the major oil fields in southern Iraq.
(AP, 8/13/12)
2012 Aug 20, In Turkey a car bomb in a southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantap left 9 people dead. Authorities blamed rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) of being behind the powerful blast that went off close to a police station. The PKK denied the attack.
(AFP, 8/21/12)
2012 Aug 23, Turkish media reported that Kurdish rebels have ambushed a military convoy in the southeast, setting off clashes that killed 16 militants and five soldiers.
(AFP, 8/23/12)
2012 Aug 25, Turkish warplanes bombed areas of northern Iraq in a bid to target rear bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 8/25/12)
2012 Sep 2, In Turkey Kurdish militants killed 10 police and soldiers in an assault in Sirnak province. Some Kurdish guerrillas were also killed.
(SFC, 9/4/12, p.A2)
2012 Sep 10, Turkey’s military announced that it had conducted air strikes over the past week in northern Iraq, where Kurdish rebels have bases. Some 25 guerrillas were reported killed in the operation.
(AP, 9/11/12)
2012 Sep 12, In Turkey hundreds of Kurds began a hunger strike in prisons across the country.
(Econ, 11/17/12, p.2)
2012 Sep 16, In eastern Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels detonated a landmine along a highway in Bingol province, killing eight police officers and wounding nine. Officials in southeastern Hakkari province said a total of 123 "terrorists," a reference to Kurdish rebels, had been killed in military operations in the past 10 days.
(AP, 9/16/12)
2012 Sep 18, In Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels in Bingol province attacked a military convoy with a rocket killing 10 soldiers and wounded over 70 others.
(SFC, 9/19/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 7, Turkish jets struck suspected Kurdish rebel targets in two separate cross-border raids in northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/8/12)
2012 Oct 18, Turkey's state-run news said security forces have killed 12 Kurdish rebels in clashes in the southeast, raising the two-day death toll in the fighting to 18.
(AP, 10/18/12)
2012 Oct 20, Turkey's state-run agency said clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish rebels in Hakkari province, have left nine people dead.
(AP, 10/20/12)
2012 Nov 9, In Turkey the office for the governor for Hakkari province said as many as 42 Kurdish rebels have been killed in the past three days in operations that were backed by airpower.
(AP, 11/10/12)
2012 Nov 20, Iraqi President Jalal Talbani, a leading Kurdish figure, met the head of the autonomous region, Massoud Barzani. The commander of Kurdish Peshmerga forces warned that his troops might attack Iraqi government soldiers at "any minute" after the central government sent tanks and armored vehicles toward the disputed city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 23, In Syria a suicide attacker blew up his car in the northwestern Idlib province, killing at least three people and wounding four. Islamic extremists, including members of the al-Qaida inspired Jabhat al-Nusra group, battled with pro-government Kurdish gunmen in the northern town of Ras al-Ayan, near the border with Turkey.
(AP, 11/23/12)
2012 Nov 26, Syrian rebels captured a hydroelectric dam on the Euphrates River in the country's north after days of heavy clashes. Rebels and pro-government Kurdish gunmen struck a truce to end days of fighting in the town of Ras al-Ayn. Airstrikes by government warplanes killed and wounded several people in the border town Atmeh.
(AP, 11/26/12)
2012 Dec 6, Iraq’s PM Nouri al-Maliki said Baghdad and leaders of the Kurds' self-ruled autonomous region have agreed that units will be formed from local ethnic and sectarian groups to replace Iraqi and Kurdish forces currently in the disputed areas, claimed by Arabs, Turkomen and Kurds.
(AP, 12/6/12)
2012 Dec 13, Iraq's President Jalal Talabani announced that the central government and Kurdish leaders have reached a deal aimed at easing a military standoff that began last month.
(AP, 12/13/12)
2012 Dec 16, In Iraq a car bomb explosion near a Kurdish party office killed two people in Julala, a disputed city north of Baghdad.
(AP, 12/16/12)
2012 Dec 25, An Iraqi-Kurd official said the northern Kurdish region has suspended oil exports over a payment dispute with baghdad.
(SFC, 12/26/12, p.A5)
2012 Dec, In Turkey Huda-Par (Party of Allah) was launched on a platform of Islamic values and greater rights for the country’s 14 million Sunni Kurds.
(Econ, 11/23/13, p.55)
2013 Jan 9, In France 3 Kurdish women, including Sakine Cansiz, one of the founders of a militant group battling Turkish troops since 1984, were "executed" at the Kurdish Information Center in Paris. Protesters blamed Turkey. A Turkish lawmaker claimed the women were slain in a dispute between PKK factions. Omer Guney (34) was later charged with murder in the killings of Cansiz, Leyla Soylemez and Fidan Dogan. On Dec 17, 2016, Guney died from brain disease.
(AP, 1/10/13)(AP, 12/18/16)
2013 Jan 14, Turkish jets struck suspected Kurdish rebel targets in a cross-border raid in northern Iraq, even as Turkey prepared to start peace talks with the rebels' imprisoned leader.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 16, In northern Iraq a suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives blew himself up outside the offices of a major Kurdish party in Kirkuk killing at least 19 people. A 3rd bomb at a nearby facility used by Kurdish security forces killed 4 more. Morning attacks across the country killed at least 33 people.
(AP, 1/16/13)(AP, 1/17/13)(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 17, In Syria an air raid killed at least 15 people in the town of Kfar Nabouedeh in the central province of Hama. Violence continued in different parts of the country. Clashes in the northern town of Ras al-Ayn least eight rebels and one Kurdish PYD fighter.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Feb 24, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that Gen. Hamid Tabatabaei, a commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, has been killed in the country's Kurdish northwest.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Mar 13, Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq freed eight captured Turkish soldiers and officials as part of peace efforts between Turkey and the rebel group aimed at ending a decades-long conflict.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 21, Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan called for an immediate cease-fire and for thousands of his fighters to withdraw from Turkish territory, a major step toward ending one of the world's bloodiest insurgencies.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Apr 25, A pro-Kurdish news agency said Kurdish rebels will start withdrawing thousands of guerrilla fighters from Turkey on May 8 and retreat across the border to northern Iraq, in an important milestone toward ending the nearly three-decade old insurgency that has cost tens of thousands of lives.
(AP, 4/25/13)
2013 May 9, Iraq rejected a key element of an accord to bring an end to a long Kurdish uprising in Turkey — offering refuge to rebel fighters in country's north.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 14, The first Kurdish fighters crossed from Turkey into northern Iraq as part of a peace deal to end a long uprising despite Iraqi objections to the transfer. The Iraqi Cabinet reiterated its rejection of the deal and of the presence of PKK fighters.
(AP, 5/14/13)
2013 Jun 9, Iraq's PM Nouri al-Maliki made a rare visit to the self-ruled northern Kurdish region in a bid to melt the ice between the Kurds and the Shiite-led central government. A suicide attack in Baghdad claimed the lives of 7 people.
(AP, 6/9/13)
2013 Jun 18, US oil giant Chevron said it has signed a deal with Iraq's Kurdish regional government to expand its oil exploration territory in the northern self-rule region.
(AP, 6/18/13)
2013 Jun 20, Syrian rebels and Kurdish gunmen reached an agreement to end a rebel siege on the northern predominantly Kurdish region of Afrin that triggered a shortage of food and medicine there. Violence was reported between government forces and rebels in different parts of the country, mostly near Damascus and in Aleppo.
(AP, 6/20/13)
2013 Jul 7, The president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, visited Baghdad for the first time in more than two years, in a step towards resolving long-running disputes between the central government and the autonomous region over land and oil.
(Reuters, 7/7/13)
2013 Jul 17, The Turkish military said a Syrian Kurdish party with links to Kurdish militants in Turkey has seized control of a Syrian border town after days of clashes with Islamist fighters.
(Reuters, 7/18/13)
2013 Jul 19, A Syrian Kurdish group said it aims to set up an independent council to run Kurdish regions until Syria's civil war has ended, a move likely to alarm Syrian rebels and neighboring Turkey, both wary of a possible Kurdish state.
(Reuters, 7/19/13)
2013 Aug 2, In northern Syria overnight clashes between Kurdish opposition fighters and rebels linked to al-Qaida killed 12 Islamic fighters.
(AP, 8/2/13)
2013 Aug 10, The president of Iraqi Kurdistan vowed to defend the large Kurdish population across the border in neighboring Syria from al-Qaida-linked fighters.
(AP, 8/10/13)
2013 Aug 15, Thousands of Syrian refugees poured into the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, taking advantage of a new bridge along the largely closed border.
(Reuters, 8/16/13)
2013 Aug 20, In northeastern Syria Kurdish militias battled al-Qaida-linked rebel groups in the latest round of heavy fighting that has helped fuel a mass exodus of civilians from the region into neighboring Iraq.
(AP, 8/20/13)
2013 Sep 9, Kurdish rebels announced they are suspending their withdrawal from Turkey into bases in northern Iraq over what they say is the Turkish government's failure to advance peace talks aimed at ending a nearly 30-year-old conflict.
(AP, 9/9/13)
2013 Sep 12, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes between Kurdish fighters and members of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in the past two days left 13 Kurdish gunmen and 35 militants dead.
(AP, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 21, Iraq's Kurds voted in their first election in four years as their autonomous region grapples with disputes with Baghdad and as fellow Kurds fight bloody battles in neighbouring Syria. The Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Kurdish regional President Massoud Barzani, secured 38 seats in the vote for the 111-seat regional parliament.
(AFP, 9/21/13)(AP, 10/2/13)
2013 Sep 25, In Turkey 18 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) escaped overnight from prison in the southeast by digging a 70-meter-long tunnel. All but one were caught by the next day.
(Reuters, 9/25/13)(Reuters, 9/26/13)
2013 Sep 29, In Iraq 6 people were killed in a series of blasts targeting a security directorate of the usually peaceful autonomous Kurdistan region, the first such attack since 2007. A wave of attacks killed at least 46 people across the country.
(Reuters, 9/29/13)(SFC, 9/30/13, p.A2)
2013 Sep 30, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan announced long-anticipated reforms seen as designed to salvage a fragile peace process with Kurdish insurgents, including changes to the electoral system and increasing language rights.
(Reuters, 9/30/13)
2013 Oct 25, Iran's Revolutionary Guard killed 3 rebels and arrested three others in Baneh, a Kurdish populated region in northwestern Iran.
(AFP, 10/27/13)
2013 Oct 26, Kurdish militants seized a Syrian border post on the frontier with Iraq, after three days of clashes with an al Qaeda-linked group which had held the crossing since March.
(Reuters, 10/26/13)
2013 Nov 7, Turkish riot police fired tear gas to disperse Kurdish protesters demonstrating against government plans to build a wall along part of the border with Syria.
(AP, 11/7/13)
2013 Nov 13, In Syria forces loyal to President Assad captured a suburb of Damascus, part of a broader advance that has brought him major gains south of the capital before proposed international peace talks. A mortar round slammed into a mainly-Christian sector of Damascus killing 2 people and wounding seven. Activists said Kurdish militias have seized another seven villages in the northeast.
(Reuters, 11/13/13)(AFP, 11/13/13)
2013 Nov 16, Masoud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, called on Turkey's Kurds to back a flagging peace process with Ankara, making his first visit to southeastern Turkey in two decades in a show of support for PM Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 11/16/13)
2013 Nov 16, In Germany some 20,000 people marched through central Berlin to demand the government lift its 20-year ban on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 11/16/13)
2013 Nov 27, Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan signed a package of landmark contracts that will see the semi-autonomous region's oil and gas exported via pipelines through Turkey.
(Reuters, 11/29/13)
2013 Dec 2, Turkey said it stood by a bilateral oil deal with Iraq's Kurdistan region that bypassed central government but sought to appease Baghdad by drawing it into the arrangement.
(Reuters, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 5, In Iraq gunmen shot dead magazine editor Kawa Ahmed Germyani (32). He was investigating corruption in the autonomous Kurdistan region. Police stormed a mall in Kirkuk killing 3 militants. Attacks elsewhere in the country left 7 dead.
(AFP, 12/6/13)(SFC, 12/6/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 5, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Jihadists in northern Syria have kidnapped more than 50 Kurds in the past three days.
(AFP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 6, In southeastern Turkey two Kurdish protesters, aged 34 and 32, were shot dead in a violent confrontation with police. The clashes were sparked by claims that Kurdish rebel cemeteries had been destroyed.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 9, Kurdish rebels freed four Turkish soldiers abducted in the southeast of the country in the worst flareup of violence since a fragile ceasefire nine months ago.
(AFP, 12/9/13)
2013 The Kurds were granted the ".krd" domain name by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a US-based non-profit organization that manages internet addresses.
(Reuters, 4/14/16)
2014 Jan 3, A Turkish court ordered the release from jail of two Kurdish lawmakers being tried for links to militants in a potential boost to a fragile peace process. Turkish prosecutors said they have charged 36 protesters with terrorism over mass anti-government demonstrations that swept the country last year.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 4, A Turkish court ordered the release from jail of three Kurdish lawmakers, in addition to two freed a day earlier.
(Reuters, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 7, Turkey’s Anadolu state news said military prosecutors have dropped a case against five officers who were being investigated for negligence in the military air strike on Dec 11, 2011, that killed 34 smugglers mistaken for Kurdish rebels, saying there was no ground for any legal action.
(AP, 1/7/14)
2014 Jan 8, Iraq's self-ruled northern Kurdish region said it has unilaterally started sending its crude to Turkey and is going ahead with plans to export oil despite objections by the central government in Baghdad. The flow of oil to Turkey started in early January.
(AP, 1/9/14)
2014 Jan 11, Thousands of Kurdish demonstrators from around Europe marched in Paris to call for a speedier investigation into the murder of three Kurdish activists a year ago.
(Reuters, 1/11/14)
2014 Jan 12, Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki threatened to cut central government funding for Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region if the Kurds pursued a drive to pipe oil exports to Turkey without Baghdad's approval.
(Reuters, 1/12/14)
2014 Jan 21, Iraq's Shiite-led government said it has decided in principle to create three new provinces from contested parts of the country in an apparent attempt to address Sunni grievances and counter the expansion of the Kurdish self-rule region.
(AP, 1/21/14)
2014 Jan 21, Kurds in northeast Syria, on the eve of peace talks in Switzerland, declared a provincial government in the area.
(Reuters, 1/22/14)
2014 Feb 15, In Turkey thousands of Kurds demonstrated in towns across the south east, some clashing violently with riot police as they called for the release of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on the 15th anniversary of his capture.
(Reuters, 2/15/14)
2014 Feb 28, In southeastern Turkey suspected PKK gunmen abducted Abdurrahman Ecer (50), the top elected official of Cigli village.
(Reuters, 3/2/14)
2014 May 23, Iraq took legal action against Turkey after Ankara announced that oil from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region was being exported to international markets.
(AFP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 28, In southeast Turkey Kurdish guerrillas shot dead a state-sponsored militia member in the southeastern province of Mardin.
(Reuters, 5/29/14)
2014 Jun 7, In Turkey 2 people were killed in southeast Diyarbakir province as Kurdish protesters, demonstrating against the construction of new military outposts, threw petrol bombs at security forces who then opened fire.
(Reuters, 6/8/14)
2014 Jun 8, In Iraq a suicide bomber blew himself up at the headquarters of a Kurdish political party in the ethnically mixed province of Diyala. Minutes later a car bomb exploded as security arrived in Jalawla. At least 19 people were killed and 65 wounded. ISIL claimed responsibility.
(AP, 6/8/14)
2014 Jun 9, In Iraq at least 30 people were killed in a double bombing targeting the offices of PUK, a Kurdish political party, in the northern town of Tuz Khurmato. ISIL claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 6/9/14)
2014 Jun 18, Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region formed a new government after months of wrangling, with premier Nechirvan Barzani using the occasion to call for defending disputed northern territory.
(AFP, 6/18/14)
2014 Jun 20, Iraqi Kurdistan looked set to unload in Israel a first cargo of disputed crude oil from its new pipeline after weeks of seeking an outlet as Iraq's central government has threatened legal action against any buyer.
(Reuters, 6/20/14)
2014 Jun 21, The Arbil Citadel that dominates the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan was granted World Heritage Site status.
(AFP, 6/21/14)
2014 Jun 27, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani said there was no going back on autonomous Kurdish rule in oil city Kirkuk and other towns now defended against Sunni militants by Kurdish fighters.
(AFP, 6/27/14)
2014 Jun 29, Israel’s PM Netanyahu called for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan.
(SFC, 6/30/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 3, The president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region asked its parliament to plan a referendum on Kurdish independence.
(Reuters, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 5, Turkish media said Kurdish rebels will begin a stalled withdrawal from Turkey into their safe haven in northern Iraq after parliament passes reforms aimed at ending a decades-long insurgency.
(AFP, 7/5/14)
2014 Jul 6, In Iraq a girl (12) was killed and eight other civilians wounded in an Iraqi airstrike on Tuz Khurmato, a Kurdish-held town in the northern province of Salahuddin. 4 people were killed and 16 wounded in a suicide bomb blast at a cafe in the Washash district of northwestern Baghdad. An Iranian military adviser, who was helping coordinate among Shiite militias, was killed by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad.
(Reuters, 7/7/14)(AFP, 7/7/14)(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 9, In northern Syria the Islamic State group captured three Kurdish villages near Kobani and pressed forward toward the border town. 18 Kurdish fighters were reported killed.
(AP, 7/10/14)
2014 Jul 10, In Iraq PM Nouri al-Maliki's relationship with the Kurdish minority further frayed, as the Kurds declared their politicians will boycott Cabinet meetings and authorities in Baghdad suspended all cargo flights to the largely autonomous northern Kurdish region.
(AP, 7/10/14)
2014 Jul 11, Kurdish forces seized two oilfields in north Iraq and took over operations from a state-run oil company, while Kurdish politicians formally withdrew from PM Nuri al-Maliki's government.
(Reuters, 7/11/14)
2014 Jul 13, Syria's Kurds approved compulsory military service for their men to help ward off a push by Islamic extremists in the predominantly Kurdish areas in northern Syria.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 14, Hundreds of Kurdish fighters entered Kobane, northern Syria, to help battle jihadists besieging the Kurdish city of Ain al-Arab.
(AFP, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 17, Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan pumped an experimental 20,000 barrels of light crude from an oilfield recently seized from the federal authorities. It was the first time the Kurds pumped oil from Bai Hassan field -- 55 km (35 miles) northwest of Kirkuk. The field used to average 190,000 barrels per day.
(AFP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 27, A tanker carrying crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan was cleared by the US Coast Guard to unload its cargo at sea off Texas. Iraq's central government, in a court filing the next day, laid claim to the cargo that it says was sold by the regional government of Kurdistan without permission from Baghdad. In response a US judge signed an order telling the US Marshals Service to seize the cargo. On July 29 federal magistrate Nancy K. Johnson said that because the tanker was some 60 miles (100 km) offshore, and outside territorial waters, an order she issued to seize the cargo could not be enforced.
(Reuters, 7/28/14)(Reuters, 7/29/14)
2014 Jul 30, In Syria the number of people killed in army shelling on Douma, an opposition-held town northeast of Damascus, rose to 17. Fighting between the IS and Kurds killed 14 members of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (PYG) and 35 IS members.
(AFP, 7/31/14)
2014 Aug 1, In Iraq at least 17 soldiers were killed in a fierce battle against jihadists south of Baghdad. 23 jihadists from the Islamic State were also killed. Bombs in and around the capital left another 16 people dead. In northern Iraq Islamic State fighters killed 16 Kurdish troops in attacks on Zumar.
(AFP, 8/1/14)(AFP, 8/2/14)
2014 Aug 2, In Iraq Islamic State militants fought Kurdish forces for the northern town of Zumar located near an oil field and the Syrian border amid conflicting reports of who was in control.
(Reuters, 8/2/14)
2014 Aug 3, In Iraq Islamic State fighters seized control of Mosul Dam, the biggest dam in the country, an oilfield and three more towns after inflicting their first major defeat on Kurdish forces since sweeping through the region in June.
(Reuters, 8/3/14)
2014 Aug 4, Baghdad's air force and Kurdish fighters from Syria joined forces with Iraq's embattled peshmerga to push back jihadists whose latest attacks sent thousands of civilians running for their lives.
(AFP, 8/4/14)
2014 Aug 6, An Iraqi army airstrike targeting the Islamic State group in Mosul killed some 60 suspected militants. In northern Iraq Kurdish forces attacked Islamic State fighters near the Kurdish regional capital of Arbil in a change of tactics supported by the Iraqi central government to try to break the Islamists' momentum. A roadside bomb killed 3 Shi'ites who volunteered to fight the Islamic State on a road between the town of Samarra and Mosul. At least 5 car bombs killed 51 people in Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/6/14)(Reuters, 8/6/14)(SFC, 8/7/14, p.A3)
2014 Aug 6, Kurds from Iraq, Syria and Turkey joined forces in north Iraq to try to reclaim areas lost to jihadists and rescue thousands of civilians, many of them from the Yazidi minority, stranded in mountains without food or water.
(AFP, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 7, Iraqi government forces, Shiite militiamen and Kurdish troops launched a large operation to free Amerli, a Turkmen town that has been besieged by jihadists for 50 days.
(AFP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Sunni militants from the Islamic State group seized the Mosul Dam, Iraq's largest dam, forcing Kurdish forces to withdraw from the area and placing them in control of enormous power and water resources and access to the river that runs through the heart of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 8, An Iraqi official said hundreds of women from the Yazidi religious minority have been taken captive by Sunni militants. US jets pounded jihadist positions to pave the way for Iraq's federal and Kurdish forces and also dropped aid to stranded Yazidi civilians on Mount Sinjar.
(AP, 8/8/14)(AFP, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 9, In Iraq gunmen in Madaen killed a government-backed Sunni militiaman opposed to the Islamic State. His family was also killed. In Uwerij, on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, authorities found the bodies of 4 men who had been blindfolded and shot in the head execution-style. Islamic State insurgents who seized Iraq's biggest dam in an offensive have brought in engineers for repairs, as nervous Kurds stocked up on arms to defend Arbil.
(Reuters, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 10, Kurdish forces, reinvigorated by American airstrikes, retook two towns from Sunni militants, achieving one of their first victories after weeks of retreating.
(AP, 8/10/14)
2014 Aug 10, Iraq's human rights minister said Islamic State militants have killed at least 500 members of the Yazidi ethnic minority during their offensive in the north. At least 20,000 had managed to flee the siege, with the help of Kurdish troops, and cross into northern Iraq's Kurdistan region via Syria, but thousands reportedly remained on Mount Sinjar.
(Reuters, 8/10/14)(AFP, 8/10/14)
2014 Aug 11, The United States said it has begun urgently shipping weapons to the Iraqi Kurdish forces battling an advance by extremist Islamic State militants.
(AFP, 8/11/14)
2014 Aug 13, In Iraq thousands more Yazidis poured across a bridge into camps in the autonomous Kurdish region after trekking from Mount Sinjar, most with nothing but the clothes they wore. A US assessment team found the humanitarian situation for the Yazidis on Mount Sinjar not as grave as expected. Roughly 4,500 people remained atop Sinjar Mountain. Nearly half were herders who lived there before the siege and have no interest in being evacuated.
(AP, 8/13/14)(Reuters, 8/14/14)(AP, 8/14/14)
2014 Aug 13, France said it would start supplying arms to the Kurdish forces fighting Sunni extremists from the Islamic State group.
(AP, 8/13/14)
2014 Aug 17, In Iraq Kurdish fighters advanced towards the militant-held city of Mosul, aiming to reverse gains by Islamic State insurgents. Kurdish forces took over parts of Mosul Dam less than two weeks after it was captured by the Islamic State extremist group.
(Reuters, 8/17/14)(AP, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 24, In southeast Turkey Kurdish rebels abducted three Chinese workers and attacked a thermal power plant where they worked. They were seized while grocery shopping near the town Silopi and security forces soon launched an operation to rescue them.
(AP, 8/26/14)
2014 Aug 28, In northern Iraq retreating jihadists set three wells ablaze at the Ain Zalah oil field as they battled Kurdish forces who launched a major attack nearby. Iraqi security forces backed by volunteer militiamen retook several villages located on the way to the town of Amerli.
(AFP, 8/28/14)
2014 Aug 29, The jihadist Islamic State group posted video of the execution of a captured Kurdish fighter, in a warning to Iraqi Kurdish leaders to end military cooperation with Washington.
(AFP, 8/29/14)
2014 Aug 30, Iraqi security forces, Shiite militiamen and Kurdish fighters launched a major operation to break the more than two-month jihadist siege of Amerli, a Shiite Turkmen-majority town.
(AFP, 8/30/14)
2014 Aug 31, PM Tony Abbott said Australia will drop military equipment and aid to Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State militants in northern Iraq in response to a request from the United States.
(Reuters, 8/31/14)
2014 Sep 18, Islamic State fighters backed by tanks captured 21 Kurdish villages over the past 24 hours in northern Syria near the Turkish border, prompting civilians to flee their homes amid fears of retribution by the extremists sweeping through the area.
(AP, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 18, Turkish PKK rebels, who have spent three decades fighting for autonomy for Turkey's Kurds, called for the youth of the country's mostly Kurdish southeast to join the fight against Islamic State militants in northern Syria.
(Reuters, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 20, In northern Syria the Islamic State executed at least 11 civilians, including at least two boys. It has seized at least 64 villages around Kobani since Sep 16, using heavy arms and thousands of fighters. At least 300 Kurdish fighters crossed from Turkey into Syria overnight to battle jihadists from the Islamic State group trying to seize Kobani, a strategic border town.
(AFP, 9/20/14)(Reuters, 9/21/14)
2014 Sep 21, Kurdish militants in Turkey issued a new call to arms to defend the border town of Kobani, Syria, from advancing Islamic State fighters. Turkish authorities and the UN prepared for a surge in refugees. Clashes overnight reportedly killed 10 insurgents, bringing the number of IS fighters killed to at least 39. At least 27 Kurdish fighters have died.
(Reuters, 9/21/14)
2014 Sep 22, Syrian Kurds battled to defend Kobani, a key border town from an Islamic State advance, as Kurdish youths from neighboring Turkey rushed to their aid, heightening the pressure on Ankara to act against the Islamist insurgents.
(Reuters, 9/22/14)
2014 Sep 24, American warplanes pounded Islamic State positions in Syria for a 2nd day at a strategic post on the Iraqi border, but the campaign did nothing to halt the fighters' advance on the Kurdish town of Kobani where nearly 140,000 refugees have fled. Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, evacuated its bases in populated areas of the Idlib region after US-led forces carried out air strikes on the group.
(Reuters, 9/24/14)
2014 Sep 25, Germany began arms deliveries to the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, with the ultimate goal of supplying 10,000 Kurdish fighters with some 70 million euros ($90 million) worth of equipment.
(AP, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 26, Islamic State fighters tightened their siege of the strategic town of Kobani on Syria's border with Turkey, pushing back Kurdish forces and sending at least two shells into Turkish territory.
(Reuters, 9/26/14)
2014 Sep 27, Three Turkish police were killed after an ambush in the overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast, in an attack claimed by armed Kurdish militants despite a one-and-a-half-year ceasefire.
(AFP, 9/27/14)
2014 Sep 30, In Syria US-led coalition airstrikes targeted Islamic State fighters pressing their offensive against Kobani near the Syrian-Turkish border in an attempt to halt the militants' advance. Islamic State militants captured the deserted Kurdish village of Siftek and appeared to be using it as a headquarters from which to launch attacks on Kobani itself. 5 anti-Islamic State Kurdish fighters, including 3 women, and 4 Syrian Arab rebels were detained and beheaded 14 km west of Kobani.
(AP, 9/30/14)(Reuters, 10/1/14)
2014 Oct 3, In Syria coalition warplanes destroyed one insurgent vehicle and killed 5 fighters during raids in the countryside to the east and south of Kobani. 10 Kurdish fighters were also killed in heavy fighting that carried on long into the night.
(Reuters, 10/4/14)
2014 Oct 5, Kurdish forces battled overnight with Islamists trying to seize a hill overlooking a Syrian border town with Turkey as US-led coalition warplanes carried out raids on the militants. At least 11 Kurdish fighters and 16 Islamic State insurgents were killed in the overnight clashes.
(Reuters, 10/5/14)
2014 Oct 6, Syrian government forces seized control of a strategic area outside Damascus used by rebels to fire mortar shells at the capital. The Islamic State raised its flag on a building on the outskirts of the frontier town of Kobani after an assault of almost three weeks, but the town's Kurdish defenders said its fighters had not reached the city center. At least 30 people were killed in two suicide attacks on two checkpoints run by Kurdish fighters in the northeastern city of Hasakah.
(AFP, 10/6/14)(Reuters, 10/6/14)
2014 Oct 7, Turkey's president said Kobani was "about to fall" after Islamic State fighters advanced into the south west of the Syrian Kurdish town, pressing home a three-week assault has cost a reported 412 lives. More than 2,000 Syrian Kurds including women and children were evacuated from the town after the latest fighting.
(Reuters, 10/7/14)
2014 Oct 7, In Turkey Kurdish protesters clashed with police. 20 protesters were killed in the clashes, mostly between sympathizers of rival Kurdish groups. Kurdish protesters also forced their way into the European Parliament in Brussels, part of Europe-wide demonstrations against the Islamic State group's advance on a town on the Syrian-Turkish border.
(AP, 10/7/14)(Econ, 10/11/14, p.59)
2014 Oct 8, In southeast Turkey at least 21 people were killed in riots, the deadliest street unrest in years, after the Kurdish minority rose up in fury at the government's refusal to protect a besieged Syrian town from Islamic State. US-led air strikes appeared to have pushed Islamic State fighters back to the edges of Kobani.
(Reuters, 10/8/14)(Reuters, 10/9/14)
2014 Oct 9, Islamic State fighters seized more than a third of the Syrian border town of Kobani, as US-led air strikes failed to halt their advance and Turkish forces nearby looked on without intervening. Two police officers were shot dead in an apparent attempt to assassinate a police chief in Turkey’s eastern province of Bingol. Four of the alleged attackers were later killed and two more caught after a shootout with security forces. In Gaziantep province 4 people killed and 20 wounded as armed clashes broke out overnight between protesters calling for solidarity with Kobani.
(Reuters, 10/9/14)(Reuters, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 10, In Syria militants fought deeper into the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani in full view of Turkish tanks that have done nothing to intervene. At least 31 people have been killed in three days of riots and street violence across Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 11, Kurdish forces defending Kobani urged a US-led coalition to escalate air strikes on Islamic State fighters who controlled more than a third of the Syrian town at the border with Turkey. 36 jihadi fighters were reportedly killed in Kobani.
(Reuters, 10/11/14)(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Iraq a triple suicide bombing killed 26 Kurdish security forces in Diyala province. A roadside bomb killed the police chief of the western Anbar province.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 13, Kurdish fighters engaged in fierce clashes with jihadists on the Turkish border near Kobane, as Ankara denied allowing Washington to use its bases against the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 13, Turkish air force bombed Kurdish fighters furious over Ankara's refusal to help protect their kin in Syria. Bombs on PKK targets after they reportedly attacked a military outpost in the Daglica region.
(Reuters, 10/14/14)
2014 Oct 15, Kurdish militiamen, bolstered by intensified US-led coalition airstrikes, fought pitched street battles with the extremists in Kobani, a Syrian Kurdish border town near Turkey, making small advances. US military fighter and bomber planes carried out 14 air strikes against Islamic State targets near Kobani.
(AP, 10/15/14)(Reuters, 10/16/14)
2014 Oct 18, The Iraqi parliament approved a Sunni Muslim to become defense minister and a Shi'ite to be interior minister, as part of a more inclusive government to help tackle Islamist insurgents. Six Kurdish members of the cabinet were also sworn in.
(Reuters, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 18, In Syria US-led coalition jets pounded suspected Islamic State targets at least six times in Kobani after the fiercest shelling in days by the insurgents shook the town's center and hit border areas within Turkey. Syrian government forces shelled neighborhoods in Damascus, the southern province of Deraa and the central province of Homs. Islamic State militants fired 44 mortars at Kurdish parts of Kobani. Two Islamic State car bombs hit Kurdish positions leading to casualties.
(Reuters, 10/18/14)(AP, 10/19/14)
2014 Oct 19, In Syria Islamic State fighters continued to hit Kurdish defenders in Kobani with mortars. The Observatory said 70 Islamic State fighters had been killed in the past two days.
(Reuters, 10/19/14)
2014 Oct 20, Turkey said it would allow Iraqi Kurdish fighters to reinforce fellow Kurds in the Syrian town of Kobani, while the US air-dropped arms for the first time to help the defenders resist an Islamic State assault. At least one cache of the US airdropped weapons were seized by Islamioc State fighters.
(Reuters, 10/20/14)(SFC, 10/22/14, p.A4)
2014 Oct 22, In southeastern Turkey suspected Kurdish militants kidnapped 10 power company workers. A politician from a Kurdish Islamist party was shot dead in the eastern city of Bingol.
(Reuters, 10/22/14)
2014 Oct 23, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that 200 Iraqi Kurd peshmerga fighters would travel through Turkey to join the battle in Kobane, where about 1,000 IS militants are believed to be fighting. US-led air strikes in Syria were reported to have killed more than 521 jihadists and 32 civilians over the last month.
(AFP, 10/23/14)(Reuters, 10/23/14)
2014 Oct 24, Turkey’s soldiers shot dead 3 PKK guerrillas after fighters from the outlawed group set fire to two vehicles and a power plant in the eastern province of Kars and shot at soldiers who returned fire.
(Reuters, 10/25/14)
2014 Oct 25, In Iraq a suicide bombing killed 8 Shiite militiamen in Taji, just north of Baghdad. 17 people were wounded. The US and its allies conducted 22 air strikes against Islamic State forces with attacks in the frequently targeted areas near the vital Mosul dam, the city of Fallujah and the northern city of Bayji, home of an oil refinery. Kurdish forces retook the northern Iraqi town of Zumar and several nearby villages.
(AP, 10/25/14)(Reuters, 10/25/14)
2014 Oct 25, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants killed 3 Turkish soldiers.
(Reuters, 10/25/14)
2014 Oct 26, In Syria Kurdish forces in Kobane thwarted a new attempt by fighters from the Islamic State group to cut off the border with Turkey before Iraqi Kurdish reinforcements can deploy. The jihadists have lost 481 dead, while 313 Kurds have been killed fighting to defend the area. Civilians accounted for 21 of the dead.
(AFP, 10/26/14)
2014 Oct 29, Iraqi peshmerga fighters arrived in southeastern Turkey en route for the Syrian town of Kobani to try to help fellow Kurds break an Islamic State siege. The US military conducted 14 air strikes over the last 2 days against the IS in Syria and Iraq. Eight of the strikes were near Kobani.
(Reuters, 10/29/14)
2014 Oct 30, A first group of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters entered the besieged Syrian town of Kobani to help push back Islamic State militants who have defied US air strikes. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) said it already has 400 fighters in Kobane and more are on the way.
(Reuters, 10/30/14)(AFP, 10/30/14)
2014 Oct 31, In Syria US-led air strikes hit Islamic State positions around the border town of Kobani in an apparent bid to pave the way for heavily-armed Kurdish peshmerga forces to enter from neighboring Turkey.
(Reuters, 10/31/14)
2014 Nov 1, Some 150 Iraqi Kurdish forces arrived in the Syrian town of Kobani with heavy weapons to help Syrian Kurds fend off attempts by Islamic State insurgents to seize the town. Around 200 fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) have also arrived in Kobani to help defend the town. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 100 Islamic State fighters were killed in the past three days.
(Reuters, 11/1/14)
2014 Nov 3, The militant Islamic State group released 93 Syrian Kurds it captured in February as they made their way from northern Syria to neighboring Iraq. A day later Human Rights Watch said Islamic State militants had forced children as young as 14 to watch videos of beheadings and beat them with cables during six months of captivity.
(Reuters, 11/4/14)
2014 Nov 4, Turkish politician Ahmet Karatas, a member of the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was stabbed repeatedly in the capital Ankara, in an attack that his pro-Kurdish party blamed on a government-led 'lynch campaign' against it.
(Reuters, 11/4/14)
2014 Nov 5, In Syria mortar rounds slammed into a school in a rebel-held suburb east of Damascus, killing at least 13 children. In Kurdish-dominated north and northeastern regions, Kurdish forces distributed leaflets to residents, ordering them to report for compulsory military service.
(AP, 11/5/14)
2014 Nov 9, Monitors said that that officials in a predominantly Kurdish province of northeastern Syria have issued a women's rights decree, in an apparent rebuke to the hardline views of Islamic State insurgents who have advanced in the region.
(Reuters, 11/9/14)
2014 Nov 11, Syrian Kurds backed by fighters from northern Iraq gained ground towards breaking the siege of the Syrian border town of Kobani but are drawing heavy fire from Islamic State insurgents and have yet to win back control.
(Reuters, 11/11/14)
2014 Nov 16, In Syria the US-led coalition against the Islamic State jihadist group carried out a series of air strikes overnight on Kobane. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the toll since fighting began had risen to 1,153, including 27 civilians, 398 Kurdish YPG fighters, 16 non-Kurdish rebels backing the YPG and 712 Islamic State fighters.
(AFP, 11/16/14)
2014 Nov 18, A Syrian military airstrike killed at least 13 people, including children, and wounded another 20 in the northern province of Aleppo after striking a neighborhood with crude bombs. Kurds captured six IS-controlled buildings in Kobani and confiscated a large amount of weapons and ammunition.
(AP, 11/18/14)(AP, 11/19/14)
2014 Nov 19, Iraqi Kurdish forces launched a new offensive targeting Islamic State group extremists as a suicide bomber killed at least five people in Irbil, the Kurds' regional capital.
(AP, 11/19/14)
2014 Nov 23, Iraqi forces said they have retaken Jalawla and Saadiya, two towns in Diyala province, from Islamic State fighters. At least 23 peshmerga and militia fighters were killed and dozens were wounded. A car bomb in the Shi'ite town of Yousufiya killed 5 people.
(AP, 11/23/14)
2014 Dec 2, The Iraqi government reached a deal with the Kurdish local authorities in the country's north to exchange oil from the autonomous region for a nearly 20 percent share of the national budget.
(AP, 12/2/14)
2014 Dec 4, Kurdish sources said a second group of 150 Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces has entered the Syrian border town of Kobani from Turkey to replace a first group helping Kurdish forces fight off a siege by Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 12/4/14)
2014 Dec 17, Kurdish forces launched an operation to retake the town of Sinjar in northwestern Iraq after heavy coalition air strikes on Islamic State positions in the area overnight.
(Reuters, 12/17/14)
2014 Dec 18, Iraqi Kurdish forces opened a corridor to Sinjar Mountain to help thousands of trapped Yazidi people flee.
(SFC, 12/19/14, p.A4)
2014 Dec 19, In Iraq Kurdish forces pressed their biggest offensive against the Islamic State group so far, buoyed by US reports that jihadist supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's top aide in Iraq has been killed. Bombings killed 11 people in Baghdad.
(AP, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 20, In Iraq Bombs targeting commercial streets and an army patrol killed 12 people in and around Baghdad.
(AP, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 20, Iraqi Kurdish and allied forces pressed on with a vast operation to wrest back swathes of land from the Islamic State jihadist group, a day after a months-old siege on Mount Sinjar was broken.
(AFP, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 20, In Syria an activist opposed to both the Islamic State and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad said he had "verified 100 executions" of foreign IS fighters trying to leave Raqqa, the jihadist group's de facto capital. Kurdish fighters advanced in the contested northern town of Kobani after heavy clashes with the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 12/20/14)(AP, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 21, Kurdish fighters, backed by US-led coalition airstrikes, pushed into the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, touching off heavy clashes with Islamic State militants who have controlled the area for months.
(AP, 12/21/14)
2014 Dec 22, Kurdish fighters in Iraq pushed deeper into the town of Sinjar, held by the Islamic State group, but faced stiff resistance from the Sunni militants who captured it in August.
(AP, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 25, It was reported that rebel groups fighting in Syria's northern Aleppo province have agreed to form an alliance called the Shamiyya Front. Government air force raids killed at least 21 people, including several children, in the IS-held areas of Al-Bab and Qbasin in the northern province of Aleppo. At least 44 members of the Islamic State group were killed in clashes with Kurdish forces. 30 were killed Qassiab, Hasakeh province, and 14 in Kobane. 3 Kurdish fighters were also killed in the clashes.
(Reuters, 12/25/14)(AFP, 12/25/14)
2014 Dec 27, In Turkey 2 people died and three others were wounded in clashes between Islamists and Kurdish youths in the southeastern town of Cizre.
(Reuters, 12/27/14)
2014 Dec 31, Kurdish forces were reported to have regained control of around 70 percent of the Syrian town of Kobani after pushing back Islamic State fighters that have spent months besieging it.
(Reuters, 12/31/14)
2014 Dec 31, Kurdish Iraqi forces launched a large-scale offensive to push Islamic State group extremists from an area outside the militant-held northern city of Mosul. The United States and its allies staged 29 air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)(AP, 12/31/14)
2015 Jan 10, In northern Iraq Islamic State group fighters attempting to retake Gwer, a town held by Kurdish peshmerga forces, killed at least 30 Kurds.
(AP, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 14, In Turkey, a child (12) was allegedly shot and killed by security forces in the old southeastern Kurdish settlement of Cizre. 17 locals have been reportedly killed in fighting jihadists across the border in the syrian town of Kobane
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.46)
2015 Jan 17, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes broke out in the northeastern city of Hassakeh after members of a Kurdish militia detained 10 Syrian soldiers and pro-government gunmen after they deployed in areas controlled by the Kurds.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 18, In Syria at least 18 people were killed in unprecedented fighting between Kurdish forces and Syrian government troops in the northeastern city of Hasakeh over the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 19, In Syria Kurdish fighters captured a strategic hill overlooking the town of Kobani after intense clashes with the Islamic State group.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 21, Kurdish security forces launched an offensive on the Islamic State (IS) group in northern Iraq and retook villages the jihadists used to launch attacks. The US and its partners launched 23 air strikes in Syria and Iraq against Islamic State in the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 22, Kurdish officials claimed they had cut a key road linking the IS stronghold of Mosul with Tal Afar to the west as US and coalition bombers, fighter jets and drones carried out a total of 31 air raids over the last 24 hours, including ten in Syria and 21 in Iraq.
(AFP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Iraq Kurds fired 20 Grad missiles into Mosul after receiving information that Islamic State militants were gathering to meet near the city's Zuhour neighborhood. This was their first attack since Islamic State militants overran the northern Iraqi city last summer
(Reuters, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, In southeast Turkey some 70,000 Kurds staged a protest in Diyarbakir against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's cartoon portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 26, In Syria Kurdish forces took full control of Kobani, driving out remaining Islamic State fighters to end a four-month battle. Half the city was completely destroyed and much of the rest had suffered damage. Turkish locals said 17 fighters had been killed in fighting jihadists in Kobane.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)(Econ, 2/14/15, p.46)
2015 Jan 30, Iraqi Kurdish forces repelled a major attack by the Islamic State group in Kirkuk province. Brigadier General Shirko Rauf and 5 other members of the Kurdish peshmerga forces were killed and 46 more were wounded. Violence elsewhere left at least 19 dead. Kurdish Brig. Gen. Hussein Mansour was killed by a sniper shot near Kirkuk.
(AFP, 1/30/15)(AP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, Iraqi Kurdish forces and police retook an oil field in Kirkuk province that was seized by the Islamic State group overnight, and freed 24 workers who had been taken captive. A series of bombings in and around Baghdad killed 9 people.
(AFP, 1/31/15)(AP, 1/31/15)
2015 Feb 1, In northwest Iraq Kurdish forces found the remains of about 25 members of the Yazidi minority killed by the Islamic State jihadist group in a mass grave.
(AFP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Iraq The Islamic State jihadist group released a new video purporting to show captured Kurdish peshmerga fighters paraded through Iraqi streets in cages. Kurdish sources said it was filmed a week earlier in the main market of Hawija, an IS-held town some 50 km from Kirkuk.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 27, In northeast Syria Kurdish forces dealt a blow to Islamic State by capturing Tel Hamis in the latest stage of a powerful offensive. Kurdish forces killed at least 175 members and commanders of the ultra-hardline Islamist militants in an offensive which began last weekend.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Turkey Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) imprisoned on an island near Istanbul, urged separatists to hold a congress on disarmament in the coming months.
(AFP, 3/1/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Turkey Yasar Kemal (91), one of the country’s best-known novelists with worldwide readership, died. His books included of "Memed, My Hawk" (1955) a story about feudal relations in Turkey's traditional southern regions. Nine of his novels were made into films. Kemal never promoted his Kurdish background. In the mid-1990s he was convicted for an article denouncing racism against minorities in Turkey, especially Kurds.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Mar 2, Syrian regime forces and Kurdish militia fought separate battles with the Islamic State group in a strategic area near the Iraqi and Turkish borders.
(AFP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Konstandinos Erik Scurfield (25), a former Royal Marine, died in a battle with IS militants, becoming the first Briton to be killed while fighting with Kurdish forces battling Islamic State jihadists in Syria.
(AFP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 7, In northeastern Syria Islamic State militants attacked a string of predominantly Christian villages. At least 8 militants were killed in the fighting and an unknown number of Kurds. At least 9 members of Islamic State were killed during infighting near the town of al-Bab after some of them tried to flee over the Turkish border.
(AP, 3/7/15)(Reuters, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, In northern Iraq Kurdish forces drove Islamic State militants back from the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, in an attack which was backed by heavy air strikes from a US-led coalition.
(Reuters, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, About 95 captives, including Kurdish fighters, escaped from an Islamic State-run prison in northern Syria but most were recaptured.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 11, In Syria the Islamic State jihadist group launched a major offensive to try to capture the strategic town of Ras al-Ain on the Syrian-Turkish border, leaving dozens dead in clashes. At least 12 fighters from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which control Ras al-Ain and the surrounding villages, were killed in the IS onslaught.
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 14, Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government said it has evidence Islamic State used chlorine gas as a chemical weapon against Kurdish peshmerga forces in a January 23 suicide car bombing.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In northeast Syria US-led coalition jets struck Islamic State positions for the second day in a row, in an area where the militants are battling Kurdish forces.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 20, Islamic State published a video purporting to show the beheading of three Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq by militants who threatened to kill "dozens" more of those being held captive. The population under Islamic State control was about eight million people.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.17)
2015 Mar 20, In Syria a twin bombing targeting Kurds celebrating their new year in the northeastern city of Hassakeh killed 49 people and wounded 177 others.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan called for Kurds to hold a historic congress to end a decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Apr 6, In northwestern Syria Islamist fighters kidnapped some 300 Kurdish civilians at a checkpoint in Dana, Idlib province.
(AFP, 4/6/15)
2015 Apr 10, In Syria pro-government forces repelled an attack on the Khalkhalah military airport in Sweida province by Islamic State group affiliated militants, losing 20 fighters. At least 15 IS jihadists were killed. The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) "retook at least four checkpoints and a number of neighborhoods" around the town of Tal Tamr. 10 members of the Kurdish YPG militia were killed in the fighting. The US-led coalition fighting conducted air strikes on IS positions around Tal Tamr.
(AFP, 4/11/15)(Reuters, 4/11/15)
2015 Apr 11, Turkish troops engaged in clashes with over two dozen rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that left four soldiers wounded and dealt a blow to the peace process.
(AFP, 4/11/15)
2015 Apr 17, In Iraq a car bombing claimed by the Islamic State killed 2 ethnically Kurdish Turks and wounded eight people wounded outside the US consulate in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region. The IS group claimed responsibility. On April 28 Kurdish authorities said they have arrested Kurdish five men who confessed to carrying out the car bombing on behalf of Islamic State.
(Reuters, 4/17/15)(AP, 4/18/15)(Reuters, 4/28/15)
2015 May 6, In Syria at least 16 members of the Syrian Kurdish security forces were killed in an Islamic State group attack on a base in the northeastern province of Hasakeh.
(AFP, 5/6/15)
2015 May 12, In northern Iraq a bomb blast killed senior Kurdish Maj. Gen. Salah Delmani as well as two of his bodyguards. Delmani was prominent in the fight against the Islamic State group.
(AP, 5/12/15)
2015 May 18, In Turkey twin bomb attacks hit the regional headquarters of the main pro-Kurdish HDP party in two cities, injuring more than half a dozen people and escalating tensions ahead of June 7 legislative elections.
(AFP, 5/18/15)
2015 May 27, In Syria Islamic State militants shot dead around 20 men inside an ancient amphitheater in Palmyra. A monitor said Kurdish forces have driven the IS group from more than a dozen Assyrian Christian villages that the jihadists had captured in the northeast.
(Reuters, 5/27/15)(AFP, 5/27/15)
2015 May 29, In Syria Kurdish militia executed at least 20 civilians, including two children, after accusing them of being IS supporters in a northern provincial town.
(AFP, 5/31/15)
2015 May 31, In Syria a fuel tank exploded inside a clinic in the predominantly Kurdish northeastern town of Qamishli, killing at least 25 people, including children.
(AP, 5/31/15)
2015 Jun 3, In Syria Keith Broomfield (36), an American from Massachusetts, was killed while fighting with Kurdish forces against the Islamic State near Kobani.
(SFC, 6/12/15, p.A2)(SFC, 6/15/15, p.A10)
2015 Jun 5, In Turkey two explosions tore through a rally of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Diyarbakir. 2 people were killed and some 200 wounded.
(Reuters, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 7, Turkey held parliamentary elections. President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party lost its parliamentary majority. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), crossed a 10 percent threshold to enter parliament for the first time. The HDP won 13% and an estimated 80 seats. The far right Nationalist Action Party (MHP) took 16% of the vote and 80 seats. The Republican People’s Party won 25% of the vote and 112 seats.
(Reuters, 6/7/15)(Reuters, 6/8/15)(Econ, 6/13/15, p.49)
2015 Jun 13, The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said it began an advance towards an Islamic State-held town at the Turkish border on Saturday, thrusting deeper into the jihadists' stronghold of Raqqa province in a campaign backed by US-led air strikes.
(Reuters, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 14, Syrian state television said dozens of civilians were wounded when two bombs exploded in the central city of Homs. Kurdish forces advanced to the gates of Tal Abyad and clashed with Islamic State jihadists. The upsurge in violence saw Turkey open its border to fleeing civilians.
(Reuters, 6/14/15)(AFP, 6/14/15)
2015 Jun 15, The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said it has seized a major road that brought reinforcements from Islamic State's defacto capital of Raqqa, enabling YPG fighters to lay siege to the militant's stronghold of Tel Abyad. Syrian rebels shelled a government-held neighborhood in Aleppo killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens.
(Reuters, 6/15/15)(AP, 6/15/15)
2015 Jun 16, In Syria Kurdish militia, backed by Syrian rebel forces, seized full control of the key border town of Tal Abyad from Islamic State group jihadists.
(AFP, 6/16/15)
2015 Jun 16, Turkey accused Kurdish militia in northern Syria of persecuting civilians and said it saw signs of "a kind of ethnic cleansing", drawing a parallel to the actions of Islamic State militants and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
(Reuters, 6/16/15)
2015 Jun 22, In Syria Kurdish-led forces advanced deep into territory in Syria held by Islamic State, showing new momentum after they unexpectedly swiftly seized a border crossing from the jihadists last week.
(Reuters, 6/22/15)
2015 Jun 23, Syrian Kurds and allied rebels advanced against the Islamic State group. Anti-IS forces took Ain Issa after capturing the nearby Brigade 93 base overnight.
(AFP, 6/23/15)
2015 Jun 25, In Syria Islamic State fighters launched simultaneous attacks against the government forces and Kurdish militia, moving back onto the offensive after losing ground in recent days to Kurdish-led forces near Raqqa. At least 15 Islamic State fighters were reported killed in Kobani. IS militants mounted a bloody surprise attack on the Kurdish-held border town of Kobane, killing at least 164. IS forces shot dead at least 23 people in the Kurdish village of Barkh Butan.
(Reuters, 6/25/15)(AFP, 6/25/15)(AFP, 6/27/15)
2015 Jun 26, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey will never allow the establishment of a Kurdish state in Syria after major gains by Kurdish fighters.
(AFP, 6/27/15)
2015 Jun 27, In Syria Kurdish forces drove out Islamic State fighters who had infiltrated the Syrian border town of Kobani, but clashes continued outside the town. The number of civilians killed since bands of elite IS fighters infiltrated the town early June 25 exceeded 200 and was likely to rise as the search for bodies continues.
(AP, 6/27/15)
2015 Jul 1, Syrian Kurdish forces regained full control of Tal Abyad, expelling Islamic State group fighters who had seized a district of the strategic border town.
(AFP, 7/1/15)
2015 Jul 6, In Syria a suicide bomber from the Nusra Front blew himself up in a government army outpost in a contested neighborhood in the divided city of Aleppo and killed at least 25 soldiers and allied militia and injured scores. Islamic State fighters stormed the town of Ain Issa held by Kurdish-led forces near Raqqa city.
(Reuters, 7/6/15)
2015 Jul 16, In Syria Kurdish fighters besieged members of the Islamic State group in the northeastern city of Hassakeh as they pushed forward under the cover of airstrikes by the US-led coalition. At least 11 civilians, among them 3 children, were killed in regime barrel bomb attacks on jihadist-held Al-Bab.
(AP, 7/16/15)(AFP, 7/16/15)
2015 Jul 18, British-based organizations — Conflict Armament Research and Sahan Research — reported that Islamic State forces used chemical agents delivered through what appears to be locally manufactured shells to attack Iraqi peshmerga forces and Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), on June 21, 22 and 28.
(AP, 7/18/15)
2015 Jul 20, A Syrian Kurdish militia said it was in near full control of the northeastern city of Hasaka, expanding its sway at the expense of the Damascus government in the wake of an Islamic State attack in the area.
(Reuters, 7/20/15)
2015 Jul 20, In Turkey a suspected Islamic State suicide bomber killed at least 32 people, mostly young students, in an attack on the town of Suruc near the Syrian border. The students from the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations had been planning a trip to Kobani to build a library, plant a forest and build a playground. One suspect was soon identified
(AP, 7/20/15)(AFP, 7/21/15)
2015 Jul 22, Kurdish militants claimed responsibility for today’s assassination of two Turkish police officers in what they said was retaliation for the July 20 suspected Islamic State suicide bombing which killed 32 mostly young students.
(Reuters, 7/22/15)
2015 Jul 24, Turkish warplanes pounded Islamic State targets in Syria for the first time, with President Tayyip Erdogan promising more decisive action against both the jihadists and Kurdish militants at home. Police rounded up nearly 300 people in raids against suspected Islamic State and Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 25, In Syria the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) advanced in Hasakeh city against IS and at the expense of the regime. The YPG was now said to control 70 percent of Hasakeh city, the IS 10 percent and the regime 20 percent. Islamic State militants detonated explosive laden trucks in two villages near the Kurdish-controlled border town of Tel Abyad, with reports of casualties.
(AFP, 7/25/15)(Reuters, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 25, Turkish fighter jets and ground forces hit Islamic State militants in Syria and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camps in Iraq overnight, in a campaign Ankara said would help create a "safe zone" across swathes of northern Syria. Kurdish militants said the conditions for maintaining a ceasefire with Turkey were no longer in place, after Turkish warplanes bombed their stronghold in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 7/25/15)(AFP, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 26, In Turkey an overnight car bomb and roadside explosives hit a passing military vehicle on a highway near Diyarbakir. Kurdish militants then opened fire with long-range rifles killing 2 soldiers, At least six people were detained in the attack.
(Reuters, 7/26/15)
2015 Jul 27, In northern Syria the YPG made further gains against Islamic State, capturing a town near the Euphrates River after a month-long offensive aimed at cutting their supply lines. Kurdish fighters in northern Syria accused the Turkish army of shelling their positions.
(Reuters, 7/27/15)
2015 Jul 27, In Turkey a gendarmerie major in the eastern province of Mus died after being shot by suspected PKK militants. In the nearby province of Van a military unit came under fire.
(Reuters, 7/28/15)
2015 Jul 28, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said it was impossible to continue a peace process with Kurdish militants and urged parliament to strip politicians with links to them of immunity from prosecution.
(Reuters, 7/28/15)
2015 Jul 29, Turkish jets launched their heaviest assault on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq overnight since air strikes began last week. A Turkish soldier was killed and three seriously wounded in the eastern province of Agri in what appeared to be a PKK attack.
(Reuters, 7/29/15)
2015 Jul 29, Turkey’s Deputy PM Bulent Arinc gave a breakdown of the terror suspects rounded up in the nationwide police operation, saying that of the 1,300 detained only 137 were suspected of links to IS. Some 31 have been charged so far, while 18 were released. In contrast, police detained as many as 847 PKK suspects. A total of 142 have been charged so far, while 120 were released.
(AP, 7/30/15)
2015 Jul 30, In southeast Turkey Kurdish rebels attacked security forces in two separate assaults in Simak province, killing 3 soldiers and an officer. One rebel was also killed. Kurdish rebels raided a Turkish police station and fired on railway workers in two separate attacks that left 5 dead.
(AP, 7/30/15)(AP, 7/31/15)
2015 Jul 30, In northern Syria at least 10 Kurdish fighters and 8 Islamic state members were killed when IS jihadists attacked Sarrin, a town recently captured by Kurdish forces.
(AFP, 7/30/15)
2015 Aug 1, Turkey’s official Anatolia news agency said around 260 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been killed and hundreds more wounded in Ankara's week-long campaign of air strikes against targets of the group inside Turkey and in northern Iraq. Turkish war planes struck the village of Zarkel (Zergele in Kurdish) in northern Iraq killed at least 6 people.
(AFP, 8/1/15)(AFP, 8/3/15)
2015 Aug 1, Iraq's Kurdish regional government called on the Kurdistan Worker's Party to "withdraw" from Iraq's Kurdish territory to prevent civilian deaths amid a campaign of Turkish airstrikes targeting the group.
(AP, 8/1/15)
2015 Aug 2, Two Turkish soldiers were killed and 31 wounded in a suicide bombing overnight, as violence escalated following Ankara's air bombardment of Kurdish militants in northern Iraq. A day later the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 8/2/15)(AFP, 8/3/15)
2015 Aug 4, Two Turkish soldiers and an armed guard were killed in a blast from a homemade mine planted by Kurdish militants in Sirnak province. Turkish warplanes pounded suspected Kurdish rebel targets near Daglica, Hakkari province, in retaliation to a rebel mortar attack at a military base which wounded a 6-year-old girl. Kurdish militants attacked Turkey's Shah Deniz pipeline carrying natural gas from Azerbaijan, but the blast did not impact supply as flow had already been halted for maintenance.
(Reuters, 8/4/15)(AP, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Turkey 5 people including a Turkish soldier died and several others were injured in clashes in the restive Kurdish-majority southeast, as violence raged between Kurdish militants and security forces.
(AFP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Turkey an Iranian bus was hit in Dogubayazit district of the eastern Agri province. The driver was fatally shot in the head. Turkish authorities blamed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants. The passengers were unhurt.
(AFP, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 8, In southern Turkey Kurdish PKK rebels fired at a police vehicle, killing a policeman and wounding another.
(AP, 8/9/15)
2015 Aug 9, Turkey’s official Anatolia news agency reported that 390 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been killed and hundreds injured in two weeks of Turkish airstrikes on positions in northern Iraq. Operations in the eastern Agri province killed 7 PKK militants.
(AFP, 8/9/15)(Reuters, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 10, In Turkey two women shot at the US consulate in Istanbul. The Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C), considered a terrorist organization by the US and Turkey, said one of its members was involved in the attack. The bombing of an Istanbul police station left 4 people dead, 3 of them PKK attackers. At least 8 people were killed in a wave of separate attacks on security forces.
(Reuters, 8/10/15)(Reuters, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 11, Turkish warplanes hit 17 Kurdish militant targets in the southeastern province of Hakkari over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 11, In northern Iraq Kurdish forces in the Makhmur area near Arbil were reportedly attacked with Katyusha rockets filled with chlorine. IS has previously been accused of using chlorine against Kurdish forces in Iraq.
(AFP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 12, In Iraq’s Kurdish region Farhad Jaafar Mahmood and wives Khuncha Hassan Ismaeil and Berivan Haider Karim were hanged following convictions in April last year over the kidnapping and murder of two girls.
(AP, 8/25/15)
2015 Aug 14, Turkish state media said the military has started building a concrete wall along the border with Syria following a series of attacks. Security forces said a soldier was killed after a mine laid by militants was detonated remotely in the eastern province of Bingol. 2 PKK fighters were killed during an operation in response to the attack.
(AFP, 8/14/15)(Reuters, 8/14/15)
2015 Aug 15, Turkey’s state news reported that Kurdish rebels detonated a roadside bomb between the eastern provinces of Bingol and Erzurum as a military vehicle was passing by, killing 3 soldiers. A police officer was killed after PKK rebels opened fire near the town of Semdinli.
(AP, 8/15/15)(Reuters, 8/15/15)
2015 Aug 19, In northeastern Syria a suicide bomber killed at least 16 people in an attack on Kurdish security forces. The blast in Qamishli killed 10 members of the Kurdish forces, called the Asayish, and 6 civilians. IS claimed responsibility. Aerial bombardment by the government of Harasta, a rebel stronghold east of Damascus, left at least 10 people dead.
(AFP, 8/19/15)
2015 Aug 19, Turkish police arrested two people after a hand grenade was hurled and shots were fired at officers guarding Istanbul's Dolmabache Palace. In the southeast PKK militants killed 8 soldiers in a bomb attack in Siirt province.
(AP, 8/19/15)(Reuters, 8/19/15)
2015 Aug 20, Iraqi Kurdistan president Massud Barzani's extended term expired today, leaving the autonomous region in a "legal vacuum" that Kurdish political parties were still trying to resolve.
(AFP, 8/20/15)
2015 Aug 22, Turkey's military said warplanes have conducted new air strikes against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, killing 29 militants on Aug 20-21.
(AP, 8/22/15)
2015 Aug 23, In Turkey Kurdish militants armed with assault rifles attacked a hydroelectric power station near the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, killing a soldier and wounding three others.
(Reuters, 8/23/15)
2015 Aug 25, The Turkish military said 34 militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in its latest air strikes on the group's camps in northern Iraq's Qandil mountain region.
(Reuters, 8/25/15)
2015 Aug 26, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu invited three lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to join an interim government to take Turkey to November 1 elections.
(AFP, 8/26/15)
2015 Aug 27, In southeastern Turkey 6 people were killed in street fighting between security forces and Kurdish rebels in a mainly Kurdish town of Yuksekova after authorities imposed a curfew in the town late the previous day.
(Reuters, 8/27/15)
2015 Sep 3, Four Turkish police were killed in a bomb attack on their vehicle in the country's southeast blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 9/3/15)
2015 Sep 6, In eastern Turkey 2 policeman were killed and three others injured in Diyarbakir when Kurdish militants clashed with security forces. Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels reportedly killed 31 members of the armed forces in an attack on a convoy and clashes in the mountainous Daglica area of Hakkari province. Turkey’s army statement said 16 had died.
(Reuters, 9/6/15)(Reuters, 9/7/15)
2015 Sep 7, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish insurgent targets overnight after the militants staged what appeared to be their deadliest attack since the collapse of a two-year-old ceasefire in July. 16 Turkish soldiers were killed in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of the country in an attack blamed on the PKK.
(Reuters, 9/7/15)(AFP, 9/8/15)
2015 Sep 8, Turkish warplanes launched a massive air operation against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, killing as many as 40 rebels. Kurdish militants killed 14 police officers in a bomb attack on a minibus in a Turkish province bordering Armenia and Iran. Turkish ground forces crossed into northern Iraq for the first time since 2011 in a "short-term" operation to hunt down Kurdish rebels.
(AFP, 9/8/15) (Reuters, 9/8/15)(AP, 9/8/15)
2015 Sep 11, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants fired on a restaurant frequented by police in Diyarbakir, killing a waiter and wounding three officers after Turkish jets bombed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq for a fifth straight night. Media reported that at least 60 PKK fighters were killed in the air strikes by F-16 and F-4 jets which hit 64 targets in the group's camps across the region.
(Reuters, 9/11/15)
2015 Sep 13, In southeast Turkey Kurdish militants killed 2 police officers in a car bomb attack on a checkpoint in Sirnak province. Turkish forces shelled a mountainous area where PKK fighters had fled after the checkpoint attack, killing 6 of them. The PKK also launched an attack with rocket-propelled grenades and rifles in the Silvan district of Diyarbakir province, killing one police officer and wounding another.
(Reuters, 9/13/15)
2015 Sep 19, Turkey’s state-run Anatolia news agency reported that Turkish fighter jets carried out a new barrage of cross-border airstrikes this week against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, killing at least 55 rebels.
(AFP, 9/19/15)
2015 Sep 20, In Turkey at least 10,000 demonstrators rallied in central Istanbul for a protest aimed at denouncing violence by Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 9/20/15)
2015 Sep 21, In Syria heavy bombardment by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed at least 18 civilians in a residential district of the northern city of Aleppo. 4 people were reported killed in twin car bomb attacks on the frontier town of Ras al-Ain. Kurdish security forces were among the dead. At least 38 Islamic State group fighters were killed in air strikes by the Damascus regime against Palmyra and two other towns in Homs province.
(AFP, 9/21/15)(AFP, 9/22/15)
2015 Sep 21, Islamic State militants released Massoud Aqeel, who was kidnapped last year in northern Syria, as part of a prisoner swap with a Kurdish militia. The IS group still held reporter Farhad Hamo.
(Reuters, 9/26/15)
2015 Sep 21, The Turkish military said it has killed 5 Kurdish rebels in airstrikes on the southeastern province of Hakkari.
(AP, 9/21/15)
2015 Sep 24, Two Turkish soldiers and 34 Kurdish rebels were killed in fighting in Sirnak province.
(AFP, 9/25/15)
2015 Sep 25, In Turkey 4 civilians were killed after they were caught in clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants in the southeast. Turkish military killed more than 30 Kurdish militants in a cross-border operation.
(AFP, 9/26/15)(Reuters, 9/29/15)
2015 Sep 28, In southern Turkey 2 police officers were killed in an attack by suspected PKK militants in Adana province.
(Reuters, 9/29/15)
2015 Sep 29, The Turkish army said six PKK militants had been killed in operations carried out in the southeastern province of Hakkari overnight.
(Reuters, 9/29/15)
2015 Sep 29, Turkish warplanes late today struck 24 targets in a bombardment of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) positions in the southeastern province of Hakkari. 2 soldiers were killed when a bomb buried in the ground went off when a military vehicle passed by on a road between southeastern towns of Semdinli and Yuksekova.
(Reuters, 9/30/15)
2015 Sep 30, In northern Iraq Kurdish forces attacked Islamic State in the latest of several offensives aimed at driving the militants away from the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(Reuters, 9/30/15)
2015 Oct 2, Turkish security forces killed more than 10 suspected Kurdish militants amid intensifying clashes in the country's southeast, while 44 people were arrested in Istanbul on suspicion of links with the rebels. Suspected militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) abducted two Turkish soldiers on a highway between the Tunceli and Erzincan provinces.
(Reuters, 10/2/15)(AFP, 10/3/15)
2015 Oct 4, Turkish warplanes struck Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq and eastern Turkey overnight, in a new air operation against the militant group.
(AFP, 10/4/15)
2015 Oct 7, Kurds said Islamic State fighters fired mortar rounds containing mustard agent at peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq during clashes in August.
(Reuters, 10/7/15)
2015 Oct 8, In Iraq protesters hurled stones and scuffled with riot police in the second largest city in the Kurdish north, in the most intense show of discontent since an economic crisis hit the region. The economic crisis began in early 2014 when Baghdad slashed funds to the region, and has been exacerbated by the conflict with Islamic State and a drop in oil prices that has pushed the region to the verge of bankruptcy.
(Reuters, 10/8/15)
2015 Oct 10, In Iraq thousands of people took to the streets of several towns in the Kurdistan region, urging its long-time president Massud Barzani to step down.
(AFP, 10/10/15)
2015 Oct 10, In Turkey as many as 128 people were killed when two suspected suicide bombers hit a rally of pro-Kurdish and leftist activists outside Ankara's main train station, in the deadliest attack of its kind on Turkish soil. On Oct 16 authorities raised the toll to 102. Hours after the bombing, the PKK ordered its fighters to halt operations in Turkey unless they faced attack. Turkey targeted the Islamic State in investigations of the bombing.
(AP, 10/11/15)(Reuters, 10/11/15)(AP, 10/16/15)
2015 Oct 11, Thousands of people took to the streets of Ankara to denounce the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after it said 95 people were killed in twin suspected suicide bombings on a peace rally a day earlier. Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), one of the groups that called the peace rally, issued a statement claiming the actual toll was far higher at 128, giving the names of 120 victims. 2 Turkish soldiers were reported killed during clashes with PKK militants in the Senkaya district of Erzurum province. The Turkish army said it killed at least 49 Kurdish rebels in a series of air strikes on the group's bases in northern Iraq as well as southeastern Diyarbakir province.
(AFP, 10/11/15)
2015 Oct 12, A Kurdish militia that has been fighting Islamic State in Syria with help from US-led air strikes has joined forces with Arab groups in an alliance announced on that may be a prelude to an attack on the jihadists' base of operations in Raqqa.
(Reuters, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 13, Turkish security forces killed ten Kurdish militants during ground and air operations in southeastern Turkey, days after the insurgents called a unilateral ceasefire.
(Reuters, 10/14/15)
2015 Oct 17, Turkey said 3 soldiers and 28 Kurdish militants have been killed in air strikes and clashes over the past two days in the predominantly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 18, In Turkey 2 soldiers were killed when rebels set off a remote-controlled mine targeting an army vehicle in the eastern province of Tunceli. Security officials said 4 government soldiers and about 20 Kurdish rebels have been killed in several days of clashes in the mountainous Daglica region.
(AFP, 10/18/15)
2015 Oct 21, In northern Syria a new administration was formed for a majority Sunni-Arab town controlled by Syrian Kurds, expanding the ethnic group's semi-autonomous administration. A local leadership council including representatives of Tel Abyad's Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen and Armenian communities declared it part of the system of autonomous self-government established by the Kurds.
(AP, 10/21/15)(Reuters, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 22, In northern Iraq the US military freed a number of Kurdish captives in a rescue mission in the vicinity of Hawija. US Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler (39) was killed in the operation.
(AP, 10/22/15)(AP, 10/23/15)
2015 Oct 25, Turkish military shot at Kurdish forces deployed in the town of Tal Abyad, Syria, using mostly machine guns. There were no casualties in the shooting and the Kurdish forces didn't return fire.
(AP, 10/27/15)
2015 Oct 30, In Syria at least 47 people were killed and about 100 wounded when government forces fired missiles into a marketplace at Douma, a town 10 miles from Damascus. In the northeast a coalition of US-backed Kurdish militia and rebel groups launched its first operation against territory controlled by the IS jihadist group.
(Reuters, 10/30/15)(AFP, 10/31/15)
2015 Nov 2, Turkish airstrikes hit shelters, underground bunkers and weapon emplacements belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in six locations in northern Iraq, including the Qandil mountains where the rebel leadership is based.
(AP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 5, Kurdish militants scrapped a month-old ceasefire in Turkey, a day after President Tayyip Erdogan vowed to "liquidate" them.
(Reuters, 11/5/15)
2015 Nov 10, Kurdish rebels detonated a bomb on a road in southeast Turkey, wounding six soldiers riding inside an armored military vehicle. 3 policemen were killed when PKK militants detonated an improvised explosive device on a road near the town of Silopi, in Sirnak province.
(AP, 11/10/15)(AP, 11/11/15)
2015 Nov 11, In Turkey a soldier was killed in a clash with Kurdish militants in the town of Silvan, in Diyarbakir province. PKK rebels detonated a car bomb on a road in the town of Dargecit, Mardin province, as an armored police vehicle was passing by. The explosion killed a road-sweeper and wounded a police officer.
(AP, 11/11/15)
2015 Nov 12, Kurdish peshmerga forces started clearing parts of the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar and have established positions along an Islamic State supply route between its two main strongholds in Iraq and Syria.
(Reuters, 11/12/15)
2015 Nov 13, In Iraq Kurdish peshmerga forces backed by US air strikes seized the Iraqi town of Sinjar from Islamic State.
(Reuters, 11/13/15)
2015 Nov 13, Turkish officials said 14 people have been killed in clashes between Kurdish rebels and security forces days before a G-20 summit in Turkey.
(AP, 11/13/15)
2015 Nov 15, Kurdish forces said they uncovered two mass graves outside Sinjar, a northern Iraqi town near the Syrian border that was ruled by the Islamic State group for more than a year before the extremists were driven out last week. The first grave uncovered contained 78 elderly women's bodies. The second grave contained between 50 and 60 bodies of men, women and children.
(AP, 11/15/15)
2015 Nov 20, Turkish army warplanes carried out a wave of air strikes on northern Iraq hitting 23 suspected targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 21, Turkish warplanes struck Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant targets, part of an air and ground offensive against the group in southeast Turkey, where some areas have been under curfew for as long as ten days.
(Reuters, 11/22/15)
2015 Nov 22, In Syria a bomb placed on a motorcycle exploded in Tel Abyad, a Kurdish-held town along the Turkish border, killing at least 3 and wounded 20 others.
(Reuters, 11/22/15)
2015 Nov 28, In southeastern Turkey an unidentified gunman killed Tahir Elci, a prominent Kurdish lawyer and rights activist, in what the pro-Kurdish HDP Party called a "planned assassination", urging people to take to the streets in protest. Police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse around 2,000 people marching in Istanbul's Taksim Square after Elci was shot dead in Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 11/28/15)
2015 Dec 5, In Turkey 3 members of the security forces were killed in clashes with militants the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 9, Turkey said its fighter jets carried out a new barrage of air strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq overnight.
(AFP, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 9, In northern Syria the Islamic State staged attacks in the predominantly Kurdish province of Hassakeh targeting offices of the main Kurdish militia known as YPG. At least 26 people were reported killed.
(AP, 12/11/15)
2015 Dec 14, In southeastern Turkey 2 protesters were killed in clashes with police in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir amid growing tensions over a days-long curfew.
(AFP, 12/14/15)
2015 Dec 15, In Turkey 8 Kurdish militants were killed in Cizre after they shot at the soldiers during an operation. A roadside bomb ripped through an armored vehicle and killed 3 policemen in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 16, Turkish security forces stepped up operations targeting Kurdish militants in southeastern towns, as pro-government media detailed plans for a 10,000-strong force to restore state control in the region.
(Reuters, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 17, Turkey said its security forces have killed 25 Kurdish militants this week as they battle suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the two flashpoint towns of Cizre and Silopi.
(AFP, 12/17/15)
2015 Dec 18, Turkish security forces pressed on with a relentless operation to root out Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels from two urban centers in the troubled southeast that has left at least 55 militants dead and angered Kurdish representatives.
(AFP, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 19, Turkey said 69 Kurdish insurgents and two Turkish soldiers have been killed in four days of fighting across the southeast as security forces ramp up operations against the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 20, In southeastern Turkey armed clashes persisted, where an operation by Turkish forces intensified on the sixth day of a campaign that security sources said had resulted in the death of 110 Kurdish militants. Turkish police fired tear gas to disperse several hundred protesters in Istanbul's main Taksim square demonstrating against security operations and curfews in the southeast.
(Reuters, 12/20/15)
2015 Dec 22, Turkish tanks pounded Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in Cizre. The army said it has killed 127 Kurdish militants in a week.
(Reuters, 12/22/15)
2015 Dec 24, A US-backed alliance of Syrian Kurds and Arab rebel groups advanced toward a dam in northern Syria held by Islamic State fighters, in an assault aimed at capturing the militants' stronghold of Raqqa.
(Reuters, 12/24/15)
2015 Dec 25, In Turkey a three-month-old baby and her grandfather were killed when they became caught in the crossfire between security forces and Kurdish rebels in Cizre.
(AFP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 26, A US-backed alliance of Syrian Kurds and Arab rebel groups, backed by US coalition planes, captured a dam from Islamic State.
(Reuters, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 27, In Turkey 3 soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the town of Cizre in the Kurdish majority southeast.
(AFP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the leader of the main Kurdish party Selahattin Demirtas (42) of "treason" over his call for autonomy for the country's Kurdish minority.
(AFP, 12/29/15)
2015 Dec 30, In northeastern Syria two restaurants were bombed in a predominantly Kurdish city of Qamishli. The attack killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 30.
(AP, 12/31/15)
2016 Jan 1, Turkish media reported that 2 police officers, a soldier and 12 Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters were killed in the southeast in the last 48 hours in operations to push back the militant group.
(Reuters, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 4, Turkish security sources said 2 civilians, 2 soldiers and a police officer have been killed in the southeast over the last 24 hours as military operations to root out armed fighters focused on urban centers across the mainly Kurdish region. 3 female Kurdish political activists were killed in fighting in curfew-hit Silopi town as the authorities press an offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 1/4/16)(AFP, 1/6/16)
2016 Jan 5, Turkey’s military said security forces have killed at least 14 militants in the mainly Kurdish southeast over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/5/16)
2016 Jan 8, Turkish police detained six people including local officials from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) in a raid on one of its Istanbul offices.
(Reuters, 1/8/16)
2016 Jan 8, Turkey’s armed forces killed 16 PKK fighters in the town of Cizre, near the Syrian border. Another two rebels were killed in the historical Sur district of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 1/9/16)
2016 Jan 9, In Turkey 16 rebels were killed in the towns of Cizre and Silopi, near the Syrian and Iraqi borders, and another four were killed in Sur.
(Reuters, 1/10/16)
2016 Jan 10, In Turkey a soldier and a police officer were killed in Diyarbakir when they came under explosives and rifle fire in a clash with rebels in which 14 security personnel were also wounded. Police killed a further 12 PKK members after finding them in a house in the southeastern city of Van overnight.
(Reuters, 1/10/16)
2016 Jan 11, In France an ethnic Kurd Turkish teenager (15) stabbed a Jewish teacher with a machete in the southern city of Marseille. The teen claimed to have been acting for the Islamic State.
(AFP, 1/11/16)
2016 Jan 14, In southeast Turkey Kurdish militants attacked a police station overnight with a truck bomb, killing 6 people including a baby and two toddlers in Cinar.
(Reuters, 1/14/16)
2016 Jan 15, Turkish police detained more than a dozen academics who signed a petition criticizing the military crackdown in the Kurdish-dominated southeast that angered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, triggering new alarm about freedom of expression in the country.
(AFP, 1/15/16)
2016 Jan 20, Amnesty International released a report saying Iraqi Kurdish forces are deliberately destroying Arab villages under their control. The group also found that Arab civilians were barred from returning to their villages by Kurdish forces.
(AP, 1/20/16)
2016 Jan 23, A Turkish soldier was killed in a clash between the security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the southeastern town of Cizre. 7 PKK members were reported "neutralized".
(Reuters, 1/23/16)
2016 Jan 25, Turkey's foreign minister said any participation of Kurdish forces in planned Syria peace talks would be dangerous and spell the end of the UN-led initiative.
(AP, 1/25/16)
2016 Jan 26, Turkey’s security forces killed 11 PKK members in the town of Cizre, near the Syrian border, and nine more in Sur. 3 soldiers were killed in a militant attack in Sur.
(Reuters, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 27, In southeastern Turkey thousands of people fled a district of the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir after authorities fighting Kurdish militants there expanded a 24-hour curfew to include five more neighborhoods.
(AP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 27, Spain’s Interior Ministry said police have arrested nine suspected members of the Kurdish armed group PKK-KCK that operates in Syria and Turkey in raids in three Spanish cities.
(AP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 29, In Iraq a pipeline for gas used to generate around half the electricity for the northern Kurdistan region was blown up, knocking out power. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.
(Reuters, 1/29/16)
2016 Feb 2, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters under the umbrella of the PYD, the main Syrian Kurdish force, severed the corridor between Aleppo and and the Turkish border critical for rebel supplies, in tacit alliance with the Assad regime.
(Econ, 2/20/16, p.39)
2016 Feb 3, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani declared that the "time has come" for the country's Kurds to hold a referendum on statehood, a move likely to raise tensions with Baghdad.
(AFP, 2/3/16)
2016 Feb 5, A fire at a hotel in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, killed 19 people and injured dozens more.
(AFP, 2/5/16)
2016 Feb 9, Protests intensified in Iraq's Kurdistan region after the government unveiled new austerity measures to avert an economic collapse that officials warn could undermine the war effort against Islamic State.
(Reuters, 2/9/16)
2016 Feb 9, Turkish soldiers spotted seven PKK militants entering Sirnak province's Cizre district from Syria and, as they clashed, one soldier was killed and one wounded. Military officials have detained a group of 34 people at the border with Syria and seized luggage containing four suicide vests and explosives.
(Reuters, 2/10/16)
2016 Feb 10, In northern Syria Kurdish fighters backed by Russian airstrikes launched an attack in an attempt to capture a military air base held by Syrian insurgents. An international aid group warned that the health system is close to collapse in parts of northern Syria.
(AP, 2/10/16)
2016 Feb 10, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported that one police officer was killed and another wounded when PKK rebels launched a rocket attack on an armored vehicle in Sirnak.
(Reuters, 2/10/16)(AP, 2/10/16)
2016 Feb 11, In Syria Kurdish-led fighters aided by Russian bombing captured the rebel-held Menagh military airport near the border with Turkey. Russian warplanes staged at least 30 raids against the rebels holding out there.
(Reuters, 2/11/16)
2016 Feb 11, Turkey said that its security forces have completed their operations against militants in Cizre after weeks of fighting. Turkish security forces killed 27 militants in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 2/12/16)
2016 Feb 14, The Syrian Kurdish PYD party rejected Turkish demands that allied militia withdraw from positions near the border that are being shelled by Turkish army.
(Reuters, 2/14/16)
2016 Feb 14, The Turkish army shelled positions held by Kurdish-backed militia in northern Syria for a second day, killing two fighters.
(Reuters, 2/14/16)
2016 Feb 15, Turkish security forces hit Kurdish militia targets in Syria for the third day in a row after a border security outpost on the border was attacked this morning.
(Reuters, 2/15/16)
2016 Feb 17, Nine Kurdish soldiers were admitted with symptoms including vomiting, nausea, shortness of breath and itching. It wasbelieved that Islamic State militants fired mortar shells believed to have been filled with a chemical substance, possibly chlorine, at Kurdish troops close to the Iraqi town of Sinjar.
(AP, 2/18/16)
2016 Feb 17, In Turkey a car laden with explosives detonated next to military buses as they waited at traffic lights near the armed forces' headquarters, parliament and government buildings in the administrative heart of Ankara. 28 people were killed. Within hours, Turkish warplanes bombed bases in northern Iraq of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which PM Davutoglu accused of collaborating in the car bombing.
(Reuters, 2/18/16)
2016 Feb 19, Two Turkish soldiers and one police officer were killed in an attack by Kurdish militants in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 2/19/16)
2016 Feb 23, Britain said it had seen disturbing evidence that Syrian Kurds were coordinating with the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad and the Russian air force.
(Reuters, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 24, Turkish military helicopters killed 9 Kurdish militants in strikes near the southeastern Idil district of Sirnak province.
(Reuters, 2/24/16)
2016 Feb 28, Turkish security said a police officer was killed and two wounded when suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants fired a rocket at their armored vehicle in the town of Nusaybin near the southeastern border with Syria.
(Reuters, 2/28/16)
2016 Mar 4, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish rebels detonated a car bomb near a police station, killing two police officers and wounding some 35 people.
(AP, 3/4/16)
2016 Mar 7, In southeastern Turkey 13 Kurdish militants were killed when a firefight broke out in the town of Idil. Two Turkish soldiers were killed in the last 24 hours, one in Idil and the other in Sur, a historic district in Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 7, An official in YPG, the Syrian Kurdish militia, said that Turkey was firing artillery shells at its fighters in northern Aleppo province.
(Reuters, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 9, Turkey ended its 3-month military operation against militants in mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.
(AP, 3/9/16)
2016 Mar 9, The Turkish military carried out air strikes against Kurdish rebel targets across the border in northern Iraq, killing at least 67 militants.
(AP, 3/12/16)
2016 Mar 10, In southeastern Turkey 7 Kurdish militants were killed in a gun battle in Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 3/10/16)
2016 Mar 13, Turkey slapped a curfew on two border towns in the Kurdish-dominated southeast ahead of a looming military "clean-up" operation as it eased a lockdown in Diyarbakir. 37 people were killed in an Ankara car bombing that security officials said involved a female fighter of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(AFP, 3/13/16)(Reuters, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 13, Russia accused Turkey of sending its military across the Syrian border to prevent Kurdish groups there from consolidating their positions.
(AP, 3/13/16)
2016 Mar 14, Turkey detained four suspects over the previous day’s suicide car bombing in Ankara, as warplanes pounded Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq over the attack. At least 45 Kurdish rebels were killed in the air strikes. Turkey declared a round-the-clock curfew in the southeastern town of Sirnak in order to carry out operations against Kurdish militants in the area.
(AFP, 3/14/16)(Reuters, 3/14/16)(AP, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 14, In northern Iraq Muhammad Jamal Amin (27) of Virginia, a fighter for the Islamic State surrendered to Kurdish peshmerga forces near Sinjar.
(Reuters, 3/14/16)(SFC, 3/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Mar 16, A powerful Syrian Kurdish political party announced plans to declare a federal region in northern Syria, a model it hopes can be applied to the entire country.
(AP, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 16, Turkish police detained eight lawyers as part of a crackdown on pro-Kurdish activists. At least 47 suspects were detained in anti-terror operations across the country.
(AFP, 3/16/16)(AP, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 17, Syria's three Kurdish-controlled autonomous regions voted to approve the establishment of a federal system in the north of the country, defying warnings from Damascus and neighboring Turkey against any such unilateral move.
(Reuters, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, The American Islamic State group fighter, Muhammad Jamal Amin, who handed himself over to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq on March 14 said he made "a bad decision" in joining the IS, according to a heavily edited interview he gave to an Iraqi Kurdish television station.
(AP, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 21, Three Turkish soldiers were killed in a bomb attack on their military vehicle in the southeastern town of Nusaybin near the Syrian border. 23 Kurdish militants were killed in clashes in Nusaybin, Yuksekova and Sirnak.
(Reuters, 3/21/16)(Reuters, 3/22/16)
2016 Mar 21, In Turkey thousands of people gathered in the mainly Kurdish of Diyarbakir to celebrate the Newroz spring festival. The celebrations were banned in Ankara and in Istanbul, where security forces rounded up 164 people, including 12 minors, ahead of the festivities.
(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 22, In Turkey Kurdish militants killed 5 members of government security forces in three separate bomb attacks near the Syrian and Iranian borders.
(Reuters, 3/22/16)
2016 Mar 23, Turkish F-16 and F-4 jets raided 11 targets of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, including ammunition depots, bunkers and shelters late today.
(AP, 3/24/16)
2016 Mar 24, In Turkey 3 military police were killed and 22 injured in a car bombing on a barracks in in Mermer, Diyarbakir province, suspected to be the work of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 3/25/16)
2016 Mar 26, Turkish Air Force jets joined coalition forces in attacking Islamic State targets in northern Iraq, hours after a Turkish soldier was killed at a military base in the region from rockets fired by the extremist militants.
(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 29, Turkey’s security forces killed 14 "terrorists" — a military reference to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party — in Mardin province, five in Sirnak and four in Hakkari. A total of 347 militants have been killed in those three regions since the start of security operations in July.
(AP, 3/30/16)
2016 Mar 31, In Turkey a car bomb attack killed 7 police officers and wounded 27 other people in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) soon claimed responsibility. On April 2 a suspect, named as A.C., was detained in the Kocakoy district of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 4/1/16)(AFP, 4/2/16)
2016 Apr 1, Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes in northern Iraq, destroying ammunition depots and shelters in an areas where the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has camps.
(Reuters, 4/1/16)
2016 Apr 4, The Turkish military carried out airstrikes in northern Iraq against targets belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 4/5/16)
2016 Apr 5, Syrian insurgents shot down a government warplane in the north of the country and shelled a predominantly Kurdish neighborhood in the city of Aleppo. A pregnant woman and three children were among 18 civilians killed when Syrian rebels shelled a Kurdish neighborhood in Aleppo.
(AP, 4/5/16)(AFP, 4/6/16)
2016 Apr 12, Two Turkish soldiers were killed and more than 50 people wounded when a car bomb exploded at a military post in the restive Kurdish-dominated southeast.
(AP, 4/12/16)
2016 Apr 20, In north-eastern Syria 2 members of the Syrian Kurdish security force, known as the Asayish, were killed after being targeted by government forces in Qamishli.
(Reuters, 4/20/16)
2016 Apr 20, Turkish warplanes struck militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 4/20/16)
2016 Apr 21, In Syria at least 40 pro-Syrian government fighters surrendered to Kurdish forces in the city of Qamishli in mostly Kurdish-controlled Hasaka province.
(Reuters, 4/21/16)
2016 Apr 21, Turkish warplanes struck militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in southeastern Turkey.
(Reuters, 4/21/16)
2016 Apr 22, In northeastern Syria regional Kurdish security forces and pro-Syrian government forces declared a ceasefire, calming a three-day outbreak of violence which killed more than 26 people.
(Reuters, 4/23/16)
2016 Apr 24, In Iraq heavy clashes erupted between Kurdish peshmerga forces and Shiite paramilitary troops inside Tuz Khormato, a contested town north of Baghdad. A peshmerga brigadier general and another fighter and two members of Turkmen forces were among the nine people killed.
(AFP, 4/24/16)
2016 Apr 24, In northeastern Syria, a truce document announced today showed that regional Kurdish security forces will keep territory taken from pro-Syrian government forces during a three-day outbreak of violence, with both sides to release prisoners taken during the clashes.
(Reuters, 4/24/16)
2016 Apr 25, Turkey's military said it has destroyed Islamic State's missile launcher in Syria some 20 km from the border town of Kilis which has been repeatedly his by rockets from the border. 2 Turkish soldiers were killed and four wounded in an armed attack by Kurdish militants in the southeastern town of Nusaybin near the Syrian border.
(Reuters, 4/25/16)
2016 Apr 30, In Syria a suicide bomber killed five Kurdish policemen at a checkpoint in the divided northeastern city of Qamishli.
(AFP, 4/30/16)
2016 Apr 30, The Turkish military says it conducted overnight airstrikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey.
(AP, 4/30/16)
2016 May 1, In Turkey a car bomb struck the entrance of a police station in the southern city of Gaziantep, killing 2 officials and injuring 23 other people. 3 Turkish soldiers were killed and 14 others wounded in an attack in the Kurdish-dominated southeast blamed on militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(AP, 5/1/16)(AFP, 5/1/16)(Econ, 5/21/16, p.48)
2016 May 2, Turkish warplanes pounded Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq, killing 18 militants.
(AP, 5/3/16)
2016 May 4, Turkey said its warplanes have destroyed targets belonging to the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 8, In southeastern Turkey 9 PKK members were killed in the towns of Nusaybin and Sirnak.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 13, Turkish fighter jets carried out nine airstrikes against Kurdish rebels in the southeast of the country and northern Iraq. The warplanes reportedly destroyed 98 targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.
(AP, 5/14/16)
2016 May 15, A Turkish soldier and six members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in the largely Kurdish southeast. The Turkish military killed 16 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters in an operation backed by air power near the Iranian border.
(Reuters, 5/15/16)(Reuters, 5/16/16)
2016 May 18, Turkish warplanes hit PKK targets overnight in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq, killing at least 10 fighters. 4 Turkish soldiers were killed and nine wounded when a bomb was detonated as their vehicle traveled past in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country. Earlier today a soldier was killed in Nusaybin, situated at the Syrian border some 500 km (310 miles) away, when militants opened fire on him.
(Reuters, 5/18/16)
2016 May 20, Turkey's parliament approved a bill to amend the constitution to strip lawmakers of immunity, a move that paves the way for trials of several pro-Kurdish and other legislators. The bill put 138 lawmakers, the vast majority of them from two opposition parties, at risk of prosecution.
(AP, 5/20/16)
2016 May 22, Turkish authorities lifted a long-standing curfew from parts of a historic neighborhood in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.
(AP, 5/22/16)
2016 May 24, The Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Arab alliance, announced the launch of a major assault against the Islamic State group north of the jihadists' Syrian bastion of Raqa.
(AFP, 5/24/16)
2016 May 29, Iraq's special forces completed a troop buildup around Fallujah ahead of an operation to retake the Islamic State-held city west of Baghdad, as the militants attacked Hit, a newly-liberated town to the west. Iraq's Kurdish peshmerga forces launched an offensive to retake areas east of Mosul, the main IS hub in the country.
(AP, 5/29/16)(AFP, 5/29/16)
2016 Jun 4, Turkish warplanes struck Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey and the army killed 27 fighters near its borders with Iraq and Iran.
(Reuters, 6/5/16)
2016 Jun 5, A top Syrian Kurdish commander died. Abu Layla, who commanded a brigade inside the predominantly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, was hit by IS sniper fire on the outskirts of Manbij, several days earlier during a US-backed campaign to unseat the Islamic State group from its de-facto Syrian capital, Raqqa.
(AP, 6/5/16)
2016 Jun 5, In Turkey more than 1,000 people attended a rally of a pro-Kurdish, opposition party in Istanbul to protest against the abolition of immunity of some Turkish members of parliament.
(AP, 6/5/16)
2016 Jun 8, In Turkey a Kurdish rebel suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle outside a police headquarters near the border with Syria, killing 4 other people in Midyat, mardin province.
(AP, 6/8/16)
2016 Jun 10, Turkey's Justice Ministry said it has sent dozens of cases involving 57 lawmakers to public prosecutors after the president lifted their legal immunity. Most of the lawmakers at risk of prosecution belong to the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party, HDP, or the opposition Republican People's Party.
(AP, 6/10/16)
2016 Jun 11, Turkish warplanes killed 13 suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the southeast province of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 6/11/16)
2016 Jun 13, Iran's state TV reported that a firefight between Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and Kurdish militants in western Iran has left 5 militants dead. IRNA news agency reported a clash in the country's restive Sistan-Baluchistan province near the border with Pakistan, saying Iranian security forces killed 5 members of the Jaish al-Adl group. An Iranian police officer was also killed in the clash.
(AP, 6/13/16)
2016 Jun 15, Iran's Revolutionary Guard battled armed members of an insurgent Kurdish group, leading to fatalities near Oshnavieh, a predominantly Kurdish town in West Azerbaijan province.
(AP, 6/16/16)
2016 Jun 16, Kurdish official Masrour Barzan said that once the Islamic State is defeated, Iraq should be divided into three separate entities to prevent further sectarian bloodshed, with a state each given to Shi'ite Muslims, Sunnis and Kurds.
(Reuters, 6/16/16)
2016 Jun 18, Turkish fighter jets hit 16 PKK targets early today in the district of Lice, including shelters and ammunition depots.
(AP, 6/18/16)
2016 Jun 25, A Kurdish official and opposition activists said hundreds of Kurds fleeing villages controlled by the Islamic State group in northern Syria have come under fire that killed and wounded several of them, amid mass abductions by the extremist group. Over the past three weeks some 900 Kurdish civilians have been abducted in Aleppo province. At least 26 were reported killed for refusing to follow Islamic State orders.
(AP, 6/25/16)(SFC, 6/25/16, p.A2)
2016 Jun 24, Iranian security forces clashed with Kurdish separatists who infiltrated a northwestern village to stage "terrorist and propagandist operations." Later reports said 5 armed rebels linked to counter-revolutionary groups were killed.
(AP, 6/25/16)(AFP, 6/26/16)
2016 Jun 29, In Syria a car bomb killed at least 10 people in Tal Abyad town, held by US-backed Kurdish-led forces, near the Turkish border. Fighters from the New Syrian Army returned to their base in Tanf having lost 4 fighters and four vehicles in a failed effort to capture Boukamal, an IS border crossing between Iraq and Syria.
(AFP, 6/29/16)(SFC, 7/4/16, p.A4)
2016 Jul 5, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard killed two Kurdish insurgents who have been on the run since last week. They were part of a larger group, 11 of whom were killed in clashes with Iranian forces last week in Iran's western Kurdistan province.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 8, Turkish fighter jets struck Kurdish militant targets in southeastern Hakkari province and northern Iraq. The Turkish Army reportedly "neutralized 17 separatist terror organization members" in Hakkari province and two militants in Van province.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants carried out a car bomb attack on a military outpost and then opened fire on the facility, killing two soldiers and a civilian and wounding dozens in the town of Cevizlik.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 10, In Turkey two Kurdish militant bomb attacks ripped through a military outpost and an army vehicle, killing 5 members of the armed forces in Hakkari province.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 11, Human Rights Watch said Turkey's government is blocking access to independent investigations into alleged mass abuses against civilians in southeast Turkey, where security forces are fighting Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 20, Turkish broadcaster NTV said Turkey’s military has carried out air strikes against members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, killing 20 militants.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 26, Two Turkish soldiers were killed in separate incidents involving Kurdish militants in the Kurdish southeast region.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 27, In Syria a large truck bomb blast claimed by Islamic State targeted Kurdish security forces and killed at least 48 people and wounded scores more in the northeastern city of Qamishli. Government air strikes and artillery fire killed at least 16 civilians on in rebel-held neighbourhoods in the east of Aleppo city.
(Reuters, 7/27/16)(AFP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 29, In Turkey 8 government soldiers were killed in a clash with Kurdish militants at a checkpoint in the southeastern Hakkari province. A subsequent operation against the Kurdish rebels left eight Kurds dead.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Turkey 27 fighters from the Kurdish Workers' Party, or PKK, were killed in Hakkari province when Turkish troops launched an air-and-ground operation against groups of PKK fighters attempting to infiltrate.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 31, In Turkey 4 government soldiers were killed in two separate clashes with militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Aug 6, In northern Syria the former Al-Nusra Front, renamed the Fateh al-Sham Front after breaking from Al-Qaeda, announced that rebels have broken a devastating government siege of Aleppo after a week of fierce fighting. Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Arab and Kurd fighters, took control of Manbij from IS militants.
(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 10, In Turkey Kurdish rebels attacked soldiers near the border with Iraq, killing four of them in Sirnak province. Evening bomb blasts in two cities in the southeast killed 9 civilians and wounded dozens.
(AP, 8/10/16)(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Turkish police detained 17 suspected militants in a sweep in Istanbul that included a raid on offices of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), hours after twin bomb attacks hit the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Turkish jets raided suspected Kurdish rebel targets across the border in northern Iraq, following a wave of attacks that killed at least 12 people.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 14, Iraqi Kurdish forces retook five villages east of Islamic State-held Mosul in an operation launched early today.
(AP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 19, A Kurdish official said Syrian Kurdish militia have seized several positions from government forces in the divided city of Hasaka (Hassakeh). At least 13 people, including children and women, were reported killed as a result of shelling by the army on Kurdish-controlled areas of Hasaka.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 20, Syrian regime jets pounded US-backed Kurdish forces in the northeast for a second day, even after the US-led coalition scrambled jets to protect its military advisers working on the ground.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 22, The Kurdish YPG militia launched a major assault to seize the last government-controlled parts of the northeastern Syrian city of Hasaka after calling on pro-government militias to surrender.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 24, Turkish tanks and armoured vehicles crossed into the Islamic State group-held border district of Jarablus with air cover from the US-led coalition in “Operation Euphrates Shield." The Syrian government and Syrian Kurdish officials condemned the incursion.
(AFP, 8/24/16)(Reuters, 8/24/16)(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, At least nine more Turkish tanks entered northern Syria as part of an operation aimed at driving Islamic State out of the border area around Jarablus and stopping Kurdish militia fighters from seizing territory.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 26, In Turkey 11 police officers were killed and 78 people injured in a suicide truck bombing in Cizre. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 28, Turkey's army and its allies thrust deeper into Syria, seizing territory controlled by Kurdish-aligned forces on the fifth day of a cross-border campaign that a monitoring group said had killed at least 35 villagers.
(Reuters, 8/28/16)
2016 Sep 2, Turkey's Anadolu state-run news agency said one Turkish soldier was killed and six wounded in clashes with Kurdish militants. 20 Kurdish fighters were also reported killed during the clashes in Hakkari province that included Turkish airstrikes.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 7, Iran state media reported that 8 members of the rebel Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) have been killed in overnight clashes with security forces along the Iraqi border in the northwestern province of West Azerbaijan.
(AP, 9/7/16)
2016 Sep 29, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi asked Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani not to exploit the war on Islamic State to expand the Kurds' territory.
(Reuters, 9/29/16)
2016 Oct 2, In Iraq a booby-trapped drone launched by Islamic State militants killed two Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and wounded two French soldiers north of the IS-controlled city of Mosul. French soldiers had been training Kurdish fighters near the site of the drone crash near the town of Dohuk.
(Reuters, 10/12/16)
2016 Oct 23, Kurdish fighters said they had taken the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from Islamic State as coalition forces pressed their offensive against the jihadists' last stronghold in Iraq.
(Reuters, 10/23/16)
2016 Nov 4, In Turkey a car bomb attack in Diyarbakir killed at least nine people. The attack came just hours after authorities detained at least 12 pro-Kurdish lawmakers for questioning in terror related probes. PM Binali Yildirim said the bombing was carried out by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Two more people soon succumbed to their wounds. A news outlet linked to the Islamic State said its fighters staged the bombing that killed 11 people.
(AP, 11/4/16)(AFP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, In Turkey an Istanbul court ordered the imprisonment of nine staff from the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper. Authorities detained nine officials from the country's main pro-Kurdish opposition party. Police used water cannon and tear gas against crowds of protesters in Istanbul, in an attempt to block them from marching to the office of an opposition newspaper whose staff had been arrested.
(AFP, 11/4/16)(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, In southeastern Turkish two children were killed when a bomb planted by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) exploded in the province of Sirnak.
(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 6, The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-Arab militia, announced an offensive to eject the Islamic State from Raqqa.
(Econ, 11/12/16, p.47)
2016 Nov 6, Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party said it was pulling out of parliament after nine of its MPs including the two co-leaders were arrested in an unprecedented crackdown. The state-run Anadolu Agency said police have detained 15 suspects in an operation involving raids across the southeastern province of Adana targeting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.
(AFP, 11/6/16)(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 7, In Syria Kurdish-led Syrian fighters clashed with Islamic State militants north of the city of Raqqa as they pushed ahead in their offensive aiming to retake the city that has been the de facto capital of the extremist group since 2014.
(AP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 8, Iraqi Kurdish forces seized the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from the Islamic State group. About five percent of the town remained under jihadist control. US-backed militia forces advanced on the jihadists' Syrian stronghold Raqa.
(AFP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 17, Turkish police detained the pro-Kurdish co-mayor of the southeastern city of Van, expanding a crackdown on municipal chiefs throughout the region that has sparked international concern.
(AFP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 21, Turkish authorities detained Ahmet Turk (74), a Kurdish politician and mayor in the southeastern province of Mardin. He was reported released on Feb 3 because of deteriorating health.
(Reuters, 2/3/17)
2016 Nov 22, Turkish authorities issued an arrest warrant for Salih Muslim, a leader of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), in relation to a February bomb attack on military buses in Ankara. The arrest papers also mentioned 47 other people, including leading members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 23, In Iraq Iranian-backed Shi'ite paramilitaries said they had linked up with Kurdish peshmerga forces west of Mosul, a move they said completed the encircling of the Islamic State-held city and nearby town of Tal Afar.
(Reuters, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces clashed with Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria, where both are fighting the Islamic State group. Kurdish-affiliated forces entered the IS-held town of Arima, near al-Bab.
(AP, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 24, In southern Turkey a car bomb exploded in the car park of the governor's office in Adana killing two people and wounding 33. Police shot and captured a suspect. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) later claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 11/24/16)(AP, 11/24/16)(Reuters, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 28, Two Turkish soldiers were reported killed after clashing with Kurdish militants in the eastern province of Tunceli.
(Reuters, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov, In Turkey pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-leader Selahattin Demirtas was detained on charges of links to Kurdish militants. He was detained along with another nine HDP lawmakers and his female co-leader Figen Yuksekdag.
(AFP, 1/17/17)
2016 Dec 3, The Turkish military said it has killed 20 fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after they tried to attack army bases in the southeastern Hakkari province.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 4, Human Rights Watch said Kurdish restrictions on the movement of goods are harming the recovery of Iraq's Yazidi minority, which was targeted for genocide by the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 9, Turkish jets carried out air strikes against Kurdish militants in the Gara region of northern Iraq and killed 19 militants.
(Reuters, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 10, In Turkey twin bombings killed at least 44 people and wounded 155 outside an Istanbul soccer stadium. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) soon claimed responsibility and the Turkish government vowed vengeance.
(Reuters, 12/11/16)(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, Turkey detained over 200 people including dozens of officials from pro-Kurdish parties and struck Kurdish militants in Iraq in response to this weekend's twin bombings claimed by a radical Kurd separatist group.
(AFP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 13, Turkish police detained two female pro-Kurdish lawmakers as a crackdown intensified after a deadly Istanbul bombing that raised questions about Ankara's strategy in fighting separatist militants. Turkey's Interior Ministry said 568 people have been detained on account of their alleged affiliation with the PKK.
(AFP, 12/13/16)(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 17, In Turkey a suicide car bomber set off an explosion that demolished a public bus transporting off-duty soldiers in the central province of Kayseri, killing 14 troops and wounding 55 others. In response dozens of nationalist protestors stormed the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Kayseri. Turkish authorities detained seven people and searched for another five in relation to the attack. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, or TAK, later claimed responsibility.
(AP, 12/17/16)(AFP, 12/17/16)(Reuters, 12/17/16)(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 20, In northern Iraq a bombing killed five Iranian Kurdish fighters and an Iraqi Kurdish policeman in Koy Sanjaq, east of Erbil. An Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group the next day accused Iran of the bombing.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 28, Turkish security said one Turkish soldier and two Kurdish militants died as a result of clashes overnight in the eastern province of Tunceli.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 29, Syrian Kurdish groups and their allies said they have approved a blueprint for a system of federal government in northern Syria, reaffirming their plans for autonomy in areas they have controlled during the civil war.
(Reuters, 12/29/16)
2017 Jan 5, In western Turkey a car bombing outside a courthouse in the city of Izmir killed two people. The Kurdish PKK militant group was suspected. Turkish police shot dead a second suspected attacker following the explosion.
(Reuters, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 16, In southeastern Turkey a roadside bomb in a pre-dominantly Kurdish city killed three policemen and wounded three others.
(AP, 1/16/17)
2017 Jan 31, Turkey arrested two MPs from the main pro-Kurdish party, including its chief spokesman, the latest move in a crackdown on the group ahead of a vote on changing the constitution.
(AFP, 1/31/17)
2017 Feb 4, In Syria an alliance of US-backed Kurdish-led militias started a new phase of its campaign against the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa, aiming to complete its encirclement and sever the road to militant strongholds in Deir al-Zor province.
(Reuters, 2/4/17)(SSFC, 2/5/17, p.A4)
2017 Feb 11, In France some 15,000 people marched in the eastern city of Strasbourg demanding that Turkey release Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan, as Europe's Kurds held their biggest annual gathering.
(AFP, 2/11/17)
2017 Feb 18, In northern Syria a US-backed predominantly Kurdish force captured the village of Jawees in an ongoing move to close in on the Islamic State de facto capital of Raqqa.
(SSFC, 2/19/17, p.A2)
2017 Feb 21, In Turkey Figen Yuksekdag, the co-chair of the opposition pro-Kurdish party, lost her seat in parliament after an appeals court confirmed her conviction on terrorism-related charges. The party has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights seeking the lawmakers' release, so that they may be allowed to campaign ahead of a referendum on expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers.
(AP, 2/21/17)
2017 Feb 25, Iraqi forces backed by jets and helicopters battled jihadists inside west Mosul. Shifa Gardi, a female reporter working for Iraqi Kurdish channel Rudaw, was killed by the explosion of a roadside bomb during the fighting in Mosul. Four bombs went off near a minor pipeline from an oilfield close to the northern city of Kirkuk. One member of the Kurdish security forces was killed.
(AFP, 2/25/17)(Reuters, 2/25/17)
2017 Mar 2, Kurdish forces seized an oil facility in Kirkuk to send a message to the Iraqi government to build a refinery.
(Reuters, 3/2/17)
2017 Mar 3, In Iraq rival Kurdish groups clashed in the northwestern Sinjar region. The YBS, a local affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), said the fighting began when the Peshmerga Rojava tried to seize its positions in Khanasor. The YBS accused Turkey of instigating the violence.
(Reuters, 3/3/17)
2017 Mar 6, Turkish security forces launched one of their largest "anti-terrorist" operations in recent years in the restive south-east against Kurdish militants.
(AFP, 3/6/17)
2017 Mar 10, The UN accused Turkish security forces of committing serious abuses during operations against Kurdish militants in the southeast after a ceasefire collapsed in July 2015.
(AFP, 3/10/17)
2017 Mar 18, Turkish media said authorities have detained 740 people for suspected links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) over the last three days.
(Reuters, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 18, In Germany around 9,000 Kurdish supporters demonstrated in Frankfurt against Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and an April referendum that would give him sweeping new powers.
(Reuters, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 19, Russia concluded an agreement with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia to set up a military base in northwestern Syria. Russia will be training YPG fighters, who control the area, as part of the fight against terrorism.
(Reuters, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 21, In Turkey tens of thousands of people celebrated the New Year festival of Newroz in the overwhelmingly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, even as police killed a man who claimed to be carrying a bomb.
(AFP, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 22, In Syria US aircraft ferried Syrian Kurdish fighters and allied forces behind Islamic State lines to spearhead an assault on a strategic town belonging to the extremist group outside its de facto capital, Raqqa.
(AP, 3/22/17)
2017 Mar 22, Turkey fired into Kurdish-controlled Syria after saying one of its soldiers was killed in Hatay province by a sniper from across the border in Afrin.
(Reuters, 3/22/17)
2017 Mar 26, In Syria a Kurdish and Arab Syrian militia backed by the United States said it has captured the town of Karama and the capture of the Tabqa air base, 28 miles west of Raqqa. They planned an assault on the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in early April.
(Reuters, 3/26/17)(SFC, 3/27/17, p.A3)
2017 Apr 1, Turkey's foreign minister said tens of thousands of displaced Syrians and refugees have returned to an area controlled by Turkey and Turkish-backed opposition fighters in northern Syria. US-backed Kurdish-led fighters pressed their offensive in the north near a town held by the Islamic State group.
(AP, 4/1/17)
2017 Apr 11, In Turkey a police officer and two civilian employees were killed in an attack at a police station in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. Authorities said it was carried out with a ton of explosives planted inside a tunnel. A day later Kurdish rebels claimed responsibility.
(AP, 4/12/17)
2017 Apr 16, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants killed a guard in an overnight attack on a vehicle carrying a district official from the ruling AK Party.
(Reuters, 4/16/17)
2017 Apr 17, Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition said that the number of unstamped ballots counted as valid in the April 16 referendum had been enough to swing the outcome of the vote and decried what it described as a "coup" by electoral authorities.
(Reuters, 4/17/17)
2017 Apr 21, Two Turkish soldiers died and two more were wounded in a clash with Kurdish militants in a rural area of southeast Turkey near the Iraqi border. The military said six militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) had been "neutralized" in the ensuing operation in Sirnak province.
(Reuters, 4/21/17)
2017 Apr 25, Turkish warplanes killed at least 28 Kurdish fighters in strikes in Syria and Iraq, where the Kurds are key players in the battle against the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 4/25/17)(AFP, 4/26/17)
2017 Apr 26, Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq and killed six militants, in a second day of cross-border raids.
(Reuters, 4/26/17)
2017 Apr 28, Turkey's military said that one of its outposts in the southeastern town of Ceylanpinar bordering Syria came under rocket attack early today from Syrian territory held by the Kurdish militia YPG. The army returned fire killing 11 YPG militants.
(AP, 4/28/17)
2017 Apr 29, Turkey's military reportedly killed 14 members of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in air strikes in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 4/29/17)
2017 Apr 30, In northern Syria a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance advanced against the Islamic State group in the key town of Tabqa near the jihadist bastion of Raqa.
(AP, 4/30/17)
2017 May 7, In northern Iraq at least two people were killed and six injured when multiple Islamic State suicide bombers attacked a base in the Kirkuk area where US military advisers are stationed. Two of the militants died when they detonated their vests at the entrance to the K1 base overnight, and three more were killed by Kurdish peshmerga forces.
(Reuters, 5/7/17)
2017 May 9, The Trump administration said it will arm Syria’s Kurdish fighters “as necessary" to recapture the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa.
(SFC, 5/10/17, p.A2)
2017 May 20, Turkey's pro-Kurdish party elected a new co-leader to replace Figen Yuksekdag, who has been in jail on terrorism charges since November and was stripped of her parliamentary status three months ago. Serpil Kemalbay was chosen as joint leader, alongside Selahattin Demirtas, who is also in prison over terrorism-related charges but remains a member of parliament.
(Reuters, 5/20/17)
2017 May 25, Four Turkish soldiers and a village guard were killed in two separate clashes with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in eastern Turkey. Three PKK militants, believed to be preparing for an attack, were killed in air strikes targeting the Metina region of northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 5/25/17)
2017 May 27, In Turkey an air strike in the southeastern province of Van late today killed 10 PKK militants.
(Reuters, 5/28/17)
2017 May 28, Turkey's military killed 13 members of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in air strikes in northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/28/17)
2017 May 31, In Turkey three soldiers were killed in clashes with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir. Earlier in the day, the army said airplanes had killed two PKK militants in the Lice district of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 5/31/17)
2017 May 31, A Turkish military helicopter crash killed all 13 personnel on board. Kurdish militants soon claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 6/3/17, p.A2)
2017 Jun 4, Turkish security forces killed eight militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in eastern Kars province.
(Reuters, 6/4/17)
2017 Jun 9, In southeastern Turkey two suspected Kurdish rebels opened fire on a car belonging to a local mayor, then blew up their vehicle near a military police station. One person was killed and four people were wounded in the attacks and one of the assailants was killed in Batman province.
(AP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 19, The European Union discouraged Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region from holding an independence referendum in September.
(AP, 6/19/17)
2017 Jun 22, Turkish defense ministry sources said the US has told Turkey it will take back weapons supplied to the Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria after the defeat of Islamic State seeking to address Turkish concerns about arming Kurds on its border.
(Reuters, 6/22/17)
2017 Jun 26, In eastern Syria 57 people were killed in an air strike believed to have been carried out by the US-led coalition on an Islamic State prison in the town of al-Mayadeen. Syrian Kurdish forces said they seized a new district from the Islamic State in Raqqa.
(AP, 6/27/17)(SFC, 6/27/17, p.A2)
2017 Jun 28, Turkey’s military said its forces retaliated with an artillery barrage overnight and destroyed Kurdish YPG militia targets after the group's fighters opened fire on Turkey-backed forces in northern Syria.
(Reuters, 6/28/17)
2017 Jun 30, In Turkey Orhan Mercan, the AKP's deputy head in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province, was shot in front of his home this evening and died of his wounds in hospital. Turkey blamed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
(Reuters, 7/2/17)
2017 Jul 1, In Turkey militants killed Aydin Ahi, deputy head of the AKP in the Ozalp district of Van province. Turkey blamed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants. An airstrike by the Turkish military killed five PKK militants preparing an attack on an army base in Mardin province. In separate air strikes the army also five PKK fighters in southeast Bingol province and another four militants in the Metina region of northern Iraq. Another three PKK militants were killed in clashes in the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakir, Hakkari and Sirnak.
(Reuters, 7/2/17)
2017 Jul 5, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said that Turkish military deployments near Kurdish-held areas of northwestern Syria amounted to "a declaration of war", signaling the risk of a major confrontation.
(Reuters, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 6, Iraq's Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani said that there was no turning back on a bid to achieve an independent Kurdish state, but he would pursue it through dialogue with Baghdad and regional powers to avoid conflict.
(Reuters, 7/6/17)
2017 Jul 11, In northern Syria a US-backed, Kurdish-led militia captured al-Ukayrshi, where extremists had once run a training camp named for Osama Bin Laden.
(AP, 7/11/17)
2017 Jul 17, Turkish-backed rebels clashed with Kurdish fighters from a US-backed alliance in northwestern Syria in escalating violence between the two sides.
(Reuters, 7/17/17)
2017 Jul 27, Turkey's parliament stripped two pro-Kurdish lawmakers of their parliamentary status, further reducing the presence of the HDP, the second-largest opposition party in the general assembly.
(Reuters, 7/27/17)
2017 Jul 28, Turkish authorities arrested British citizen Joe Robinson (24) while he was holidaying on the country's western coast on charges of working with a Kurdish militia. Robinson had served with British forces in Afghanistan in 2012 and travelled to Syria in 2015 to work as a combat medic in the YPG.
(AFP, 7/29/17)
2017 Aug 1, A Kurdish official said the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are on the verge of seizing full control of the southern neighborhoods of Raqqa.
(Reuters, 8/1/17)
2017 Aug 1, A Turkish military vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in southeast Diyarbakir province, killing two soldiers. Separately three PKK militants were killed in the southeastern province of Tunceli after being identified by a drone.
(Reuters, 8/1/17)
2017 Aug 29, Iraq's ethnically-mixed Kirkuk province, long claimed by both the Arab-led central government and the autonomous Kurdish region, voted to take part in a vote on Kurdish independence slated for next month.
(AP, 8/29/17)
2017 Sep 8, Turkey's pro-Kurdish political party announced the release from prison of lawmaker Ayhan Bilgen, a former spokesman for the People's Democratic Party (HDP), pending a trial on terror charges.
(AP, 9/8/17)
2017 Sep 9, Turkey said its security forces have killed 99 Kurdish militants, including a high-ranking one, in operations in the southeast over the last two weeks.
(Reuters, 9/9/17)
2017 Sep 12, Iraq's parliament voted to reject a referendum on Kurdish independence planned for Sept. 25, authorizing the prime minister to "take all measures" to preserve Iraq's unity.
(Reuters, 9/12/17)
2017 Sep 13, Israel's PM Netanyahu said his country supports Kurdish independence ahead of a key referendum on the matter.
(AP, 9/13/17)
2017 Sep 14, Iraq's parliament voted to remove the governor of Kirkuk, a staunch supporter of Kurdish independence, following a request from PM Haider al-Abadi just days before a referendum on whether to split from Baghdad. Governor Najmaddin Kareem said he was not going anywhere and Kurdish leaders vowed to carry on with the vote planned for Sept. 25.
(AP, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 18, Iraq's supreme court ordered the suspension of a September 25 referendum on the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan, as legal and political pressure mounted on the Kurds to call off the vote. Clashes erupted in Kirkuk between Kurds and Turkmen amid preparations for the referendum.
(AFP, 9/18/17)(SFC, 9/20/17 p.A3)
2017 Sep 21, The foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran and Iraq voiced concerns that a Kurdish referendum on independence would endanger gains Iraq has made against Islamic state, and reiterated worries of potential new conflicts in the region and agreed to consider counter-measures against the planned independence referendum.
(Reuters, 9/21/17)
2017 Sep 22, In northern Syria thousands voted in predominantly Kurdish regions to elect heads of local communities as part of the minority Kurds' efforts to move closer to a federal system within Syria.
(AP, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 23, Turkey said it would take security and other steps in response to a planned independence referendum in northern Iraq's Kurdish region that it called a "terrible mistake", as a Kurdish delegation was in Baghdad for talks on the crisis.
(AP, 9/23/17)
2017 Sep 24, Kurdish region’s Pres. Masoud Barzani said that while the Sep 25 vote will be the first step in a long process to negotiate independence, the region's "partnership" with the Iraqi central government in Baghdad is over.
(AP, 9/24/17)
2017 Sep 24, Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard launched a military exercise in its northwestern Kurdish region one day ahead of Iraqi Kurds voting in an independence referendum, in a sign of Tehran's concerns over the vote. Iran also closed its airspace to flights taking off from Iraq's Kurdish region following an Iraqi request.
(AP, 9/24/17)
2017 Sep 25, Iraqi Kurds cast ballots in their autonomous region and in a wide sweep of captured territories on whether to seek independence from Baghdad, a historic vote that has also raised tensions and fears of instability. A 73% turnout approved the referendum by 93%.
(AP, 9/25/17)(SFC, 9/28/17, p.A3)
2017 Sep 25, Iraq’s parliament demanded that troops be sent to disputed areas in the north controlled by the Kurds since 2003 as the autonomous Kurdish area staged a referendum on independence.
(AFP, 9/25/17)
2017 Sep 25, The governorate of Kirkuk declared an overnight curfew in the Iraqi oil city as tension simmered following a referendum on independence organized by the local Kurdish authorities but rejected by the central government in Baghdad.
(Reuters, 9/25/17)
2017 Sep 25, Turkey took the Kurdish television channel Rudaw off its satellite service TurkSat, in the country's first response to a Kurdish independence referendum in northern Iraq. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara would close its border with Iraq's Kurdistan region over an independence referendum and threatened the Iraqi Kurds with blocking their key oil exports.
(Reuters, 9/25/17)(AFP, 9/25/17)
2017 Sep 26, The Arab League called on Iraqis to renounce their differences and open comprehensive dialogue to avoid clashes following a controversial independence referendum held by the country's Kurds.
(AP, 9/26/17)
2017 Sep 26, Thousands of Iranian Kurds marched in the streets to show their support for an independence referendum staged by Kurdish authorities in neighboring Iraq, defying a show of power by Tehran which flew fighter jets over their areas.
(AP, 9/26/17)
2017 Sep 26, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Iraqi Kurds would go hungry if his country halts the flow of trucks and oil across the border with northern Iraq and warned that all military and economic measures were on the table against its neighbor.
(Reuters, 9/26/17)
2017 Sep 27, Baghdad piled pressure on Iraq's Kurds, demanding they cancel their vote for independence while parliament urged the Iraqi central government to send troops to take control of vital oil fields held by Kurdish forces. Final results released today showed nearly 93 percent in favor of independence, and 7.3 percent against.
(Reuters, 9/27/17)
2017 Sep 27, Turkey said it will suspend flights to the northern Iraqi cities of Erbil and Sulaimaniya starting on 1500 GMT on Sep 29, in response to a Kurdish independence referendum held earlier this week.
(Reuters, 9/27/17)
2017 Sep 28, Iraqi officials said all foreign flights to and from the Kurdish capital Arbil will be suspended from Sep 29, as Baghdad increases pressure on the Kurds over this week's independence referendum.
(AFP, 9/28/17)
2017 Sep 28, Turkey advised its citizens to leave Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region before flights to the area are suspended. Turkey said it had stopped training peshmerga forces in northern Iraq in response to a Kurdish independence vote there. Turkey also threatened potentially crippling restrictions on oil trading with Iraqi Kurds.
(AP, 9/28/17)(Reuters, 9/28/17)
2017 Sep 29, The Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq refused to relinquish control of its border crossings to the Iraqi government.
(Reuters, 9/29/17)
2017 Sep 29, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said Iran has banned the transportation of refined crude oil products by Iranian companies to and from Iraq's Kurdistan region, after Tehran vowed to stand by Baghdad following the region's vote for independence.
(Reuters, 9/29/17)
2017 Sep 29, In Iraq the last international flight left Erbil airport as the Baghdad government imposed an air ban in retaliation for an independence vote by Iraqi Kurds that has drawn widespread opposition from foreign powers.
(Reuters, 9/29/17)
2017 Sep 30, Iran's state television reported that Iranian and Iraqi central government forces are to hold joint military exercises near their borders, as part of Tehran's effort to support Baghdad after the Kurdish independence referendum. Media reported that Iran has embargoed exports and imports of fuel products to and from Iraqi Kurdistan in response to the region's controversial independence referendum.
(Reuters, 9/30/17)(AFP, 9/30/17)
2017 Sep 30, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said Iraqi Kurdish authorities would pay the price for an independence referendum which was widely opposed by foreign powers.
(Reuters, 9/30/17)
2017 Oct 2, A Kurdish official said Iranian and Iraqi forces staged joint military exercises near the border with Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.
(AFP, 10/2/17)
2017 Oct 3, Iraq's parliament voted on "a formula to halt financial transactions" with the Kurdistan region, in retaliation for last week's independence referendum, without specifying if the vote was binding on the government. Kurdish lawmakers did not show up for the session.
(Reuters, 10/3/17)(AP, 10/3/17)
2017 Oct 3, Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region said it is calling presidential and parliamentary elections for Nov. 1, as the Kurdish leadership cements its case for independence. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would impose further sanctions on northern Iraq over the vote.
(Reuters, 10/3/17)
2017 Oct 3, Iraqi Kurdish leader and ex-Iraqi president Jalal Talabani (b.1933) died in Germany, a week after Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region held a referendum on independence.
(Reuters, 10/3/17)
2017 Oct 4, The presidents of Iran and Turkey vowed during talks in Tehran to work closely together to prevent the disintegration of Iraq and Syria and to oppose the Iraqi Kurds' drive for independence.
(Reuters, 10/4/17)
2017 Oct 5, France offered to mediate in a political crisis pitting Iraq's government against Kurdish regional authorities, and promised to maintain a military presence there until Islamic State was defeated.
(Reuters, 10/5/17)
2017 Oct 5, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Turkey would "soon" close its border crossing with Iraqi Kurdistan and airspace after the disputed referendum on independence. Turkey's state-run news agency said security forces have killed five suspected Kurdish militants in an operation close to a tourist resort near the Mediterranean coast. Two militants escaped.
(AFP, 10/5/17)(AP, 10/5/17)
2017 Oct 9, Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi warned there could be a "civil war" over the Kurdish-administered city of Kirkuk if talks over Kurdish independence are left unresolved. Iraq's central government ordered the Kurdish-based cellular network operators to relocate their headquarters Baghdad.
(AP, 10/9/17)(AP, 10/10/17)
2017 Oct 10, Iraq's Oil Ministry ordered the restoration of an oil pipeline from the city of Kirkuk to Turkey that would bypass the country's northern Kurdish region in the wake of the area's pro-independence referendum.
(AP, 10/10/17)
2017 Oct 11, An Iraqi court ordered the arrest of senior Kurdish officials responsible for organizing an independence referendum. A court in east Baghdad issued warrants against the chairman of the vote's organizing commission Hendren Saleh and two other members.
(AP, 10/11/17)
2017 Oct 13, The Iraqi army launched an operation to retake Kurdish-held positions around the disputed oil city of Kirkuk amid a bitter row with the Kurds over a vote for independence last month. Kurdish forces overnight moved back their defensive line around the oil region of Kirkuk by 2 km (1.2 miles) to reduce the possibility of friction with nearby Iraqi forces.
(AFP, 10/13/17)(Reuters, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 15, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters rejected a warning from an Iraqi paramilitary force to withdraw from a strategic junction south of Kirkuk, which controls the access to some of the region's main oilfields. Kurdish media said the three official border crossings between Iraq's Kurdish region and Iran have been closed. One semi-official crossing remained open. Iran denied the reports.
(Reuters, 10/15/17)(AP, 10/15/17)
2017 Oct 16, Iraqi government forces captured the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk, responding to a Kurdish vote on independence with a bold lightning strike that transforms the balance of power in the country. Several Peshmerga and members of the Iraqi forces were reported killed in an overnight clash south of Kirkuk. At least 25 Kurdish fighters were killed in the clashes. Kirkuk is of the most ethnically and religiously diverse cities in Iraq and located just outside the autonomous Kurdish zone.
(Reuters, 10/16/17)(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 16, Iraqi forces pillaged and torched Kurdish districts in the multi-ethnic town of Tuz Khurmatu following clashes with Kurdish fighters. Locals later said at least 11 civilians were killed in "indiscriminate attacks" as heavy weaponry was used in densely-populated areas of the city.
(AFP, 10/24/17)
2017 Oct 16, Trading sources said Iraq's Kurdistan has shut down some 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) of production from major fields Bai Hassan and Avana due to security concerns after a flare-up in tensions with the central government. Iraq said it was considering using security forces to prevent Kurdistan from shutting down output from the oil area of Kirkuk.
(Reuters, 10/16/17)
2017 Oct 16, Turkey announced that it is closing its airspace to flights to and from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region and have Baghdad take control of the Iraqi side of its main border crossing.
(AP, 10/16/17)(Reuters, 10/16/17)
2017 Oct 17, The Baghdad government recaptured territory from Kurds across the breadth of northern Iraq, making startlingly rapid gains in a sudden campaign that has shifted the balance of power in the country almost overnight.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 18, A senior Iraqi commander said Kurdish Peshmerga forces have retreated to positions they held in northern Iraq in June 2014 in response to an Iraqi army advance into the region after a Kurdish independence referendum.
(Reuters, 10/18/17)
2017 Oct 19, Kurdish officials said about 100,000 Kurds have fled the Kirkuk region for fear of persecution since Iraqi armed forces retook disputed territory after a Kurdish independence vote rejected by Baghdad.
(Reuters, 10/19/17)
2017 Oct 19, A Baghdad court issued an arrest warrant for Kosrat Rasul, the vice president of Iraqi Kurdistan, on charges of "provocation" against Iraq's armed forces. The UN expressed concern at reports of forced displacement of civilians, mainly Kurds, and the looting and destruction of their houses and businesses in northern Iraq.
(AFP, 10/19/17)(Reuters, 10/19/17)
2017 Oct 20, Iraqi forces shelled Kurdish military positions north and south of Altun Cupric, a town of about 9,000 people just outside the country's autonomous Kurdish region. Organized Kurdish forces responded with rocket fire. Iraqi forces took control of the last district in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk still in the hands of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters following a three-hour battle.
(AP, 10/20/17)(Reuters, 10/20/17)
2017 Oct 20, In Syria the Kurdish-led force that expelled the Islamic State group from Raqa hailed a "historic victory" in the devastated city's stadium and vowed to hand over power to a civilian administration.
(AFP, 10/20/17)
2017 Oct 24, Parliament in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region decided to hold legislative elections in eight months after they were delayed amid tensions with the central government in Baghdad over disputed territories.
(AFP, 10/24/17)
2017 Oct 25, Kurdish authorities in Iraq offered to put an independence drive on hold, stepping up efforts to resolve a crisis in relations with Baghdad via dialogue.
(Reuters, 10/25/17)
2017 Oct 27, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi ordered a 24-hour suspension of military operations against Kurdish forces in northern Iraq. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have reached an agreement to stop fighting in northern Iraq, although the status of any ceasefire remained unclear.
(Reuters, 10/27/17)(Reuters, 10/29/17)
2017 Oct 29, Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters started a second round of talks to resolve a conflict over control of the Kurdistan region's border crossings.
(Reuters, 10/29/17)
2017 Oct 29, Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani confirmed his intention to step down on Nov. 1 and asked parliament to take measures to fill the presidential power vacuum.
(Reuters, 10/29/17)
2017 Nov 1, Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani departed office, leaving his nephew to reconcile with the central government in Baghdad, with regional neighbors and with rival Kurdish parties after a failed referendum on independence.
(Reuters, 11/1/17)
2017 Nov 2, Iraq's Kurdish region said it has offered a joint Kurdish-Iraqi deployment at a strategic crossing into Turkey with the participation of US-led international forces as part of a compromise with Baghdad. This came hours after Iraqi armed forces threatened to resume military operations against the Kurds, accusing them of delaying the handover of control of borders and taking advantage of negotiations to bolster their defenses.
(AP, 11/2/17)
2017 Nov 2, In southeastern Turkey clashes between Turkish security force members and Kurdish militants in three mainly Kurdish provinces killed eight security force members and 31 militants.
(AP, 11/2/17)
2017 Nov 12, A powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake late today near the Iraq-Iran border killed over 530 people across both countries. Iran's western Kermanshah province bore the brunt of the temblor. In Iraq, nine people were killed and 550 were injured, all in the country's northern Kurdish region.
(AP, 11/13/17)(Reuters, 11/14/17)(AFP, 11/26/17)(AP, 1/11/18)
2017 Nov 16, In northern Iraq two Turkish soldiers were killed and one was wounded in northern Iraq's Avasin Basyan region by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
(Reuters, 11/16/17)
2017 Nov 16, In Iraq a KDP lawmaker said Kurdish lawmakers are returning to Baghdad in hopes that their presence in Baghdad will bring the prime minister to the negotiating table.
(AP, 11/16/17)
2017 Nov 20, Iraq's Supreme Federal Court ruled that the Sept. 25 Kurdish independence referendum was unconstitutional and the results void. Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government called on the international community to intervene and help lift sanctions imposed by the central government in Baghdad in retaliation for a September referendum on Kurdish independence.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Turkey said Syrian Kurdish fighters have attacked a Turkish observation post in the northern Syrian province of Idlib with mortar rounds. There were no casualties.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 21, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi said the Islamic State had been defeated from a military perspective but he would only declare final victory after IS militants were routed in the desert. A suicide bomber detonated a pickup truck loaded with explosive killing 32 people at a marketplace in Tuz Khormato, a contested town claimed by Baghdad and the Kurdish region.
(Reuters, 11/21/17)(AP, 11/21/17)(SFC, 11/22/17, p.A2)
2017 Nov 21, A Syrian Kurdish militia accused Turkish forces of "aggression and escalation" in the Afrin region, which it controls, on Syria's northwestern border with Turkey.
(Reuters, 11/21/17)
2017 Nov 24, Turkey said that US President Donald Trump told President Tayyip Erdogan he had issued instructions that weapons should not be provided to Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria, and that the Turkish government hoped to see that order carried out.
(Reuters, 11/24/17)
2017 Dec 1, In northern Syria Kurdish-led authorities held local elections in areas they control, pushing ahead with autonomy plans opposed by both the government of President Bashar al-Assad and by Turkey.
(Reuters, 12/1/17)
2017 Dec 2, French President Emmanuel Macron with Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of Iraq's Kurdish region. Macron says France will "do everything" to help preserve Iraq's unity and the recognition of the rights of Iraq's Kurds through new negotiations.
(AP, 12/2/17)
2017 Dec 3, Iraqi Kurdish officials said around half of the Yazidis kidnapped by the Islamic State group three years ago are still missing. Some 6,417 Yazidis were abducted by the jihadists from August 3, 2014.
(AFP, 12/3/17)
2017 Dec 3, Syria's main Kurdish forces declared that they have successfully cleared areas east of the Euphrates river of Islamic State militants, with help from the US-led coalition and Russian forces.
(AP, 12/3/17)
2017 Dec 5, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Iraqi federal and Kurdish regional judiciaries are violating the rights of Islamic State suspects with flawed trials, arbitrary detentions under harsh conditions and broad prosecutions.
(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 7, In Turkey Selahattin Demirtas, the jailed co-leader of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was remanded in prison for at least two more months at the opening of his trial on terrorism-related charges.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 11, Turkey's armed forces said its warplanes hit Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq and killed 17 of the group's militants.
(Reuters, 12/11/17)
2017 Dec 17, Turkey's president slammed a US-backed Syrian Kurdish militant group and said he'll clear his country's border with Syria of "terrorists".
(AP, 12/17/17)
2017 Dec 18, Protesters in Iraqi Kurdistan torched offices of the main political parties and security services as anger at the authorities boiled over in the wake of a failed independence push. Several thousand people across the region took to the streets to air their ire.
(AFP, 12/18/17)
2017 Dec 19, In Iraq three people were killed and more than 80 wounded as Kurdish protesters, angered by years of austerity and unpaid public sector salaries, took to the streets in a second day of violent unrest amid tensions with Baghdad.
(Reuters, 12/19/17)
2017 Dec 20, Protests raged for a third day in Iraqi Kurdistan despite a clampdown by security forces after five people were killed as ire exploded at the calamitous fallout from an independence vote. Leading Kurdish opposition movement Gorran withdrew its ministers from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and its member Yousif Mohamed resigned as parliament speaker. The Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal), another opposition party with a smaller presence in parliament, also withdrew from the government.
(AFP, 12/20/17)(Reuters, 12/20/17)
2017 Dec 25, Serbia extradited to Turkey a Kurdish political activist, defying a recommendation by the UN Committee against Torture. Cevdet Ayaz had requested asylum in Serbia earlier this year after fleeing Turkey, where he had been sentenced to 15 years in prison over alleged activities against the constitution.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 25, In Turkey two soldiers were killed and another was wounded in an attack by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the southeastern province of Hakkari. Separately, one soldier was killed and two others were wounded in northern Iraq when a grenade detonated by accident.
(Reuters, 12/25/17)
2018 Jan 2, Iran re-opened two crossings with the Iraqi Kurdistan region that it had closed after a referendum in favor of independence in the Kurdish area.
(Reuters, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 6, In France thousands of Kurds marched in Paris to demand "truth and justice" five years after the slayings of three Kurdish activists on Jan. 9, 2013, in Paris.
(AP, 1/6/18)
2018 Jan 13, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will oust Kurdish militants from Afrin, northern Syria, as the military shelled the area from across the border.
(AP, 1/13/18)
2018 Jan 14, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country will launch a military assault on a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria "in the coming days" and urged the US to support its efforts.
(AP, 1/14/18)
2018 Jan 17, Syria's dominant Kurdish party called on the UN Security Council to act quickly to ensure the safety of Kurdish-controlled territories in the country's north, including an enclave that Turkey has threatened to attack.
(AP, 1/17/18)
2018 Jan 18, Iraq signed a contract with British energy giant BP aimed at more than doubling production from oil fields in the northern province of Kirkuk that were retaken from the Kurds last year.
(AFP, 1/18/18)
2018 Jan 18, In northern Syria mortar fire on the town of Azaz, held by Turkish-backed rebels, wounded at least 14 people in a psychiatric hospital. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor of the war, said the mortar rounds were fired by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed alliance dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). The fire came after Ankara bombarded the adjacent Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin for five straight days ahead of a threatened invasion.
(AFP, 1/19/18)
2018 Jan 19, Turkish artillery fired into Syria's Afrin region in what Ankara said was the start of a military campaign against the Kurdish-controlled area. Turkish newspapers said 20 buses carrying Free Syrian Army rebels crossed from Turkey into a Turkish-controlled part of northern Syria, on Afrin's eastern flank.
(Reuters, 1/19/18)
2018 Jan 20, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi met with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region's PM Nechirvan Barzani for the first time since conflict broke out over a Kurdish independence referendum. Abadi renewed his conditions for lifting restrictions imposed on the Kurdistan region after the referendum.
(Reuters, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 20, The Turkish military launched operation "Olive Branch", its second major incursion into Syrian territory during the seven-year civil war. Turkish jets bombed the Kurdish-controlled city of Afrin in northern Syria. Afrin is now home to at least 800,000 civilians, including many who arrived fleeing the fighting in other parts of Syria.
(AP, 1/20/18)(AFP, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 21, Turkish warplanes hit 45 targets in northern Syria's Afrin region. Turkish ground forces pushed into Afrin province, after launching artillery and air strikes on a US-backed Kurdish militia it aims to sweep from its border.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 21, In Syria a rebel commander said around 25,000 Free Syrian Army rebels are joining the Turkish military operation in northern Syria with the goal of recapturing Arab towns and villages seized by the YPG Kurdish militia almost two years ago.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 22, Turkey intensified its offensive against Kurdish militia targets in Syria as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed there would be no stepping back in a campaign that has stoked concern among Ankara's allies and neighbors.
(AFP, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 22, A 2nd Turkish soldier was killed in action in Turkey's military offensive on a Kurdish-held enclave in northern Syria. Turkish shelling killed three people in the Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn.
(AP, 1/23/18)(Reuters, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 23, The Kurdish-led authorities of northeast Syria called for mass mobilization in defense of Syria's Afrin region against a Turkish military offensive.
(Reuters, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 23, Turkey shelled Qamishli and other towns along the Syrian-Turkish border as Turkish forces press into a Syrian Kurdish enclave for the fourth straight day. 24 civilians, 24 Kurdish fighters, and 25 Turkish-backed Syrian militiamen have been killed in the clashes in Afrin since January 20.
(AP, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 24, In Cyprus some 350 Kurds burned images of the presidents of Turkey and Russia as they marched on the US and Russian embassies in Nicosia to protest Turkey's "invasion" of a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria.
(AP, 1/24/18)
2018 Jan 24, Turkey's president vowed to expand its operation against Kurdish forces in northern Syria toward the town of Manbij, which would bring Turkish troops and their Syrian allies closer to US forces supporting the Kurds against the Islamic State group.
(AP, 1/24/18)
2018 Jan 27, In France several thousand people have rallied in Paris to support Turkey's Kurds and protest a Turkish military incursion into a Kurdish-controlled enclave in Syria.
(AP, 1/27/18)
2018 Jan 27, German police shut down a tense demonstration in Cologne, after around 15,000 Kurds took to the streets to protest Turkey's offensive in northern Syria.
(AFP, 1/27/18)
2018 Jan 27, Turkey said the United States has pledged to stop supplying weapons to a Kurdish militia in Syria, calling on Washington to immediately remove its troops from a Syrian town of Manbij that Turkish forces plan to target.
(Reuters, 1/27/18)
2018 Jan 28, Turkey seized a strategic outpost from Kurdish militia in Syria. Turkish air strikes killed three people in one family early in Afrin. President Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey will "clean" its entire border with Syria in a sign that the Turkish offensive on the Syrian Kurdish YPG group in northern Syria's Afrin region could be extended further. The Syrian government said that Turkish shelling of the Kurdish-held Afrin region of Syria had seriously damaged the ancient temple of Ain Dara.
(AFP, 1/28/18)(Reuters, 1/28/18)
2018 Jan 29, The Iraqi parliament voted to lift sanctions imposed on banks in the Kurdistan region over an independence referendum.
(Reuters, 1/29/18)
2018 Jan 29, In Russia delegates arrived in the Black Sea resort of Sochi for peace talks aimed at ending the Syrian conflict, but hopes of progress were dimmed after the main opposition group and the Kurds said they would boycott the event.
(AFP, 1/29/18)
2018 Feb 2, In Turkey two people were killed after rockets were fired at two border towns in Hatay province from the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin across the border.
(AP, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 3, The Turkish military said two of its soldiers have been killed in Syria and a third was killed on the Turkish side of the border in an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen.
(AP, 2/3/18)
2018 Feb 5, In Lebanon hundreds of Kurds protested against Turkey's military offensive in Syria's Kurdish enclave of Afrin.
(AFP, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 6, In Syria shells hit a camp for internally displaced Syrians near the Syrian-Turkey border in Idlib province, killing at least one person. The Kurdish YPG said in a statement posted on its social media networks that Turkey was behind the attack and that accusations that the YPG had carried it out were lies.
(Reuters, 2/6/18)
2018 Feb 9, Turkish warplanes bombarded Kurdish militia targets in Syria's Afrin region. A monitor said the strikes killed seven fighters and two civilians. A Kurdish official and top member of Afrin's civil administration, Hevi Mustafa, said the Turkish offensive had killed 160 people so far.
(Reuters, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 9, Human Rights Watch said in report that the Kurdish Asayish police force in Iraq last year executed dozens of Islamic State fighters in their custody and disposed of their bodies in a mass grave northwest of Mosul.
(Reuters, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 10, A Turkish military helicopter was "downed" and two soldiers killed in northern Syria during Ankara's offensive on Syrian Kurdish militia there. Kurdish fighters downed the chopper in Raju, northwest Afrin.
(AP, 2/10/18)
2018 Feb 11, Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party elected two new leaders, one of whom replaced its charismatic jailed co-chief Selahattin Demirtas, ahead of elections in 2019. Former MP Sezai Temelli (54) was voted by party delegates to replace Demirtas while Pervin Buldan (50) was elected co-chair as well.
(AFP, 2/11/18)
2018 Feb 11, Turkey continued its operations in northern Syria, targeting YPG areas with air and artillery strikes. Turkey's military announced the death of another soldier in its operation against a Syrian Kurdish militia. The announcement brought to 31 the number of Turkish soldiers killed since the operation started on Jan. 20.
(AP, 2/11/18)
2018 Feb 13, Shells hit the center of a Syrian Kurdish enclave where Turkey is carrying out an offensive, landing near the area's only hospital and killing one person.
(AP, 2/13/18)
2018 Feb 16, In Syria six civilians suffered breathing difficulties and other symptoms indicative of poison gas inhalation after an attack launched by Turkey on the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin.
(AP, 2/17/18)
2018 Feb 18, A senior Syrian Kurdish official said Kurdish forces and the Syrian government had reached a deal for the Syrian army to enter Afrin, and that it could be implemented within two days.
(Reuters, 2/19/18)
2018 Feb 19, Syrian media reported that militias allied to the Syrian government will enter the Afrin region to help Kurdish forces end a Turkish offensive.
(Reuters, 2/19/18)
2018 Feb 19, Turkey's foreign minister warned that Turkey's military would confront any Syrian government forces entering the northwest Afrin province to protect Kurdish YPG fighters.
(Reuters, 2/19/18)
2018 Feb 22, The Turkish army struck a convoy entering Syria's Kurdish-held Afrin region, which Ankara said carried fighters and weapons, but Kurdish forces said was made up of civilians entering with food and medicine. At least ten people were wounded and one passenger was killed.
(Reuters, 2/23/18)
2018 Feb 24, Czech authorities arrested Saleh Muslim (67), a top Kurdish politician, at the behest of Turkey, where a court has charged him with sedition.
(Reuters, 2/25/18)
2018 Feb 26, Turkey formally asked for the extradition of one of the most prominent leaders of the Syrian Kurds, who was detained by Czech police at the weekend at Ankara's request.
(AFP, 2/26/18)
2018 Feb 27, A Czech court released prominent Syrian Kurdish leader Saleh Muslim, wanted by Turkey on terror charges, prompting outrage in Ankara which said the move showed "support for terrorism".
(AFP, 2/27/18)
2018 Mar 2, Turkey requested that German authorities detain and extradite wanted Syrian Kurdish politician Salih Muslim, the former co-chair of the Democratic Union Party, or PYD.
(AP, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 3, Turkey's PM Binali Yildirim said Turkish troops have captured a strategic village in the Kurdish-held enclave in northwestern Syria, tightening the grip on the area in the sixth week of its offensive on the area. Turkish air strikes killed at least 36 pro-regime fighters backing Kurdish militia in Syria's northwestern Kurdish enclave of Afrin.
(AP, 3/3/18)(AFP, 3/3/18)
2018 Mar 5, In northwest Syria at least 13 civilians were killed in Turkish shelling on the town of Jindaris, as Turkish forces try to press their advances on the Kurdish-held Afrin enclave. Another 3 civilians were killed in Turkish shelling near Rajo, also in Afrin.
(AP, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 8, Turkish media reported that the government has asked Sweden to arrest Syrian Kurdish leader Saleh Muslim, Ankara’s third attempt to get a European state to detain and extradite him in just over a week. A Swedish source said Muslim had been in Stockholm but had already left the country.
(Reuters, 3/8/18)
2018 Mar 8, Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition forces entered the town of Jinderes, in the southwest of the Afrin enclave, where they were engaged in street clashes with Syrian Kurdish forces.
(AP, 3/8/18)
2018 Mar 10, Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels battling Kurdish militia in northern Syria advanced to less than two km from the flashpoint town of Afrin. Turkey and allied Syrian opposition factions now held 60 percent of the Afrin region.
(AP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 11, Turkish warplanes reportedly destroyed at least 18 targets belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/11/18)
2018 Mar 13, Iraqi authorities said they were lifting a nearly six-month air blockade imposed on Iraqi Kurdistan in response to its holding of an independence referendum.
(AFP, 3/13/18)
2018 Mar 13, Turkey's military said Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition fighters have begun a siege of the Syrian Kurdish-held town of Afrin.
(AP, 3/13/18)
2018 Mar 14, Turkey turned up the heat on Syria's Afrin, launching deadly strikes on Damascus loyalists deployed around the Kurdish enclave and closing in on its main city. Turkish bombing raids killed 10 fighters loyal to the regime.
(AFP, 3/14/18)
2018 Mar 15, In northern Syria hundreds of residents of the Kurdish enclave under Turkish assault trickled out of Afrin's center toward neighboring villages amid an intensifying offensive. Senior Kurdish official Omar Alloush, who played a key role with the United States in implementing its post-Islamic State policy in northern Syria, was found dead in his apartment in northern Syria.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 18, Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies swept into the northwestern Syrian town of Afrin, raising their flags in the town center and declaring full control after an eight-week campaign to drive out Kurdish YPG forces. The Kurdish administration of the Afrin region indicated that Kurdish-dominated forces fighting Turkey-backed groups in the area will shift from direct confrontation to guerrilla tactics.
(Reuters, 3/18/18)
2018 Mar 19, Iraq sent money to pay salaries of state employees in the Kurdish region for the first time since 2014, although a dispute over how much it will send the Kurds in future remains unresolved.
(Reuters, 3/19/18)
2018 Mar 20, Direct international flights resumed from Sulaimaniyah airport in Iraqi Kurdistan, a week after Baghdad lifted an almost six-month-long blockade on the region's foreign air links.
(AFP, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 20, Turkish authorities detained more than 100 suspected Kurdish militants on suspicion of planning illegal demonstrations or plotting attacks for the Newroz spring festival.
(Reuters, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 22, Turkish jets attacked suspected Kurdish rebel camps across the border in northern Iraq, in an operation that reportedly "neutralized" nine militants.
(AP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 23, The Kurdish PKK rebel group said it is withdrawing from the town of Sinjar in northern Iraq, a move that follows threats of attack from Turkey.
(AP, 3/23/18)
2018 Mar 27, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi said government armed forces will prevent Kurdish militants based in northern Iraq from staging cross-border attacks against Turkey.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Apr 7, Turkey's military said some 108 Kurdish militants have been "neutralized" in operations targeting southeast Turkey and northern Iraq over the past week.
(AP, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 19, Turkey's parliament said it had stripped two lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish opposition HDP of their parliamentary status, further reducing the party's strength in the assembly two months ahead of elections.
(Reuters, 4/19/18)
2018 Apr 29, Syrian government forces captured four villages east of the Euphrates River in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour after rare clashes with US-backed Kurdish-led fighters. Six SDF fighters were reported killed. Syrian troops tightened the noose around a major Palestinian refugee camp held by Islamic State militants in southern Damascus where hundreds of civilians face an uncertain future. State media said the government and rebels have reached a deal to evacuate opposition fighters from an area of southern Damascus near the site of a regime offensive against jihadists.
(AP, 4/29/18)(Reuters, 4/29/18)(AFP, 4/29/18)
2018 May 6, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised new military operations against Kurdish militants along its border in Syria and Iraq as he presented his election manifesto.
(AP, 5/6/18)
2018 May 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a brief meeting in Moscow with Nechirvan Barzani the prime minister of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 15, The Iraqi election commission said that initial results from Kirkuk indicated a win for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a historic Iraqi Kurdish party.
(Reuters, 5/16/18)
2018 May 16, Gunmen in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk were besieging several polling stations containing election staff, four days after a national vote.
(AP, 5/16/18)
2018 May 26, In Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli hundreds demonstrated in response to a call by Kurdish authorities for global protests against Turkey's military presence in the flashpoint Afrin region.
(AFP, 5/26/18)
2018 May 30, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said Turkey and the United States agreed on a three-step plan for withdrawing the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia from Syria's Manbij.
(Reuters, 5/30/18)
2018 Jun 2, Turkey's military said overnight air strikes by Turkish warplanes had "neutralized" at least 15 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq as well as in Turkey's eastern provinces of Tunceli and Siirt. Two Turkish soldiers were reported killed and one soldier severely wounded after a rocket attack by the PKK to a military construction vehicle in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 6/2/18)
2018 Jun 5, The leading Syrian Kurdish militia said it would withdraw from Manbij, easing fears of a direct clash between NATO allies Washington and Ankara over the strategic northern town.
(AFP, 6/5/18)
2018 Jun 8, Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq detained Ali Bashar (20) on suspicion of raping and murdering Susanna Feldman (14), a Jewish girl who went missing May 22 in Germany.
(Reuters, 6/8/18)
2018 Jun 8, Turkey's defense minister said Turkish and US soldiers will patrol the key northern Syrian town of Manbij as part of a deal reached this week for the withdrawal of a Syrian Kurdish militia.
(AP, 6/9/18)
2018 Jun 10, Turkey's military said it hit more than a dozen Kurdish militant targets in air strikes in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 6/11/18)
2018 Jun 14, Human Rights Watch said that Turkey-backed rebels in northwest Syria's Afrin have seized, looted and destroyed Kurdish civilians' property after taking control of the region in March.
(Reuters, 6/14/18)
2018 Jun 18, Turkish and US soldiers started independent patrols in northern Syria along the line separating Turkish-controlled areas from the town of Manbij where Ankara says Kurdish militia fighters are based.
(Reuters, 6/18/18)
2018 Jun 19, Three Turkish soldiers were killed in bomb attacks blamed on the PKK in the southeastern provinces of Siirt and Sirnak.
(AP, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 20, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants fired on military vehicles, killing two soldiers and wounding another. Turkey's warplanes carried out air strikes in northern Iraq, killing 10 militants in the Avasin-Basyan and Sinat Haftanin areas and destroying weapon stores and shelters.
(Reuters, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 30, The Turkish military carried out airstrikes in northern Iraq's Avasin Basyan region, killing four Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 6/30/18)
2018 Jul 1, Turkey's military said eight Kurdish militants have been killed in air strikes in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey this weekend.
(Reuters, 7/1/18)
2018 Jul 11, Turkish authorities detained 16 people in the mainly Kurdish southeast for suspected links to terrorism. Three of the detained were French nationals.
(Reuters, 7/12/18)
2018 Jul 16, The political arm of the Syrian Democratic Forces militia said it would work to set up a unified administration to consolidate its authority in northern and eastern Syria. The Kurdish-led SDF holds around a quarter of Syria.
(Reuters, 7/16/18)
2018 Jul 21, Iranian media reported that at least 10 Iranian border guards were killed in an overnight attack by unidentified gunmen near the town of Marivan, a Kurdish area near the Iraqi border.
(AP, 7/21/18)
2018 Jul 23, In Iraq three teenage gunmen stormed the governor's headquarters in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, opening fire and killing one employee before being shot dead by Kurdish security forces. The assailants' motives were unclear.
(AFP, 7/23/18)(Reuters, 7/23/18)
2018 Jul 28, The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council said it has agreed to work with the Syrian government on ending seven years of violence in the country and setting up a roadmap for Syria's future. The SDC is the political wing of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that controls wide swathes of northeast Syria.
(AP, 7/28/18)
2018 Aug 10, Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard reportedly killed 10 militants late today in a Kurdish region near the border with Iraq.
(AP, 8/11/18)
2018 Aug 16, Turkish officials said four soldiers have been killed in violence in the southeast where troops are battling Kurdish rebels, three of them as a result of a friendly fire in Adiyaman province.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 25, Turkish authorities banned a protest vigil marking the forced disappearances of hundreds of people in the country's southeast decades ago. The Saturday Mothers activist group was set to hold its 700th meeting in Istanbul. The group has gathered since 1995 to demand justice for those who disappeared during the ongoing conflict between Turkish security forces and Kurdish insurgents.
(AP, 8/25/18)
2018 Sep 4, Turkey told the United States that Kurdish militants must completely abandon Syria, as violence in the rebel-held northern Syrian enclave of Idlib escalated.
(Reuters, 9/4/18)
2018 Sep 6, In Syria the political wing of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces announced the start of a unified administration for its territory, a move that would consolidate its authority in northern and eastern Syria. The SDF wants the seven-year war to end with a federal system that secures minority rights, including for Kurds.
(Reuters, 9/6/18)
2018 Sep 7, A court in Istanbul has convicted a former co-chairman of Turkey's main pro-Kurdish political party of "engaging in terror propaganda." The court sentenced Selahattin Demirtas to more than four years in prison after finding him guilty.
(AP, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 8, Iran's Revolutionary Guards launched deadly missile strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Fifteen people were killed in the rare cross-border attack on the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran.
(AFP, 9/9/18)
2018 Sep 8, Iranian media reported that authorities have hanged three Kurdish prisoners after years in prison.
(AP, 9/8/18)
2018 Sep 8, In northeastern Syria clashes erupted between US-backed Kurdish fighters and Syrian troops in the center of the city of Qamishli. Kurdish forces said seven of its fighters and 11 Syrian military were killed in the clashes.
(Reuters, 9/8/18)
2018 Sep 11, The Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance, advanced inside Hajin, east of the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border. Over the last 24 hours 27 jihadists and 10 SDF fighters were killed in the fighting for the Hajin pocket.
(AFP, 9/11/18)
2018 Sep 14, In France about 15 Kurdish activists burned the Iranian flag in front of Iran's embassy in Paris and broke some windows with stones. Some of the attackers were arrested.
(Reuters, 9/15/18)
2018 Sep 15, The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Force entered the eastern village of Bagouz held by the Islamic State group where intense clashes were ongoing.
(AP, 9/15/18)
2018 Sep 29, In Syria the Raqqa Internal Security Forces, set up by the Kurdish-led SDF, killed two members of an Islamic State sleeper cell and detained five others.
(Reuters, 9/30/18)
2018 Sep 30, Kurds voted in a parliamentary election in their semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq. On October 21 authorities said the Iraqi Kurdish party behind last year's ill-fated independence referendum won the most seats in parliamentary elections held in the autonomous Kurdish region. The Kurdistan Democratic Party won 45 seats, 12 short of an outright majority in the 111-seat body.
(Reuters, 9/30/18)(AP, 10/21/18)
2018 Oct 1, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey aims to secure control of the region of northern Syria east of the Euphrates river, removing the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia from the area, and to clear Iraq's Sinjar and Qandil regions of Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 10/1/18)
2018 Oct 2, Iraq's lawmakers met to elect a new president after a dispute between the two main Kurdish parties delayed the vote, eventually forcing them to choose among 20 nominees. Veteran Kurdish politician Barham Salih (58) was elected president by parliament and sworn in. He then tapped Adel Abdel Mahdi (76) for the difficult task of navigating the country's tangled politics to form a government within 30 days.
(AP, 10/2/18)(AP, 10/3/18)(AFP, 10/3/18)
2018 Oct 3, Eight Turkish soldiers were killed and two were wounded after a roadside bomb in the southeastern province of Batman was detonated by outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
(AP, 10/4/18)(Reuters, 10/6/18)
2018 Oct 26, A Turkish court sentenced a German man to six years and three months in prison for membership in a terrorist organization. The Turkish prosecutor accused Patrick K. (29) of being a member of the Syrian Kurdish YPG, considered by Ankara to be a branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 28, The Turkish army struck Kurdish targets in northern Syria east of the Euphrates River. Artillery strikes hit positions belonging to the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Zor Moghar.
(AP, 10/28/18)
2018 Oct 31, Iraq's Shi'ite paramilitaries, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), said in a statement that they had killed two IS commanders in the border area who were responsible for an attack last week on US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces along the Iraq-Syria border.
(Reuters, 10/31/18)
2018 Nov 6, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that joint patrols by US forces and a Kurdish-led militia in northern Syria are "unacceptable".
(AP, 11/6/18)
2018 Nov 9, Airstrikes by Turkish warplanes "neutralized" 15 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 11/10/18)
2018 Nov 16, Iraq's central government said it has agreed with Kurdish authorities to resume oil exports from Kirkuk, a year after federal forces seized the lucrative fields.
(AFP, 11/16/18)
2018 Nov 20, The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) urged Turkey to swiftly process the legal case of Selahattin Demirtas, the ex-head of the pro-Kurdish opposition, saying his pre-trial detention had gone on longer than could be justified.
(Reuters, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 21, A Turkish court sentenced 74 people, including soldiers, to life in prison for their role in the July 2016 attempted coup. Three men, accused of being members of the PKK, were jailed for life for a March 2016 car bombing that killed 36 people and wounded 344 in a crowded transport hub in Ankara.
(Reuters, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 23, In eastern Syria around 500 IS fighters burst out of the fog shrouding an area in Deir Ezzor province near the border with Iraq to launch a deadly assault where SDF fighters and coalition advisers are based. At least 61 jihadists and 51 civilians, mostly their relatives, died in the violence along with 92 fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
(AFP, 11/24/18)(AFP, 11/26/18)
2018 Nov 30, A Turkish court ruled that the former leader of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition remain in prison, after top EU officials last week called for the politician's swift release.
(Reuters, 11/30/18)
2018 Dec 4, A Turkish appeals court has upheld the terror propaganda conviction of Selahattin Demirtas, the former head of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition party.
(AP, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 10, In Syria the Kurdish-led SDF pushed deeper into Hajin, the Islamic State's last remaining stronghold, and took full control of an abandoned hospital on the edge of town.
(SFC, 12/11/18, p.A4)
2018 Dec 14, Syrian Kurdish parties said that Turkish threats to attack northern Syria amounted to a "declaration of war" and urged world powers to prevent an assault on the region.
(Reuters, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 14, The Turkish military said it had killed eight militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in air strikes targeting the Zap, Hakurk and Haftanin regions of northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 20, Britain, Germany and France, three of the United States' main allies in the war against the Islamic State group, reacted with alarm to President Donald Trump's decision to pull US troops out of Syria. Analysts said the US decision to pull troops out of eastern Syria will leave the Kurds exposed to Turkish military threats and forced to cooperate with Damascus.
(AFP, 12/20/18)
2018 Dec 28, Syrian troops deployed in support of Kurdish forces around Manbij, a strategic northern city, in a shift of alliances hastened by last week's announcement of a US military withdrawal. The deployment creates a regime buffer arching across northern Syria that fully separates the Turkish army and its proxies from the Kurds.
(AFP, 12/28/18)
2019 Jan 2, Pres. Donald Trump said the United States would get out of Syria slowly "over a period of time" and would protect the US-backed Kurdish fighters in the country as Washington draws down troops. US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which include Kurdish fighters, captured the Syrian town of Kashmah.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 3, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara and Baghdad would deepen cooperation against terrorism after tensions last month over Turkish air strikes against Kurdish militants in Iraq.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 5, The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces handed over IS fighters and civilians from Kazakhstan to their country. This included five fighters, 11 women and 30 children.
(AP, 1/7/19)
2019 Jan 5, In eastern Syria a missile attack by the Islamic State group killed at least one Kurdish fighter and wounded two British soldiers embedded with them.
(AP, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 9, A Syrian Kurdish militia said its fighters earlier this week captured eight foreign fighters with the Islamic State group in eastern Syria, including an American teenager. The YPG identified the 16-year-old American teenager as Soulay Noah Su.
(AP, 1/9/19)
2019 Jan 9, In Turkey a pro-Kurdish party legislator said 162 prisoners across Turkey have joined a hunger strike in a show of solidarity with an imprisoned opposition legislator who has been refusing food since November.
(AP, 1/9/19)
2019 Jan 13, US President Donald Trump threatened Turkey with economic devastation if it attacks a US-allied Kurdish militia in Syria.
(Reuters, 1/14/19)
2019 Jan 15, Senior Kurdish official Bedran Ciya Kurd categorically rejected a "safe zone" that the Turkish president says his troops plan to set up in northern Syria.
(AP, 1/15/19)
2019 Jan 19, In Turkey thousands demonstrated in the Kurdish-majority southeast to support Leyla Guven (55), a detained lawmaker from a pro-Kurdish party who launched a hunger strike in November.
(AFP, 1/19/19)
2019 Jan 21, In northern Syria an Islamic State suicide bomber targeted a joint convoy of US and allied Kurdish forces, marking the second attack against US troops in less than a week. Five members of the Kurdish-led force were reported killed.
(AP, 1/21/19)(AFP, 1/21/19)
2019 Jan 25, A Turkish court released Leyla Guven, a Kurdish lawmaker who was jailed last year for criticizing Ankara's military operation in Syria. She has been on hunger strike for nearly three months and still faces trial and up to 31 years' jail over charges of terrorism leadership and propaganda for her opposition to Turkey's incursion into northwest Syria's Afrin region.
(Reuters, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 25, Turkish forces shelled YPG militia positions in the northern Syrian region of Tal Rifaat for a third consecutive day.
(Reuters, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 26, In northwestern Iraq Kurdish protesters stormed a Turkish army position in the Shiladzeh region late today to protest the deaths of four civilians they said were killed last week in Turkish bombardment. One Kurdish protester was killed after Turkish troops opened fire on the demonstrators.
(AFP, 1/27/19)
2019 Jan 26, Turkey's Defense Ministry said a Turkish military base in northern Iraq has come under attack by Kurdish militants. At least 10 people were wounded when protesters stormed the Turkish military camp near Dohuk in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, burning two tanks and other vehicles.
(AP, 1/26/19)(Reuters, 1/26/19)
2019 Jan 28, In eastern Syria Kurdish-led fighters pressed their assault against the Islamic State group, boxing the jihadists into a tiny last pocket of land along the Euphrates River.
(AFP, 1/28/19)
2019 Feb 1, A Turkish court sentenced two Kurdish politicians to lengthy jail terms on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization and disseminating terrorist propaganda. Former parliamentarian Gultan Kisanak, arrested in 2016 when she was the joint mayor of Diyarbakir, was jailed for 14 years and three months. Sebahat Tuncel, who had also served in parliament, was jailed for 15 years.
(Reuters, 2/2/19)
2019 Feb 7, In Syria a Kurdish-led force arrested 63 suspected militants in the city of Raqa during an operation against jihadist sleeper cells.
(AFP, 2/7/19)
2019 Feb 8, Kurdish officials said there was no progress on repatriating dozens of French nationals, including accused Islamic State fighters, women, and children, from prison camps in northern Syria.
(AFP, 2/8/19)
2019 Feb 9, The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it had begun to seize the last four-square-km (one-square-mile) patch from the jihadists in eastern Syria.
(AFP, 2/9/19)
2019 Feb 10, An SDF official said the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have seized ground from Islamic State in a fierce battle to capture its last enclave in eastern Syria.
(Reuters, 2/10/19)
2019 Feb 11, Dozens of Turkish police blocked a march by pro-Kurdish opposition lawmakers in Istanbul that was organized in solidarity with hunger striking MP Leyla Guven, who was released from prison last month.
(AFP, 2/11/19)
2019 Feb 12, Germany's top security official banned two publishers for allegedly belonging to a banned Kurdish organization. Publishers Mezopotamien Verlag und Vertrieb GmbH and the MIR Multimedia GmbH were banned because they support the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AP, 2/12/19)
2019 Feb 13, In Turkey pro-Kurdish lawmaker Leyla Guven (55), on hunger strike for more than three months, was brought to a hospital but went home by ambulance after refusing treatment. She has vowed to continue her fast until the government allows Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan to hold regular meetings with his lawyers and family members.
(AFP, 2/13/19)
2019 Feb 15, In a commander with the Kurdish-led force fighting the extremists said the offensive on the last enclave held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria has been blunted by the discovery of hundreds of civilians still living there. IS militants clung to their last square km (mile) of land in Baghouz.
(AP, 2/15/19)
2019 Feb 17, A spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said Islamic State militants are preventing more than 1,000 civilians from leaving Baghouz village, a tiny area in eastern Syria still held by the extremist group.
(AP, 2/17/19)
2019 Feb 19, A senior adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flatly rejected the idea of giving Syrian Kurds a measure of autonomy, saying such a move would open the door to the partition of the country.
(Reuters, 2/19/19)
2019 Feb 22, In eastern Syria Kurdish-led forces said they would complete the evacuation of thousands of civilians from Islamic State's last redoubt, and welcomed a White House reversal of President Donald Trump's decision to pull out all US troops. Some 2,000 people were believed to remain inside Baghouz.
(Reuters, 2/22/19)(AP, 2/23/19)
2019 Mar 2, In eastern Syria Kurdish-led forces battled jihadists defending their last village as operations to flush out the Islamic State group resumed after several days of humanitarian evacuations.
(AFP, 3/2/19)
2019 Mar 2, In northern Syria the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration said in a statement that 283 Syrians, suspected of belonging to the Islamic State, had been set free because they have "no blood on their hands".
(AFP, 3/3/19)
2019 Mar 11, In eastern Syria Kurdish-led forces slowed an assault to retake a last scrap of land held by the Islamic State group after hundreds more people surrendered. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) killed dozens in continuing clashes with Islamic State fighters at Baghouz.
(AFP, 3/11/19)(Reuters, 3/11/19)
2019 Mar 12, In eastern Syria Kurdish-led forces said more people were surrendering from the Islamic State group's last scrap of territory, after overnight air raids and shelling ravaged jihadist outposts. Hundreds of jihadist fighters and their families surrendered and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said the battle was as good as over.
(AFP, 3/12/19)(Reuters, 3/12/19)
2019 Mar 16, In eastern Syria US-backed forces battled Islamic State group fighters Saturday as the holdout jihadists clung to the last dregs of their crumbling "caliphate." The latest fighting broke out after the Kurd-led force attacked IS positions inside Baghouz. The SDF said around 32 jihadists, including at least four senior IS figures, were killed in the battle.
(AFP, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 16, Two Turkish soldiers were killed and eight others were wounded in a clash during operations into northern Iraq. Six militants, including a woman, were "neutralized" during the operations.
(Reuters, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 17, In Turkey Kurdish activist Zulkuf Gezen died late today. He was one of scores of detainees on hunger strike in support of a Kurdish lawmaker in Diyarbakir. He reportedly hanged himself after 12 years in prison on charges of membership of the PKK Kurdish militant group.
(AFP, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 18, Syria's the defence minister warned that government forces will reclaim control of northeastern areas controlled by the US-backed Kurds, whether by force or through reconciliation.
(AFP, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 18, Turkey and Iran carried out a joint operation against militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Turkey's eastern border.
(Reuters, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 24, In Turkey thousands of supporters of a pro-Kurdish party gathered in Istanbul to celebrate the Kurdish New Year and to attend a campaign rally for local elections that will test the Turkish president's popularity.
(AP, 3/24/19)
2019 Mar 30, In Turkey the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, said in a statement that 53 people were detained in Istanbul overnight in the lead-up to the March 31 municipal elections.
(AP, 3/30/19)
2019 Mar 31, In northwest Syria one Turkish soldier was killed and another was wounded in a mortar attack on their position. Turkey's military launched retaliatory fire. Turkey said the attack was carried out by the Kurdish YPG militia in the Afrin region.
(Reuters, 3/31/19)
2019 Apr 5, Turkey's official news agency said prosecutors have launched a terror propaganda investigation into Adnan Selcuk Mizrakl, the newly-elected mayor of Turkey's predominantly Kurdish Diyarbakir province.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 10, Turkey's Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) ordered that individuals sacked by an emergency decree during purges after a 2016 failed coup could not take up their posts despite being elected. Five districts and towns in the Kurdish-majority southeast were affected.
(AFP, 4/11/19)
2019 Apr 11, Syrian Kurds announced a deal with Baghdad for 31,000 displaced Iraqis, mostly women and children, to return from camps in northeastern Syria to Iraq.
(AFP, 4/11/19)
2019 Apr 11, Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party said it would appeal to electoral authorities to annul elections in five districts and towns after some of its successful candidates were blocked from taking office after a March 31 local vote.
(AFP, 4/11/19)
2019 Apr 13, Syrian Kurds repatriated 25 women and children from Iraq's Yazidi minority after freeing them during the final push against the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 4/13/19)
2019 Apr 19, Four Turkish soldiers and 20 armed assailants were killed in clashes between the military and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) near the border with Iraq.
(Reuters, 4/20/19)
2019 Apr 30, In northwestern Syria, the government's air force dropped dozens of barrel bombs in rebel-held parts of Hama and Idlib provinces killing at least one woman and wounding others. Syrian Kurdish militants carried out an attack in a Turkish-controlled region in northern Syria killing a Turkish soldier and wounding three others.
(AP, 4/30/19)
2019 May 26, Several Kurdish lawmakers and thousands of prison inmates in Turkey ended their hunger strike after a call from jailed militant leader Abdullah Ocalan, 200 days after the protest was launched.
(Reuters, 5/26/19)
2019 May 27, Turkey's military launched an operation with commandos, backed by artillery and air strikes, against Kurdish militants in a mountainous area of northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 5/28/19)
2019 May 28, Iraq's self-governing Kurdish region elected a new president in a parliamentary vote boycotted by a key opposition party. Former prime minister Nechirvan Barzani will follow his uncle Masoud Barzani in office.
(AP, 5/28/19)
2019 May 29, Turkish warplanes and attack helicopters struck targets in the mountains of northern Iraq. Two Turkish soldiers died from wounds sustained in a bomb blast. The military "neutralized" four militants in the latest action, bringing the total to 19 on the 3rd day of “Operation Claw".
(Reuters, 5/30/19)
2019 Jun 5, Kurdish authorities in northern Syria said they have transferred eight US women and children who were captured with the Islamic State group back to America.
(AP, 6/5/19)
2019 Jun 8, Turkey's Defence Ministry said a total of 43 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) had been "neutralized" as part of an operation Ankara launched in northern Iraq 13 days ago. Separately, the Interior Ministry said two PKK members, one of whom was on Turkey's wanted list, were "neutralized" in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province, as well as five others in the eastern Tunceli province.
(Reuters, 6/8/19)
2019 Jun 10, The prime minister of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, Nechirvan Barzani, was sworn in as its president, filling the most powerful regional office, vacant since 2017 when his uncle quit after a failed independence bid.
(Reuters, 6/10/19)
2019 Jun 11, In northern Iraq the Kurdish parliament named Masoud's eldest son Masrour Barzani (50) as the region's new premier after seven years as its top security official. He succeeds his cousin Nechirvan (52), sworn in as president the previous day.
(AFP, 6/11/19)
2019 Jun 16, In Syria fires engulfing vital wheat fields across the northeast have killed at least 10 people over the last 24 hours. Kurdish authorities claimed the blazes in Hasakeh province were set deliberately.
(AFP, 6/16/19)
2019 Jul 9, An ambush by Kurdish militants killed three Revolutionary Guard members in western Iran.
(AP, 7/12/19)
2019 Jul 10, Iran's Revolutionary Guards launched deadly strikes against "terrorists" across the border in Iraqi Kurdistan. The two-day operation killed at least one civilian.
(AFP, 7/12/19)(AP, 7/12/19)
2019 Jul 12, Turkey started "Operation Claw-2" late today to destroy caves and shelters used by members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in the Hakurk region. The operation began with commandoes, air strikes and artillery.
(AP, 7/13/19)
2019 Jul 17, In Iraq a gunman opened fire inside a Turkish restaurant in the northern city of Irbil, killing at least one Turkish diplomat stationed in Ankara's consulate. Kurdish security forces later said a Turkish diplomat and a civilian were killed and another civilian wounded in the attack.
(AP, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 18, Turkey launched airstrikes against Kurdish rebel targets in the Qandil mountains region in northern Iraq, after the killing of Turkish diplomat Osman Kose there a day earlier. Airstrikes killed alleged planners of the attack against Kose and continued the next day against alleged PKK targets in Iraq's Karajak region. A 2nd attack on July 24 hit another vehicle carrying senior members of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AP, 7/19/19)(AP, 7/25/19)
2019 Jul 19, In northern Iraq an unmanned aircraft dropped explosives on a base belonging to Iran-linked Shi'ite paramilitary groups, killing at least one person. Two Iranian military commanders were killed. US officials later confirmed that Israel was responsible for the bombing in Amirli, Salaheddin province. A Turkish soldier was killed and six wounded in an operation in northern Iraq during clashes with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 7/19/19)(AP, 8/23/19)(SFC, 8/24/19, p.A4)d
2019 Jul 20, Iraqi Kurdistan's security services said they had arrested a man for assassinating a Turkish diplomat in the regional capital Erbil on July 17, and believed the suspect was the brother of a lawmaker in the Turkish parliament.
(Reuters, 7/20/19)
2019 Jul 26, Turkey's top court ruled that 10 academics had their rights violated when they were sentenced on charges of disseminating terrorist propaganda for signing a 2016 petition calling for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast.
(AP, 7/27/19)
2019 Jul 27, Turkey's Defense Ministry said it had "neutralized" 34 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq in air strikes on July 17-19. The Defense Ministry said it had "neutralized" a total of 255 PKK militants in operations in northern Iraq since May 27.
(Reuters, 7/27/19)
2019 Aug 5, Turkish and American military officials met in Istanbul for negotiations about establishing a safe zone in northeastern Syria to address Ankara's concerns about US-allied Syrian Kurdish-led forces in that region.
(AP, 8/5/19)
2019 Aug 11, Iran arrested renowned anthropologist Kameel Ahmady, a dual British-Iranian national, on unspecified allegations. The Iranian Kurd was born in the western city of Mahabad and was granted British citizenship in 1994. He has been living in Iran for the last 14 years.
{Britain, Iran, Kurds}
(The Telegraph, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 18, Syrian state media and an opposition war monitor said government forces have gained more ground in the country's northwest, almost reaching the western outskirts of Khan Sheikhoun, a major rebel-held town. A car bomb killed one member of a security force and wounded two others in the Kurdish-controlled city of Qamishli.
(AP, 8/18/19)(Reuters, 8/18/19)
2019 Aug 19, Turkey removed from office the elected mayors of three cities in the mostly Kurdish-populated southeast region over their alleged links to rebels, replacing them with government appointees.
(AP, 8/19/19)
2019 Aug 23, A Turkish offensive entered its third phase in which troops aimed to destroy PKK caves and shelters in the Sinat-Haftanin region of Iraq.
(AP, 8/25/19)
2019 Aug 25, Turkey's official news agency reported that three Turkish soldiers were killed in northern Iraq in clashes with Kurdish militants.
(AP, 8/25/19)
2019 Aug 27, In Syria insurgents launched counterattacks in areas recently taken by government forces in the country's last remaining rebel region in the northwest. The Kurdish-led regional administration in northern Syria said the main US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia has begun withdrawing its fighters from Ras al-Ayn, a town near Turkey's border. Members of the militia known as YPG withdrew with their heavy weapons three days earlier.
(AP, 8/27/19)
2019 Sep 3, A spokesman for the Kurdish-led US-backed force in Syria says they have carried out a patrol near a border town with Turkey to select fortifications to be removed soon.
(AP, 9/3/19)
2019 Sep 8, US and Turkish troops conducted their first joint ground patrol in northeastern Syria as part of a so-called "safe zone" that Ankara has been pressing for in the volatile region. Turkey hoped the buffer zone, which it says should be at least 30 km (19 miles) deep, will keep Syrian Kurdish fighters away from its border.
(AP, 9/8/19)
2019 Sep 12, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish rebels reportedly detonated an improvised explosive device on a road near the town of Kulp, killing four people and wounding 13 others.
(AP, 9/13/19)
2019 Sep 21, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed frustration with what he said was the United States' continued support for Syrian Kurdish militants.
(AP, 9/21/19)
2019 Oct 2, In northeastern Syria hundreds of Kurds demonstrated in protest at their minority community's "exclusion" from a United Nations-backed committee tasked with drafting a new constitution for the war-devastated country.
(AFP, 10/2/19)
2019 Oct 4, In northern Syria the US-led coalition and Turkey conducted their third joint patrol, part of a plan designed to defuse tensions between Ankara and the Syrian Kurds.
(AP, 10/4/19)
2019 Oct 5, Turkey's president threatened to launch a military operation into northeastern Syria, where US troops are deployed and have been trying to defuse tension between Washington's two allies — Ankara and the Syrian Kurds.
(AP, 10/5/19)
2019 Oct 6, President Donald Trump announced his decision to pull back US troops from northern Syria. The White House issued a late-night statement that it was effectively abandoning the Kurds who did most of the fighting alongside US forces to drive Islamic State extremists from northern Syria.
(AP, 10/7/19)(AFP, 10/7/19)
2019 Oct 7, Syria's Kurds accused the US of turning its back on its allies and risking gains made in the fight against the Islamic State group as American troops began pulling back from positions in northeastern Syria ahead of an expected Turkish assault.
(AP, 10/7/19)
2019 Oct 9, Turkey launched a military operation against Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria with air strikes hitting the border town of Ras al Ain. Turkey's state-run news agency said Turkish artillery units are shelling suspected Syrian Kurdish forces targets across the border in the Syrian town of Tal Abyad.
(Reuters, 10/9/19)(AP, 10/9/19)
2019 Oct 10, The European Union says that the Turkish offensive in Kurdish-held areas of Syria is setting back any hope for progress toward ending the conflict.
(AP, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 10, Turkey pressed its assault against US-allied Kurdish forces in northern Syria for a second day, pounding the region with airstrikes and an artillery bombardment that raised columns of black smoke in a border town and sent panicked civilians scrambling to get out.
(AP, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 10, Turkish police launched criminal investigations of Kurdish lawmakers and detained dozens of people for using social media to question the military's cross border incursion into Syria, in a crackdown against those who criticized the assault.
(Reuters, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 10, A Turkish provincial governor's office said two children and their mother have been killed by mortar fire from Syria into Turkey. This followed a separate announcement from neighboring Sanliurfa province, where a 9-month-old boy, a girl (11) and an adult male were killed in mortar attacks. The Turkish Defense ministry tweeted that it hit targets in Syria in retaliation.
(AP, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 12, The main Kurdish-led group in northern Syria is calling on the US to carry out its "moral responsibilities" and close northern Syrian airspace to Turkish warplanes.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Iran offered to engage Syrian Kurds, Syria's government and Turkey in talks to establish security along the Turkish-Syrian border following Turkey's military incursion into northern Syria to fight Kurdish forces.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll among Syrian Kurdish-led fighters battling a Turkish offensive has risen to 74, most of whom have been killed in the Tel Abyad area.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 13, Kurdish forces long allied with the United States in Syria announced a new deal with the government in Damascus, a sworn enemy of Washington that is backed by Russia, as Turkish troops moved deeper into their territory and President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of the US military from northern Syria.
(NY Times, 10/14/19)
2019 Oct 13, In northern Syria hundreds of Islamic State supporters escaped from a holding camp in amid heavy clashes between invading Turkish-led forces and Kurdish fighters. 780 IS supporters fled a camp for the displaced in the Syrian town of Ein Issa. US President Donald Trump ordered all US troops to withdraw from the north to avoid getting caught in the fighting. Approximately 1,000 US troops in Syria are not leaving the country entirely, but are trying to avoid becoming embroiled in the conflict.
(AP, 10/13/19)(AP, 10/17/19)
2019 Oct 13, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said the incursion into Syria will stretch from Kobani in the west to Hasaka in the east, going some 30 km (19 miles) into Syrian territory.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 13, The United States said it is poised to withdraw some 1,000 troops from northern Syria after learning that Turkey planned to extend a military incursion against Kurdish foes further south than originally planned.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 14, Pres. Donald Trump spoke directly to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan to demand an immediate ceasefire in Syria while announcing a series of punishments for Ankara that critics saw as an attempt to save face. Trump announced sanctions aimed at restraining the Turks' assault against Kurdish fighters and civilians in Syria. A US official said the approximately 1,000 US troops being withdrawn from northern Syria will reposition in Iraq, Kuwait and possibly Jordan.
(The Guardian , 10/15/19)(AP, 10/15/19)
2019 Oct 15, The UN said Turkey could be deemed responsible for summary executions by an affiliated armed group of captured Kurdish fighters and a politician, acts that may amount to war crimes.
(Reuters, 10/15/19)
2019 Oct 16, President Donald Trump said US troops are "largely out" of a region of Syria where Turkish forces are attacking Kurdish fighters.
(AP, 10/16/19)
2019 Oct 16, The UN Special Envoy for Syria said there must be a cessation of hostilities between Turkish troops and Kurdish fighters as the world is "extremely alarmed by the humanitarian consequences of the crisis".
(AP, 10/16/19)
2019 Oct 17, The US and Turkey agreed to a five-day cease-fire in the Turks' deadly attacks on Kurdish fighters in northern Syria. Tts effect was largely to mitigate a foreign policy crisis widely seen to be of Pres. Trump's own making.
(AP, 10/18/19)
2019 Oct 18, The Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria accused Turkey of violating a US-brokered cease-fire that went into effect overnight, as fighters from both sides clashed in and around a border town that has been one of the fiercest fronts in the Turkish invasion. A spokesman for the Kurdish-led fighters said they were not withdrawing from Ras al-Ayn because Turkish forces are still besieging and shelling it.
(AP, 10/18/19)
2019 Oct 19, In Syria Turkish-backed Syrian fighters clashed with Kurdish-led forces in several parts of the northeast, with some crossing the border from Turkey to attack a village. Both sides blamed each other for fighting that has rattled the US-brokered cease-fire.
(AP, 10/19/19)
2019 Oct 20, In Syria Kurdish fighters evacuated the northern town of Ras al-Ayn. Turkey wants the Kurdish fighters to move away from the Turkey-Syria border, pulling back 20 miles (32 km) to the south. The cease-fire is to end Oct. 22 evening. One Turkish soldier was reported killed and another wounded after an attack by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in northeast Syria's Tel Abyad.
(AP, 10/20/19)(Reuters, 10/20/19)
2019 Oct 22, The presidents of Russia and Turkey met in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi, hours before a five-day cease-fire between Turkish troops and Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria was set to expire.
(AP, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 22, Regional offices in Turkey said the government has replaced four mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) with state officials, part of a widening crackdown on local councils controlled by the party.
(Reuters, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 23, Russian military police began patrols on part of the Syrian border, quickly moving to implement an accord with Turkey that divvies up control of northeastern Syria. The Kremlin told Kurdish fighters to pull back from the entire frontier or else face being "steamrolled" by Turkish forces.
(AP, 10/23/19)
2019 Oct 23, In Switzerland a Syrian Kurdish man set himself on fire in front of the United Nations refugee agency's headquarters in Geneva. Security guards doused the flames and the man was then taken by helicopter to a hospital in Lausanne that specializes in treating burns.
(AP, 10/23/19)
2019 Oct 23, President Donald Trump said he will lift sanctions on Turkey after the NATO ally agreed to permanently stop fighting Kurdish forces in Syria and he defended his decision to withdraw American troops.
(AP, 10/23/19)
2019 Oct 24, In northern Syria a car boobytrapped with explosives detonated, wounding four people in the town of Tal Abyad, taken by Turkish-backed forces from Kurdish fighters during Turkey's invasion. Syrian news reported that Turkish forces and their allies attacked Syrian government troops in northeastern Syria, killing some of them, and that they also clashed with Kurdish-led fighters.
(AP, 10/24/19)
2019 Oct 26, Kurdish fighters wounded six Turkish soldiers amid a shaky truce in northern Syria south of Ras al-Ayn. One of the wounded soldiers died the following day.
(AP, 10/27/19)
2019 Oct 27, The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they had worked with the United States on a "successful" operation against Islamic State, in an apparent reference to reports that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is believed to have been killed in a US military operation in Syria.
(Reuters, 10/27/19)
2019 Oct 27, The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it had agreed to withdraw more than 30 km (19 miles) from the Turkish border, an announcement welcomed by Damascus which said Turkey should now end its "aggression" in northeast Syria.
(Reuters, 10/27/19)
2019 Oct 28, Syrian Kurdish forces said they are increasing security at prisons and detention facilities holding tens of thousands of Islamic State militants and supporters, including foreigners, following the death of the extremist group's leader in a US military raid.
(AP, 10/28/19)
2019 Nov 2, In northern Syria car bomb went off in the town of Tal Abyad, killing 13 civilians. Turkey's defense ministry blamed Syrian Kurdish fighters for the attack A Kurdish-led force said Christian fighters will now oversee security in a northern Syrian region that has witnessed fighting between Turkey-backed fighters and Kurdish-led militiamen.
(AP, 11/2/19)
2019 Nov 12, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Syrian Kurdish fighters have failed to vacate areas along the Turkish border despite agreements with Russia and the United States, and says he will raise the issue with US President Donald Trump.
(AP, 11/12/19)
2019 Nov 12, Turkish forces conducting a joint patrol in northern Syria under a Russian-Turkish deal fired live rounds at protesters near the mainly Kurdish town of Kobani. Two people were reported killed and seven others injured near the town along the Syrian-Turkish border.
(Reuters, 11/12/19)
2019 Nov 13, The president of Iraqi Kurdistan travelled to Baghdad for talks with senior officials just hours ahead of a special parliament session to discuss weeks of deadly anti-government demonstrations. Nechirvan Barzani met with PM Adel Abdel Mahdi in Baghdad.
(AFP, 11/13/19)
2019 Nov 15, Turkish police detained four mayors over their suspected links to Kurdish rebels, as part of an ongoing crackdown on the country's pro-Kurdish party.
(AP, 11/15/19)
2019 Nov 16, In northern Syria a car bomb exploded in the town of al-Bab, Aleppo province, controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters, killing at least 18 people and wounding several others. Turkey’s Defense Ministry blamed the main Kurdish militia, known as the People’s Protection Units.
(AP, 11/16/19)
2019 Nov 16, Turkey removed four more mayors from their posts as part of a widening government crackdown against the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), and replaced them with state appointees.
(Reuters, 11/16/19)
2019 Nov 17, Turkey's defense ministry said authorities have captured a Syrian Kurdish YPG fighter suspected of a car bomb attack in the northern Syrian town of Al-Bab a day earlier, which killed 18 people and wounded 30 others.
(Reuters, 11/17/19)
2019 Nov 22, American-led forces and their Syrian Kurdish allies carried out their biggest joint operation against the Islamic State in Syria since President Donald Trump ordered a pullback of US forces there. Coalition officials said the operation captured dozens of militants.
(AP, 11/23/19)
2019 Nov 23, Vice President Mike Pence visited Iraq to reassure Iraqi Kurds of US support after President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria drew criticism that Washington had betrayed its Kurdish allies there.
(Reuters, 11/23/19)
2019 Nov 27, It was reported that Kurds will allow Syria to try war prisoners. The Kurdish SDF were currently holding more than 10,000 militants.
(SFC, 11/28/19, p.A2)
2020 Jan 15, Turkish airstrikes inside Iraq targeting members of an outlawed Kurdish rebel group killed at least four minority Yazidi fighters allied with the rebels.
(AP, 1/16/20)
2020 Jan 26, The German military resumed training Iraqi troops in the country's Kurdish north, about three weeks after it was suspended following the US killing of a top Iranian general in Baghdad. The Bundeswehr has about 90 soldiers in Irbil. Germany's training mission in central Iraq is still suspended.
(AP, 1/26/20)
2020 Mar 9, In Turkey Selcuk Mizrakli, the ousted mayor of the mainly Kurdish Diyarbakir province, was sentenced to more than nine years in prison for membership of a terrorist organization.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 26, Norway extradited Muslim cleric Mullah Krekar to Italy, where he was sentenced last July to 12 years in prison for planning terror. He had been found guilty of attempting to overthrow the Kurdish government in northern Iraq and create an Islamic caliphate.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 29, In Syria Kurdish-led forces put down riots by Islamic State militants in a prison in the country's northeast, hours after the extremists knocked down doors and dug holes in walls between cells in the northeastern city of Hassakeh. A Syrian Kurdish official said a number of prisoners managed to escape.
(AP, 3/29/20)(AP, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, In northeastern Syria imprisoned Islamic State militants broke into riots again near the city of Hassakeh. Kurdish forces again fought and restored order as US forces dropped light bombs to illuminate the area.
(SFC, 3/31/20, p.A2)(SFC, 4/1/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 31, In eastern Turkey an explosion damaged a natural gas pipeline and halted gas flows from Iran. Authorities suspected the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
(SFC, 4/1/20, p.A2)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Kurds
End of file.
Return to home
History: http://www.akakurdistan.com/
WHA: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/index-b.html
Kurds are an ancient people whose language is related to Farsi, which is spoken in Iran.
(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A7)
Almost all Kurds are Sunni Muslims.
(SFC, 9/2/96, p.A12)(Econ, 9/2/06, p.12)
Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, centered in the poor northeastern provinces of Hasakeh and Qamishli, wedged between the borders of Turkey and Iraq. Areas of the capital Damascus and Syria's largest city of Aleppo also have sizable Kurdish communities. The Kurdish ethnic group stretches into contiguous areas of Turkey, Iraq and Iran.
(AP, 4/18/12)
1169 Mar 23, Shirkuh, Kurd General, vizier of Cairo, Saladin's uncle, died.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1193 Mar 3, Saladin [Salah ed-Din]) Yusuf ibn Ayyub (52), Kurdish sultan of Egypt and Syria (1175-1193), died.
(WUD, 1994 p.1261)(SC, 3/3/02)(SSFC, 9/29/02, p.M6)
1800-1825 Kurdish emir Bedr Han rose up against the Ottomans in the early 19th century.
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.46)
1835 Lt. Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (25) began examining the ancient inscriptions on the rock of Behistun in the Kurdish foothills of the Zagros mountain range. He soon found that they had been made to honor Darius the Great, Persian ruler in the 5th century BCE.
(ON, 4/04, p.7)
1894 Nov 16, 6,000 Armenians were massacred by Turks in Kurdistan.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1894-1896 Thousands of Armenians were massacred by the Turks after attempts for autonomy and self-defense failed. This issue was then referred to as the “Armenian Question."
(Compuserve Online Enc. / Armenia)
1915 Kurdish tribes took part in the mass slaughter by the Ottomans of around 1 million Armenians. Tens of thousands of Syriacs fell with them.
(Econ, 12/4/10, p.64)(Econ, 11/3/12, p.52)
1917 Lord Curzon of Britain stated: “No Kurd appears to represent more than his own clan."
(WSJ, 11/28/97, p.A8)
1918 The Yazidis of Sinjar (Iraq) saved hundreds of Armenians and Assyrian Christians as they were being slaughtered by Ottoman Turks and their Kurdish proxies. The Ottomans retaliated by sending a small army to Sinjar and capturing the revered Yazidi leader, Hamo Sharro, who was sentenced to five years of har labor.
(Econ, 8/23/14, p.38)
1920 Aug 10, The Ottoman sultanate at Constantinople signed the Treaty of Sevres with the Allies and associated powers. It promised a homeland for the Kurds, but the nationalist government in Ankara did not sign the treaty. It set the borders of Turkey recognized Armenia as an independent state. France and Britain backed the treaty and a Kurdish state, but refused to allow Kurds in Iraq and Syria to join it.
(SFC, 2/17/99, p.A10)(www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/versa/sevres1.html) (EWH, 4th ed, p.1086)(Econ, 7/13/13, SR p.5)
1920-1990 Turkey virtually outlawed the Kurdish language.
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A1)
1922 Kurds declared their own state only to see stronger powers crush it within months.
(Econ, 7/9/16, p.38)
1923 Jul 24, The Treaty of Lausanne, which settled the boundaries of modern Greece and Turkey, was concluded in Switzerland. It replaced the Treaty of Sevres and divided the lands inhabited by the Kurds between Turkey, Iraq and Syria. Article 39 allowed Turkish nationals to use any language they wished in commerce, public and private meetings, and publications. The treaty specifically protected the rights of the Armenian, Greek and Jewish communities. The former provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul were lumped together to form Iraq. Both countries agreed to a massive exchange of religious minorities. Christians were deported from Turkey to Greece and Muslims from Greece to Turkey. A Muslim community of at least 100,000 was allowed in northern Greece. In 2006 Bruce Clark authored “Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsions that Forged Modern Greece and Turkey."
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A17)(AP, 7/24/97)(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A14)(Econ, 3/19/05, Survey p.9)(Econ, 10/14/06, p.50)(Econ, 12/9/06, p.92)(Econ, 10/16/10, p.72)
1924 Mar 3, Kemal Ataturk forced the abolition of the Muslim caliphate through the protesting assembly and banned all Kurdish schools, publications and associations.
(WSJ, 2/11/99, p.A24)
1925 Apr 28, Kurd rebels surrendered to Turkish army.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1930-1937 Kurdish revolts in Turkey were harshly suppressed.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A14)
1936-1939 Turkish forces used a bombing and strafing campaign to crush a Kurdish rebellion. Some 13,806 people were killed in the southeastern town of Dersim, now known as Tunceli. The military's campaign in Dersim was followed by forced migrations and massacres as well as policies of assimilation.
(AP, 11/23/11)
1938 Turkey’s army crushed a rebellion in the southeastern province of Tunceli and villagers were burned alive of gassed. The government later admitted that some 15,000 Alevi Kurds died. Survivors spoke of least twice as many dead. In 2010 documentary titled ‘Two Locks of Hair: The Missing Girls of Dersim,’ which sheds light on the painful incidents of the 1938 Dersim Operation, four 80-year-old women tell of the trauma they experienced during the tragedy.
(Econ, 4/30/11, p.55)(www.kurdishcinema.com/DersimsLostGirls.html)
1946 Jan 22, Kurds again declared their own state, the Republic of Mahabad in northwestern Iran, only to see stronger powers crush it on December 15.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Mahabad)Econ, 9/30/17, p.45)
1945 The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) was founded by Mullah Mustafa Barzani (1903-1979). He played a major role in establishing the short-lived Kurdish Republic of Mehabad (Mahabad), “Red" Kurdistan, in Iran. It lasted for just ten months. In the 30s and 40s he had organized “Pesh merga" guerrillas from clans in the Zagros region.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)(WSJ, 12/20/02, p.A14)(Econ., 2/21/15, p.14)
1946 Mustafa Barzani fled with hundreds of followers to the Soviet Union.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)
1961 Syria revoked the citizenship of its native Kurds.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.46)(http://tinyurl.com/7zamn)
1962 Jun 23, The Syrian government conducted a special population census only for the province of Jazira which was predominantly Kurdish. As a result, around 120,000 Kurds in Jazira were arbitrarily categorized as aliens.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurds_in_Syria)
1970 Mar 11, Iraq’s Ba’ath Party agreed to an autonomy accord with the Kurd nation.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Kurdistan)
1974 Mar 11, Iraq's "Law for Autonomy in the Area of Kurdistan" was promulgated. It stipulated that: "The Kurdish language shall be the official language of education for Kurds ... Kurdish shall be the official language of education for the Kurds."
(www.jafi.org.il/education/actual/iraq/4.html)
1975 Mar 6, OPEC held a meeting in Algiers attended for the first time by its members’ top leaders. Here the Algiers Accord between Baghdad and Teheran put an end to their border dispute and brought all Iranian help to the Kurdish rebellion to a halt. The United States abruptly withdrew its support for the Kurds and the rebellion collapsed. Many thousands of Kurdish fighters and their families were forced to flee to Iran to escape the pursuing Iraqi army.
(http://mondediplo.com/2002/10/06timeline)(SFC, 11/19/07, p.A11)
1975 Mar 9, Iraq launched an offensive against the rebellious Kurds.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1975 Mar 18, Mulla Mustafa gave the order to the Kurdish army to abandon the struggle. This time round, Mulla Mustafa obtained refuge in the United States.
(www.tamilnation.org/intframe/india/kurds.htm#a1)
1975 Jun, The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) broke off from the KDP after Iran and Iraq resolved a border dispute and the US ended support for a Kurdish rebellion. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) was founded by Jalal Talabani as a breakaway faction of the KDP. The PUK favored armed struggle with other Kurdish groups against Saddam Hussein.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/country_profiles/2893067.stm)(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)
1978 In Turkey Abdullah Ocalan and some fellow Turkish university students founded the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, PKK. It was based on a Marxist, separatist platform that targeted Kurdish landlords as well as Turkish agents.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A11)(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A7)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.100)
1979 Mar 3, Mustafa Barzani (b.1903), Iranian Kurd leader (KDP), died in Washington, DC. He was succeeded by his son Massoud.
(SFC, 9/4/96, A7)(WSJ, 12/20/02, p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Barzani)
1979 Aug 18, Iran Ayatollah Khomeini sent the army to attack and occupy Paveh, Sanandaj and Saghez. Having defeated the Kurds in the cities, he appointed Khalkhali, as head of security for Kurdistan, who proceeded with a series of summary trials and executions.
(www.sarbazan.com/Massacre.asp)
1979 Aug 23, Iranian troops entered Iraqi Kurdish territory.
(www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373658&printthis=1)
1979 Aug 27, In Sanandaj, Iran, 11 Kurdish prisoners were executed by a firing squad following a 30 minute trial under Shiite cleric Sadegh Khalkhali. Jahangir Razmi, a photographer for Iran’s independent Ettela’at newspaper, captured the execution on film. Within hours an anonymous photo of the execution ran across 6 columns of the paper. On Sep 8 the newspaper was seized by the Foundation for the Disinherited, a state-owned holding company. On April 14, 1980, the photo won a Pulitzer Prize. In 2006 Razmi made public 27 images from the execution that he had kept hidden.
(WSJ, 12/2/06, p.A1)
1979 The government of Iran began fighting the Kurdish Democratic Party. Iran put down a Kurdish rebellion leaving around 10,000 dead.
(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A10)(Econ, 9/30/17, p.46)
1980 Abdullah Ocalan (b.1948), leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) crossed the border to Syria just before the September 12 Turkish military coup.
(WSJ, 3/7/97, p.A10)(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A7)
1980-1991 Publications in Kurdish were banned in Turkey.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.A12)
1983 Turkey began battling a Kurdish insurgency in the southeast.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)
1984 Abdullah Ocalan, founder of the PKK, turned the group toward armed struggle.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A11)
1984-1996 Turkey was grappling with an 12-year old Kurdish insurgency. More than 21,000 people have died since fighting began.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-6)(SFC, 9/6.96, p.A13)
1985 Mehmed Uzun published his 1st attempt at a modern Kurdish novel: “You." He followed it with an anthology of Kurdish literature in the Kermanci dialect.
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A16)
1987-1988 Some 50-100 thousand Kurds were killed by poisonous gas from Iraqi forces. The Hussein regime bulldozed some 4,000 ethnic Kurd villages due to suspicions of Kurds siding with Iran.
(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B6)(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A11)
1988 Mar 16-1988 Mar 17, Iraqi jets dropped a variety of chemical weapons on the Kurdish town of Halabja and some 5-7,000 residents were killed immediately. The Kurdish city of Halabja, held by Iranian troops and Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas allied with Tehran, was bombed by Iraq. Estimates of casualties varied from several hundred to several thousand.
(SFC, 7/1/02, p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack)
1988 The Iraqi assault on Kurdish villages was part of a campaign known as Anfal. Estimates held as many as 182,000 Kurds dead or missing.
(SFC, 4/18/03, p.A18)
1989 Jul 13, Abdul Rahman Qassemlu, Kurd leader in Iran, was murdered.
(http://tinyurl.com/ecm98)
1991 Jan 17, The Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) began as Coalition planes struck targets in Iraq and Kuwait. The first Iraqi Scud missile attacks on Israel were launched. There were reports of death and injury, and possibly even chemical weapons being used. For a few tense hours, it looked as though Israel would retaliate against Iraq, causing the allied coalition to break up. Six months of preparation and diplomacy might be undone by a few poorly aimed, 1950s-vintage ballistic missiles. Later that evening, U.S. Patriot surface-to-air missiles were launched against the incoming Scuds, and for the first time in history, a ballistic missile was shot down by another missile. The use of Patriot missiles in Israel's defense helped to keep that country out of the Gulf War, thereby safeguarding the integrity of the American-European-Arab coalition.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)(SFEC,12/797, p.A1,16) (HN, 1/17/99)(HNPD, 1/17/99)
1991 Mar 2, The Kurds rose up against Iraqi forces but were crushed by Iraqi armor that killed 50,000 and forced more than a million Kurds to flee to Turkey and Iran.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)
1991 Apr 2, Iraqi state media reported that only a few more days were needed to stamp out fighting with Kurdish rebels, who reported renewed skirmishes around the strategic oil center of Kirkuk.
(AP, 4/2/01)
1991 Apr 5, The UN adopted Resolution 688, which condemned Sadam Hussein’s suppression of the Kurds and demanded respect and political rights for all citizens. A safe haven was established above Iraq’s 36th parallel.
(www.fas.org/news/un/iraq/sres/sres0688.htm)(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)
1991 Apr 7, US military planes began airdropping supplies to Kurdish refugees who were facing starvation and exposure in the snow-covered mountains of northern Iraq. The United States warned Iraq not to interfere with the relief effort.
(AP, 4/7/01)
1991 Apr 10, The US and Britain imposed a no-fly zone to protect 3 Kurdish provinces in northern Iraq.
(SFC, 9/24/02, p.A11)
1991 Apr 12, Kurdish rebels reported the Iraqi army was attacking guerrillas in northern Iraq.
(AP, 4/12/01)
1991 Apr 16, President Bush announced that US forces would be sent into northern Iraq to assist Kurdish refugees.
(AP, 4/16/01)
1991 Apr 20, US Marines landed in northern Iraq to begin building the first center for Kurdish refugees on Iraqi territory. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the US commander of Operation Desert Storm, left Saudi Arabia for home.
(AP, 4/20/01)
1991 Apr 24, A Kurdish rebel leader announced the guerrillas had reached an agreement in principle with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to end the Kurds’ two-week rebellion.
(AP, 4/24/01)
1991 Apr 27, A group of 250 Kurds became the first refugees to move into a new US-built camp in northern Iraq.
(AP, 4/27/01)
1991 In Turkey a ban on the use of the Kurdish language in unofficial settings was lifted.
(SFC, 2/18/99, p.A10)
1991 The UN set up a modest Kurdish haven in the mountains of Iraq.
(Econ, 7/9/16, p.38)
1992 Iraqi Kurdistan held free elections, but the Kurdish government was never formally recognized.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A14)
1992 Rival Kurdish leaders Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani expressed unity. They agreed to share power and held elections where each faction received 50% of the vote.
(SFC, 9/1/96, p.A8)
1992 Musa Anter, author of an early Turkish-Kurdish dictionary, was murdered by assassins. He had taught Mehmed Uzun to write Kurdish while they were in jail.
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A16)
1993 May 24, Separatist Kurdish rebels fatally shot 33 Turkish soldiers and two civilians after forcing them and about two dozen other persons off a bus in the southeastern province of Bingol. This ended a unilateral cease-fire and led the military to intensify a campaign to annihilate the PKK. Testimony in 1999 by Abdullah Ocalan said a regional PKK commander carried out the slaying.
(www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-948140.html)(SFC, 6/2/99, p.C2)
1993 Jul 5, Kurd guerrillas murdered 32 villagers in East Turkey.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1993-1996 Turkey spent $50 million on drug dealers and assassins to kill a Kurdish rebel leader and others considered threats to the state. Abdullah Ocalan, a Kurdish rebel leader in Syria, was targeted as was Dursun Karatas, a leftist terrorist in Europe.
(SFC, 1/24/98, p.A8)
1994 Jul 26, The Turkish air force bombed Kurds in Iraq and 79 people were killed.
(www.hrw.org/reports/1994/turkey2/)
1994-1997 Iraqi Kurds in the east and west fought a fratricidal war.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.51)
1996 Apr 18, Kani Xulam, alleged head of the Kurdish guerilla group, the Kurdistan Worker’s Party PKK, was held in jail in Washington DC on charges of passport fraud.
(SFC, 4/18/96, p.a-15)
1996 May 16, UN and Iraqi officials have reached a tentative agreement to resume oil sales of $4 billion a year to buy food and medicine. The food for oil program mandated that 13% of the UN resources go to northern Kurdish areas.
(SFC, 5/16/96, p.A-9)(SFC, 9/3/01, p.A9)
1996 Jun 30, A young Kurdish rebel disguised as a pregnant woman blew herself up in the midst of a military ceremony and killed 9 soldiers.
(SFC, 7/2/96, p.A12)
1996 Aug 31, Rival Kurdish forces under leaders Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union and Massoud Barzani of the Kurdish Democratic Party clashed. Barzani’s forces participated with Sadam Hussein’s troops in taking Irbil, a Talabani stronghold. Talabani’s forces were reportedly assisted by Iran.
(SFC, 9/1/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug, The KDP invited Saddam into northern Iraq.
(USAT, 3/24/99, p.18A)
1996 Sep 4, The US again launched Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iraqi air defense sites. The 2nd launch was deemed a success after the first launch failed to destroy intended targets. The Tomahawks were made by Hughes Aircraft Co. and cost about $1 mil apiece. Kurdish leader Barzani wrote a latter to Sec. of State Christopher Warren and asked that the US mediate.
(SFC, 4/9/96, A1)(SFC, 9/5/96, p.A8)
1996 Sep 5, Turkey declared a new security zone inside northern Iraq and air attacks were staged on suspected Kurdish rebel bases.
(SFC, 9/6.96, p.A13)
1996 Oct 13, In Iraq the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) regained Sulaymaniyah, its former headquarters.
(SFC, 10/14/96, p.A12)
1996 Oct 29, In Turkey a Kurdish separatist suicide team of 2 killed themselves, 3 policemen and a civilian in the town of Sivas.
(SFC, 10/30/96, p.A10)
1996 Dec 27, In France the foreign ministry said that it would no longer participate in the Operation Provide Comfort after the end of the year. The operation was a multi-national air reconnaissance effort to safeguard Kurdish civilians in northern Iraq.
(SFC, 12/28/96, p.A12)
1997 May 18, In Turkey on the 5th day of a military offensive, the military reported 1,081 guerillas killed as 25-50 thousand Turkish troops crossed the Iraqi border to attack rebels of the Kurdistan workers Party (PKK).
(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A14)
1997 May, Turkish commando units took control of the Bikhayr mountains used by Kurdish rebels as an escape route into Syria.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Jun 26, Turkey announced the end of the 10-week Operation Hammer, its cross-border operation against the Kurds. The Turks reported to have lost 113 men and it was estimated that 3,000 guerrillas of the PKK were killed.
(WSJ, 6/27/97, p.A13)
1997 Jul 20, Turkish troops killed 50 Kurdish guerrillas in the southeast. That raised the weekly total to 84.
(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A9)
1997 Sep 25, Iraq demanded that Turkey pull back some 15,000 troops who crossed its border in pursuit of Kurdistan Workers Party guerrillas.
(WSJ, 9/26/97, p.A1)
1997 Sep 29, Turkish planes attacked Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq and drove the guerrillas toward the Iran border.
(WSJ, 9/30/97, p.A1)
1997 Oct 3, Turkish jets bombed escape routes used by Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Over the last 13 days the army reported 415 rebels dead vs. 6 of its own soldiers.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Nov 28, The book “After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? My Encounters With Kurdistan" by Jonathan C. Randal was reviewed.
(WSJ, 11/28/97, p.A8)
1997 Dec 27, Some 825 illegal immigrants, mostly Kurds, were rescued by Italian tugboats from the Turkish ship Ararat. They were attempting to smuggle into Italy from Turkey.
(SFEC,12/28/97, p.A19)
1998 Feb 17, A UN refugee agency reported that 6,800 Kurds have fled their homes in northern Iraq following reported Turkish air raids on rebel positions.
(SFC, 2/18/98, p.C3)
1998 Apr 13, Turkish army forces captured Semdin Sakik, a field commanded of the PKK, Kurdistan Workers Party, in a secret raid in northern Iraq.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.C12)
1998 Apr 15, Turkish troop clashed with Kurdish separatists near the Iraqi border and claimed to have killed 64 with a loss of 11.
(WSJ, 4/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 8, It was reported that Turkish soldiers had killed 37 Kurdish insurgents in the southeast provinces of Sirnak, Siirt, and Diyarbakir.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A14)
1998 Jul 16, In Turkey some 2000 soldiers were flown into northern Iraq to hunt Kurdish rebels who fled there after killing 22 Turkish troops in a raid.
(SFC, 7/17/98, p.A16)
1998 Oct 3, Turkey sent some 10,000 troops into northern Iraq to attack Kurdish rebels.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 21, Turkey and Syria signed an accord whereby Syria agreed to brand the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) as a terrorist group.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.C5)
1998 Oct 23, In Turkey 5 Kurdish rebels burned themselves to death in loyalty to their leader Abdullah Ocalan, who was expelled from Syria.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 12, Abdullah Ocalan, head of the PKK, was arrested in Rome.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A11)
1998 Nov 17, In Turkey a Kurdish guerrilla killed herself and wounded 6 others in a suicide bombing in Yuksekova. In Moscow 2 men were seriously injured when they set themselves on fire, and in Rome some 10,000 marched to oppose the extradition of Ocalan.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 27, In Germany Chancellor Schroeder said he would not seek extradition of Abdullah Ocalan from Italy and called for an int’l. court to try Ocalan on murder and terrorism charges.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 16, In Italy Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party, was freed by an appeals court in Rome. Turkish officials were outraged and renewed threats of economic retaliation.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C4)
1999 Feb 15, Abdullah Ocalan was captured in Kenya while being transferred from the Greek embassy to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, in an operation by the Turkey’s Milli İstihbarat Teskilatı reportedly with the help of CIA. George Costoulas, the Greek consul who protected him, said that his life was in danger after the operation. By 2015 Ocalan authored some 40 books including “To Kill a Man," which became something of a feminist bible.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_%D6calan)(Econ., 3/7/15, p.53)
1999 Feb 16, Turkish commandoes reported the capture of Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya. Kurds seized Greek missions around Europe and took hostages. It was later reported that US data helped the Turks capture Ocalan.
(SFC, 2/17/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/17/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/22/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 17, In Berlin Israeli security guards shot and killed 3 Kurds who forced their way into the Israeli consulate over the arrest of Abdullah Ocalan.
(SFC, 2/18/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 23, Turkey formally arrested Abdullah Ocalan on treason charges.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 24, In Iran 3 Kurds died while fighting police during a protest over the capture of Ocalan.
(WSJ, 2/25/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 21, In Turkey the Kurdish New Year began with unrest and police arrested 1,500 people across the country with the southeast under a virtual state of siege.
(SFC, 3/22/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 3, In Turkey Abdulah Ocalan called on the PKK to abandon its armed struggle and pull forces out of Turkey by Sept. 1.
(SFC, 8/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 5, Kurdish separatist rebels agreed to accept a cease-fire call by Abdullah Ocalan.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A12)
1999 Aug 13, Iran agreed under pressure to join Turkey for simultaneous military operations against the PKK.
(SFC, 8/14/99, p.A10)
1999 Nov 28, Turkey reported that some 70 Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq had been killed over the last 5 days by Turkish forces in 15 operations.
(SFC, 11/29/99, p.A16)
1999 The Kurdistan KDP and PUK agreed to share power.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.A14)
2000 May, The Turkish government banned 12 Kurdish language journals.
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.D4)
2000 Oct 18, In southern Italy the bodies of 6 illegal immigrants, believed to be Kurds, were found dumped on the side of a highway.
(SFC, 10/19/00, p.C10)
2000 Dec 11, In Iraq Saddam Hussein sent troops into the northern Kurdish zone. Kurds and other non-Arab Iraqis were being displaced further north.
(WSJ, 12/12/00, p.A1)(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B6)
2001 Jan 7, Iraqi Kurdish officials reported that at least 500 Turkish troops had pushed 100 miles into northern Iraq in response to a call for help from the PUK. The PUK was fighting the PKK and had lost 200 soldiers in recent weeks. Some 10,000 Turkish troops had entered northern Iraq since Dec 20.
(SFC, 1/8/01, p.A9)
2001 Sep 26, Turkey approved constitutional reforms that eased restrictions on broadcasting and publishing in the Kurdish language.
(SFC, 9/27/01, p.A11)
2001 Ansar al-Islam, blamed for attacks in Iraq and supported by a network of members in Europe, was founded in late 2001 in Kurdish part of northern Iraq by Mullah Krekar, who had lived as refugee in Norway since 1991.
(AP, 1/8/05)
2002 Mar 20, In Italy 928 illegal immigrants, mostly ethnic Kurds, arrived on a rusty cargo ship. A state of emergency was declared to deal with the problem.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 21, In Diyarbakir, Turkey, thousands of Kurdish youths battled Turkish police after authorities banned the celebration of Nowruz, the Zoroastrian New Year.
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 3, Turkey's parliament approved a reform package aimed at boosting its chances of joining the European Union by abolishing the death penalty and granting greater rights to the nation's Kurds.
(AP, 8/3/02)
2002 Aug 31, Five Kurdish migrants were found dead in the back of a cargo truck after they apparently suffocated during a harrowing ferry crossing from Greece to Italy.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2002 Sep 8, The leaders of the two main Kurdish factions, KDP and PUK, that control northern Iraq signed a reconciliation agreement as the United States tries to forge a united front against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
(AP, 9/9/02)
2002 Oct 3, Turkey formally commuted Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's death sentence to life in prison after parliament abolished capital punishment two months ago in a bid to join the European Union.
(AP, 10/3/02)
2002 Oct 4, Lawmakers from rival Iraqi Kurdish factions met for the first time in 8 years, in a rare show of political unity ahead of a possible U.S. attack on Iraq.
(AP, 10/4/02)
2002 Oct 27, Kurdish rebels clashed with Turkish soldiers in the mainly Kurdish southeast, leaving an insurgent dead and five soldiers wounded.
(AP, 10/27/02)
2002 Nov 30, Turkey lifted curfews and restrictions on gatherings in two predominantly Kurdish provinces, ending 15 years of emergency rule in southeastern Turkey and fulfilling a requirement toward joining the European Union.
(AP, 11/30/02)
2002 Dec 4, Kurdish militiamen of the PUK battled Islamic militants (Ansar al-Islam) believed to be linked to al-Qaida in northern Iraq, and as many as 30 militiamen were killed or wounded.
(AP, 12/4/02)(SFC, 12/6/02, p.A18)
2003 Feb 8, In Iraq gunmen posing as defectors from an Islamic extremist group killed Gen. Shawkat Haji Mushir, a political leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and two other Kurdish officials.
(AP, 2/9/03)
2003 Mar 4, In northern Iraq Kurdish soldiers killed 5 Muslim men in a possible case of mistaken identity.
(AP, 3/4/03)(SFC, 3/5/03, p.A10)
2003 Mar 20, Norwegian police arrested Mullah Krekar, the leader of a Kurdish guerrilla group suspected of links to al-Qaida, on kidnapping charges. After settling in Norway in 1991, Krekar founded the Kurdish Ansar al-Islam during visits to Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)(AP, 2/14/12)
2003 Mar 20, Turkey’s parliament approved a motion allowing over-flights for US warplanes. Turkey announced plans to send thousands of troops into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 May 12, The Kurdish regional parliament in Erbil declared Apr 9, the date of the fall of Baghdad to US forces, as a national holiday.
(USAT, 5/13/03, p.11A)
2003 Jul 10, In southeastern Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels raided a village, killing four villagers and injuring another.
(AP, 7/11/03)
2003 Aug 22, Turkish troops clashed with Kurdish rebels in Batman province. 7 Kurds and 2 Turkish soldiers were killed.
(SFC, 8/23/03, p.A3)
2003 Nov 11, The Kurdish guerrilla group that battled the Turkish army for some 15 years announced that it was dissolving itself and was planning to form a new group that would likely would pursue Kurdish rights through negotiations. The Kurdistan Workers Party changed its name to the Congress for Freedom and Democracy in Kurdistan, or KADEK, last year.
(AP, 11/11/03)
2004 Jan 2, Norwegian police arrested Mullah Krekar, Muslim Kurd leader of Ansar al-Islam, on charges connected to 2 suicide bombings in Iraq 2 years ago. Norway ordered Krekar deported in 2005 after declaring him a national security threat, but postponed the move because of worries he could face execution or torture in Iraq.
(SFC, 1/2/04, p.A3)(AP, 2/14/12)
2004 Jan 6, President Bashar Assad began the first-ever visit to Turkey by a Syrian head of state, hoping to further improve ties forge a joint position on growing Kurdish autonomy.
(AP, 1/6/04)(WSJ, 1/7/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun 2, In southeast Turkey Kurdish guerrillas fired on troops a day after announcing an end to a 5-year cease fire.
(WSJ, 6/3/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun 9, Kurdish parties warned that they might bolt Iraq's new government if Shiites gain too much power.
(AP, 6/9/04)
2004 Jun 9, State-run Turkish TV aired its 1st ever broadcast in the Kurdish dialect of Kurmandji. Hours later Leyla Zana and 3 colleagues were released after spending 10 years in jail for belonging to the PKK rebel group.
(Econ, 6/12/04, p.50)
2004 Jun 28, Iran’s Deputy Interior Minister Ali Asghar Ahmadi said two Iranian soldiers and eight rebels were killed in clashes with Kurds. A pro-Kurdish news agency said 16 soldiers and four rebels died.
(AP, 7/10/04)
2004 Jul 8, Iranian troops killed two Turkish Kurdish rebels in clashes close to the Iraqi border, amid reports of a major offensive by Tehran on Ankara's behalf.
(AP, 7/10/04)
2004 Oct 2, About 100,000 Kurds demonstrated outside provincial government offices, demanding that the turbulent, oil hub of Kirkuk be made part of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/2/04)
2004 Oct 2, Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels clashed in southeastern Turkey in fighting that killed two soldiers and a guerrilla.
(AP, 10/3/04)
2004 Nov 12, Dutch police raided a suspected Kurdish separatist training camp in a small village in the southern Netherlands, arresting 29 people. 38 members of the group were arrested nationwide.
(AFP, 11/12/04)(SFC, 11/13/04, p.A18)
2004 Nov 20, Ugur Kaymaz (12) and his father Ahmet Kaymaz (30), a Kurdish truck driver from Kiziltepe, Turkey, were reportedly shot dead by police officers in front of their house. In 2007 all 4 members of the special forces implicated in the killings were exonerated.
(www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/communications/turkey.html)(Econ, 6/23/07, p.60)
2004 Dec 1, Unidentified gunmen in Iraq killed 5 leading members of a Kurdish group that led a 15-year rebellion in southern Turkey.
(WSJ, 12/2/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 3, In Germany 3 Iraqi citizens of Kurdish origin were arrested for plotting to kill Iraqi PM Ayad Allawi. In 2008 the 3 men were convicted and sentenced to prison. The Stuttgart state court convicted the three men of attempted participation in murder and membership in terrorist organization Ansar al-Islam, a radical Islamic group linked to al-Qaida.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2004 Hiner Saleem, filmmaker, authored “My Father’s Rifle," a memoir of his life growing as the son of a Kurdish peshmerga (“those who confront death") fighter.
(WSJ, 12/22/04, p.D8)(Econ, 5/7/15, SR p.3)
2004 Mike Tucker authored “Hell Is Over: Voices of the Kurds After Saddam."
(SSFC, 1/30/05, p.C3)
2005 Jan 26, A suicide car bomber attacked an office of a major Kurdish party, killing or injuring at least 20 people.
(AP, 1/26/05)
2005 Feb 2, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani outlined a set of demands for Shiite political parties and said Kurds would back only Shiites willing to maintain the current Kurd autonomy.
(WSJ, 2/3/05, p.A15)
2005 Mar 10, Iraq's main Shiite party and a Kurdish bloc reached a deal that sets the stage for a new government to be formed when the National Assembly convenes next week.
(AP, 3/10/05)
2005 May 4, An Iraqi carrying hidden explosives detonated them outside a police recruitment center where people were applying for jobs, killing at least 60 Iraqis and wounding some 100. The Iraqi militant group Ansar al-Sunnah claimed responsibility for the bombing at a police recruitment center that killed about 50 Iraqis and wounding about 100, saying in a Web statement the attack was revenge for the Kurds' alliance with US forces.
(AP, 5/4/05)(SFC, 5/5/05, p.A1)
2005 May 13, Turkish soldiers killed 9 Kurdish rebels in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast. Automatic weapons, plastic explosives, grenades, and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher were seized in the operation. A Syrian citizen was among those killed.
(AP, 5/14/05)
2005 May 16, In Turkey 2 Kurdish guerillas trying to attack the home of a Turkish governor were killed after police fired on them as they approached the building.
(AP, 5/16/05)
2005 cJun 4, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish rebels killed 4 Turkish soldiers in a clash near Tunceli.
(AP, 6/5/05)
2005 Jul 9, In southeastern Turkey a land mine believed to have been planted by Kurdish rebels killed 3 soldiers. Two other land mines injured seven people in separate explosions.
(AP, 7/10/05)
2005 Jul 11, Kurdish guerrillas kidnapped a Turkish soldier after stopping dozens of cars at a makeshift roadblock in the southeast.
(AP, 7/11/05)
2005 Jul 19, A top Turkish general said the US had given direct orders for the capture of rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leaders in Iraq.
(AP, 7/19/05)
2005 Jul 21, A Kurdish party official said Kurdish leaders have presented a redrawn map with a larger Kurdistan to the Iraqi National Assembly for consideration in the new constitution.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 21, Turkish forces killed 5 Kurdish rebels, including a woman, in a gunbattle in the southeast.
(AP, 7/23/05)
2005 Aug 1, The directors of Turkey's eight privately owned Kurdish language schools announced they were closing them due to bureaucratic hurdles and Kurdish demands for the language to be part of the regular school curriculum.
(AP, 8/1/05)
2005 Aug 5, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish rebels killed 5 Turkish soldiers in a rocket attack.
(AP, 8/5/05)
2005 Aug 13, In Iran at least 17 people were reported killed and many more wounded during anti-government protests in the western province of Kurdistan.
(AP, 8/13/05)
2005 Aug 19, A Kurdish rebel group fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast announced a one-month cease-fire and said it planned to pursue indirect negotiations with the government.
(AP, 8/20/05)
2005 Sep 4, In Turkey a group of nationalist Turks attacked dozens of buses carrying pro-Kurdish demonstrators with stones, following violent clashes between Kurdish demonstrators and police in Istanbul.
(AP, 9/4/05)
2005 Nov 9, In Semdinli, Turkey, 2 government intelligence officers and a PKK informant were caught trying to blow up a bookshop owned by a PKK sympathizer. The affair was said to have been organized by the “deep state," a shadowy coalition of rogue officers and bureaucrats whose powers were being sapped by EU-inspired laws.
(Econ, 4/15/06, p.54)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.52)
2005 At least 68 people, including 9 children, were killed this year in landmine blasts in Turkey’s Kurdish areas bordering Iran and Iraq.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.52)
2006 Jan 24, Banaz Mahmod (20) was raped, beaten, strangled, stuffed in a suitcase and buried in a back garden in Birmingham, England, on her father's orders for becoming involved with a man of whom he did not approve. Mahmod's father was given a life sentence in 2007 for ordering the killing. In 2010 two of her Kurdish cousins were jailed for life by a London court for murdering Mahmod because her family disapproved of her boyfriend.
(www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5263475.ece)(AP, 11/10/10)
2006 Feb 9, In Turkey a bomb attack wounded at least 17 people at an Internet cafe in Istanbul. A hardline Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Turkey a bomb exploded at an Istanbul supermarket during the afternoon rush, injuring 15 people. A Kurdish news agency reported that a Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 15, Kurdish protesters armed with firebombs and stones battled with Turkish police to mark the seventh anniversary of guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's capture.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb, Iranian security forces, according to a Kurdish group, killed 10 demonstrators.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.42)
2006 Mar 4, Iraq's Kurdish president said that he joined Sunni Arab and secular politicians in trying to block the Shiite Muslim prime minister from a second term because Ibrahim al-Jaafari has become a divisive figure.
(AP, 3/4/06)
2006 Mar 11, Turkish and Kurdish intellectuals gathered under tight security for a major 2-day conference in Istanbul to discuss a peaceful resolution to the 22-year-old Kurdish conflict.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 21, More than 100,000 Turkish Kurds celebrated the ancient spring festival of Newroz with dancing, singing and calls for political reform and the release of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 24-2006 Mar 25, In southeastern Turkey government troops killed 14 Kurdish guerrillas near the hamlet of Senyayla.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 28, Thousands of Kurdish protesters rampaged after funerals for Kurdish guerrillas killed by Turkish troops, hurling firebombs at armored police vehicles and smashing windows at a police station. Forty people were injured.
(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Mar 29, In southeastern Turkey riot police fired water cannons and used pepper spray to disperse stone-throwing Kurdish rioters in a second day of violence that an official said left at least three people dead and 250 injured.
(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Mar 30, In southeast Turkey violent protests by thousands of Kurdish demonstrators left at least 20 hurt as protesters hurled firebombs and police opened fire to disperse the crowds.
(AP, 3/3006)
2006 Mar 31, In Turkey a bomb hidden in a garbage can exploded near an Istanbul bus stop, killing a street vendor and injuring 13 people.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Apr 1, Fresh clashes between Kurdish protesters and police in southeast Turkey killed one protester and injured 10.
(Reuters, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 2, In southeastern Turkey one protester died after police opened fire to disperse Kurdish demonstrators, raising the death toll in six days of street violence to nine. A group of men stopped a passenger bus and tossed gasoline bombs at it, sending the vehicle careening into pedestrians and killing 3 in Istanbul as pro-Kurdish riots continued to spread. The countrywide death toll from nearly a week of unrest climbed to 15.
(AP, 4/2/06)(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 8, Local security sources said Turkish security forces had killed seven Kurdish rebels in the past 24 hours in the southeast of the country.
(AP, 4/8/06)
2006 Apr 27, Turkey said it has deployed more than 30,000 additional troops in its predominantly Kurdish southeast and along its rugged border with Iraq and Iran to fight Kurdish guerrillas and stop them from coming across the frontier.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Jul 16, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled that his government was planning a tough response to mounting violence by Kurdish rebels after 13 members of the security forces were killed in the southeast over the past week.
(AFP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 21, Turkey killed 4 Kurdish rebels after a soldier died in an attack.
(WSJ, 7/22/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 19, A suspected Kurdish rebel attack caused an explosion and huge fire on a natural gas pipeline in eastern Turkey.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 23, A leader of Kurdish rebels battling Turkey's government said in a rare interview that his guerrillas will not give in to US pressure to disarm without a "political project" that fulfills their calls for autonomy. PKK party officials met with a group of journalists in the rugged, isolated Qandil Mountain in Iraq's northeast corner where the group is based.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 29, An extremist Kurdish militant group warned that "the fear of death will reign everywhere in Turkey" and it urged tourists to avoid travel to the country.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Sep 1, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani ordered the Iraqi national flag to be replaced with the Kurdish one in his northern autonomous region. Gunmen fatally shot one policeman in each of two towns outside of Baghdad in separate incidents. Police said they found the body of a Saddam Hussein-era intelligence officer who had been kidnapped and shot. A US soldier died from wounds sustained during action in Anbar province.
(AP, 9/1/06)(AP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 19, The Iraqi government said it will shut down all offices belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) around the country. A rocket attack on a Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad killed 10 people and wounded 19. In northern Iraq at least 17 people were killed and 11 wounded in twin bombings in the town of Al-Shurqat.
(AP, 9/19/06)(AFP, 9/20/06)
2006 Sep 23, In eastern Turkey suspected Kurdish guerrillas set off an explosive-laden minibus across from a police guest house, injuring 17 people.
(AP, 9/23/06)
2006 Sep 26, In Turkey 56 Kurdish mayors stood trial, accused in a freedom-of-speech case on charges of helping terrorists by arguing to keep a Kurdish TV station on the air.
(AP, 9/26/06)
2006 Sep 28, Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has appealed to his Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to call a ceasefire in its separatist campaign against the Turkish government.
(AFP, 9/28/06)
2006 Sep 30, A Kurdish guerrilla group declared a new unilateral cease-fire in its war for autonomy in Turkey's southeast, heeding a call from its imprisoned rebel leader.
(AP, 9/30/06)
2006 Sep, The English-language Univ. of Kurdistan opened in Kurdish controlled Iraq with some 300 undergraduates and 50 graduate students.
(SFC, 8/3/07, p.A10)
2006 Dec 7, In Armenia 3 teenagers and their grandmother set themselves on fire in Yerevan to protest what they said was authorities' inaction on investigating a relative's death, a family member said. Two of them were injured. They argued that the case was not being investigated because of discrimination against the Yazidi, a Kurdish ethnic group. About 50,000 Yazidi live in Armenia.
(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 The Kurdish populace was spread across Turkey (14m), Iran (4m), Iraq (5m), Syria (2m), Armenia and Azerbaijan. They claimed to be the world’s largest ethnic populations without a state of their own. Almost all Kurds are Sunni Muslims.
(SFC, 9/2/96, p.A12)(Econ, 9/2/06, p.12)
2007 Apr 12, Turkey's army chief said the military had launched several "large scale" offensives against rebels in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, and he asked the government for approval to launch an incursion into neighboring northern Iraq.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 25, A UN report was released that said that violence in Baghdad remains at high levels. The UN Assistance Mission in Iraq singled out Kurdistan in its 10th human rights report on Iraq, expressing concern over infringements on freedom of expression by the regional government. A suicide bomber wearing a hidden belt of explosives attacked a police station in Iraq's volatile province of Diyala, killing at least four policeman. Roadside bombs, mortar rounds and drive-by shootings also killed 10 Iraqis and wounded 23 in the Baghdad area and the cities of Kirkuk, Mosul and Fallujah.
(AP, 4/25/07)(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 May 25, Kurdish guerrillas bombed and derailed a Syria-bound train from Iran near the town of Genc in Turkey’s southeastern Bingol province. Turkish authorities later seized weapons hidden among construction materials found on the train following the attack.
(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 May 31, Turkish lawmakers approved again a constitutional amendment that would see the president elected by popular vote, a change vetoed last week by the outgoing head of state. Turkey's top general said the military was ready to stage a cross-border offensive to fight Kurdish guerrillas in Iraq and that he already had sought government approval to mount military action.
(AFP, 5/31/07)(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 Jun 1, In southeast Turkey soldiers killed two Kurdish militants overnight in Tunceli, where troops massed along the border threatened an incursion into Iraq.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Jun 3, Turkish troops shelled a border area in northern Iraq in an attack on Kurdish rebels based there.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 4, Seven Turkish paramilitary police were killed when Kurdish militants attacked their headquarters in eastern Tunceli province.
(AP, 6/4/07)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.58)
2007 Jun 6, A premature report said several thousand Turkish troops had crossed into northern Iraq to chase Kurdish guerrillas who operate from bases there. Turkey declared several areas near the border with Iraq to be "temporary security zones" in a sign of increasing activity by the military in its campaign against Kurdish rebels. Turkey's foreign minister denied there was a cross-border operation.
(AP, 6/6/07)(AP, 6/7/07)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.58)
2007 Jun 11, In London, England, Mahmod Mahmod (52), a Kurdish father who ordered his daughter brutally slain for falling in love with the wrong man in a so-called "honor killing," was found guilty of murder. Banaz Mahmod (20) was strangled with a boot lace, stuffed into a suitcase and buried in a back garden.
(AP, 6/11/07)
2007 Jun 12, Kurdish separatist rebels declared a "unilateral cease-fire" in attacks against Turkey and said they were ready for peace negotiations, but the group maintained the right to defend itself.
(AP, 6/12/07)
2007 Jun 23, In Turkey a separatist Kurdish rebel and a civilian were killed in a botched suicide attack in the eastern province of Tunceli. Paramilitary troops opened fire on the truck as it was approaching a military outpost at which point the vehicle exploded. Fighting elsewhere left five rebels and a government militia member dead.
(AFP, 6/24/07)
2007 Jun 27, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, Turkey's military chief, asked his government to set political guidelines for an incursion into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish guerrillas.
(AP, 6/27/07)
2007 Jul 3, A human rights group said Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq routinely torture detainees with methods including electric shock and hold them in overcrowded facilities without formal charges or access to legal aid.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 6, Turkey's foreign minister said his government and military have agreed on plans for a possible cross-border operation against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 11, Kurdish leaders spoke out against a key oil law, raising further doubts over efforts to pass one of the political benchmarks sought by the United States.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 11, Turkey's ambassador to Washington said that US weapons have been turning up in the hands of Kurdish guerrillas staging attacks in Turkey.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 12, Iranian artillery shelled near Iraqi Kurd villages as Iranian troops clashed with Kurdish guerrillas making an incursion across the border.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Aug 7, Kurdish guerrillas killed a Turkish lieutenant in the southeast, as the Iraqi prime minister arrived for a visit. Turkey and Iraq agreed to try to root out a Kurdish rebel group from northern Iraq, but Iraq's prime minister said his parliament would have the final say on efforts to halt the guerrillas' cross-border attacks into Turkey. Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish government approved a regional oil law, paving the way for foreign investment in their northern oil and gas fields even as similar US-backed legislation for the entire country remained stalled. Two US Marines died west of Baghdad, one in fighting and the other in a non-combat incident that was under investigation.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 10, A car bomb struck a market in a Kurdish area in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens. Scattered violence struck Iraqis nationwide, with at least 15 people killed or found dead. South of Baghdad, the US military said a helicopter was forced down, leaving two soldiers injured.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 12, In southeast Turkey 12 were injured, three of them seriously, when Kurdish guerrillas detonated a roadside bomb.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 26, A US helicopter attacked two Kurdish police outposts, killing four policemen and wounding eight. A spokesman for the Kurdish Peshmerga militia believed the attack was mistaken friendly fire. Waves of Shiite pilgrims descended on Karbala for the Shabaniyah festival marking the birth of the 9th century Hidden Imam. A woman making the 50-mile trek from Baghdad was shot to death by men in a passing car in the southwest of the capital.
(AP, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 30, Turkish legislators said that American weapons have been turning up in the hands of Kurdish guerrillas staging attacks in Turkey.
(SFC, 8/31/07, p.A17)
2007 Sep 10, It was reported that the regional government of Kurdistan had signed a deal with Dallas-based Hunt Oil Co. to explore for oil in their region.
(WSJ, 9/10/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 12, Turkish troops killed 4 Kurdish guerrillas in the southeastern province of Siirt.
(AP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 26, Officials said Turkey and Iraq have agreed to sign a counterterrorism deal cracking down on separatist Kurdish rebels holed up in bases in northern Iraq.
(AP, 9/26/07)
2007 Sep 30, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish rebels ambushed a minibus carrying pro-government village guards and civilians and killed 12 people.
(AP, 9/29/07)
2007 Oct 7, Kurdish rebels killed 13 Turkish soldiers in a clash in the country's southeast, and troops responded by shelling an area near Iraq to try to stop the rebels from escaping across the border.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 9, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan gave the green light for a possible military incursion into northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels hiding there after several deadly attacks on Turkish security forces.
(Reuters, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 10, It was reported that Turkey had begun shelling suspected Kurdish rebel camps across the border in northern Iraq. The government appeared unlikely to move toward sending ground troops until next week.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 17, Turkey’s Parliament gave the government a one-year window in which to launch cross-border offensives against Turkish Kurd rebels who've been conducting raids into Turkey. The vote removed the last legal obstacle to an offensive.
(AP, 10/18/07)(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 18, Thousands of Kurds and supporters took to the streets in northern Iraq to protest the Turkish parliament's decision to authorize the government to send troops across the border to root out Kurdish rebels who have been conducting raids into Turkey.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 21, Kurdish rebels ambushed a Turkish military convoy less than three miles from the Iraqi border, killing 12 soldiers with 8 missing. The rebels said they are holding them hostage. Turkey shelled the border region in response to the attack, and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, ordered the rebels to lay down their arms or leave Iraq.
(AP, 10/21/07)(WSJ, 10/22/07, p.A1)(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 23, Turkey's foreign minister rejected any cease-fire by Kurdish rebels as he met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad to press them to crack down on the guerrillas. Turkish forces massed on the border and tensions rose over a threatened military incursion.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 24, Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships reportedly attacked positions of Kurdish rebels just inside Turkey along the border with Iraq, as Turkey's military stepped up its anti-rebel operations. Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq’s Kurdish region, called on the PKK to end its violence in Turkey.
(AP, 10/24/07)(Econ, 10/27/07, p.61)
2007 Oct 26, A high-level Iraqi delegation held talks with Turkish officials to try to defuse tensions over Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq. Turkish helicopters and fighter jets pounded Kurdish rebel positions as diplomatic efforts began in Ankara.
(AP, 10/26/07)(Reuters, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 28, Turkish troops killed some 20 Kurdish guerrillas in fighting in eastern Tunceli province. Turkey's PM Erdogan called for unity between Turks and Kurds against the rebels.
(Reuters, 10/28/07)(AP, 10/29/07)(WSJ, 10/29/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 29, Turkey's state-run news said soldiers battled separatist Kurdish rebels across southeast Turkey, trapping about 100 in caves near the Iraqi border after blocking escape routes across the frontier. Helicopter gunships bombed Kurdish rebel positions in southeast Turkey and the government flexed its military muscle with big national day parades and flypasts in major cities.
(AP, 10/29/07)(Reuters, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 30, Turkish Cobra attack helicopters blasted suspected Kurdish rebel targets near the southeastern border with Iraq in a second day of fighting in the area. PM Erdogan said an escalation of military action was unavoidable.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 31, The Turkish army said it killed 15 Kurdish separatists near the Iraqi border, as ministers discussed possible economic sanctions against Iraq's autonomous Kurdish government.
(AFP, 10/31/07)
2007 Oct 31, The US acknowledged that it had undertaken military moves against Kurdish rebels in Iraq, including spy planes and providing Turkey with more intelligence.
(WSJ, 11/1/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 2, Iraqi police found only six bodies dumped in three Iraqi cities, and no reports of shootings or bombings. The prime minister of Iraq's northern Kurdish region condemned attacks by Kurdish rebel fighters inside Turkey and said he hopes a weekend summit in Istanbul will reduce the threat of Turkish military strikes inside Iraq.
(AP, 11/2/07)(AP, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 3, Some 5,000 Turkish Kurds protested against a military incursion into Iraq, saying such a move would enflame ethnic tensions in the region and plunge the local economy into ruin. Iraq said it was ready to hunt down and arrest Kurdish guerrilla leaders responsible for cross-border raids into Turkey in an effort to avert a major incursion by the Turkish military.
(AFP, 11/3/07)(Reuters, 11/3/07)
2007 Nov 4, Two carloads of gunman ambushed a top aide to Iraq's Finance Ministry in Baghdad, killing him and his driver. The two were among 15 people killed or found dead in Iraq. Kurdish rebels released eight Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq two weeks after they were captured in a deadly ambush that intensified pressure on the Turkish government to attack the guerrillas in Iraq.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 6, Kurdish rebels released another Iranian soldier captured two months ago in northern Iraq.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 13, Turkish helicopter gunships attacked abandoned villages inside Iraq, the first such airstrike since border tensions have escalated in recent months. Kurdish guerrillas killed four Turkish soldiers in a clash in southeastern Turkey.
(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 16, Turkish authorities took steps to ban the country's leading pro-Kurdish political party and expel several of its lawmakers from parliament on charges of separatism.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Dec 1, The Turkish military said it fired on 50 to 60 Kurdish rebels inside Iraqi territory, inflicting "significant losses."
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 5, Turkish soldiers killed eight Kurdish rebels, increasing the rebel death toll to 14 in a two-day clash near the border with Iraq.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 16, Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish rebel targets, marking an escalation of force against the outlawed separatist group. An Iraqi official said the planes attacked several villages, killing one woman. Turkey’s military later said up to 175 rebels were killed on this day. A Kurdish leader said the figure was exaggerated.
(AP, 12/16/07)(AP, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 18, The Turkish army sent soldiers about 1.5 miles into northern Iraq in an overnight operation. A Turkish official said the troops seeking Kurdish rebels were still in Iraq by midmorning.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 22, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in the third confirmed cross-border offensive by Turkish forces in less than a week.
(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 23, Turkish fighter jets bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 26, Turkish warplanes hit eight suspected Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq, the third cross-border air assault in 10 days. Troops killed 6 rebels near the Iraqi border.
(AP, 12/26/07)(WSJ, 12/27/07, p.A1)
2007 Ian Klaus authored “Elvis Is Titanic: Classroom Tales from the Other Iraq," an account of his time as a teacher in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Klaus, a former boyfriend of Chelsea Clinton, taught there in 2005.
(WSJ, 9/1/07, p.P9)
2007 Aliza Marcus authored “Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence."
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.100)
2007 In western Iran Kurdish Law student Habibollah Latifi was arrested accused of carrying activities on behalf of "anti- revolutionary" groups. He was sentenced to death in 2008.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2007 The Kurdish population in Turkey numbered about 14 million.
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.60)
2008 Jan 3, In Turkey a car bomb exploded in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern city of Diyarbakir, killing 6 people, including 5 students. 67 people were wounded, including military personnel.
(AP, 1/3/08)(Reuters, 1/4/08)(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 7, In Turkey an accused Kurdish rebel suspected of detonating a deadly car bomb last week in Diyarbakir was captured. Six other suspects also were detained.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 8, Pres. Bush met with Turkey’s Pres. Abdullah Gul to discuss US policy on Turkey's fight against Kurdish rebels. Bush prepared to leave later in the day on his first major trip to the Mideast to try to build momentum for peace.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 15, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in the latest in a series of cross-border air strikes.
(AFP, 1/15/08)
2008 Feb 4, Turkey’s warplanes bombed some 70 Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 15, In southeast Turkey hundreds of Kurdish protesters battled police, leaving a young demonstrator dead and dozens injured on the ninth anniversary of guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's capture.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 21, Turkish troops launched a ground incursion across the border into Iraq in pursuit of separatist Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 25, Turkey's military said it had killed 41 more separatist Kurdish rebels in clashes in northern Iraq, raising the reported guerrilla death toll in a cross-border operation to 153.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 26, The Iraqi government demanded for the first time that Turkey immediately withdraw from northern Iraq, warning it feared the ongoing incursion could lead to clashes with the official forces of the semiautonomous Kurdish region.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 27, Turkey said the death toll for rebels reached 230 during the operation in northern Iraq that began last week. The death toll for soldiers stood at 24. Troops killed 77 Kurdish rebels in night-long clashes with 5 Turkish soldiers killed.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 29, Turkey's military said it has ended a ground offensive against Kurdish rebels in Iraq, but said that foreign influence did not play a role in its decision.
(AP, 2/29/08)
2008 Mar 6, A Kurdish demonstrator wounded a day earlier in clashes with police in eastern Turkey died of his injuries.
(AP, 3/7/08)
2008 Mar 7, Suspected Kurdish rebels killed a civilian and took another hostage in a southern Turkish province near the border with Syria.
(AP, 3/7/08)
2008 Mar 12, Turkish troops killed 11 Kurdish rebels during clashes near the border with Iraq.
(WSJ, 3/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 20, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 21, In Turkey unrest erupted when celebrations marking Newroz day, or the Kurdish new year, degenerated into demonstrations in favor of the armed separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara lists as a terrorist group.
(AFP, 3/22/08)
2008 Mar 22, In Turkey dozens of people were injured and scores detained as police used truncheons and tear gas to break up violent Kurdish protests in several eastern cities.
(AP, 3/22/08)
2008 Mar 23, Iranian artillery shelled three border towns in northern Iraq where Iranian Kurdish rebels are believed to be operating.
(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 23, In southeast Turkey Kurdish protesters clashed with police for a 4th day. Two people have been killed In the clashes and dozens injured.
(WSJ, 3/24/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 27, Turkey's armed forces killed 15 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq using long-range land weapons.
(Reuters, 3/29/08)
2008 Mar 28, Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/29/08)
2008 Mar 31, Turkey's top court decided to put the Islamist-rooted ruling party on trial for alleged anti-secular activity, in a case that could threaten national stability and Ankara's bid to join the EU. Clashes between Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels left nine rebels and three soldiers dead in Turkey's southeast.
(AFP, 3/31/08)(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 16, Turkish warplanes hit a group of Kurdish rebels reportedly trying to infiltrate Turkey from the Avasin-Basyan region of northern Iraq. A clash between Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels near Turkey's southeastern border with Iraq left a Turkish soldier dead.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 25, Turkish warplanes and artillery units struck Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq who were preparing to cross the border to carry out attacks. The strikes continued the next day.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 May 2, A rebel spokesman said Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel bases deep inside Iraq for three hours overnight. The Turkish military said the raid in northern Iraq killed more than 150 Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 9, In southeast Turkey a land mine explosion killed 3 people and injured 3 others. Air strikes launched in retaliation for a rebel raid killed 19 Kurdish fighters. Six soldiers died in the violence. The PKK denied the military's claims of 19 rebel deaths saying "not a single guerrilla was killed."
(AP, 5/9/08)(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 10, Turkish warplanes and artillery units destroyed key Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq, including a communications center, in a second day of raids on rebel positions.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 12, Iraqi Kurdish officials said Turkish jets overnight struck suspected Kurdish rebel targets close to the border in northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 17, In eastern Turkey a clash between soldiers and Kurdish rebels left 6 rebels dead in Van province.
(AP, 5/17/08)
2008 May 22, Two Turkish soldiers were killed in an overnight clash with Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey. Troops killed two Kurdish rebels near the southeastern city of Sirnak,
(AP, 5/22/08)(AP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 23, In Turkey one rebel and one village guard were killed in a clash near the border with Iran.
(AP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 28, Turkey's state-run media said soldiers killed two Kurdish rebels during a clash near the border with Iran.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 29, Turkish warplanes attacked several Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq. No casualties were immediately reported. Air raids destroyed 16 Kurdish rebel facilities.
(AP, 5/29/08)(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 Jun 5, A Turkish TV station quoted a senior military commander as saying that Turkey and Iran have carried out coordinated strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jul 8, In eastern Turkey Kurdish guerrillas kidnapped three German tourists on a climbing expedition. The Germans were released on July 20.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 9, In Istanbul, Turkey, men armed with pistols and shotguns attacked a police guard post outside the US consulate, sparking a gunbattle that left 3 attackers and 3 officers dead.
(AP, 7/9/08)(Reuters, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 11, A Turkish news agency reported that army troops clashed with Kurdish rebels in the southeast and that 10 of the rebels were killed.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 16, Turkey’s military said 11 Kurdish rebels were killed in an ongoing operation in Hakkari province, near the border with Iraq.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 18, In southeastern Turkey 10 members of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in clashes with Turkish military forces.
(Reuters, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 23, Iraq's Kurdish government has denounced a draft law paving the way for US-backed provincial elections and urged the presidential council to reject it. The 18-year-old son of the chief editor of a US-sponsored newspaper was shot to death as an American patrol passed nearby in the northern city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 7/23/08)(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 23, Turkish warplanes bombed 13 Kurdish rebel targets in the Zab region of northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 27, In Istanbul, Turkey, bomb blasts killed 17 people in a crowded square in the residential neighborhood of Gungoren. 5 of the dead were children. Turkish warplanes bombed 12 Kurdish rebel targets on Mount Qandil in northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/28/08)(AP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 29, Turkish warplanes attacked Kurdish rebels in Iraq's north, killing a group of guerrillas gathered at a mountain cave.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Aug 5, In Turkey an oil pipeline that has allowed the West to tap the rich fields of Azerbaijan, bypassing Iran and Russia, was set on fire. A Kurdish rebel organization later admitted sabotaging the pipeline.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 13, In northwest Iran three Kurdish separatists and one Iranian soldier were killed in a shootout.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Sep 25, Turkish warplanes bombarded Kurdish rebel territory in northern Iraq, damaging a school and wounding three people.
(AP, 9/26/08)
2008 Oct 3, Fighting between Kurdish rebels and Turkey's army and air force in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq killed 15 soldiers and at least 23 insurgents, in the deadliest battle between the longtime enemies this year.
(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 6, Turkish warplanes bombed a Kurdish rebel hideout in northern Iraq, the third air strike in retaliation for an attack that killed 15 soldiers three days ago.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 7, Turkish warplanes bombed suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey, in new air strikes responding to an attack that killed 17 soldiers at a military outpost four days ago.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 8, In Turkey rebels ambushed a police bus, killing four policemen and the driver in the Kurdish-dominated city of Diyarbakir, further escalating tensions.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 10, In Iraq Diyar Abbas Ahmed (28), a Kurdish journalist, was gunned down in Kirkuk. A New York-based journalists' group said it was the 136th killing of a reporter since the US-led invasion of Iraq five years ago.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 11, Turkish warplanes and artillery bombed dozens of Kurdish rebel targets overnight in northern Iraq following an escalation in rebel attacks. Engin Ceber (29), a left-wing activist, was tortured and beaten to death in an Istanbul prison.
(AP, 10/11/08)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.61)(http://erkansaka.net/blog2/2008/10/engin_ceber.html)
2008 Oct 15, The Turkish military clashed with Kurdish rebels near the Iraqi border in battles in which four soldiers and five rebels were killed. A Turkish helicopter crashed during the clash. A soldier was killed and 15 security personnel were slightly injured in the crash.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 17, Turkish warplanes carried out successful airstrikes inside Iraq on the main bases used by Kurdish rebels. The air strikes on Qandil Mountain killed 25 Kurdish rebels and wounded many more. Earlier in the day, the military said it intercepted Kurdish rebel radio chatter indicating that up to 35 guerrillas had been killed in clashes with troops earlier this week in southeastern Sirnak province.
(AP, 10/17/08)(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 19, Turkish warplanes again bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts across the border in northern Iraq. The bombings targeted four towns near the Turkish border.
(AP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 20, A Kurdish demonstrator died after a clash with police in eastern Turkey. Kurdish protesters staged demonstrations in many parts of Turkey over the weekend following allegations that Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan was mistreated in prison.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 21, Turkish soldiers killed two Kurdish guerrillas during a clash near the village of Dallitepe in the country's southeast.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 28, Turkey's warplanes and artillery struck Kurdish rebel targets inside northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Nov 19, Iran's official news agency said Iranian border guards have killed several Kurdish separatists in a shootout in the western part of the country. The gunmen were said to be part of the Kurdish separatist group, known as the PEJAK, the Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AP, 11/19/08)
2008 Dec 7, A Kurdish rebel group declared a nine-day holiday cease-fire in their fight against Turkey, calling it a "first step toward peace."
(AP, 12/7/08)
2009 Jan 19, In Turkey Abdulkarim Kirca committed suicide. He was found shot in the head in his apartment in Ankara, following allegations in the Turkish press that he had been involved in extra-judicial killings of Kurds.
(Econ, 1/31/09, p.58)(www.journalistinturkey.com/date/2009/01/)
2009 Jan 23, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said Turkey, Iraq and the United States have agreed to set up a joint command center in northern Iraq to gather intelligence to fight Kurdish PKK rebels in the region.
(Reuters, 1/23/09)
2009 Feb 15, In Turkey police clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators across the country's predominantly Kurdish southeast during protests marking the 10th anniversary of a separatist rebel leader's capture.
(AP, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 24, A Kurdish politician spoke to lawmakers in Turkey's parliament in the Kurdish language, openly defying the law, to celebrate UNESCO world languages week. State-run television immediately cut off the live broadcast.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Mar 12, Turkish warplanes carried out new bombing raids against Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq. The strike targeted hideouts of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the Zap-Avashin region of the Kurdish-held autonomous north of Iraq.
(AFP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 23, Turkey's president began the first visit to Iraq by a Turkish head of state in more than 30 years, seeking to press Iraqi leaders to stop Kurdish rebels from launching cross-border attacks on Turkey. In northern Iraq a suicide bombing against a Kurdish funeral in Jalula killed 27 people. 8 people were killed in a bombing at a bus stop west of Baghdad. A suicide blast in Tel Afar killed police officer and wounded 8 people.
(AP, 3/23/09)(AP, 3/24/09)(SFC, 3/24/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 24, Kurdish rebels rejected calls by Iraq's president to stop fighting against Turkey and leave Iraqi territory as the visiting Turkish president stepped up pressure on the Baghdad government to act against the group.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Apr 27, In Turkey a five-hour police shootout with a leftist militant in Istanbul left three people dead, including the militant described as a top member of a group tied to the Kurdish separatist PKK. The militant was identified as Orhan Yilmazkaya, one of three top members of the Revolutionary Headquarters.
(AP, 4/27/09)
2009 Apr 29, In southeastern Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels detonated a roadside bomb that killed nine soldiers in a US-made armored personnel carrier.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 30, Turkey's military said its warplanes struck Kurdish rebel targets overnight in northern Iraq.
(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 May 4, Iraq’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad and handed him a letter of protest, demanding that Iran halt shelling against Kurdish rebels in the country's north and warned the "extremely dangerous violations" of Iraqi territory could harm relations between the two countries.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 28, Turkish warplanes attacked Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, hours after a land mine blast on the Turkish side of the border killed six soldiers.
(AP, 5/28/09)
2009 Jun 13, A Turkish soldier and a Kurdish rebel were killed in fighting in the southeast of Turkey near the border with Iraq.
(AFP, 6/14/09)
2009 Jul 25, Iraqis voted in elections in the self-ruled Kurdish north. Regional Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, who has been a consistent critic of the central government, won re-election with almost 70% of the vote, while the leading candidate from the opposition party, Kamal Mirawdeli, received 25%. A coalition of the two ruling parties, Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, received a little over 57% of the vote for the 111-seat parliament, while the opposition Gorran, or Change, party took about 23%.
(AP, 7/25/09)(AP, 7/29/09)
2009 Jul 29, Turkey's government said it is prepared to grant more rights to the nation's Kurds in an effort to end the 25-year insurgency by Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 7/29/09)
2009 Aug 25, Turkey's military indicated that it would back government efforts to grant more rights to Kurds and improve the economy of their region. The military, however, drew the line at moves that would involve negotiating with Kurdish rebels, harm Turkey's unity or make Kurdish an official language.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Sep 5, In Iraq hundreds of Sunni Arabs opposed to the presence of Kurdish troops in disputed areas of northern Iraq demonstrated against a plan to deploy a mixed force of American, Kurdish and Iraqi soldiers in the area.
(AP, 9/5/09)
2009 Oct 15, Iraq’s PM Nouri al-Maliki warned Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stop conducting military operations across Iraq's northern border targeting Kurdish rebels and stressed that Iraq's sovereignty can not be violated. The two met in Baghdad and were to sign agreements boosting economic ties between their countries. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol in Baghdad, killing one Iraqi soldier.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 19, In Turkey tens of thousands of Kurds flocked to the Iraqi border to greet 34 PKK fighters and their sympathizers, who gave themselves up following a call by PM Erdogan to return home.
(Econ, 10/24/09, p.63)
2009 Oct 20, Turkish prosecutors sought charges against 5 Kurdish rebels who surrendered in a peace gesture, raising questions about whether thousands of other guerrillas can be persuaded to end their decades-long fight. The 5 were later released on the orders of a judge.
(AP, 10/20/09)(Econ, 10/24/09, p.63)
2009 Oct 28, Kurdish President Massoud Barzani said the Kurds would not accept a proposed "special status," referring to distinct voting rules specifically for Kirkuk in Iraq's January election, which Kurds say would favor other ethnicities.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Nov 11, Iran executed Ehsan Fattahian (28), a Kurdish activist, at a prison in Sanandaj. He was a member of the Party of Free Life in Kurdistan, a militant group outlawed by Iran.
(SFC, 11/12/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 13, Turkey's government announced new measures aimed at reconciling with minority Kurds and ending a 25-year-old insurgency, but there was no mention of the sweeping amnesty sought by Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 11/13/09)
2009 Dec 1, Turkey's government approved a plan to open the country's first Kurdish-language department at a university as part of its efforts to reconcile with the Kurdish minority. Small scale violence continued for the third day in a row as stone-throwing Kurdish militants clashed with police across the nation in the wake of last week's anniversary of the 1978 founding of the PKK rebel group.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 7, In Turkey a Kurdish rebel group, acting on its own initiative, carried out an assault in the central city of Tokat killing 7 Turkish soldiers. 3 soldiers were also wounded in the rebel ambush on a military vehicle.
(AP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 12, In Turkey angry Kurds battled Turkish police with rocks and firebombs to protest a decision by the country's top court to shut down a pro-Kurdish political party on charges of ties to militants.
(AP, 12/12/09)
2009 Dec 13, Turkish nationalists and Kurdish activists clashed in Istanbul, leaving at least one person injured from a gunshot during street battles.
(AFP, 12/13/09)
2009 Dec 15, In Turkey two Kurds were killed in Bulanik after a shop-keeper fired on protesters.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.91)
2009 Dec 19, An Iraqi official said a mass grave discovered in northeast Iraq contains dozens of bodies, mostly of women and children, believed killed during a crackdown against Kurds by former dictator Saddam Hussein. The grave was originally found nearly two years ago west of Kirkuk, though its discovery was only made public this week after forensic pathologists began examining it.
(AP, 12/19/09)
2009 Dec 24, Turkish police detained 31 people, including eight Kurdish mayors, in a sweeping dawn operation targeting Kurdish separatists.
(AP, 12/24/09)
2009 Syria’s population numbered about 22 million people, including about 1.5 million Kurds.
(Econ, 11/28/09, p.50)
2010 Jan 22, Some 124 refugees, who said they are Kurds and Tunisians, landed on the southern shore of Corsica after a lengthy journey at sea.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Feb 21, Iranian state television reported that intelligence agents have killed four members of an armed Kurdish separatist group near the Kurdish town of Sardasht. The report accused the four of killing three policemen in a clash on Dec 26.
(AP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Spain Hokman Joma tried to hit Turkey’s PM Erdogan with a shoe as the Turkish leader got into a car during a visit to the southern city of Seville. Hokman shouted "Long live Kurdistan" in Spanish before being arrested. In June the Syrian Kurd was sentenced to three years in jail in Spain.
(AP, 9/22/10)
2010 Mar 21, Syrian police opened fire at a group of Kurds celebrating the new year, killing at least one person despite signs that tensions were easing between the government and its restive Kurdish minority.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Apr 30, Kurdish rebels killed four Turkish soldiers and wounded seven others in eastern Turkey in the largest attack on troops in several months.
(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 May 3, In Iraq two American soldiers died from injuries sustained in separate incidents unrelated to combat. Sardasht Othman (23), a Kurdish journalist, was kidnapped in front of the campus of University of Salahuddin in the regional capital of Irbil. His handcuffed and bullet-riddled body was found four days later outside the Kurdish region in Mosul.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, In Iran 5 Kurdish rebels, including two women, were killed after they battled Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards in the western province of Kermanshah.
(AFP, 5/5/10)
2010 May 7, The Turkish air force struck Kurdish rebel hideouts in neighboring northern Iraq after an attack inside Turkey left two soldiers dead.
(AFP, 5/8/10)
2010 May 9, Iran hanged five Kurdish activists, including one woman, convicted of membership of armed opposition groups and involvement in bombings.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 12, In Iraq more than a thousand Kurds poured into the streets of the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah in a growing wave of outrage, blaming authorities for the kidnapping and murder of a young Kurdish journalist. A late night car bomb tore through a cafe in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood killing nine people. It appeared to have detonated prematurely, also blowing up three suspected militants in the vehicle. The dead included young people who had gathered to drink tea and play dominoes. A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in Baghdad's central al-Nahda square, killing a bystander and wounding 8 others, including five policemen. An Iraqi army lieutenant was shot dead by a sniper in the afternoon while manning a checkpoint in New Baghdad.
(AP, 5/12/10)(AP, 5/13/10)(SFC, 5/13/10, p.A2)(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 20, Twenty Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebels in northwestern Iraq.
(SFC, 5/21/10, p.A2)
2010 May 29, A Kurdish newspaper said imprisoned Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan has accused Turkey of ignoring his calls to establish dialogue with his rebels and that he would withdraw from the process, leaving his rebel command in charge.
(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 May 29, Turkey’s military said 3 security forces members were killed and two soldiers were wounded in clashes with Kurdish rebels in southeast Turkey.
(Reuters, 5/29/10)
2010 May 31, Kurdish rebels launched a rocket attack on a military vehicle near naval base in southern Turkey, killing six soldiers and wounding seven.
(AP, 5/31/10)
2010 Jun 4, Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq announced they had ended their unilateral ceasefire with Turkey a day after Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani met Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and pledged "all efforts" to stop rising rebel violence.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 5, A senior Kurdish official in northern Iraq said Iranian troops have crossed the Iraqi border in pursuit of Iranian Kurdish rebels. Jabar Yawar, a deputy minister in the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq, said that 35 Iranian soldiers remain in the Iraqi village of Perdunaz after crossing the border on June 3.
(AP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 10, An Iranian state-owned newspaper said three policemen in western Iran have been killed by a roadside bomb detonated by Kurdish rebels. Members of the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PEJAK) were blamed.
(AP, 6/10/10)
2010 Jun 16, Human Rights Watch called on Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq to ban the practice of female genital mutilation, and said in a new report that the majority of women in the self-ruled region undergo the medically risky and emotionally painful procedure.
(AP, 6/16/10)
2010 Jun 18, Turkey's military said it killed as many as 120 Kurdish rebels in an air raid on rebel hideouts in northern Iraq last month and a daylong incursion by elite commandos into Iraq this week. Maj. Gen. Fahri Kir said another 30 Kurdish rebels were killed inside Turkey since March in anti-rebel operations. He said the Turkish losses were 43 in the same period.
(AP, 6/18/10)
2010 Jun 19, Turkish warplanes launched air raids at suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq after a rebel attack on a military outpost in Turkey touched off clashes in which eight soldiers and 12 PKK rebel fighters died.
(AP, 6/19/10)
2010 Jun 20, Turkish forces pushed into northern Iraq, killing 4 people, including a girl (15), as they hit back against hideouts of Kurdish rebels who killed 12 soldiers over the last 2 days.
(AFP, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 21, Turkish commando units rappelled down from helicopters and mechanized infantry units blocked escape routes of Kurdish rebels in a major operation along the Iraqi border.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 22, In Turkey Kurdish rebels detonated a remote-controlled bomb in Istanbul, killing 5 people and wounding 12 on a bus carrying military personnel and their families.
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jul 1, The Turkish military said fighting near the border with Iraq killed 12 Kurdish guerrillas, 2 government soldiers and 3 government-paid village guards. Clashes erupted after rebels fired long range weapons and rockets at a military unit in Slirt province.
(WSJ, 7/2/10, p.A10)
2010 Jul 13, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said the cabinet had decided to summon representatives of the Kurdish regional government to discuss oil smuggling to Iran and "to put an end to it, as it harms Iraq's national and economic interests." Reports about the oil smuggling surfaced just over a week after the US imposed new sanctions barring the export of refined fuels to Iran.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 20, Kurdish rebels killed six Turkish soldiers and wounded 15 in an overnight raid on a military outpost along the border with Iraq. Another soldier died in a separate attack.
(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Aug 10, In Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels blew up part of an Iraqi-Kurdish pipeline killing 2 people and cutting the flow of oil in Sirnak province.
(SFC, 8/11/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 13, In Iran PJAK Kurdish rebels killed a commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards and two Islamist militiamen in clashes near northwestern Orumieh city.
(AP, 8/14/10)
2010 Sep 4, Iran’s hardline Kayhan newspaper reported that security forces have killed four members of an outlawed Kurdish group in the western province of Kordestan. Nasrin Sotoudeh (45) was summoned by official notice to Tehran's Evin Prison, and did return home. He has represented opposition activists and political figures on suspicion of spreading propaganda against the ruling system.
(AFP, 9/5/10)(AP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 16, In Turkey a roadside bomb attack killed 10 people traveling on a minibus near the village of Gecitli in the rugged Hakkari province, where Kurdish guerrillas have been fighting for autonomy for decades.
(AP, 9/16/10)
2010 Sep 22, Iran’s pro-reform Sharq daily said that Emadoddin Baghi (48), a human rights activist, was convicted of "spreading propaganda" against the ruling establishment as well as planning to "violate national security." He was sentenced to 6 years in prison. Baghi has been on trial or in jail almost continually since 2000 over similar charges. In the northwest a bomb exploded at a military parade in Mahabad killing 12 people. One official blamed Kurdish separatists who have fought Iranian forces in the area for decades. In 2014 Iranian authorities detained three suspects over the deadly bombing in Mahabad.
(AP, 9/22/10)(Reuters, 9/26/10)(AP, 5/18/14)
2010 Sep 26, Iran media said elite Revolutionary Guards said they had killed the "main elements" behind the Sep 22 bomb attack in the Mahabad. Gen. Abdolrasoul Mahmoudabadi of the elite Revolutionary Guards said the "terrorists" were killed the previous day in a clash "beyond the border" and that his forces were still in pursuit of two men who escaped the ambush.
(Reuters, 9/26/10)(AP, 9/26/10)
2010 Sep 30, The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebel group extended a ceasefire with Turkey by one month in a move it said is aimed at giving a chance to efforts to end a war that has killed 40,000 people.
(Reuters, 9/30/10)
2010 Oct 7, In Iran a pair of gunmen opened fire on a police patrol in its Kurdish region, killing four officers and a bystander.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 31, In Turkey a suspected suicide bomber wounded 15 officers and 17 civilians in Istanbul's main square, as an extended unilateral ceasefire by the separatist PKK came to an end. The radical Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) later claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 10/31/10)(AP, 11/1/10)(AFP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 1, Turkey's main Kurdish rebel group extended a truce until elections next summer, denying responsibility for a suicide attack in Istanbul thought to have been the work of its own hardliners.
(AP, 11/1/10)
2010 Nov 4, Thousands of Iranians chanted "Death to America" as they staged a mass protest against the "Great Satan" to mark the 31st anniversary of the capture of the American embassy by Islamist students. Iran reported the arrest of four Kurdish rebels of the banned Komala group, who worked for commander Jalil Fattahi, a militant based in Britain. They were arrested in Iran's western city of Marivan.
(AFP, 11/4/10)
2011 Jan 5, In Turkey authorities searching for mass graves of Kurds, who disappeared in the 1990s, unearthed the bones of eight people in a field in Bitlis province in southeast Turkey.
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Feb 17, In Iraq Kurdish security forces opened fire in Sulaimaniyah on a crowd of protesters surrounding the headquarters of the party affiliated with Kurdish President Massoud Barzani. At least five people were injured in the incident. Hundreds of demonstrators massed in the southern city of Basra to demand the local governor's ouster. Protesters in Nasir stormed a local government building. Gunmen in a speeding car shot and killed a spokesman for the provincial government in the northern city of Mosul.
(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 20, In Iraq gunmen burst into the Kurdish NRT television station in Sulaimaniyah, shooting up the equipment and setting fire to the building, apparently in retaliation for footage they aired earlier in the week of a deadly protest.
(AP, 2/20/11)
2011 Feb 24, In Iraq a suicide bomber trying to assassinate the deputy head of the provincial council killed 11 people including 7 policemen and a bodyguard in Ramadi, Anbar province. Security forces killed al-Nasser Lideen Allah Abu Suleiman, the top military leader of an al-Qaida front group, surrounding his hideout and firing shots that blew up his booby-trapped getaway car in Hit, Anbar province. The Kurdish government sent thousands of its troops into positions around Kirkuk saying it feared that demonstrations planned for the next day could turn violent.
(AP, 2/24/11)(AP, 2/25/11)(AP, 3/9/11)
2011 Mar 15, In northern Iraq 2 top Kurdish politicians resigned from local government in what appeared to be a political maneuver to challenge Arabs for control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Apr 7, Syria’s Pres. Bashar Assad granted citizenship to thousands of Kurds living in a northeastern province. Kurds, the largest ethnic minority in Syria, made up 15 percent of the country's 23 million population and have long complained of neglect and discrimination. Assad also sacked Governor Mohammad Iyad Ghaza of central Homs province, the scene of clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in the past three weeks.
(AP, 4/7/11)
2011 Apr 17, Iraqi police opened fire on stone-throwing crowds protesting corruption in the northern Kurdish region. At least 35 people were wounded.
(SFC, 4/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 19, In Turkey Kurdish protesters clashed with police in two cities and the main Kurdish party threatened to boycott the upcoming election because of a decision the previous day to bar some Kurdish candidates.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 20, In southeastern Turkey one person was killed when police opened fire on Kurdish protestors in Bismil town.
(AFP, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 23, A Kurdish protester (28) died of gunshot wounds, becoming the tenth person killed in more than two months of rallies in Iraq's northern autonomous region. Hardi Farukh was wounded by a bullet to the head during demonstrations on April 18 in Sulaimaniyah.
(AFP, 4/23/11)
2011 May 14, Turkey's military in Sirnak province killed 12 Kurdish rebels over the last 24 hours who trying to infiltrate the country from northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/14/11)
2011 Jun 2, New York-based Human Rights Watch said Iraq's central government and regional Kurdish leaders are beating and illegally detaining protesters to try to stop demonstrations calling for reforms.
(AP, 6/2/11)
2011 Jun 21, Iraqi Kurdistan approved a draft law banning female genital mutilation by the regional government. The Family Violence Bill has to be ratified by the regional president, Massud Barzani.
(AFP, 7/26/11)
2011 Jul 6, In Iraq two police officers were killed in a suicide bombing outside a car dealership in al-Hedaid, just outside Baqouba, Diyala province. Authorities uncovered a mass grave with 900 corpses near the central city of Diwaniyah, believed to be Kurds killed during the rule of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
(AP, 7/6/11)(AFP, 7/6/11)
2011 Jul 14, An umbrella group that includes Turkey's Kurdish party proclaimed Kurdish autonomy in Diyarbakir, hours after a clash left 13 soldiers and seven Kurdish guerrillas dead.
(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 15, Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation into a Kurdish proclamation of autonomy in the country's southeast as the military deployed elite forces to the region where tensions are running high following the deadliest clash between troops and rebels in about three years.
(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 17, Several Iranian Kurdish rebels based in Iraq were wounded in hours of clashes with Tehran's forces along the two countries' border.
(AFP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 18, Iran’s state news said Revolutionary Guard forces have taken control of three bases of an Iranian Kurdish opposition group in neighboring Iraq and that "a large number" of members of the Iranian Kurdish opposition group PEJAK have been killed in fierce ongoing clashes over the past two days. PEJAK claimed to have killed 53 Iranian soldiers and wounded 43 while only two PEJAK members were killed and seven wounded in clashes.
(AP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 25, Iranian forces shelled suspected rebel outposts in Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region, killing two Iraqi civilians.
(AP, 7/25/11)
2011 Jul 28, In Iraq a suicide bomber and a car bomb struck an Iraqi bank in Tikrit where policemen were picking up their paychecks, killing 12 and wounding 34 people. An Iraqi Kurd boy (10) was killed in shelling by Tehran's forces of Iranian Kurdish separatist bases in Battas, northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/28/11)(AP, 7/29/11)
2011 Aug 3, Turkey said it would put 106 more Kurdish politicians on trial for alleged terrorist propaganda, choosing to go ahead with prosecutions despite lingering tensions over the trial of dozens of others accused of fanning separatist violence.
(AP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 17, In Turkey Kurdish PKK rebels ambushed a military convoy in Cukurca township near the border with Iraq killing 9 soldiers. Officials vowed strong military retaliation. Turkey's air force attacked 60 suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq. The military it vowed to continue the assault until the guerrilla group is "rendered ineffective."
(AP, 8/17/11)(AP, 8/18/11)(Econ, 8/27/11, p.43)
2011 Aug 18, In southern Turkey the PKK attacked police and military stations in simultaneous overnight rocket strikes in Siirt province, killing two soldiers and wounding three civilians. Turkey's air force attacked 28 suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, in a second day of cross-border strikes in retaliation for stepped up attacks by the guerrillas.
(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 19, Turkey's military hit 85 rebel targets with artillery fire. Warplanes bombed 20 suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in a third day of cross-border strikes.
(AP, 8/20/11)
2011 Aug 21, Turkish airstrikes on suspected rebel targets in northern Iraq killed seven Iraqi civilians, including five children and a woman, in an attack on Kortak mountain. Police used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse Kurdish protesters who tried to march to a main square in Istanbul to denounce the Turkish raids. In demonstrators marched to protest the PKK.
(AP, 8/21/11)
2011 Aug 23, Turkey's military said air strikes on suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq this week have killed an estimated 90 to 100 guerrillas and warned that it would press ahead with offensives against the group both inside Turkey and across the border.
(AP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 28, Nechirvan Barzani, deputy chief of the most powerful political party in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, called on separatist groups in the area to lay down their arms in an interview published.
(AFP, 8/28/11)
2011 Aug 29, Turkey’s military said its air strikes and artillery fire on suspected Kurdish rebel targets this month killed up to 160 guerrillas.
(SFC, 8/30/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 3, A young Kurdish shepherd was killed by an Iranian sniper on the Iraq-Iran border. Iran also shelled the border area, appearing to target bases of the Iranian Kurdish rebel group PEJAK, which has been involved in sporadic cross-border clashes with Iranian forces in recent years.
(AP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 3, Around 50 expatriated Syrian Kurds gathered in Sweden for a two-day conference on how to strengthen Kurds inside Syria and get them more involved in efforts to overthrow Bashar al-Assad's regime.
(AFP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 5, Iran said its Revolutionary Guard soldiers have killed at least 30 members of Kurdish opposition group in fighting outside the border city of Sardasht in an operation that began on Sep 2. Inside Iraq a PEJAK spokesman declared an immediate, unilateral cease-fire, which Iran rejected.
(AP, 9/5/11)
2011 Sep 11, Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region halted crude exports, nearly a week after it rejected a new oil and gas law approved by the central government.
(AFP, 9/11/11)
2011 Sep 12, Kurdish rebels attacked a police station and a paramilitary police headquarters near Turkey’s border with Iraq killing 5 people including 3 civilians.
(SFC, 9/13/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 21, Turkey reportedly bombed the main Kurdish rebel base in northern Iraq and chased rebels in a mountainous area in the southeast in response to escalated attacks by the autonomy-seeking guerrillas.
(AP, 9/21/11)
2011 Sep 24, Kurdish rebels attacked a Turkish army outpost, killing 5 soldiers and wounding 10 in the country's southeast. Three rebels also were killed.
(AP, 9/25/11)
2011 Sep 28, In Turkey a pro-Kurdish party said it is ending its four-month-old boycott of parliament, even as tensions grew over a surge in attacks by Kurdish separatist rebels.
(AP, 9/28/11)
2011 Oct 4, Turkish police detained over 140 pro-Kurdish political activists in a nationwide sweep. The detainees included a number of elected mayors in the Kurdish southeast.
(SFC, 10/5/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 7, Syrian security forces opened fire at protesters in several parts of the country, killing at least eight people and wounding scores. Leading opposition figure Riad Seif was beaten up by pro-government gunmen and rushed to a hospital in Damascus. Russia’s Pres. Dmitry Medvedev told Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to either reform or resign. In Qamishli Mashaal Tammo, a prominent and charismatic Kurdish opposition figure, was gunned down by masked gunmen.
(AP, 10/7/11)(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 8, Syrian security forces opened fire on tens of thousands of mourners who turned out for the funeral of a slain Kurdish opposition leader in Qamishli, killing at least 5 people. Kurds, the largest ethnic minority in Syria, make up 15% of the country's 23 million people and have long complained of neglect and discrimination.
(AP, 10/8/11)(AP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 10, Turkish air raids in northern Iraq reportedly killed 7 Kurdish rebels including three senior operatives.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 13, Turkey's foreign minister said that Iraq should move to prevent Kurdish attacks on his country from Iraqi soil as the two countries renewed their commitment to fight the rebels.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 16, In Iraq hundreds rallied in the disputed town of Khanaqin to demand the reversal of a central government ruling barring the flag of the autonomous Kurdish region in official buildings.
(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 18, Turkey shelled northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, in the first report of Turkish bombardment there in more than two weeks. The shelling began the previous evening. A roadside blast killed five policemen and two civilians in Turkey's southeast Bitlis province.
(AFP, 10/18/11)(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 19, Turkish soldiers, air force bombers and helicopter gunships launched an incursion into northern Iraq, hours after Kurdish rebels killed 24 soldiers and wounded 18 in attacks along the border. The United States and NATO both issued statements supporting the offensive, the largest in more than three years.
(AP, 10/19/11)(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 20, About 10,000 elite Turkish soldiers took part in a ground offensive against Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey and across the border in Iraq, making it the nation's largest attack on the insurgents in more than three years.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 21, Turkish jets kept up bombing raids on Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq overnight, as the rebels confirmed that some Turkish troops crossed into Iraq. Turkey and Iran vowed to collaborate against the PKK and its Iranian wing, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, or PJAK, during a visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.
(AFP, 10/21/11)(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, Turkey’s military said its troops over the last 2 days have killed at least 49 Kurdish rebels in a valley near the Iraqi border, as hundreds of troops also pursued Kurdish fighters within northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 25, In Turkey crowds of Kurds pelted journalists and police with stones in the quake-hit city of Van as their anger at the media's coverage of the disaster boiled over. The stoning of the reporters in the eponymous provincial capital, which left several people injured, was brought to a halt only after police used pepper-spray.
(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Nov 12, Turkish commandos in civilian clothes slipped onto the Kartepe, a hijacked passenger ferry, and posed as hostages before fatally shooting a suspected Kurdish rebel carrying explosives in a 12-hour drama that ended before dawn.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 13, Turkish warplanes bombed the Qandil border area in Iraqi Kurdistan for about an hour.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Dec 3, The London-based Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organization (IKWRO) reported that more than 2,800 so-called honor attacks, punishments for bringing shame on the family, were recorded by Britain's police in 2010.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 19, A Turkish news agency reported that security forces may have killed as many as 20 Kurdish separatist rebels in the country's southeast.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 20, Turkish police detained 48 people, including journalists, as part of a growing investigation into a Kurdish group that prosecutors accuse of links to Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 12/20/11)(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 24, Turkish authorities released an AFP photographer, along with 12 other people who were detained as part of an investigation into a group prosecutors accuse of having links to Kurdish rebels. A court ordered 35 other suspects formally arrested pending trial over their alleged involvement in the Union of Kurdistan Communities.
(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 28, Turkish warplanes killed at least 34 people and 59 mules in an air strike on the Iraq border in an attack which a pro-Kurdish political party described as a "massacre" of civilians. Ankara's joint military command said in a statement that its jets bombed an area inside Iraq "regularly used" by PKK rebels. Those killed were smugglers aged 18-28, who routinely brought in Iraqi fuel and cigarettes with the full knowledge of local authorities. On Jan 2 Turkey said it will compensate the families of the civilians mistakenly killed in the airstrike in Uludere township.
(AFP, 12/29/11)(AP, 1/3/12)(Econ, 1/7/12, p.46)(Econ, 6/9/12, p.59)(Econ, 5/9/15, p.49)
2012 Jan 19, Turkish authorities exhumed the bodies of three Kurds near the village of Yagizoymak as part of their investigation into alleged extrajudicial killings by Turkish security forces in the 1990s. Lawyer Ridvan Dalmis, who witnessed the excavation, said the remains allegedly are those of civilians who were killed by security forces in June 1993 and hastily buried by Kurdish villagers before they were forced to evacuate the area.
(AP, 1/20/12)
2012 Jan 28, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani backed minority Kurds in Syria, who have rallied against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad during 10 months of nationwide protests. He spoke at a two-day conference of Syrian Kurds in the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Arbil.
(AFP, 1/28/12)
2012 Feb 11, Turkish warplanes bombed suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 2/12/12)
2012 Feb 13, A clash in Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast has left 15 Kurdish rebels and two Turkish soldiers dead.
(AP, 2/14/12)
2012 Feb 27, Iraqi Kurdistan said it has granted refugee status to 30 Kurdish Syrian troops who defected to the region in the first such instance in the revolt against Bashar al-Assad's regime.
(AFP, 2/27/12)
2012 Mar 8, Turkey's air force carried out air strikes on border areas of north Iraq.
(AFP, 3/9/12)
2012 Mar 18, In Turkey thousands of Kurds massed in Diyarbakir and Istanbul to celebrate the Kurdish new year (Nowruz). A Kurdish politician and Turkish policeman died as riot police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds.
(Econ, 3/24/12, p.54)
2012 Mar 23, Turkish forces killed 15 female Kurdish rebel fighters in Bitlis province.
(SSFC, 3/25/12, p.A6)
2012 Mar 29, In Bulgaria Massud Barzani, the leader of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan, sought investment in the region's farming, health and construction sectors during a meeting with PM Boyko Borisov.
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar, In Norway Mullah Krekar (56), Iraqi founder of the Iraqi Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, was sentenced to five years in jail for issuing death threats against a former government minister and others. In July Krekar, whose real name is Najmeddine Faraj Ahmad, faced three new charges of inciting terrorist acts, threatening witnesses in a case against him and criminal damage.
(AFP, 7/12/12)
2012 Apr 2, Iraq’s Kurdish region said it has halted oil exports over a payment quarrel with the central government, which reportedly has failed to send any money since May even as the region has been exporting 50,000 barrels per day.
(SFC, 4/3/12, p.A2)
2012 Apr 5, In south-eastern Turkey overnight blasts temporarily shut down a pipeline pumping oil from Iraq. Kurdish rebels were suspected to be behind the explosions.
(AFP, 4/5/12)
2012 Apr 5, US President Barack Obama dropped in on a meeting between Vice President Joe Biden and Massud Barzani, the visiting leader of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. Barzani, also met with US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
(AFP, 4/5/12)
2012 May 13, The Philippines foreign ministry said it has lifted an 8-year ban on its nationals working in Iraq, but only for the Middle Eastern country's autonomous Kurdistan region.
(AFP, 5/13/12)
2012 May 27, In southeast Turkey Kurdish rebels killed a soldier in a clash, prompting the military to launch a large-scale offensive in the area.
(AP, 5/27/12)
2012 Jun 4, Turkish security officials said two security personnel were killed when they stepped on an improvised explosive device laid by PKK militants in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province. One of the men killed was the commander of Lice's military police force.
(Reuters, 6/4/12)
2012 Jun 12, Turkey announced plans to introduce elective Kurdish language instruction in schools, a step aimed at easing tension that Kurdish minority activists argued didn't go far enough. Activists and Kurdish politicians insisted on full Kurdish education in schools.
(AP, 6/12/12)
2012 Jun 19, Kurdish rebels attacked Turkish military units with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades in southeastern Turkey, sparking clashes in which 10 rebels and eight soldiers died.
(AP, 6/19/12)
2012 Jun 24, Turkey’s army said its warplanes have carried out strikes on suspected Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq. Air strikes had hit 9 PKK targets over the last 3 days. Kurdish rebels killed one policeman and wounded 3 others in a roadside bomb attack.
(AFP, 6/24/12)(SFC, 6/25/12, p.A2)
2012 Jul 3, The Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) pulled out of the Cairo conference, citing political disputes. The Syrian Kurdish National Council stormed out of the meeting, protesting that the final document failed to specifically mention the Kurds.
(AFP, 7/4/12)
2012 Jul 8, Iraqi Kurdistan said it has begun sending oil produced in its three-province autonomous region out of the country without the express permission of the central government. It was being exported to Turkey so it could be refined into various products before being brought back to Kurdistan.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 19, Chevron made public a deal to hunt for oil in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
(SFC, 7/20/12, p.A1)
2012 Aug 2, Turkish warplanes and attack helicopters are pounding Kurdish rebel positions in a major clash in a rugged area near Turkey's borders with Iraq and Iran. Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels have been clashing in the area for about two weeks.
(AP, 8/2/12)
2012 Aug 5, Turkey’s interior minister said security forces have killed as many as 115 Kurdish rebels during a major offensive over the past 2 weeks. Rebels fired on military posts in Hakkari on the Iraq border triggering clashes that left dead 22 rebels, soldiers and village guards.
{Turkey, Kurds}
(AFP, 8/5/12)(SFC, 8/6/12, p.A2)
2012 Aug 6, In southeastern Turkey an overnight blast interrupted oil flow from Iraq. Kurdish rebels were suspected to be behind the explosions. The blast hit the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline in Mardin province close to the border with Syria. Repairs were expected to take up to 10 days. The oil flow was reported restored on August 28.
(AFP, 8/6/12)(AFP, 8/28/12)
2012 Aug 13, A government spokesman says Iraq has asked French oil giant Total S.A. to choose between working with the self-ruled northern Kurdish region or to quit developing one of the major oil fields in southern Iraq.
(AP, 8/13/12)
2012 Aug 20, In Turkey a car bomb in a southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantap left 9 people dead. Authorities blamed rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) of being behind the powerful blast that went off close to a police station. The PKK denied the attack.
(AFP, 8/21/12)
2012 Aug 23, Turkish media reported that Kurdish rebels have ambushed a military convoy in the southeast, setting off clashes that killed 16 militants and five soldiers.
(AFP, 8/23/12)
2012 Aug 25, Turkish warplanes bombed areas of northern Iraq in a bid to target rear bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 8/25/12)
2012 Sep 2, In Turkey Kurdish militants killed 10 police and soldiers in an assault in Sirnak province. Some Kurdish guerrillas were also killed.
(SFC, 9/4/12, p.A2)
2012 Sep 10, Turkey’s military announced that it had conducted air strikes over the past week in northern Iraq, where Kurdish rebels have bases. Some 25 guerrillas were reported killed in the operation.
(AP, 9/11/12)
2012 Sep 12, In Turkey hundreds of Kurds began a hunger strike in prisons across the country.
(Econ, 11/17/12, p.2)
2012 Sep 16, In eastern Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels detonated a landmine along a highway in Bingol province, killing eight police officers and wounding nine. Officials in southeastern Hakkari province said a total of 123 "terrorists," a reference to Kurdish rebels, had been killed in military operations in the past 10 days.
(AP, 9/16/12)
2012 Sep 18, In Turkey suspected Kurdish rebels in Bingol province attacked a military convoy with a rocket killing 10 soldiers and wounded over 70 others.
(SFC, 9/19/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 7, Turkish jets struck suspected Kurdish rebel targets in two separate cross-border raids in northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/8/12)
2012 Oct 18, Turkey's state-run news said security forces have killed 12 Kurdish rebels in clashes in the southeast, raising the two-day death toll in the fighting to 18.
(AP, 10/18/12)
2012 Oct 20, Turkey's state-run agency said clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish rebels in Hakkari province, have left nine people dead.
(AP, 10/20/12)
2012 Nov 9, In Turkey the office for the governor for Hakkari province said as many as 42 Kurdish rebels have been killed in the past three days in operations that were backed by airpower.
(AP, 11/10/12)
2012 Nov 20, Iraqi President Jalal Talbani, a leading Kurdish figure, met the head of the autonomous region, Massoud Barzani. The commander of Kurdish Peshmerga forces warned that his troops might attack Iraqi government soldiers at "any minute" after the central government sent tanks and armored vehicles toward the disputed city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 23, In Syria a suicide attacker blew up his car in the northwestern Idlib province, killing at least three people and wounding four. Islamic extremists, including members of the al-Qaida inspired Jabhat al-Nusra group, battled with pro-government Kurdish gunmen in the northern town of Ras al-Ayan, near the border with Turkey.
(AP, 11/23/12)
2012 Nov 26, Syrian rebels captured a hydroelectric dam on the Euphrates River in the country's north after days of heavy clashes. Rebels and pro-government Kurdish gunmen struck a truce to end days of fighting in the town of Ras al-Ayn. Airstrikes by government warplanes killed and wounded several people in the border town Atmeh.
(AP, 11/26/12)
2012 Dec 6, Iraq’s PM Nouri al-Maliki said Baghdad and leaders of the Kurds' self-ruled autonomous region have agreed that units will be formed from local ethnic and sectarian groups to replace Iraqi and Kurdish forces currently in the disputed areas, claimed by Arabs, Turkomen and Kurds.
(AP, 12/6/12)
2012 Dec 13, Iraq's President Jalal Talabani announced that the central government and Kurdish leaders have reached a deal aimed at easing a military standoff that began last month.
(AP, 12/13/12)
2012 Dec 16, In Iraq a car bomb explosion near a Kurdish party office killed two people in Julala, a disputed city north of Baghdad.
(AP, 12/16/12)
2012 Dec 25, An Iraqi-Kurd official said the northern Kurdish region has suspended oil exports over a payment dispute with baghdad.
(SFC, 12/26/12, p.A5)
2012 Dec, In Turkey Huda-Par (Party of Allah) was launched on a platform of Islamic values and greater rights for the country’s 14 million Sunni Kurds.
(Econ, 11/23/13, p.55)
2013 Jan 9, In France 3 Kurdish women, including Sakine Cansiz, one of the founders of a militant group battling Turkish troops since 1984, were "executed" at the Kurdish Information Center in Paris. Protesters blamed Turkey. A Turkish lawmaker claimed the women were slain in a dispute between PKK factions. Omer Guney (34) was later charged with murder in the killings of Cansiz, Leyla Soylemez and Fidan Dogan. On Dec 17, 2016, Guney died from brain disease.
(AP, 1/10/13)(AP, 12/18/16)
2013 Jan 14, Turkish jets struck suspected Kurdish rebel targets in a cross-border raid in northern Iraq, even as Turkey prepared to start peace talks with the rebels' imprisoned leader.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 16, In northern Iraq a suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives blew himself up outside the offices of a major Kurdish party in Kirkuk killing at least 19 people. A 3rd bomb at a nearby facility used by Kurdish security forces killed 4 more. Morning attacks across the country killed at least 33 people.
(AP, 1/16/13)(AP, 1/17/13)(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 17, In Syria an air raid killed at least 15 people in the town of Kfar Nabouedeh in the central province of Hama. Violence continued in different parts of the country. Clashes in the northern town of Ras al-Ayn least eight rebels and one Kurdish PYD fighter.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Feb 24, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that Gen. Hamid Tabatabaei, a commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, has been killed in the country's Kurdish northwest.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Mar 13, Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq freed eight captured Turkish soldiers and officials as part of peace efforts between Turkey and the rebel group aimed at ending a decades-long conflict.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 21, Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan called for an immediate cease-fire and for thousands of his fighters to withdraw from Turkish territory, a major step toward ending one of the world's bloodiest insurgencies.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Apr 25, A pro-Kurdish news agency said Kurdish rebels will start withdrawing thousands of guerrilla fighters from Turkey on May 8 and retreat across the border to northern Iraq, in an important milestone toward ending the nearly three-decade old insurgency that has cost tens of thousands of lives.
(AP, 4/25/13)
2013 May 9, Iraq rejected a key element of an accord to bring an end to a long Kurdish uprising in Turkey — offering refuge to rebel fighters in country's north.
(AP, 5/9/13)
2013 May 14, The first Kurdish fighters crossed from Turkey into northern Iraq as part of a peace deal to end a long uprising despite Iraqi objections to the transfer. The Iraqi Cabinet reiterated its rejection of the deal and of the presence of PKK fighters.
(AP, 5/14/13)
2013 Jun 9, Iraq's PM Nouri al-Maliki made a rare visit to the self-ruled northern Kurdish region in a bid to melt the ice between the Kurds and the Shiite-led central government. A suicide attack in Baghdad claimed the lives of 7 people.
(AP, 6/9/13)
2013 Jun 18, US oil giant Chevron said it has signed a deal with Iraq's Kurdish regional government to expand its oil exploration territory in the northern self-rule region.
(AP, 6/18/13)
2013 Jun 20, Syrian rebels and Kurdish gunmen reached an agreement to end a rebel siege on the northern predominantly Kurdish region of Afrin that triggered a shortage of food and medicine there. Violence was reported between government forces and rebels in different parts of the country, mostly near Damascus and in Aleppo.
(AP, 6/20/13)
2013 Jul 7, The president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, visited Baghdad for the first time in more than two years, in a step towards resolving long-running disputes between the central government and the autonomous region over land and oil.
(Reuters, 7/7/13)
2013 Jul 17, The Turkish military said a Syrian Kurdish party with links to Kurdish militants in Turkey has seized control of a Syrian border town after days of clashes with Islamist fighters.
(Reuters, 7/18/13)
2013 Jul 19, A Syrian Kurdish group said it aims to set up an independent council to run Kurdish regions until Syria's civil war has ended, a move likely to alarm Syrian rebels and neighboring Turkey, both wary of a possible Kurdish state.
(Reuters, 7/19/13)
2013 Aug 2, In northern Syria overnight clashes between Kurdish opposition fighters and rebels linked to al-Qaida killed 12 Islamic fighters.
(AP, 8/2/13)
2013 Aug 10, The president of Iraqi Kurdistan vowed to defend the large Kurdish population across the border in neighboring Syria from al-Qaida-linked fighters.
(AP, 8/10/13)
2013 Aug 15, Thousands of Syrian refugees poured into the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, taking advantage of a new bridge along the largely closed border.
(Reuters, 8/16/13)
2013 Aug 20, In northeastern Syria Kurdish militias battled al-Qaida-linked rebel groups in the latest round of heavy fighting that has helped fuel a mass exodus of civilians from the region into neighboring Iraq.
(AP, 8/20/13)
2013 Sep 9, Kurdish rebels announced they are suspending their withdrawal from Turkey into bases in northern Iraq over what they say is the Turkish government's failure to advance peace talks aimed at ending a nearly 30-year-old conflict.
(AP, 9/9/13)
2013 Sep 12, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes between Kurdish fighters and members of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in the past two days left 13 Kurdish gunmen and 35 militants dead.
(AP, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 21, Iraq's Kurds voted in their first election in four years as their autonomous region grapples with disputes with Baghdad and as fellow Kurds fight bloody battles in neighbouring Syria. The Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Kurdish regional President Massoud Barzani, secured 38 seats in the vote for the 111-seat regional parliament.
(AFP, 9/21/13)(AP, 10/2/13)
2013 Sep 25, In Turkey 18 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) escaped overnight from prison in the southeast by digging a 70-meter-long tunnel. All but one were caught by the next day.
(Reuters, 9/25/13)(Reuters, 9/26/13)
2013 Sep 29, In Iraq 6 people were killed in a series of blasts targeting a security directorate of the usually peaceful autonomous Kurdistan region, the first such attack since 2007. A wave of attacks killed at least 46 people across the country.
(Reuters, 9/29/13)(SFC, 9/30/13, p.A2)
2013 Sep 30, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan announced long-anticipated reforms seen as designed to salvage a fragile peace process with Kurdish insurgents, including changes to the electoral system and increasing language rights.
(Reuters, 9/30/13)
2013 Oct 25, Iran's Revolutionary Guard killed 3 rebels and arrested three others in Baneh, a Kurdish populated region in northwestern Iran.
(AFP, 10/27/13)
2013 Oct 26, Kurdish militants seized a Syrian border post on the frontier with Iraq, after three days of clashes with an al Qaeda-linked group which had held the crossing since March.
(Reuters, 10/26/13)
2013 Nov 7, Turkish riot police fired tear gas to disperse Kurdish protesters demonstrating against government plans to build a wall along part of the border with Syria.
(AP, 11/7/13)
2013 Nov 13, In Syria forces loyal to President Assad captured a suburb of Damascus, part of a broader advance that has brought him major gains south of the capital before proposed international peace talks. A mortar round slammed into a mainly-Christian sector of Damascus killing 2 people and wounding seven. Activists said Kurdish militias have seized another seven villages in the northeast.
(Reuters, 11/13/13)(AFP, 11/13/13)
2013 Nov 16, Masoud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, called on Turkey's Kurds to back a flagging peace process with Ankara, making his first visit to southeastern Turkey in two decades in a show of support for PM Tayyip Erdogan.
(Reuters, 11/16/13)
2013 Nov 16, In Germany some 20,000 people marched through central Berlin to demand the government lift its 20-year ban on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 11/16/13)
2013 Nov 27, Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan signed a package of landmark contracts that will see the semi-autonomous region's oil and gas exported via pipelines through Turkey.
(Reuters, 11/29/13)
2013 Dec 2, Turkey said it stood by a bilateral oil deal with Iraq's Kurdistan region that bypassed central government but sought to appease Baghdad by drawing it into the arrangement.
(Reuters, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 5, In Iraq gunmen shot dead magazine editor Kawa Ahmed Germyani (32). He was investigating corruption in the autonomous Kurdistan region. Police stormed a mall in Kirkuk killing 3 militants. Attacks elsewhere in the country left 7 dead.
(AFP, 12/6/13)(SFC, 12/6/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 5, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Jihadists in northern Syria have kidnapped more than 50 Kurds in the past three days.
(AFP, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 6, In southeastern Turkey two Kurdish protesters, aged 34 and 32, were shot dead in a violent confrontation with police. The clashes were sparked by claims that Kurdish rebel cemeteries had been destroyed.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 9, Kurdish rebels freed four Turkish soldiers abducted in the southeast of the country in the worst flareup of violence since a fragile ceasefire nine months ago.
(AFP, 12/9/13)
2013 The Kurds were granted the ".krd" domain name by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a US-based non-profit organization that manages internet addresses.
(Reuters, 4/14/16)
2014 Jan 3, A Turkish court ordered the release from jail of two Kurdish lawmakers being tried for links to militants in a potential boost to a fragile peace process. Turkish prosecutors said they have charged 36 protesters with terrorism over mass anti-government demonstrations that swept the country last year.
(Reuters, 1/3/14)(AFP, 1/3/14)
2014 Jan 4, A Turkish court ordered the release from jail of three Kurdish lawmakers, in addition to two freed a day earlier.
(Reuters, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 7, Turkey’s Anadolu state news said military prosecutors have dropped a case against five officers who were being investigated for negligence in the military air strike on Dec 11, 2011, that killed 34 smugglers mistaken for Kurdish rebels, saying there was no ground for any legal action.
(AP, 1/7/14)
2014 Jan 8, Iraq's self-ruled northern Kurdish region said it has unilaterally started sending its crude to Turkey and is going ahead with plans to export oil despite objections by the central government in Baghdad. The flow of oil to Turkey started in early January.
(AP, 1/9/14)
2014 Jan 11, Thousands of Kurdish demonstrators from around Europe marched in Paris to call for a speedier investigation into the murder of three Kurdish activists a year ago.
(Reuters, 1/11/14)
2014 Jan 12, Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki threatened to cut central government funding for Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region if the Kurds pursued a drive to pipe oil exports to Turkey without Baghdad's approval.
(Reuters, 1/12/14)
2014 Jan 21, Iraq's Shiite-led government said it has decided in principle to create three new provinces from contested parts of the country in an apparent attempt to address Sunni grievances and counter the expansion of the Kurdish self-rule region.
(AP, 1/21/14)
2014 Jan 21, Kurds in northeast Syria, on the eve of peace talks in Switzerland, declared a provincial government in the area.
(Reuters, 1/22/14)
2014 Feb 15, In Turkey thousands of Kurds demonstrated in towns across the south east, some clashing violently with riot police as they called for the release of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on the 15th anniversary of his capture.
(Reuters, 2/15/14)
2014 Feb 28, In southeastern Turkey suspected PKK gunmen abducted Abdurrahman Ecer (50), the top elected official of Cigli village.
(Reuters, 3/2/14)
2014 May 23, Iraq took legal action against Turkey after Ankara announced that oil from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region was being exported to international markets.
(AFP, 5/23/14)
2014 May 28, In southeast Turkey Kurdish guerrillas shot dead a state-sponsored militia member in the southeastern province of Mardin.
(Reuters, 5/29/14)
2014 Jun 7, In Turkey 2 people were killed in southeast Diyarbakir province as Kurdish protesters, demonstrating against the construction of new military outposts, threw petrol bombs at security forces who then opened fire.
(Reuters, 6/8/14)
2014 Jun 8, In Iraq a suicide bomber blew himself up at the headquarters of a Kurdish political party in the ethnically mixed province of Diyala. Minutes later a car bomb exploded as security arrived in Jalawla. At least 19 people were killed and 65 wounded. ISIL claimed responsibility.
(AP, 6/8/14)
2014 Jun 9, In Iraq at least 30 people were killed in a double bombing targeting the offices of PUK, a Kurdish political party, in the northern town of Tuz Khurmato. ISIL claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 6/9/14)
2014 Jun 18, Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region formed a new government after months of wrangling, with premier Nechirvan Barzani using the occasion to call for defending disputed northern territory.
(AFP, 6/18/14)
2014 Jun 20, Iraqi Kurdistan looked set to unload in Israel a first cargo of disputed crude oil from its new pipeline after weeks of seeking an outlet as Iraq's central government has threatened legal action against any buyer.
(Reuters, 6/20/14)
2014 Jun 21, The Arbil Citadel that dominates the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan was granted World Heritage Site status.
(AFP, 6/21/14)
2014 Jun 27, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani said there was no going back on autonomous Kurdish rule in oil city Kirkuk and other towns now defended against Sunni militants by Kurdish fighters.
(AFP, 6/27/14)
2014 Jun 29, Israel’s PM Netanyahu called for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan.
(SFC, 6/30/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 3, The president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region asked its parliament to plan a referendum on Kurdish independence.
(Reuters, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 5, Turkish media said Kurdish rebels will begin a stalled withdrawal from Turkey into their safe haven in northern Iraq after parliament passes reforms aimed at ending a decades-long insurgency.
(AFP, 7/5/14)
2014 Jul 6, In Iraq a girl (12) was killed and eight other civilians wounded in an Iraqi airstrike on Tuz Khurmato, a Kurdish-held town in the northern province of Salahuddin. 4 people were killed and 16 wounded in a suicide bomb blast at a cafe in the Washash district of northwestern Baghdad. An Iranian military adviser, who was helping coordinate among Shiite militias, was killed by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad.
(Reuters, 7/7/14)(AFP, 7/7/14)(AP, 7/9/14)
2014 Jul 9, In northern Syria the Islamic State group captured three Kurdish villages near Kobani and pressed forward toward the border town. 18 Kurdish fighters were reported killed.
(AP, 7/10/14)
2014 Jul 10, In Iraq PM Nouri al-Maliki's relationship with the Kurdish minority further frayed, as the Kurds declared their politicians will boycott Cabinet meetings and authorities in Baghdad suspended all cargo flights to the largely autonomous northern Kurdish region.
(AP, 7/10/14)
2014 Jul 11, Kurdish forces seized two oilfields in north Iraq and took over operations from a state-run oil company, while Kurdish politicians formally withdrew from PM Nuri al-Maliki's government.
(Reuters, 7/11/14)
2014 Jul 13, Syria's Kurds approved compulsory military service for their men to help ward off a push by Islamic extremists in the predominantly Kurdish areas in northern Syria.
(AP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 14, Hundreds of Kurdish fighters entered Kobane, northern Syria, to help battle jihadists besieging the Kurdish city of Ain al-Arab.
(AFP, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 17, Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan pumped an experimental 20,000 barrels of light crude from an oilfield recently seized from the federal authorities. It was the first time the Kurds pumped oil from Bai Hassan field -- 55 km (35 miles) northwest of Kirkuk. The field used to average 190,000 barrels per day.
(AFP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 27, A tanker carrying crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan was cleared by the US Coast Guard to unload its cargo at sea off Texas. Iraq's central government, in a court filing the next day, laid claim to the cargo that it says was sold by the regional government of Kurdistan without permission from Baghdad. In response a US judge signed an order telling the US Marshals Service to seize the cargo. On July 29 federal magistrate Nancy K. Johnson said that because the tanker was some 60 miles (100 km) offshore, and outside territorial waters, an order she issued to seize the cargo could not be enforced.
(Reuters, 7/28/14)(Reuters, 7/29/14)
2014 Jul 30, In Syria the number of people killed in army shelling on Douma, an opposition-held town northeast of Damascus, rose to 17. Fighting between the IS and Kurds killed 14 members of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (PYG) and 35 IS members.
(AFP, 7/31/14)
2014 Aug 1, In Iraq at least 17 soldiers were killed in a fierce battle against jihadists south of Baghdad. 23 jihadists from the Islamic State were also killed. Bombs in and around the capital left another 16 people dead. In northern Iraq Islamic State fighters killed 16 Kurdish troops in attacks on Zumar.
(AFP, 8/1/14)(AFP, 8/2/14)
2014 Aug 2, In Iraq Islamic State militants fought Kurdish forces for the northern town of Zumar located near an oil field and the Syrian border amid conflicting reports of who was in control.
(Reuters, 8/2/14)
2014 Aug 3, In Iraq Islamic State fighters seized control of Mosul Dam, the biggest dam in the country, an oilfield and three more towns after inflicting their first major defeat on Kurdish forces since sweeping through the region in June.
(Reuters, 8/3/14)
2014 Aug 4, Baghdad's air force and Kurdish fighters from Syria joined forces with Iraq's embattled peshmerga to push back jihadists whose latest attacks sent thousands of civilians running for their lives.
(AFP, 8/4/14)
2014 Aug 6, An Iraqi army airstrike targeting the Islamic State group in Mosul killed some 60 suspected militants. In northern Iraq Kurdish forces attacked Islamic State fighters near the Kurdish regional capital of Arbil in a change of tactics supported by the Iraqi central government to try to break the Islamists' momentum. A roadside bomb killed 3 Shi'ites who volunteered to fight the Islamic State on a road between the town of Samarra and Mosul. At least 5 car bombs killed 51 people in Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/6/14)(Reuters, 8/6/14)(SFC, 8/7/14, p.A3)
2014 Aug 6, Kurds from Iraq, Syria and Turkey joined forces in north Iraq to try to reclaim areas lost to jihadists and rescue thousands of civilians, many of them from the Yazidi minority, stranded in mountains without food or water.
(AFP, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 7, Iraqi government forces, Shiite militiamen and Kurdish troops launched a large operation to free Amerli, a Turkmen town that has been besieged by jihadists for 50 days.
(AFP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 7, Sunni militants from the Islamic State group seized the Mosul Dam, Iraq's largest dam, forcing Kurdish forces to withdraw from the area and placing them in control of enormous power and water resources and access to the river that runs through the heart of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/7/14)
2014 Aug 8, An Iraqi official said hundreds of women from the Yazidi religious minority have been taken captive by Sunni militants. US jets pounded jihadist positions to pave the way for Iraq's federal and Kurdish forces and also dropped aid to stranded Yazidi civilians on Mount Sinjar.
(AP, 8/8/14)(AFP, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 9, In Iraq gunmen in Madaen killed a government-backed Sunni militiaman opposed to the Islamic State. His family was also killed. In Uwerij, on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, authorities found the bodies of 4 men who had been blindfolded and shot in the head execution-style. Islamic State insurgents who seized Iraq's biggest dam in an offensive have brought in engineers for repairs, as nervous Kurds stocked up on arms to defend Arbil.
(Reuters, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 10, Kurdish forces, reinvigorated by American airstrikes, retook two towns from Sunni militants, achieving one of their first victories after weeks of retreating.
(AP, 8/10/14)
2014 Aug 10, Iraq's human rights minister said Islamic State militants have killed at least 500 members of the Yazidi ethnic minority during their offensive in the north. At least 20,000 had managed to flee the siege, with the help of Kurdish troops, and cross into northern Iraq's Kurdistan region via Syria, but thousands reportedly remained on Mount Sinjar.
(Reuters, 8/10/14)(AFP, 8/10/14)
2014 Aug 11, The United States said it has begun urgently shipping weapons to the Iraqi Kurdish forces battling an advance by extremist Islamic State militants.
(AFP, 8/11/14)
2014 Aug 13, In Iraq thousands more Yazidis poured across a bridge into camps in the autonomous Kurdish region after trekking from Mount Sinjar, most with nothing but the clothes they wore. A US assessment team found the humanitarian situation for the Yazidis on Mount Sinjar not as grave as expected. Roughly 4,500 people remained atop Sinjar Mountain. Nearly half were herders who lived there before the siege and have no interest in being evacuated.
(AP, 8/13/14)(Reuters, 8/14/14)(AP, 8/14/14)
2014 Aug 13, France said it would start supplying arms to the Kurdish forces fighting Sunni extremists from the Islamic State group.
(AP, 8/13/14)
2014 Aug 17, In Iraq Kurdish fighters advanced towards the militant-held city of Mosul, aiming to reverse gains by Islamic State insurgents. Kurdish forces took over parts of Mosul Dam less than two weeks after it was captured by the Islamic State extremist group.
(Reuters, 8/17/14)(AP, 8/17/14)
2014 Aug 24, In southeast Turkey Kurdish rebels abducted three Chinese workers and attacked a thermal power plant where they worked. They were seized while grocery shopping near the town Silopi and security forces soon launched an operation to rescue them.
(AP, 8/26/14)
2014 Aug 28, In northern Iraq retreating jihadists set three wells ablaze at the Ain Zalah oil field as they battled Kurdish forces who launched a major attack nearby. Iraqi security forces backed by volunteer militiamen retook several villages located on the way to the town of Amerli.
(AFP, 8/28/14)
2014 Aug 29, The jihadist Islamic State group posted video of the execution of a captured Kurdish fighter, in a warning to Iraqi Kurdish leaders to end military cooperation with Washington.
(AFP, 8/29/14)
2014 Aug 30, Iraqi security forces, Shiite militiamen and Kurdish fighters launched a major operation to break the more than two-month jihadist siege of Amerli, a Shiite Turkmen-majority town.
(AFP, 8/30/14)
2014 Aug 31, PM Tony Abbott said Australia will drop military equipment and aid to Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State militants in northern Iraq in response to a request from the United States.
(Reuters, 8/31/14)
2014 Sep 18, Islamic State fighters backed by tanks captured 21 Kurdish villages over the past 24 hours in northern Syria near the Turkish border, prompting civilians to flee their homes amid fears of retribution by the extremists sweeping through the area.
(AP, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 18, Turkish PKK rebels, who have spent three decades fighting for autonomy for Turkey's Kurds, called for the youth of the country's mostly Kurdish southeast to join the fight against Islamic State militants in northern Syria.
(Reuters, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 20, In northern Syria the Islamic State executed at least 11 civilians, including at least two boys. It has seized at least 64 villages around Kobani since Sep 16, using heavy arms and thousands of fighters. At least 300 Kurdish fighters crossed from Turkey into Syria overnight to battle jihadists from the Islamic State group trying to seize Kobani, a strategic border town.
(AFP, 9/20/14)(Reuters, 9/21/14)
2014 Sep 21, Kurdish militants in Turkey issued a new call to arms to defend the border town of Kobani, Syria, from advancing Islamic State fighters. Turkish authorities and the UN prepared for a surge in refugees. Clashes overnight reportedly killed 10 insurgents, bringing the number of IS fighters killed to at least 39. At least 27 Kurdish fighters have died.
(Reuters, 9/21/14)
2014 Sep 22, Syrian Kurds battled to defend Kobani, a key border town from an Islamic State advance, as Kurdish youths from neighboring Turkey rushed to their aid, heightening the pressure on Ankara to act against the Islamist insurgents.
(Reuters, 9/22/14)
2014 Sep 24, American warplanes pounded Islamic State positions in Syria for a 2nd day at a strategic post on the Iraqi border, but the campaign did nothing to halt the fighters' advance on the Kurdish town of Kobani where nearly 140,000 refugees have fled. Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front, evacuated its bases in populated areas of the Idlib region after US-led forces carried out air strikes on the group.
(Reuters, 9/24/14)
2014 Sep 25, Germany began arms deliveries to the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, with the ultimate goal of supplying 10,000 Kurdish fighters with some 70 million euros ($90 million) worth of equipment.
(AP, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 26, Islamic State fighters tightened their siege of the strategic town of Kobani on Syria's border with Turkey, pushing back Kurdish forces and sending at least two shells into Turkish territory.
(Reuters, 9/26/14)
2014 Sep 27, Three Turkish police were killed after an ambush in the overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast, in an attack claimed by armed Kurdish militants despite a one-and-a-half-year ceasefire.
(AFP, 9/27/14)
2014 Sep 30, In Syria US-led coalition airstrikes targeted Islamic State fighters pressing their offensive against Kobani near the Syrian-Turkish border in an attempt to halt the militants' advance. Islamic State militants captured the deserted Kurdish village of Siftek and appeared to be using it as a headquarters from which to launch attacks on Kobani itself. 5 anti-Islamic State Kurdish fighters, including 3 women, and 4 Syrian Arab rebels were detained and beheaded 14 km west of Kobani.
(AP, 9/30/14)(Reuters, 10/1/14)
2014 Oct 3, In Syria coalition warplanes destroyed one insurgent vehicle and killed 5 fighters during raids in the countryside to the east and south of Kobani. 10 Kurdish fighters were also killed in heavy fighting that carried on long into the night.
(Reuters, 10/4/14)
2014 Oct 5, Kurdish forces battled overnight with Islamists trying to seize a hill overlooking a Syrian border town with Turkey as US-led coalition warplanes carried out raids on the militants. At least 11 Kurdish fighters and 16 Islamic State insurgents were killed in the overnight clashes.
(Reuters, 10/5/14)
2014 Oct 6, Syrian government forces seized control of a strategic area outside Damascus used by rebels to fire mortar shells at the capital. The Islamic State raised its flag on a building on the outskirts of the frontier town of Kobani after an assault of almost three weeks, but the town's Kurdish defenders said its fighters had not reached the city center. At least 30 people were killed in two suicide attacks on two checkpoints run by Kurdish fighters in the northeastern city of Hasakah.
(AFP, 10/6/14)(Reuters, 10/6/14)
2014 Oct 7, Turkey's president said Kobani was "about to fall" after Islamic State fighters advanced into the south west of the Syrian Kurdish town, pressing home a three-week assault has cost a reported 412 lives. More than 2,000 Syrian Kurds including women and children were evacuated from the town after the latest fighting.
(Reuters, 10/7/14)
2014 Oct 7, In Turkey Kurdish protesters clashed with police. 20 protesters were killed in the clashes, mostly between sympathizers of rival Kurdish groups. Kurdish protesters also forced their way into the European Parliament in Brussels, part of Europe-wide demonstrations against the Islamic State group's advance on a town on the Syrian-Turkish border.
(AP, 10/7/14)(Econ, 10/11/14, p.59)
2014 Oct 8, In southeast Turkey at least 21 people were killed in riots, the deadliest street unrest in years, after the Kurdish minority rose up in fury at the government's refusal to protect a besieged Syrian town from Islamic State. US-led air strikes appeared to have pushed Islamic State fighters back to the edges of Kobani.
(Reuters, 10/8/14)(Reuters, 10/9/14)
2014 Oct 9, Islamic State fighters seized more than a third of the Syrian border town of Kobani, as US-led air strikes failed to halt their advance and Turkish forces nearby looked on without intervening. Two police officers were shot dead in an apparent attempt to assassinate a police chief in Turkey’s eastern province of Bingol. Four of the alleged attackers were later killed and two more caught after a shootout with security forces. In Gaziantep province 4 people killed and 20 wounded as armed clashes broke out overnight between protesters calling for solidarity with Kobani.
(Reuters, 10/9/14)(Reuters, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 10, In Syria militants fought deeper into the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani in full view of Turkish tanks that have done nothing to intervene. At least 31 people have been killed in three days of riots and street violence across Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 11, Kurdish forces defending Kobani urged a US-led coalition to escalate air strikes on Islamic State fighters who controlled more than a third of the Syrian town at the border with Turkey. 36 jihadi fighters were reportedly killed in Kobani.
(Reuters, 10/11/14)(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Iraq a triple suicide bombing killed 26 Kurdish security forces in Diyala province. A roadside bomb killed the police chief of the western Anbar province.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 13, Kurdish fighters engaged in fierce clashes with jihadists on the Turkish border near Kobane, as Ankara denied allowing Washington to use its bases against the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 13, Turkish air force bombed Kurdish fighters furious over Ankara's refusal to help protect their kin in Syria. Bombs on PKK targets after they reportedly attacked a military outpost in the Daglica region.
(Reuters, 10/14/14)
2014 Oct 15, Kurdish militiamen, bolstered by intensified US-led coalition airstrikes, fought pitched street battles with the extremists in Kobani, a Syrian Kurdish border town near Turkey, making small advances. US military fighter and bomber planes carried out 14 air strikes against Islamic State targets near Kobani.
(AP, 10/15/14)(Reuters, 10/16/14)
2014 Oct 18, The Iraqi parliament approved a Sunni Muslim to become defense minister and a Shi'ite to be interior minister, as part of a more inclusive government to help tackle Islamist insurgents. Six Kurdish members of the cabinet were also sworn in.
(Reuters, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 18, In Syria US-led coalition jets pounded suspected Islamic State targets at least six times in Kobani after the fiercest shelling in days by the insurgents shook the town's center and hit border areas within Turkey. Syrian government forces shelled neighborhoods in Damascus, the southern province of Deraa and the central province of Homs. Islamic State militants fired 44 mortars at Kurdish parts of Kobani. Two Islamic State car bombs hit Kurdish positions leading to casualties.
(Reuters, 10/18/14)(AP, 10/19/14)
2014 Oct 19, In Syria Islamic State fighters continued to hit Kurdish defenders in Kobani with mortars. The Observatory said 70 Islamic State fighters had been killed in the past two days.
(Reuters, 10/19/14)
2014 Oct 20, Turkey said it would allow Iraqi Kurdish fighters to reinforce fellow Kurds in the Syrian town of Kobani, while the US air-dropped arms for the first time to help the defenders resist an Islamic State assault. At least one cache of the US airdropped weapons were seized by Islamioc State fighters.
(Reuters, 10/20/14)(SFC, 10/22/14, p.A4)
2014 Oct 22, In southeastern Turkey suspected Kurdish militants kidnapped 10 power company workers. A politician from a Kurdish Islamist party was shot dead in the eastern city of Bingol.
(Reuters, 10/22/14)
2014 Oct 23, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that 200 Iraqi Kurd peshmerga fighters would travel through Turkey to join the battle in Kobane, where about 1,000 IS militants are believed to be fighting. US-led air strikes in Syria were reported to have killed more than 521 jihadists and 32 civilians over the last month.
(AFP, 10/23/14)(Reuters, 10/23/14)
2014 Oct 24, Turkey’s soldiers shot dead 3 PKK guerrillas after fighters from the outlawed group set fire to two vehicles and a power plant in the eastern province of Kars and shot at soldiers who returned fire.
(Reuters, 10/25/14)
2014 Oct 25, In Iraq a suicide bombing killed 8 Shiite militiamen in Taji, just north of Baghdad. 17 people were wounded. The US and its allies conducted 22 air strikes against Islamic State forces with attacks in the frequently targeted areas near the vital Mosul dam, the city of Fallujah and the northern city of Bayji, home of an oil refinery. Kurdish forces retook the northern Iraqi town of Zumar and several nearby villages.
(AP, 10/25/14)(Reuters, 10/25/14)
2014 Oct 25, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants killed 3 Turkish soldiers.
(Reuters, 10/25/14)
2014 Oct 26, In Syria Kurdish forces in Kobane thwarted a new attempt by fighters from the Islamic State group to cut off the border with Turkey before Iraqi Kurdish reinforcements can deploy. The jihadists have lost 481 dead, while 313 Kurds have been killed fighting to defend the area. Civilians accounted for 21 of the dead.
(AFP, 10/26/14)
2014 Oct 29, Iraqi peshmerga fighters arrived in southeastern Turkey en route for the Syrian town of Kobani to try to help fellow Kurds break an Islamic State siege. The US military conducted 14 air strikes over the last 2 days against the IS in Syria and Iraq. Eight of the strikes were near Kobani.
(Reuters, 10/29/14)
2014 Oct 30, A first group of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters entered the besieged Syrian town of Kobani to help push back Islamic State militants who have defied US air strikes. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) said it already has 400 fighters in Kobane and more are on the way.
(Reuters, 10/30/14)(AFP, 10/30/14)
2014 Oct 31, In Syria US-led air strikes hit Islamic State positions around the border town of Kobani in an apparent bid to pave the way for heavily-armed Kurdish peshmerga forces to enter from neighboring Turkey.
(Reuters, 10/31/14)
2014 Nov 1, Some 150 Iraqi Kurdish forces arrived in the Syrian town of Kobani with heavy weapons to help Syrian Kurds fend off attempts by Islamic State insurgents to seize the town. Around 200 fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) have also arrived in Kobani to help defend the town. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 100 Islamic State fighters were killed in the past three days.
(Reuters, 11/1/14)
2014 Nov 3, The militant Islamic State group released 93 Syrian Kurds it captured in February as they made their way from northern Syria to neighboring Iraq. A day later Human Rights Watch said Islamic State militants had forced children as young as 14 to watch videos of beheadings and beat them with cables during six months of captivity.
(Reuters, 11/4/14)
2014 Nov 4, Turkish politician Ahmet Karatas, a member of the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was stabbed repeatedly in the capital Ankara, in an attack that his pro-Kurdish party blamed on a government-led 'lynch campaign' against it.
(Reuters, 11/4/14)
2014 Nov 5, In Syria mortar rounds slammed into a school in a rebel-held suburb east of Damascus, killing at least 13 children. In Kurdish-dominated north and northeastern regions, Kurdish forces distributed leaflets to residents, ordering them to report for compulsory military service.
(AP, 11/5/14)
2014 Nov 9, Monitors said that that officials in a predominantly Kurdish province of northeastern Syria have issued a women's rights decree, in an apparent rebuke to the hardline views of Islamic State insurgents who have advanced in the region.
(Reuters, 11/9/14)
2014 Nov 11, Syrian Kurds backed by fighters from northern Iraq gained ground towards breaking the siege of the Syrian border town of Kobani but are drawing heavy fire from Islamic State insurgents and have yet to win back control.
(Reuters, 11/11/14)
2014 Nov 16, In Syria the US-led coalition against the Islamic State jihadist group carried out a series of air strikes overnight on Kobane. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the toll since fighting began had risen to 1,153, including 27 civilians, 398 Kurdish YPG fighters, 16 non-Kurdish rebels backing the YPG and 712 Islamic State fighters.
(AFP, 11/16/14)
2014 Nov 18, A Syrian military airstrike killed at least 13 people, including children, and wounded another 20 in the northern province of Aleppo after striking a neighborhood with crude bombs. Kurds captured six IS-controlled buildings in Kobani and confiscated a large amount of weapons and ammunition.
(AP, 11/18/14)(AP, 11/19/14)
2014 Nov 19, Iraqi Kurdish forces launched a new offensive targeting Islamic State group extremists as a suicide bomber killed at least five people in Irbil, the Kurds' regional capital.
(AP, 11/19/14)
2014 Nov 23, Iraqi forces said they have retaken Jalawla and Saadiya, two towns in Diyala province, from Islamic State fighters. At least 23 peshmerga and militia fighters were killed and dozens were wounded. A car bomb in the Shi'ite town of Yousufiya killed 5 people.
(AP, 11/23/14)
2014 Dec 2, The Iraqi government reached a deal with the Kurdish local authorities in the country's north to exchange oil from the autonomous region for a nearly 20 percent share of the national budget.
(AP, 12/2/14)
2014 Dec 4, Kurdish sources said a second group of 150 Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces has entered the Syrian border town of Kobani from Turkey to replace a first group helping Kurdish forces fight off a siege by Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 12/4/14)
2014 Dec 17, Kurdish forces launched an operation to retake the town of Sinjar in northwestern Iraq after heavy coalition air strikes on Islamic State positions in the area overnight.
(Reuters, 12/17/14)
2014 Dec 18, Iraqi Kurdish forces opened a corridor to Sinjar Mountain to help thousands of trapped Yazidi people flee.
(SFC, 12/19/14, p.A4)
2014 Dec 19, In Iraq Kurdish forces pressed their biggest offensive against the Islamic State group so far, buoyed by US reports that jihadist supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's top aide in Iraq has been killed. Bombings killed 11 people in Baghdad.
(AP, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 20, In Iraq Bombs targeting commercial streets and an army patrol killed 12 people in and around Baghdad.
(AP, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 20, Iraqi Kurdish and allied forces pressed on with a vast operation to wrest back swathes of land from the Islamic State jihadist group, a day after a months-old siege on Mount Sinjar was broken.
(AFP, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 20, In Syria an activist opposed to both the Islamic State and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad said he had "verified 100 executions" of foreign IS fighters trying to leave Raqqa, the jihadist group's de facto capital. Kurdish fighters advanced in the contested northern town of Kobani after heavy clashes with the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 12/20/14)(AP, 12/20/14)
2014 Dec 21, Kurdish fighters, backed by US-led coalition airstrikes, pushed into the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, touching off heavy clashes with Islamic State militants who have controlled the area for months.
(AP, 12/21/14)
2014 Dec 22, Kurdish fighters in Iraq pushed deeper into the town of Sinjar, held by the Islamic State group, but faced stiff resistance from the Sunni militants who captured it in August.
(AP, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 25, It was reported that rebel groups fighting in Syria's northern Aleppo province have agreed to form an alliance called the Shamiyya Front. Government air force raids killed at least 21 people, including several children, in the IS-held areas of Al-Bab and Qbasin in the northern province of Aleppo. At least 44 members of the Islamic State group were killed in clashes with Kurdish forces. 30 were killed Qassiab, Hasakeh province, and 14 in Kobane. 3 Kurdish fighters were also killed in the clashes.
(Reuters, 12/25/14)(AFP, 12/25/14)
2014 Dec 27, In Turkey 2 people died and three others were wounded in clashes between Islamists and Kurdish youths in the southeastern town of Cizre.
(Reuters, 12/27/14)
2014 Dec 31, Kurdish forces were reported to have regained control of around 70 percent of the Syrian town of Kobani after pushing back Islamic State fighters that have spent months besieging it.
(Reuters, 12/31/14)
2014 Dec 31, Kurdish Iraqi forces launched a large-scale offensive to push Islamic State group extremists from an area outside the militant-held northern city of Mosul. The United States and its allies staged 29 air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)(AP, 12/31/14)
2015 Jan 10, In northern Iraq Islamic State group fighters attempting to retake Gwer, a town held by Kurdish peshmerga forces, killed at least 30 Kurds.
(AP, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 14, In Turkey, a child (12) was allegedly shot and killed by security forces in the old southeastern Kurdish settlement of Cizre. 17 locals have been reportedly killed in fighting jihadists across the border in the syrian town of Kobane
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.46)
2015 Jan 17, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes broke out in the northeastern city of Hassakeh after members of a Kurdish militia detained 10 Syrian soldiers and pro-government gunmen after they deployed in areas controlled by the Kurds.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 18, In Syria at least 18 people were killed in unprecedented fighting between Kurdish forces and Syrian government troops in the northeastern city of Hasakeh over the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 19, In Syria Kurdish fighters captured a strategic hill overlooking the town of Kobani after intense clashes with the Islamic State group.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 21, Kurdish security forces launched an offensive on the Islamic State (IS) group in northern Iraq and retook villages the jihadists used to launch attacks. The US and its partners launched 23 air strikes in Syria and Iraq against Islamic State in the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 22, Kurdish officials claimed they had cut a key road linking the IS stronghold of Mosul with Tal Afar to the west as US and coalition bombers, fighter jets and drones carried out a total of 31 air raids over the last 24 hours, including ten in Syria and 21 in Iraq.
(AFP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Iraq Kurds fired 20 Grad missiles into Mosul after receiving information that Islamic State militants were gathering to meet near the city's Zuhour neighborhood. This was their first attack since Islamic State militants overran the northern Iraqi city last summer
(Reuters, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, In southeast Turkey some 70,000 Kurds staged a protest in Diyarbakir against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's cartoon portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 26, In Syria Kurdish forces took full control of Kobani, driving out remaining Islamic State fighters to end a four-month battle. Half the city was completely destroyed and much of the rest had suffered damage. Turkish locals said 17 fighters had been killed in fighting jihadists in Kobane.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)(Econ, 2/14/15, p.46)
2015 Jan 30, Iraqi Kurdish forces repelled a major attack by the Islamic State group in Kirkuk province. Brigadier General Shirko Rauf and 5 other members of the Kurdish peshmerga forces were killed and 46 more were wounded. Violence elsewhere left at least 19 dead. Kurdish Brig. Gen. Hussein Mansour was killed by a sniper shot near Kirkuk.
(AFP, 1/30/15)(AP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, Iraqi Kurdish forces and police retook an oil field in Kirkuk province that was seized by the Islamic State group overnight, and freed 24 workers who had been taken captive. A series of bombings in and around Baghdad killed 9 people.
(AFP, 1/31/15)(AP, 1/31/15)
2015 Feb 1, In northwest Iraq Kurdish forces found the remains of about 25 members of the Yazidi minority killed by the Islamic State jihadist group in a mass grave.
(AFP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Iraq The Islamic State jihadist group released a new video purporting to show captured Kurdish peshmerga fighters paraded through Iraqi streets in cages. Kurdish sources said it was filmed a week earlier in the main market of Hawija, an IS-held town some 50 km from Kirkuk.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 27, In northeast Syria Kurdish forces dealt a blow to Islamic State by capturing Tel Hamis in the latest stage of a powerful offensive. Kurdish forces killed at least 175 members and commanders of the ultra-hardline Islamist militants in an offensive which began last weekend.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Turkey Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) imprisoned on an island near Istanbul, urged separatists to hold a congress on disarmament in the coming months.
(AFP, 3/1/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Turkey Yasar Kemal (91), one of the country’s best-known novelists with worldwide readership, died. His books included of "Memed, My Hawk" (1955) a story about feudal relations in Turkey's traditional southern regions. Nine of his novels were made into films. Kemal never promoted his Kurdish background. In the mid-1990s he was convicted for an article denouncing racism against minorities in Turkey, especially Kurds.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Mar 2, Syrian regime forces and Kurdish militia fought separate battles with the Islamic State group in a strategic area near the Iraqi and Turkish borders.
(AFP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Konstandinos Erik Scurfield (25), a former Royal Marine, died in a battle with IS militants, becoming the first Briton to be killed while fighting with Kurdish forces battling Islamic State jihadists in Syria.
(AFP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 7, In northeastern Syria Islamic State militants attacked a string of predominantly Christian villages. At least 8 militants were killed in the fighting and an unknown number of Kurds. At least 9 members of Islamic State were killed during infighting near the town of al-Bab after some of them tried to flee over the Turkish border.
(AP, 3/7/15)(Reuters, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, In northern Iraq Kurdish forces drove Islamic State militants back from the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, in an attack which was backed by heavy air strikes from a US-led coalition.
(Reuters, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, About 95 captives, including Kurdish fighters, escaped from an Islamic State-run prison in northern Syria but most were recaptured.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 11, In Syria the Islamic State jihadist group launched a major offensive to try to capture the strategic town of Ras al-Ain on the Syrian-Turkish border, leaving dozens dead in clashes. At least 12 fighters from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which control Ras al-Ain and the surrounding villages, were killed in the IS onslaught.
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 14, Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government said it has evidence Islamic State used chlorine gas as a chemical weapon against Kurdish peshmerga forces in a January 23 suicide car bombing.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In northeast Syria US-led coalition jets struck Islamic State positions for the second day in a row, in an area where the militants are battling Kurdish forces.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 20, Islamic State published a video purporting to show the beheading of three Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq by militants who threatened to kill "dozens" more of those being held captive. The population under Islamic State control was about eight million people.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.17)
2015 Mar 20, In Syria a twin bombing targeting Kurds celebrating their new year in the northeastern city of Hassakeh killed 49 people and wounded 177 others.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan called for Kurds to hold a historic congress to end a decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Apr 6, In northwestern Syria Islamist fighters kidnapped some 300 Kurdish civilians at a checkpoint in Dana, Idlib province.
(AFP, 4/6/15)
2015 Apr 10, In Syria pro-government forces repelled an attack on the Khalkhalah military airport in Sweida province by Islamic State group affiliated militants, losing 20 fighters. At least 15 IS jihadists were killed. The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) "retook at least four checkpoints and a number of neighborhoods" around the town of Tal Tamr. 10 members of the Kurdish YPG militia were killed in the fighting. The US-led coalition fighting conducted air strikes on IS positions around Tal Tamr.
(AFP, 4/11/15)(Reuters, 4/11/15)
2015 Apr 11, Turkish troops engaged in clashes with over two dozen rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that left four soldiers wounded and dealt a blow to the peace process.
(AFP, 4/11/15)
2015 Apr 17, In Iraq a car bombing claimed by the Islamic State killed 2 ethnically Kurdish Turks and wounded eight people wounded outside the US consulate in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region. The IS group claimed responsibility. On April 28 Kurdish authorities said they have arrested Kurdish five men who confessed to carrying out the car bombing on behalf of Islamic State.
(Reuters, 4/17/15)(AP, 4/18/15)(Reuters, 4/28/15)
2015 May 6, In Syria at least 16 members of the Syrian Kurdish security forces were killed in an Islamic State group attack on a base in the northeastern province of Hasakeh.
(AFP, 5/6/15)
2015 May 12, In northern Iraq a bomb blast killed senior Kurdish Maj. Gen. Salah Delmani as well as two of his bodyguards. Delmani was prominent in the fight against the Islamic State group.
(AP, 5/12/15)
2015 May 18, In Turkey twin bomb attacks hit the regional headquarters of the main pro-Kurdish HDP party in two cities, injuring more than half a dozen people and escalating tensions ahead of June 7 legislative elections.
(AFP, 5/18/15)
2015 May 27, In Syria Islamic State militants shot dead around 20 men inside an ancient amphitheater in Palmyra. A monitor said Kurdish forces have driven the IS group from more than a dozen Assyrian Christian villages that the jihadists had captured in the northeast.
(Reuters, 5/27/15)(AFP, 5/27/15)
2015 May 29, In Syria Kurdish militia executed at least 20 civilians, including two children, after accusing them of being IS supporters in a northern provincial town.
(AFP, 5/31/15)
2015 May 31, In Syria a fuel tank exploded inside a clinic in the predominantly Kurdish northeastern town of Qamishli, killing at least 25 people, including children.
(AP, 5/31/15)
2015 Jun 3, In Syria Keith Broomfield (36), an American from Massachusetts, was killed while fighting with Kurdish forces against the Islamic State near Kobani.
(SFC, 6/12/15, p.A2)(SFC, 6/15/15, p.A10)
2015 Jun 5, In Turkey two explosions tore through a rally of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Diyarbakir. 2 people were killed and some 200 wounded.
(Reuters, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 7, Turkey held parliamentary elections. President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party lost its parliamentary majority. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), crossed a 10 percent threshold to enter parliament for the first time. The HDP won 13% and an estimated 80 seats. The far right Nationalist Action Party (MHP) took 16% of the vote and 80 seats. The Republican People’s Party won 25% of the vote and 112 seats.
(Reuters, 6/7/15)(Reuters, 6/8/15)(Econ, 6/13/15, p.49)
2015 Jun 13, The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said it began an advance towards an Islamic State-held town at the Turkish border on Saturday, thrusting deeper into the jihadists' stronghold of Raqqa province in a campaign backed by US-led air strikes.
(Reuters, 6/13/15)
2015 Jun 14, Syrian state television said dozens of civilians were wounded when two bombs exploded in the central city of Homs. Kurdish forces advanced to the gates of Tal Abyad and clashed with Islamic State jihadists. The upsurge in violence saw Turkey open its border to fleeing civilians.
(Reuters, 6/14/15)(AFP, 6/14/15)
2015 Jun 15, The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said it has seized a major road that brought reinforcements from Islamic State's defacto capital of Raqqa, enabling YPG fighters to lay siege to the militant's stronghold of Tel Abyad. Syrian rebels shelled a government-held neighborhood in Aleppo killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens.
(Reuters, 6/15/15)(AP, 6/15/15)
2015 Jun 16, In Syria Kurdish militia, backed by Syrian rebel forces, seized full control of the key border town of Tal Abyad from Islamic State group jihadists.
(AFP, 6/16/15)
2015 Jun 16, Turkey accused Kurdish militia in northern Syria of persecuting civilians and said it saw signs of "a kind of ethnic cleansing", drawing a parallel to the actions of Islamic State militants and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
(Reuters, 6/16/15)
2015 Jun 22, In Syria Kurdish-led forces advanced deep into territory in Syria held by Islamic State, showing new momentum after they unexpectedly swiftly seized a border crossing from the jihadists last week.
(Reuters, 6/22/15)
2015 Jun 23, Syrian Kurds and allied rebels advanced against the Islamic State group. Anti-IS forces took Ain Issa after capturing the nearby Brigade 93 base overnight.
(AFP, 6/23/15)
2015 Jun 25, In Syria Islamic State fighters launched simultaneous attacks against the government forces and Kurdish militia, moving back onto the offensive after losing ground in recent days to Kurdish-led forces near Raqqa. At least 15 Islamic State fighters were reported killed in Kobani. IS militants mounted a bloody surprise attack on the Kurdish-held border town of Kobane, killing at least 164. IS forces shot dead at least 23 people in the Kurdish village of Barkh Butan.
(Reuters, 6/25/15)(AFP, 6/25/15)(AFP, 6/27/15)
2015 Jun 26, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey will never allow the establishment of a Kurdish state in Syria after major gains by Kurdish fighters.
(AFP, 6/27/15)
2015 Jun 27, In Syria Kurdish forces drove out Islamic State fighters who had infiltrated the Syrian border town of Kobani, but clashes continued outside the town. The number of civilians killed since bands of elite IS fighters infiltrated the town early June 25 exceeded 200 and was likely to rise as the search for bodies continues.
(AP, 6/27/15)
2015 Jul 1, Syrian Kurdish forces regained full control of Tal Abyad, expelling Islamic State group fighters who had seized a district of the strategic border town.
(AFP, 7/1/15)
2015 Jul 6, In Syria a suicide bomber from the Nusra Front blew himself up in a government army outpost in a contested neighborhood in the divided city of Aleppo and killed at least 25 soldiers and allied militia and injured scores. Islamic State fighters stormed the town of Ain Issa held by Kurdish-led forces near Raqqa city.
(Reuters, 7/6/15)
2015 Jul 16, In Syria Kurdish fighters besieged members of the Islamic State group in the northeastern city of Hassakeh as they pushed forward under the cover of airstrikes by the US-led coalition. At least 11 civilians, among them 3 children, were killed in regime barrel bomb attacks on jihadist-held Al-Bab.
(AP, 7/16/15)(AFP, 7/16/15)
2015 Jul 18, British-based organizations — Conflict Armament Research and Sahan Research — reported that Islamic State forces used chemical agents delivered through what appears to be locally manufactured shells to attack Iraqi peshmerga forces and Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), on June 21, 22 and 28.
(AP, 7/18/15)
2015 Jul 20, A Syrian Kurdish militia said it was in near full control of the northeastern city of Hasaka, expanding its sway at the expense of the Damascus government in the wake of an Islamic State attack in the area.
(Reuters, 7/20/15)
2015 Jul 20, In Turkey a suspected Islamic State suicide bomber killed at least 32 people, mostly young students, in an attack on the town of Suruc near the Syrian border. The students from the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations had been planning a trip to Kobani to build a library, plant a forest and build a playground. One suspect was soon identified
(AP, 7/20/15)(AFP, 7/21/15)
2015 Jul 22, Kurdish militants claimed responsibility for today’s assassination of two Turkish police officers in what they said was retaliation for the July 20 suspected Islamic State suicide bombing which killed 32 mostly young students.
(Reuters, 7/22/15)
2015 Jul 24, Turkish warplanes pounded Islamic State targets in Syria for the first time, with President Tayyip Erdogan promising more decisive action against both the jihadists and Kurdish militants at home. Police rounded up nearly 300 people in raids against suspected Islamic State and Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 7/24/15)
2015 Jul 25, In Syria the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) advanced in Hasakeh city against IS and at the expense of the regime. The YPG was now said to control 70 percent of Hasakeh city, the IS 10 percent and the regime 20 percent. Islamic State militants detonated explosive laden trucks in two villages near the Kurdish-controlled border town of Tel Abyad, with reports of casualties.
(AFP, 7/25/15)(Reuters, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 25, Turkish fighter jets and ground forces hit Islamic State militants in Syria and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camps in Iraq overnight, in a campaign Ankara said would help create a "safe zone" across swathes of northern Syria. Kurdish militants said the conditions for maintaining a ceasefire with Turkey were no longer in place, after Turkish warplanes bombed their stronghold in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 7/25/15)(AFP, 7/25/15)
2015 Jul 26, In Turkey an overnight car bomb and roadside explosives hit a passing military vehicle on a highway near Diyarbakir. Kurdish militants then opened fire with long-range rifles killing 2 soldiers, At least six people were detained in the attack.
(Reuters, 7/26/15)
2015 Jul 27, In northern Syria the YPG made further gains against Islamic State, capturing a town near the Euphrates River after a month-long offensive aimed at cutting their supply lines. Kurdish fighters in northern Syria accused the Turkish army of shelling their positions.
(Reuters, 7/27/15)
2015 Jul 27, In Turkey a gendarmerie major in the eastern province of Mus died after being shot by suspected PKK militants. In the nearby province of Van a military unit came under fire.
(Reuters, 7/28/15)
2015 Jul 28, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said it was impossible to continue a peace process with Kurdish militants and urged parliament to strip politicians with links to them of immunity from prosecution.
(Reuters, 7/28/15)
2015 Jul 29, Turkish jets launched their heaviest assault on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq overnight since air strikes began last week. A Turkish soldier was killed and three seriously wounded in the eastern province of Agri in what appeared to be a PKK attack.
(Reuters, 7/29/15)
2015 Jul 29, Turkey’s Deputy PM Bulent Arinc gave a breakdown of the terror suspects rounded up in the nationwide police operation, saying that of the 1,300 detained only 137 were suspected of links to IS. Some 31 have been charged so far, while 18 were released. In contrast, police detained as many as 847 PKK suspects. A total of 142 have been charged so far, while 120 were released.
(AP, 7/30/15)
2015 Jul 30, In southeast Turkey Kurdish rebels attacked security forces in two separate assaults in Simak province, killing 3 soldiers and an officer. One rebel was also killed. Kurdish rebels raided a Turkish police station and fired on railway workers in two separate attacks that left 5 dead.
(AP, 7/30/15)(AP, 7/31/15)
2015 Jul 30, In northern Syria at least 10 Kurdish fighters and 8 Islamic state members were killed when IS jihadists attacked Sarrin, a town recently captured by Kurdish forces.
(AFP, 7/30/15)
2015 Aug 1, Turkey’s official Anatolia news agency said around 260 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been killed and hundreds more wounded in Ankara's week-long campaign of air strikes against targets of the group inside Turkey and in northern Iraq. Turkish war planes struck the village of Zarkel (Zergele in Kurdish) in northern Iraq killed at least 6 people.
(AFP, 8/1/15)(AFP, 8/3/15)
2015 Aug 1, Iraq's Kurdish regional government called on the Kurdistan Worker's Party to "withdraw" from Iraq's Kurdish territory to prevent civilian deaths amid a campaign of Turkish airstrikes targeting the group.
(AP, 8/1/15)
2015 Aug 2, Two Turkish soldiers were killed and 31 wounded in a suicide bombing overnight, as violence escalated following Ankara's air bombardment of Kurdish militants in northern Iraq. A day later the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 8/2/15)(AFP, 8/3/15)
2015 Aug 4, Two Turkish soldiers and an armed guard were killed in a blast from a homemade mine planted by Kurdish militants in Sirnak province. Turkish warplanes pounded suspected Kurdish rebel targets near Daglica, Hakkari province, in retaliation to a rebel mortar attack at a military base which wounded a 6-year-old girl. Kurdish militants attacked Turkey's Shah Deniz pipeline carrying natural gas from Azerbaijan, but the blast did not impact supply as flow had already been halted for maintenance.
(Reuters, 8/4/15)(AP, 8/4/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Turkey 5 people including a Turkish soldier died and several others were injured in clashes in the restive Kurdish-majority southeast, as violence raged between Kurdish militants and security forces.
(AFP, 8/7/15)
2015 Aug 7, In Turkey an Iranian bus was hit in Dogubayazit district of the eastern Agri province. The driver was fatally shot in the head. Turkish authorities blamed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants. The passengers were unhurt.
(AFP, 8/8/15)
2015 Aug 8, In southern Turkey Kurdish PKK rebels fired at a police vehicle, killing a policeman and wounding another.
(AP, 8/9/15)
2015 Aug 9, Turkey’s official Anatolia news agency reported that 390 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been killed and hundreds injured in two weeks of Turkish airstrikes on positions in northern Iraq. Operations in the eastern Agri province killed 7 PKK militants.
(AFP, 8/9/15)(Reuters, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 10, In Turkey two women shot at the US consulate in Istanbul. The Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C), considered a terrorist organization by the US and Turkey, said one of its members was involved in the attack. The bombing of an Istanbul police station left 4 people dead, 3 of them PKK attackers. At least 8 people were killed in a wave of separate attacks on security forces.
(Reuters, 8/10/15)(Reuters, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 11, Turkish warplanes hit 17 Kurdish militant targets in the southeastern province of Hakkari over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 11, In northern Iraq Kurdish forces in the Makhmur area near Arbil were reportedly attacked with Katyusha rockets filled with chlorine. IS has previously been accused of using chlorine against Kurdish forces in Iraq.
(AFP, 8/13/15)
2015 Aug 12, In Iraq’s Kurdish region Farhad Jaafar Mahmood and wives Khuncha Hassan Ismaeil and Berivan Haider Karim were hanged following convictions in April last year over the kidnapping and murder of two girls.
(AP, 8/25/15)
2015 Aug 14, Turkish state media said the military has started building a concrete wall along the border with Syria following a series of attacks. Security forces said a soldier was killed after a mine laid by militants was detonated remotely in the eastern province of Bingol. 2 PKK fighters were killed during an operation in response to the attack.
(AFP, 8/14/15)(Reuters, 8/14/15)
2015 Aug 15, Turkey’s state news reported that Kurdish rebels detonated a roadside bomb between the eastern provinces of Bingol and Erzurum as a military vehicle was passing by, killing 3 soldiers. A police officer was killed after PKK rebels opened fire near the town of Semdinli.
(AP, 8/15/15)(Reuters, 8/15/15)
2015 Aug 19, In northeastern Syria a suicide bomber killed at least 16 people in an attack on Kurdish security forces. The blast in Qamishli killed 10 members of the Kurdish forces, called the Asayish, and 6 civilians. IS claimed responsibility. Aerial bombardment by the government of Harasta, a rebel stronghold east of Damascus, left at least 10 people dead.
(AFP, 8/19/15)
2015 Aug 19, Turkish police arrested two people after a hand grenade was hurled and shots were fired at officers guarding Istanbul's Dolmabache Palace. In the southeast PKK militants killed 8 soldiers in a bomb attack in Siirt province.
(AP, 8/19/15)(Reuters, 8/19/15)
2015 Aug 20, Iraqi Kurdistan president Massud Barzani's extended term expired today, leaving the autonomous region in a "legal vacuum" that Kurdish political parties were still trying to resolve.
(AFP, 8/20/15)
2015 Aug 22, Turkey's military said warplanes have conducted new air strikes against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, killing 29 militants on Aug 20-21.
(AP, 8/22/15)
2015 Aug 23, In Turkey Kurdish militants armed with assault rifles attacked a hydroelectric power station near the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, killing a soldier and wounding three others.
(Reuters, 8/23/15)
2015 Aug 25, The Turkish military said 34 militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in its latest air strikes on the group's camps in northern Iraq's Qandil mountain region.
(Reuters, 8/25/15)
2015 Aug 26, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu invited three lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to join an interim government to take Turkey to November 1 elections.
(AFP, 8/26/15)
2015 Aug 27, In southeastern Turkey 6 people were killed in street fighting between security forces and Kurdish rebels in a mainly Kurdish town of Yuksekova after authorities imposed a curfew in the town late the previous day.
(Reuters, 8/27/15)
2015 Sep 3, Four Turkish police were killed in a bomb attack on their vehicle in the country's southeast blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 9/3/15)
2015 Sep 6, In eastern Turkey 2 policeman were killed and three others injured in Diyarbakir when Kurdish militants clashed with security forces. Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels reportedly killed 31 members of the armed forces in an attack on a convoy and clashes in the mountainous Daglica area of Hakkari province. Turkey’s army statement said 16 had died.
(Reuters, 9/6/15)(Reuters, 9/7/15)
2015 Sep 7, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish insurgent targets overnight after the militants staged what appeared to be their deadliest attack since the collapse of a two-year-old ceasefire in July. 16 Turkish soldiers were killed in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of the country in an attack blamed on the PKK.
(Reuters, 9/7/15)(AFP, 9/8/15)
2015 Sep 8, Turkish warplanes launched a massive air operation against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, killing as many as 40 rebels. Kurdish militants killed 14 police officers in a bomb attack on a minibus in a Turkish province bordering Armenia and Iran. Turkish ground forces crossed into northern Iraq for the first time since 2011 in a "short-term" operation to hunt down Kurdish rebels.
(AFP, 9/8/15) (Reuters, 9/8/15)(AP, 9/8/15)
2015 Sep 11, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants fired on a restaurant frequented by police in Diyarbakir, killing a waiter and wounding three officers after Turkish jets bombed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq for a fifth straight night. Media reported that at least 60 PKK fighters were killed in the air strikes by F-16 and F-4 jets which hit 64 targets in the group's camps across the region.
(Reuters, 9/11/15)
2015 Sep 13, In southeast Turkey Kurdish militants killed 2 police officers in a car bomb attack on a checkpoint in Sirnak province. Turkish forces shelled a mountainous area where PKK fighters had fled after the checkpoint attack, killing 6 of them. The PKK also launched an attack with rocket-propelled grenades and rifles in the Silvan district of Diyarbakir province, killing one police officer and wounding another.
(Reuters, 9/13/15)
2015 Sep 19, Turkey’s state-run Anatolia news agency reported that Turkish fighter jets carried out a new barrage of cross-border airstrikes this week against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, killing at least 55 rebels.
(AFP, 9/19/15)
2015 Sep 20, In Turkey at least 10,000 demonstrators rallied in central Istanbul for a protest aimed at denouncing violence by Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 9/20/15)
2015 Sep 21, In Syria heavy bombardment by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed at least 18 civilians in a residential district of the northern city of Aleppo. 4 people were reported killed in twin car bomb attacks on the frontier town of Ras al-Ain. Kurdish security forces were among the dead. At least 38 Islamic State group fighters were killed in air strikes by the Damascus regime against Palmyra and two other towns in Homs province.
(AFP, 9/21/15)(AFP, 9/22/15)
2015 Sep 21, Islamic State militants released Massoud Aqeel, who was kidnapped last year in northern Syria, as part of a prisoner swap with a Kurdish militia. The IS group still held reporter Farhad Hamo.
(Reuters, 9/26/15)
2015 Sep 21, The Turkish military said it has killed 5 Kurdish rebels in airstrikes on the southeastern province of Hakkari.
(AP, 9/21/15)
2015 Sep 24, Two Turkish soldiers and 34 Kurdish rebels were killed in fighting in Sirnak province.
(AFP, 9/25/15)
2015 Sep 25, In Turkey 4 civilians were killed after they were caught in clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants in the southeast. Turkish military killed more than 30 Kurdish militants in a cross-border operation.
(AFP, 9/26/15)(Reuters, 9/29/15)
2015 Sep 28, In southern Turkey 2 police officers were killed in an attack by suspected PKK militants in Adana province.
(Reuters, 9/29/15)
2015 Sep 29, The Turkish army said six PKK militants had been killed in operations carried out in the southeastern province of Hakkari overnight.
(Reuters, 9/29/15)
2015 Sep 29, Turkish warplanes late today struck 24 targets in a bombardment of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) positions in the southeastern province of Hakkari. 2 soldiers were killed when a bomb buried in the ground went off when a military vehicle passed by on a road between southeastern towns of Semdinli and Yuksekova.
(Reuters, 9/30/15)
2015 Sep 30, In northern Iraq Kurdish forces attacked Islamic State in the latest of several offensives aimed at driving the militants away from the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(Reuters, 9/30/15)
2015 Oct 2, Turkish security forces killed more than 10 suspected Kurdish militants amid intensifying clashes in the country's southeast, while 44 people were arrested in Istanbul on suspicion of links with the rebels. Suspected militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) abducted two Turkish soldiers on a highway between the Tunceli and Erzincan provinces.
(Reuters, 10/2/15)(AFP, 10/3/15)
2015 Oct 4, Turkish warplanes struck Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq and eastern Turkey overnight, in a new air operation against the militant group.
(AFP, 10/4/15)
2015 Oct 7, Kurds said Islamic State fighters fired mortar rounds containing mustard agent at peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq during clashes in August.
(Reuters, 10/7/15)
2015 Oct 8, In Iraq protesters hurled stones and scuffled with riot police in the second largest city in the Kurdish north, in the most intense show of discontent since an economic crisis hit the region. The economic crisis began in early 2014 when Baghdad slashed funds to the region, and has been exacerbated by the conflict with Islamic State and a drop in oil prices that has pushed the region to the verge of bankruptcy.
(Reuters, 10/8/15)
2015 Oct 10, In Iraq thousands of people took to the streets of several towns in the Kurdistan region, urging its long-time president Massud Barzani to step down.
(AFP, 10/10/15)
2015 Oct 10, In Turkey as many as 128 people were killed when two suspected suicide bombers hit a rally of pro-Kurdish and leftist activists outside Ankara's main train station, in the deadliest attack of its kind on Turkish soil. On Oct 16 authorities raised the toll to 102. Hours after the bombing, the PKK ordered its fighters to halt operations in Turkey unless they faced attack. Turkey targeted the Islamic State in investigations of the bombing.
(AP, 10/11/15)(Reuters, 10/11/15)(AP, 10/16/15)
2015 Oct 11, Thousands of people took to the streets of Ankara to denounce the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after it said 95 people were killed in twin suspected suicide bombings on a peace rally a day earlier. Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), one of the groups that called the peace rally, issued a statement claiming the actual toll was far higher at 128, giving the names of 120 victims. 2 Turkish soldiers were reported killed during clashes with PKK militants in the Senkaya district of Erzurum province. The Turkish army said it killed at least 49 Kurdish rebels in a series of air strikes on the group's bases in northern Iraq as well as southeastern Diyarbakir province.
(AFP, 10/11/15)
2015 Oct 12, A Kurdish militia that has been fighting Islamic State in Syria with help from US-led air strikes has joined forces with Arab groups in an alliance announced on that may be a prelude to an attack on the jihadists' base of operations in Raqqa.
(Reuters, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 13, Turkish security forces killed ten Kurdish militants during ground and air operations in southeastern Turkey, days after the insurgents called a unilateral ceasefire.
(Reuters, 10/14/15)
2015 Oct 17, Turkey said 3 soldiers and 28 Kurdish militants have been killed in air strikes and clashes over the past two days in the predominantly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 10/17/15)
2015 Oct 18, In Turkey 2 soldiers were killed when rebels set off a remote-controlled mine targeting an army vehicle in the eastern province of Tunceli. Security officials said 4 government soldiers and about 20 Kurdish rebels have been killed in several days of clashes in the mountainous Daglica region.
(AFP, 10/18/15)
2015 Oct 21, In northern Syria a new administration was formed for a majority Sunni-Arab town controlled by Syrian Kurds, expanding the ethnic group's semi-autonomous administration. A local leadership council including representatives of Tel Abyad's Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen and Armenian communities declared it part of the system of autonomous self-government established by the Kurds.
(AP, 10/21/15)(Reuters, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 22, In northern Iraq the US military freed a number of Kurdish captives in a rescue mission in the vicinity of Hawija. US Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler (39) was killed in the operation.
(AP, 10/22/15)(AP, 10/23/15)
2015 Oct 25, Turkish military shot at Kurdish forces deployed in the town of Tal Abyad, Syria, using mostly machine guns. There were no casualties in the shooting and the Kurdish forces didn't return fire.
(AP, 10/27/15)
2015 Oct 30, In Syria at least 47 people were killed and about 100 wounded when government forces fired missiles into a marketplace at Douma, a town 10 miles from Damascus. In the northeast a coalition of US-backed Kurdish militia and rebel groups launched its first operation against territory controlled by the IS jihadist group.
(Reuters, 10/30/15)(AFP, 10/31/15)
2015 Nov 2, Turkish airstrikes hit shelters, underground bunkers and weapon emplacements belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in six locations in northern Iraq, including the Qandil mountains where the rebel leadership is based.
(AP, 11/3/15)
2015 Nov 5, Kurdish militants scrapped a month-old ceasefire in Turkey, a day after President Tayyip Erdogan vowed to "liquidate" them.
(Reuters, 11/5/15)
2015 Nov 10, Kurdish rebels detonated a bomb on a road in southeast Turkey, wounding six soldiers riding inside an armored military vehicle. 3 policemen were killed when PKK militants detonated an improvised explosive device on a road near the town of Silopi, in Sirnak province.
(AP, 11/10/15)(AP, 11/11/15)
2015 Nov 11, In Turkey a soldier was killed in a clash with Kurdish militants in the town of Silvan, in Diyarbakir province. PKK rebels detonated a car bomb on a road in the town of Dargecit, Mardin province, as an armored police vehicle was passing by. The explosion killed a road-sweeper and wounded a police officer.
(AP, 11/11/15)
2015 Nov 12, Kurdish peshmerga forces started clearing parts of the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar and have established positions along an Islamic State supply route between its two main strongholds in Iraq and Syria.
(Reuters, 11/12/15)
2015 Nov 13, In Iraq Kurdish peshmerga forces backed by US air strikes seized the Iraqi town of Sinjar from Islamic State.
(Reuters, 11/13/15)
2015 Nov 13, Turkish officials said 14 people have been killed in clashes between Kurdish rebels and security forces days before a G-20 summit in Turkey.
(AP, 11/13/15)
2015 Nov 15, Kurdish forces said they uncovered two mass graves outside Sinjar, a northern Iraqi town near the Syrian border that was ruled by the Islamic State group for more than a year before the extremists were driven out last week. The first grave uncovered contained 78 elderly women's bodies. The second grave contained between 50 and 60 bodies of men, women and children.
(AP, 11/15/15)
2015 Nov 20, Turkish army warplanes carried out a wave of air strikes on northern Iraq hitting 23 suspected targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 21, Turkish warplanes struck Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant targets, part of an air and ground offensive against the group in southeast Turkey, where some areas have been under curfew for as long as ten days.
(Reuters, 11/22/15)
2015 Nov 22, In Syria a bomb placed on a motorcycle exploded in Tel Abyad, a Kurdish-held town along the Turkish border, killing at least 3 and wounded 20 others.
(Reuters, 11/22/15)
2015 Nov 28, In southeastern Turkey an unidentified gunman killed Tahir Elci, a prominent Kurdish lawyer and rights activist, in what the pro-Kurdish HDP Party called a "planned assassination", urging people to take to the streets in protest. Police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse around 2,000 people marching in Istanbul's Taksim Square after Elci was shot dead in Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 11/28/15)
2015 Dec 5, In Turkey 3 members of the security forces were killed in clashes with militants the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 9, Turkey said its fighter jets carried out a new barrage of air strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq overnight.
(AFP, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 9, In northern Syria the Islamic State staged attacks in the predominantly Kurdish province of Hassakeh targeting offices of the main Kurdish militia known as YPG. At least 26 people were reported killed.
(AP, 12/11/15)
2015 Dec 14, In southeastern Turkey 2 protesters were killed in clashes with police in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir amid growing tensions over a days-long curfew.
(AFP, 12/14/15)
2015 Dec 15, In Turkey 8 Kurdish militants were killed in Cizre after they shot at the soldiers during an operation. A roadside bomb ripped through an armored vehicle and killed 3 policemen in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 16, Turkish security forces stepped up operations targeting Kurdish militants in southeastern towns, as pro-government media detailed plans for a 10,000-strong force to restore state control in the region.
(Reuters, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 17, Turkey said its security forces have killed 25 Kurdish militants this week as they battle suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the two flashpoint towns of Cizre and Silopi.
(AFP, 12/17/15)
2015 Dec 18, Turkish security forces pressed on with a relentless operation to root out Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels from two urban centers in the troubled southeast that has left at least 55 militants dead and angered Kurdish representatives.
(AFP, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 19, Turkey said 69 Kurdish insurgents and two Turkish soldiers have been killed in four days of fighting across the southeast as security forces ramp up operations against the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 20, In southeastern Turkey armed clashes persisted, where an operation by Turkish forces intensified on the sixth day of a campaign that security sources said had resulted in the death of 110 Kurdish militants. Turkish police fired tear gas to disperse several hundred protesters in Istanbul's main Taksim square demonstrating against security operations and curfews in the southeast.
(Reuters, 12/20/15)
2015 Dec 22, Turkish tanks pounded Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in Cizre. The army said it has killed 127 Kurdish militants in a week.
(Reuters, 12/22/15)
2015 Dec 24, A US-backed alliance of Syrian Kurds and Arab rebel groups advanced toward a dam in northern Syria held by Islamic State fighters, in an assault aimed at capturing the militants' stronghold of Raqqa.
(Reuters, 12/24/15)
2015 Dec 25, In Turkey a three-month-old baby and her grandfather were killed when they became caught in the crossfire between security forces and Kurdish rebels in Cizre.
(AFP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 26, A US-backed alliance of Syrian Kurds and Arab rebel groups, backed by US coalition planes, captured a dam from Islamic State.
(Reuters, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 27, In Turkey 3 soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the town of Cizre in the Kurdish majority southeast.
(AFP, 12/27/15)
2015 Dec 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the leader of the main Kurdish party Selahattin Demirtas (42) of "treason" over his call for autonomy for the country's Kurdish minority.
(AFP, 12/29/15)
2015 Dec 30, In northeastern Syria two restaurants were bombed in a predominantly Kurdish city of Qamishli. The attack killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 30.
(AP, 12/31/15)
2016 Jan 1, Turkish media reported that 2 police officers, a soldier and 12 Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters were killed in the southeast in the last 48 hours in operations to push back the militant group.
(Reuters, 1/1/16)
2016 Jan 4, Turkish security sources said 2 civilians, 2 soldiers and a police officer have been killed in the southeast over the last 24 hours as military operations to root out armed fighters focused on urban centers across the mainly Kurdish region. 3 female Kurdish political activists were killed in fighting in curfew-hit Silopi town as the authorities press an offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 1/4/16)(AFP, 1/6/16)
2016 Jan 5, Turkey’s military said security forces have killed at least 14 militants in the mainly Kurdish southeast over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/5/16)
2016 Jan 8, Turkish police detained six people including local officials from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) in a raid on one of its Istanbul offices.
(Reuters, 1/8/16)
2016 Jan 8, Turkey’s armed forces killed 16 PKK fighters in the town of Cizre, near the Syrian border. Another two rebels were killed in the historical Sur district of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 1/9/16)
2016 Jan 9, In Turkey 16 rebels were killed in the towns of Cizre and Silopi, near the Syrian and Iraqi borders, and another four were killed in Sur.
(Reuters, 1/10/16)
2016 Jan 10, In Turkey a soldier and a police officer were killed in Diyarbakir when they came under explosives and rifle fire in a clash with rebels in which 14 security personnel were also wounded. Police killed a further 12 PKK members after finding them in a house in the southeastern city of Van overnight.
(Reuters, 1/10/16)
2016 Jan 11, In France an ethnic Kurd Turkish teenager (15) stabbed a Jewish teacher with a machete in the southern city of Marseille. The teen claimed to have been acting for the Islamic State.
(AFP, 1/11/16)
2016 Jan 14, In southeast Turkey Kurdish militants attacked a police station overnight with a truck bomb, killing 6 people including a baby and two toddlers in Cinar.
(Reuters, 1/14/16)
2016 Jan 15, Turkish police detained more than a dozen academics who signed a petition criticizing the military crackdown in the Kurdish-dominated southeast that angered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, triggering new alarm about freedom of expression in the country.
(AFP, 1/15/16)
2016 Jan 20, Amnesty International released a report saying Iraqi Kurdish forces are deliberately destroying Arab villages under their control. The group also found that Arab civilians were barred from returning to their villages by Kurdish forces.
(AP, 1/20/16)
2016 Jan 23, A Turkish soldier was killed in a clash between the security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the southeastern town of Cizre. 7 PKK members were reported "neutralized".
(Reuters, 1/23/16)
2016 Jan 25, Turkey's foreign minister said any participation of Kurdish forces in planned Syria peace talks would be dangerous and spell the end of the UN-led initiative.
(AP, 1/25/16)
2016 Jan 26, Turkey’s security forces killed 11 PKK members in the town of Cizre, near the Syrian border, and nine more in Sur. 3 soldiers were killed in a militant attack in Sur.
(Reuters, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 27, In southeastern Turkey thousands of people fled a district of the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir after authorities fighting Kurdish militants there expanded a 24-hour curfew to include five more neighborhoods.
(AP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 27, Spain’s Interior Ministry said police have arrested nine suspected members of the Kurdish armed group PKK-KCK that operates in Syria and Turkey in raids in three Spanish cities.
(AP, 1/27/16)
2016 Jan 29, In Iraq a pipeline for gas used to generate around half the electricity for the northern Kurdistan region was blown up, knocking out power. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.
(Reuters, 1/29/16)
2016 Feb 2, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters under the umbrella of the PYD, the main Syrian Kurdish force, severed the corridor between Aleppo and and the Turkish border critical for rebel supplies, in tacit alliance with the Assad regime.
(Econ, 2/20/16, p.39)
2016 Feb 3, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani declared that the "time has come" for the country's Kurds to hold a referendum on statehood, a move likely to raise tensions with Baghdad.
(AFP, 2/3/16)
2016 Feb 5, A fire at a hotel in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, killed 19 people and injured dozens more.
(AFP, 2/5/16)
2016 Feb 9, Protests intensified in Iraq's Kurdistan region after the government unveiled new austerity measures to avert an economic collapse that officials warn could undermine the war effort against Islamic State.
(Reuters, 2/9/16)
2016 Feb 9, Turkish soldiers spotted seven PKK militants entering Sirnak province's Cizre district from Syria and, as they clashed, one soldier was killed and one wounded. Military officials have detained a group of 34 people at the border with Syria and seized luggage containing four suicide vests and explosives.
(Reuters, 2/10/16)
2016 Feb 10, In northern Syria Kurdish fighters backed by Russian airstrikes launched an attack in an attempt to capture a military air base held by Syrian insurgents. An international aid group warned that the health system is close to collapse in parts of northern Syria.
(AP, 2/10/16)
2016 Feb 10, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported that one police officer was killed and another wounded when PKK rebels launched a rocket attack on an armored vehicle in Sirnak.
(Reuters, 2/10/16)(AP, 2/10/16)
2016 Feb 11, In Syria Kurdish-led fighters aided by Russian bombing captured the rebel-held Menagh military airport near the border with Turkey. Russian warplanes staged at least 30 raids against the rebels holding out there.
(Reuters, 2/11/16)
2016 Feb 11, Turkey said that its security forces have completed their operations against militants in Cizre after weeks of fighting. Turkish security forces killed 27 militants in the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 2/12/16)
2016 Feb 14, The Syrian Kurdish PYD party rejected Turkish demands that allied militia withdraw from positions near the border that are being shelled by Turkish army.
(Reuters, 2/14/16)
2016 Feb 14, The Turkish army shelled positions held by Kurdish-backed militia in northern Syria for a second day, killing two fighters.
(Reuters, 2/14/16)
2016 Feb 15, Turkish security forces hit Kurdish militia targets in Syria for the third day in a row after a border security outpost on the border was attacked this morning.
(Reuters, 2/15/16)
2016 Feb 17, Nine Kurdish soldiers were admitted with symptoms including vomiting, nausea, shortness of breath and itching. It wasbelieved that Islamic State militants fired mortar shells believed to have been filled with a chemical substance, possibly chlorine, at Kurdish troops close to the Iraqi town of Sinjar.
(AP, 2/18/16)
2016 Feb 17, In Turkey a car laden with explosives detonated next to military buses as they waited at traffic lights near the armed forces' headquarters, parliament and government buildings in the administrative heart of Ankara. 28 people were killed. Within hours, Turkish warplanes bombed bases in northern Iraq of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which PM Davutoglu accused of collaborating in the car bombing.
(Reuters, 2/18/16)
2016 Feb 19, Two Turkish soldiers and one police officer were killed in an attack by Kurdish militants in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 2/19/16)
2016 Feb 23, Britain said it had seen disturbing evidence that Syrian Kurds were coordinating with the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad and the Russian air force.
(Reuters, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 24, Turkish military helicopters killed 9 Kurdish militants in strikes near the southeastern Idil district of Sirnak province.
(Reuters, 2/24/16)
2016 Feb 28, Turkish security said a police officer was killed and two wounded when suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants fired a rocket at their armored vehicle in the town of Nusaybin near the southeastern border with Syria.
(Reuters, 2/28/16)
2016 Mar 4, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish rebels detonated a car bomb near a police station, killing two police officers and wounding some 35 people.
(AP, 3/4/16)
2016 Mar 7, In southeastern Turkey 13 Kurdish militants were killed when a firefight broke out in the town of Idil. Two Turkish soldiers were killed in the last 24 hours, one in Idil and the other in Sur, a historic district in Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 7, An official in YPG, the Syrian Kurdish militia, said that Turkey was firing artillery shells at its fighters in northern Aleppo province.
(Reuters, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 9, Turkey ended its 3-month military operation against militants in mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.
(AP, 3/9/16)
2016 Mar 9, The Turkish military carried out air strikes against Kurdish rebel targets across the border in northern Iraq, killing at least 67 militants.
(AP, 3/12/16)
2016 Mar 10, In southeastern Turkey 7 Kurdish militants were killed in a gun battle in Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 3/10/16)
2016 Mar 13, Turkey slapped a curfew on two border towns in the Kurdish-dominated southeast ahead of a looming military "clean-up" operation as it eased a lockdown in Diyarbakir. 37 people were killed in an Ankara car bombing that security officials said involved a female fighter of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(AFP, 3/13/16)(Reuters, 3/14/16)
2016 Mar 13, Russia accused Turkey of sending its military across the Syrian border to prevent Kurdish groups there from consolidating their positions.
(AP, 3/13/16)
2016 Mar 14, Turkey detained four suspects over the previous day’s suicide car bombing in Ankara, as warplanes pounded Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq over the attack. At least 45 Kurdish rebels were killed in the air strikes. Turkey declared a round-the-clock curfew in the southeastern town of Sirnak in order to carry out operations against Kurdish militants in the area.
(AFP, 3/14/16)(Reuters, 3/14/16)(AP, 3/15/16)
2016 Mar 14, In northern Iraq Muhammad Jamal Amin (27) of Virginia, a fighter for the Islamic State surrendered to Kurdish peshmerga forces near Sinjar.
(Reuters, 3/14/16)(SFC, 3/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Mar 16, A powerful Syrian Kurdish political party announced plans to declare a federal region in northern Syria, a model it hopes can be applied to the entire country.
(AP, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 16, Turkish police detained eight lawyers as part of a crackdown on pro-Kurdish activists. At least 47 suspects were detained in anti-terror operations across the country.
(AFP, 3/16/16)(AP, 3/16/16)
2016 Mar 17, Syria's three Kurdish-controlled autonomous regions voted to approve the establishment of a federal system in the north of the country, defying warnings from Damascus and neighboring Turkey against any such unilateral move.
(Reuters, 3/17/16)
2016 Mar 17, The American Islamic State group fighter, Muhammad Jamal Amin, who handed himself over to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq on March 14 said he made "a bad decision" in joining the IS, according to a heavily edited interview he gave to an Iraqi Kurdish television station.
(AP, 3/18/16)
2016 Mar 21, Three Turkish soldiers were killed in a bomb attack on their military vehicle in the southeastern town of Nusaybin near the Syrian border. 23 Kurdish militants were killed in clashes in Nusaybin, Yuksekova and Sirnak.
(Reuters, 3/21/16)(Reuters, 3/22/16)
2016 Mar 21, In Turkey thousands of people gathered in the mainly Kurdish of Diyarbakir to celebrate the Newroz spring festival. The celebrations were banned in Ankara and in Istanbul, where security forces rounded up 164 people, including 12 minors, ahead of the festivities.
(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 22, In Turkey Kurdish militants killed 5 members of government security forces in three separate bomb attacks near the Syrian and Iranian borders.
(Reuters, 3/22/16)
2016 Mar 23, Turkish F-16 and F-4 jets raided 11 targets of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, including ammunition depots, bunkers and shelters late today.
(AP, 3/24/16)
2016 Mar 24, In Turkey 3 military police were killed and 22 injured in a car bombing on a barracks in in Mermer, Diyarbakir province, suspected to be the work of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 3/25/16)
2016 Mar 26, Turkish Air Force jets joined coalition forces in attacking Islamic State targets in northern Iraq, hours after a Turkish soldier was killed at a military base in the region from rockets fired by the extremist militants.
(AP, 3/26/16)
2016 Mar 29, Turkey’s security forces killed 14 "terrorists" — a military reference to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party — in Mardin province, five in Sirnak and four in Hakkari. A total of 347 militants have been killed in those three regions since the start of security operations in July.
(AP, 3/30/16)
2016 Mar 31, In Turkey a car bomb attack killed 7 police officers and wounded 27 other people in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) soon claimed responsibility. On April 2 a suspect, named as A.C., was detained in the Kocakoy district of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 4/1/16)(AFP, 4/2/16)
2016 Apr 1, Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes in northern Iraq, destroying ammunition depots and shelters in an areas where the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has camps.
(Reuters, 4/1/16)
2016 Apr 4, The Turkish military carried out airstrikes in northern Iraq against targets belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 4/5/16)
2016 Apr 5, Syrian insurgents shot down a government warplane in the north of the country and shelled a predominantly Kurdish neighborhood in the city of Aleppo. A pregnant woman and three children were among 18 civilians killed when Syrian rebels shelled a Kurdish neighborhood in Aleppo.
(AP, 4/5/16)(AFP, 4/6/16)
2016 Apr 12, Two Turkish soldiers were killed and more than 50 people wounded when a car bomb exploded at a military post in the restive Kurdish-dominated southeast.
(AP, 4/12/16)
2016 Apr 20, In north-eastern Syria 2 members of the Syrian Kurdish security force, known as the Asayish, were killed after being targeted by government forces in Qamishli.
(Reuters, 4/20/16)
2016 Apr 20, Turkish warplanes struck militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 4/20/16)
2016 Apr 21, In Syria at least 40 pro-Syrian government fighters surrendered to Kurdish forces in the city of Qamishli in mostly Kurdish-controlled Hasaka province.
(Reuters, 4/21/16)
2016 Apr 21, Turkish warplanes struck militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in southeastern Turkey.
(Reuters, 4/21/16)
2016 Apr 22, In northeastern Syria regional Kurdish security forces and pro-Syrian government forces declared a ceasefire, calming a three-day outbreak of violence which killed more than 26 people.
(Reuters, 4/23/16)
2016 Apr 24, In Iraq heavy clashes erupted between Kurdish peshmerga forces and Shiite paramilitary troops inside Tuz Khormato, a contested town north of Baghdad. A peshmerga brigadier general and another fighter and two members of Turkmen forces were among the nine people killed.
(AFP, 4/24/16)
2016 Apr 24, In northeastern Syria, a truce document announced today showed that regional Kurdish security forces will keep territory taken from pro-Syrian government forces during a three-day outbreak of violence, with both sides to release prisoners taken during the clashes.
(Reuters, 4/24/16)
2016 Apr 25, Turkey's military said it has destroyed Islamic State's missile launcher in Syria some 20 km from the border town of Kilis which has been repeatedly his by rockets from the border. 2 Turkish soldiers were killed and four wounded in an armed attack by Kurdish militants in the southeastern town of Nusaybin near the Syrian border.
(Reuters, 4/25/16)
2016 Apr 30, In Syria a suicide bomber killed five Kurdish policemen at a checkpoint in the divided northeastern city of Qamishli.
(AFP, 4/30/16)
2016 Apr 30, The Turkish military says it conducted overnight airstrikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey.
(AP, 4/30/16)
2016 May 1, In Turkey a car bomb struck the entrance of a police station in the southern city of Gaziantep, killing 2 officials and injuring 23 other people. 3 Turkish soldiers were killed and 14 others wounded in an attack in the Kurdish-dominated southeast blamed on militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(AP, 5/1/16)(AFP, 5/1/16)(Econ, 5/21/16, p.48)
2016 May 2, Turkish warplanes pounded Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq, killing 18 militants.
(AP, 5/3/16)
2016 May 4, Turkey said its warplanes have destroyed targets belonging to the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey.
(Reuters, 5/4/16)
2016 May 8, In southeastern Turkey 9 PKK members were killed in the towns of Nusaybin and Sirnak.
(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 13, Turkish fighter jets carried out nine airstrikes against Kurdish rebels in the southeast of the country and northern Iraq. The warplanes reportedly destroyed 98 targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.
(AP, 5/14/16)
2016 May 15, A Turkish soldier and six members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in the largely Kurdish southeast. The Turkish military killed 16 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters in an operation backed by air power near the Iranian border.
(Reuters, 5/15/16)(Reuters, 5/16/16)
2016 May 18, Turkish warplanes hit PKK targets overnight in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq, killing at least 10 fighters. 4 Turkish soldiers were killed and nine wounded when a bomb was detonated as their vehicle traveled past in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country. Earlier today a soldier was killed in Nusaybin, situated at the Syrian border some 500 km (310 miles) away, when militants opened fire on him.
(Reuters, 5/18/16)
2016 May 20, Turkey's parliament approved a bill to amend the constitution to strip lawmakers of immunity, a move that paves the way for trials of several pro-Kurdish and other legislators. The bill put 138 lawmakers, the vast majority of them from two opposition parties, at risk of prosecution.
(AP, 5/20/16)
2016 May 22, Turkish authorities lifted a long-standing curfew from parts of a historic neighborhood in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.
(AP, 5/22/16)
2016 May 24, The Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Arab alliance, announced the launch of a major assault against the Islamic State group north of the jihadists' Syrian bastion of Raqa.
(AFP, 5/24/16)
2016 May 29, Iraq's special forces completed a troop buildup around Fallujah ahead of an operation to retake the Islamic State-held city west of Baghdad, as the militants attacked Hit, a newly-liberated town to the west. Iraq's Kurdish peshmerga forces launched an offensive to retake areas east of Mosul, the main IS hub in the country.
(AP, 5/29/16)(AFP, 5/29/16)
2016 Jun 4, Turkish warplanes struck Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey and the army killed 27 fighters near its borders with Iraq and Iran.
(Reuters, 6/5/16)
2016 Jun 5, A top Syrian Kurdish commander died. Abu Layla, who commanded a brigade inside the predominantly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, was hit by IS sniper fire on the outskirts of Manbij, several days earlier during a US-backed campaign to unseat the Islamic State group from its de-facto Syrian capital, Raqqa.
(AP, 6/5/16)
2016 Jun 5, In Turkey more than 1,000 people attended a rally of a pro-Kurdish, opposition party in Istanbul to protest against the abolition of immunity of some Turkish members of parliament.
(AP, 6/5/16)
2016 Jun 8, In Turkey a Kurdish rebel suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle outside a police headquarters near the border with Syria, killing 4 other people in Midyat, mardin province.
(AP, 6/8/16)
2016 Jun 10, Turkey's Justice Ministry said it has sent dozens of cases involving 57 lawmakers to public prosecutors after the president lifted their legal immunity. Most of the lawmakers at risk of prosecution belong to the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party, HDP, or the opposition Republican People's Party.
(AP, 6/10/16)
2016 Jun 11, Turkish warplanes killed 13 suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the southeast province of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 6/11/16)
2016 Jun 13, Iran's state TV reported that a firefight between Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and Kurdish militants in western Iran has left 5 militants dead. IRNA news agency reported a clash in the country's restive Sistan-Baluchistan province near the border with Pakistan, saying Iranian security forces killed 5 members of the Jaish al-Adl group. An Iranian police officer was also killed in the clash.
(AP, 6/13/16)
2016 Jun 15, Iran's Revolutionary Guard battled armed members of an insurgent Kurdish group, leading to fatalities near Oshnavieh, a predominantly Kurdish town in West Azerbaijan province.
(AP, 6/16/16)
2016 Jun 16, Kurdish official Masrour Barzan said that once the Islamic State is defeated, Iraq should be divided into three separate entities to prevent further sectarian bloodshed, with a state each given to Shi'ite Muslims, Sunnis and Kurds.
(Reuters, 6/16/16)
2016 Jun 18, Turkish fighter jets hit 16 PKK targets early today in the district of Lice, including shelters and ammunition depots.
(AP, 6/18/16)
2016 Jun 25, A Kurdish official and opposition activists said hundreds of Kurds fleeing villages controlled by the Islamic State group in northern Syria have come under fire that killed and wounded several of them, amid mass abductions by the extremist group. Over the past three weeks some 900 Kurdish civilians have been abducted in Aleppo province. At least 26 were reported killed for refusing to follow Islamic State orders.
(AP, 6/25/16)(SFC, 6/25/16, p.A2)
2016 Jun 24, Iranian security forces clashed with Kurdish separatists who infiltrated a northwestern village to stage "terrorist and propagandist operations." Later reports said 5 armed rebels linked to counter-revolutionary groups were killed.
(AP, 6/25/16)(AFP, 6/26/16)
2016 Jun 29, In Syria a car bomb killed at least 10 people in Tal Abyad town, held by US-backed Kurdish-led forces, near the Turkish border. Fighters from the New Syrian Army returned to their base in Tanf having lost 4 fighters and four vehicles in a failed effort to capture Boukamal, an IS border crossing between Iraq and Syria.
(AFP, 6/29/16)(SFC, 7/4/16, p.A4)
2016 Jul 5, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard killed two Kurdish insurgents who have been on the run since last week. They were part of a larger group, 11 of whom were killed in clashes with Iranian forces last week in Iran's western Kurdistan province.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 8, Turkish fighter jets struck Kurdish militant targets in southeastern Hakkari province and northern Iraq. The Turkish Army reportedly "neutralized 17 separatist terror organization members" in Hakkari province and two militants in Van province.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)(AP, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 9, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants carried out a car bomb attack on a military outpost and then opened fire on the facility, killing two soldiers and a civilian and wounding dozens in the town of Cevizlik.
(Reuters, 7/9/16)
2016 Jul 10, In Turkey two Kurdish militant bomb attacks ripped through a military outpost and an army vehicle, killing 5 members of the armed forces in Hakkari province.
(Reuters, 7/10/16)
2016 Jul 11, Human Rights Watch said Turkey's government is blocking access to independent investigations into alleged mass abuses against civilians in southeast Turkey, where security forces are fighting Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 7/11/16)
2016 Jul 20, Turkish broadcaster NTV said Turkey’s military has carried out air strikes against members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq, killing 20 militants.
(Reuters, 7/20/16)
2016 Jul 26, Two Turkish soldiers were killed in separate incidents involving Kurdish militants in the Kurdish southeast region.
(Reuters, 7/26/16)
2016 Jul 27, In Syria a large truck bomb blast claimed by Islamic State targeted Kurdish security forces and killed at least 48 people and wounded scores more in the northeastern city of Qamishli. Government air strikes and artillery fire killed at least 16 civilians on in rebel-held neighbourhoods in the east of Aleppo city.
(Reuters, 7/27/16)(AFP, 7/27/16)
2016 Jul 29, In Turkey 8 government soldiers were killed in a clash with Kurdish militants at a checkpoint in the southeastern Hakkari province. A subsequent operation against the Kurdish rebels left eight Kurds dead.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 30, In Turkey 27 fighters from the Kurdish Workers' Party, or PKK, were killed in Hakkari province when Turkish troops launched an air-and-ground operation against groups of PKK fighters attempting to infiltrate.
(AP, 7/30/16)
2016 Jul 31, In Turkey 4 government soldiers were killed in two separate clashes with militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 7/31/16)
2016 Aug 6, In northern Syria the former Al-Nusra Front, renamed the Fateh al-Sham Front after breaking from Al-Qaeda, announced that rebels have broken a devastating government siege of Aleppo after a week of fierce fighting. Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Arab and Kurd fighters, took control of Manbij from IS militants.
(AFP, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 10, In Turkey Kurdish rebels attacked soldiers near the border with Iraq, killing four of them in Sirnak province. Evening bomb blasts in two cities in the southeast killed 9 civilians and wounded dozens.
(AP, 8/10/16)(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Turkish police detained 17 suspected militants in a sweep in Istanbul that included a raid on offices of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), hours after twin bomb attacks hit the mainly Kurdish southeast.
(Reuters, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, Turkish jets raided suspected Kurdish rebel targets across the border in northern Iraq, following a wave of attacks that killed at least 12 people.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 14, Iraqi Kurdish forces retook five villages east of Islamic State-held Mosul in an operation launched early today.
(AP, 8/14/16)
2016 Aug 19, A Kurdish official said Syrian Kurdish militia have seized several positions from government forces in the divided city of Hasaka (Hassakeh). At least 13 people, including children and women, were reported killed as a result of shelling by the army on Kurdish-controlled areas of Hasaka.
(Reuters, 8/19/16)
2016 Aug 20, Syrian regime jets pounded US-backed Kurdish forces in the northeast for a second day, even after the US-led coalition scrambled jets to protect its military advisers working on the ground.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 22, The Kurdish YPG militia launched a major assault to seize the last government-controlled parts of the northeastern Syrian city of Hasaka after calling on pro-government militias to surrender.
(Reuters, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 24, Turkish tanks and armoured vehicles crossed into the Islamic State group-held border district of Jarablus with air cover from the US-led coalition in “Operation Euphrates Shield." The Syrian government and Syrian Kurdish officials condemned the incursion.
(AFP, 8/24/16)(Reuters, 8/24/16)(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 25, At least nine more Turkish tanks entered northern Syria as part of an operation aimed at driving Islamic State out of the border area around Jarablus and stopping Kurdish militia fighters from seizing territory.
(Reuters, 8/25/16)
2016 Aug 26, In Turkey 11 police officers were killed and 78 people injured in a suicide truck bombing in Cizre. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 28, Turkey's army and its allies thrust deeper into Syria, seizing territory controlled by Kurdish-aligned forces on the fifth day of a cross-border campaign that a monitoring group said had killed at least 35 villagers.
(Reuters, 8/28/16)
2016 Sep 2, Turkey's Anadolu state-run news agency said one Turkish soldier was killed and six wounded in clashes with Kurdish militants. 20 Kurdish fighters were also reported killed during the clashes in Hakkari province that included Turkish airstrikes.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 7, Iran state media reported that 8 members of the rebel Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) have been killed in overnight clashes with security forces along the Iraqi border in the northwestern province of West Azerbaijan.
(AP, 9/7/16)
2016 Sep 29, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi asked Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani not to exploit the war on Islamic State to expand the Kurds' territory.
(Reuters, 9/29/16)
2016 Oct 2, In Iraq a booby-trapped drone launched by Islamic State militants killed two Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and wounded two French soldiers north of the IS-controlled city of Mosul. French soldiers had been training Kurdish fighters near the site of the drone crash near the town of Dohuk.
(Reuters, 10/12/16)
2016 Oct 23, Kurdish fighters said they had taken the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from Islamic State as coalition forces pressed their offensive against the jihadists' last stronghold in Iraq.
(Reuters, 10/23/16)
2016 Nov 4, In Turkey a car bomb attack in Diyarbakir killed at least nine people. The attack came just hours after authorities detained at least 12 pro-Kurdish lawmakers for questioning in terror related probes. PM Binali Yildirim said the bombing was carried out by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Two more people soon succumbed to their wounds. A news outlet linked to the Islamic State said its fighters staged the bombing that killed 11 people.
(AP, 11/4/16)(AFP, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, In Turkey an Istanbul court ordered the imprisonment of nine staff from the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper. Authorities detained nine officials from the country's main pro-Kurdish opposition party. Police used water cannon and tear gas against crowds of protesters in Istanbul, in an attempt to block them from marching to the office of an opposition newspaper whose staff had been arrested.
(AFP, 11/4/16)(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 5, In southeastern Turkish two children were killed when a bomb planted by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) exploded in the province of Sirnak.
(Reuters, 11/5/16)
2016 Nov 6, The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-Arab militia, announced an offensive to eject the Islamic State from Raqqa.
(Econ, 11/12/16, p.47)
2016 Nov 6, Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party said it was pulling out of parliament after nine of its MPs including the two co-leaders were arrested in an unprecedented crackdown. The state-run Anadolu Agency said police have detained 15 suspects in an operation involving raids across the southeastern province of Adana targeting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.
(AFP, 11/6/16)(Reuters, 11/6/16)
2016 Nov 7, In Syria Kurdish-led Syrian fighters clashed with Islamic State militants north of the city of Raqqa as they pushed ahead in their offensive aiming to retake the city that has been the de facto capital of the extremist group since 2014.
(AP, 11/7/16)
2016 Nov 8, Iraqi Kurdish forces seized the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from the Islamic State group. About five percent of the town remained under jihadist control. US-backed militia forces advanced on the jihadists' Syrian stronghold Raqa.
(AFP, 11/8/16)
2016 Nov 17, Turkish police detained the pro-Kurdish co-mayor of the southeastern city of Van, expanding a crackdown on municipal chiefs throughout the region that has sparked international concern.
(AFP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 21, Turkish authorities detained Ahmet Turk (74), a Kurdish politician and mayor in the southeastern province of Mardin. He was reported released on Feb 3 because of deteriorating health.
(Reuters, 2/3/17)
2016 Nov 22, Turkish authorities issued an arrest warrant for Salih Muslim, a leader of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), in relation to a February bomb attack on military buses in Ankara. The arrest papers also mentioned 47 other people, including leading members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.
(Reuters, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 23, In Iraq Iranian-backed Shi'ite paramilitaries said they had linked up with Kurdish peshmerga forces west of Mosul, a move they said completed the encircling of the Islamic State-held city and nearby town of Tal Afar.
(Reuters, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 23, Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces clashed with Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria, where both are fighting the Islamic State group. Kurdish-affiliated forces entered the IS-held town of Arima, near al-Bab.
(AP, 11/23/16)
2016 Nov 24, In southern Turkey a car bomb exploded in the car park of the governor's office in Adana killing two people and wounding 33. Police shot and captured a suspect. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) later claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 11/24/16)(AP, 11/24/16)(Reuters, 11/29/16)
2016 Nov 28, Two Turkish soldiers were reported killed after clashing with Kurdish militants in the eastern province of Tunceli.
(Reuters, 11/28/16)
2016 Nov, In Turkey pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-leader Selahattin Demirtas was detained on charges of links to Kurdish militants. He was detained along with another nine HDP lawmakers and his female co-leader Figen Yuksekdag.
(AFP, 1/17/17)
2016 Dec 3, The Turkish military said it has killed 20 fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after they tried to attack army bases in the southeastern Hakkari province.
(Reuters, 12/3/16)
2016 Dec 4, Human Rights Watch said Kurdish restrictions on the movement of goods are harming the recovery of Iraq's Yazidi minority, which was targeted for genocide by the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 12/4/16)
2016 Dec 9, Turkish jets carried out air strikes against Kurdish militants in the Gara region of northern Iraq and killed 19 militants.
(Reuters, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 10, In Turkey twin bombings killed at least 44 people and wounded 155 outside an Istanbul soccer stadium. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) soon claimed responsibility and the Turkish government vowed vengeance.
(Reuters, 12/11/16)(Reuters, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 12, Turkey detained over 200 people including dozens of officials from pro-Kurdish parties and struck Kurdish militants in Iraq in response to this weekend's twin bombings claimed by a radical Kurd separatist group.
(AFP, 12/12/16)
2016 Dec 13, Turkish police detained two female pro-Kurdish lawmakers as a crackdown intensified after a deadly Istanbul bombing that raised questions about Ankara's strategy in fighting separatist militants. Turkey's Interior Ministry said 568 people have been detained on account of their alleged affiliation with the PKK.
(AFP, 12/13/16)(AP, 12/13/16)
2016 Dec 17, In Turkey a suicide car bomber set off an explosion that demolished a public bus transporting off-duty soldiers in the central province of Kayseri, killing 14 troops and wounding 55 others. In response dozens of nationalist protestors stormed the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Kayseri. Turkish authorities detained seven people and searched for another five in relation to the attack. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, or TAK, later claimed responsibility.
(AP, 12/17/16)(AFP, 12/17/16)(Reuters, 12/17/16)(AP, 12/20/16)
2016 Dec 20, In northern Iraq a bombing killed five Iranian Kurdish fighters and an Iraqi Kurdish policeman in Koy Sanjaq, east of Erbil. An Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group the next day accused Iran of the bombing.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 28, Turkish security said one Turkish soldier and two Kurdish militants died as a result of clashes overnight in the eastern province of Tunceli.
(Reuters, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 29, Syrian Kurdish groups and their allies said they have approved a blueprint for a system of federal government in northern Syria, reaffirming their plans for autonomy in areas they have controlled during the civil war.
(Reuters, 12/29/16)
2017 Jan 5, In western Turkey a car bombing outside a courthouse in the city of Izmir killed two people. The Kurdish PKK militant group was suspected. Turkish police shot dead a second suspected attacker following the explosion.
(Reuters, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 16, In southeastern Turkey a roadside bomb in a pre-dominantly Kurdish city killed three policemen and wounded three others.
(AP, 1/16/17)
2017 Jan 31, Turkey arrested two MPs from the main pro-Kurdish party, including its chief spokesman, the latest move in a crackdown on the group ahead of a vote on changing the constitution.
(AFP, 1/31/17)
2017 Feb 4, In Syria an alliance of US-backed Kurdish-led militias started a new phase of its campaign against the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa, aiming to complete its encirclement and sever the road to militant strongholds in Deir al-Zor province.
(Reuters, 2/4/17)(SSFC, 2/5/17, p.A4)
2017 Feb 11, In France some 15,000 people marched in the eastern city of Strasbourg demanding that Turkey release Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan, as Europe's Kurds held their biggest annual gathering.
(AFP, 2/11/17)
2017 Feb 18, In northern Syria a US-backed predominantly Kurdish force captured the village of Jawees in an ongoing move to close in on the Islamic State de facto capital of Raqqa.
(SSFC, 2/19/17, p.A2)
2017 Feb 21, In Turkey Figen Yuksekdag, the co-chair of the opposition pro-Kurdish party, lost her seat in parliament after an appeals court confirmed her conviction on terrorism-related charges. The party has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights seeking the lawmakers' release, so that they may be allowed to campaign ahead of a referendum on expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers.
(AP, 2/21/17)
2017 Feb 25, Iraqi forces backed by jets and helicopters battled jihadists inside west Mosul. Shifa Gardi, a female reporter working for Iraqi Kurdish channel Rudaw, was killed by the explosion of a roadside bomb during the fighting in Mosul. Four bombs went off near a minor pipeline from an oilfield close to the northern city of Kirkuk. One member of the Kurdish security forces was killed.
(AFP, 2/25/17)(Reuters, 2/25/17)
2017 Mar 2, Kurdish forces seized an oil facility in Kirkuk to send a message to the Iraqi government to build a refinery.
(Reuters, 3/2/17)
2017 Mar 3, In Iraq rival Kurdish groups clashed in the northwestern Sinjar region. The YBS, a local affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), said the fighting began when the Peshmerga Rojava tried to seize its positions in Khanasor. The YBS accused Turkey of instigating the violence.
(Reuters, 3/3/17)
2017 Mar 6, Turkish security forces launched one of their largest "anti-terrorist" operations in recent years in the restive south-east against Kurdish militants.
(AFP, 3/6/17)
2017 Mar 10, The UN accused Turkish security forces of committing serious abuses during operations against Kurdish militants in the southeast after a ceasefire collapsed in July 2015.
(AFP, 3/10/17)
2017 Mar 18, Turkish media said authorities have detained 740 people for suspected links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) over the last three days.
(Reuters, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 18, In Germany around 9,000 Kurdish supporters demonstrated in Frankfurt against Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and an April referendum that would give him sweeping new powers.
(Reuters, 3/18/17)
2017 Mar 19, Russia concluded an agreement with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia to set up a military base in northwestern Syria. Russia will be training YPG fighters, who control the area, as part of the fight against terrorism.
(Reuters, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 21, In Turkey tens of thousands of people celebrated the New Year festival of Newroz in the overwhelmingly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, even as police killed a man who claimed to be carrying a bomb.
(AFP, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 22, In Syria US aircraft ferried Syrian Kurdish fighters and allied forces behind Islamic State lines to spearhead an assault on a strategic town belonging to the extremist group outside its de facto capital, Raqqa.
(AP, 3/22/17)
2017 Mar 22, Turkey fired into Kurdish-controlled Syria after saying one of its soldiers was killed in Hatay province by a sniper from across the border in Afrin.
(Reuters, 3/22/17)
2017 Mar 26, In Syria a Kurdish and Arab Syrian militia backed by the United States said it has captured the town of Karama and the capture of the Tabqa air base, 28 miles west of Raqqa. They planned an assault on the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in early April.
(Reuters, 3/26/17)(SFC, 3/27/17, p.A3)
2017 Apr 1, Turkey's foreign minister said tens of thousands of displaced Syrians and refugees have returned to an area controlled by Turkey and Turkish-backed opposition fighters in northern Syria. US-backed Kurdish-led fighters pressed their offensive in the north near a town held by the Islamic State group.
(AP, 4/1/17)
2017 Apr 11, In Turkey a police officer and two civilian employees were killed in an attack at a police station in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. Authorities said it was carried out with a ton of explosives planted inside a tunnel. A day later Kurdish rebels claimed responsibility.
(AP, 4/12/17)
2017 Apr 16, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants killed a guard in an overnight attack on a vehicle carrying a district official from the ruling AK Party.
(Reuters, 4/16/17)
2017 Apr 17, Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition said that the number of unstamped ballots counted as valid in the April 16 referendum had been enough to swing the outcome of the vote and decried what it described as a "coup" by electoral authorities.
(Reuters, 4/17/17)
2017 Apr 21, Two Turkish soldiers died and two more were wounded in a clash with Kurdish militants in a rural area of southeast Turkey near the Iraqi border. The military said six militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) had been "neutralized" in the ensuing operation in Sirnak province.
(Reuters, 4/21/17)
2017 Apr 25, Turkish warplanes killed at least 28 Kurdish fighters in strikes in Syria and Iraq, where the Kurds are key players in the battle against the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 4/25/17)(AFP, 4/26/17)
2017 Apr 26, Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq and killed six militants, in a second day of cross-border raids.
(Reuters, 4/26/17)
2017 Apr 28, Turkey's military said that one of its outposts in the southeastern town of Ceylanpinar bordering Syria came under rocket attack early today from Syrian territory held by the Kurdish militia YPG. The army returned fire killing 11 YPG militants.
(AP, 4/28/17)
2017 Apr 29, Turkey's military reportedly killed 14 members of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in air strikes in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 4/29/17)
2017 Apr 30, In northern Syria a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance advanced against the Islamic State group in the key town of Tabqa near the jihadist bastion of Raqa.
(AP, 4/30/17)
2017 May 7, In northern Iraq at least two people were killed and six injured when multiple Islamic State suicide bombers attacked a base in the Kirkuk area where US military advisers are stationed. Two of the militants died when they detonated their vests at the entrance to the K1 base overnight, and three more were killed by Kurdish peshmerga forces.
(Reuters, 5/7/17)
2017 May 9, The Trump administration said it will arm Syria’s Kurdish fighters “as necessary" to recapture the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa.
(SFC, 5/10/17, p.A2)
2017 May 20, Turkey's pro-Kurdish party elected a new co-leader to replace Figen Yuksekdag, who has been in jail on terrorism charges since November and was stripped of her parliamentary status three months ago. Serpil Kemalbay was chosen as joint leader, alongside Selahattin Demirtas, who is also in prison over terrorism-related charges but remains a member of parliament.
(Reuters, 5/20/17)
2017 May 25, Four Turkish soldiers and a village guard were killed in two separate clashes with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in eastern Turkey. Three PKK militants, believed to be preparing for an attack, were killed in air strikes targeting the Metina region of northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 5/25/17)
2017 May 27, In Turkey an air strike in the southeastern province of Van late today killed 10 PKK militants.
(Reuters, 5/28/17)
2017 May 28, Turkey's military killed 13 members of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in air strikes in northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/28/17)
2017 May 31, In Turkey three soldiers were killed in clashes with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir. Earlier in the day, the army said airplanes had killed two PKK militants in the Lice district of Diyarbakir.
(Reuters, 5/31/17)
2017 May 31, A Turkish military helicopter crash killed all 13 personnel on board. Kurdish militants soon claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 6/3/17, p.A2)
2017 Jun 4, Turkish security forces killed eight militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in eastern Kars province.
(Reuters, 6/4/17)
2017 Jun 9, In southeastern Turkey two suspected Kurdish rebels opened fire on a car belonging to a local mayor, then blew up their vehicle near a military police station. One person was killed and four people were wounded in the attacks and one of the assailants was killed in Batman province.
(AP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 19, The European Union discouraged Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region from holding an independence referendum in September.
(AP, 6/19/17)
2017 Jun 22, Turkish defense ministry sources said the US has told Turkey it will take back weapons supplied to the Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria after the defeat of Islamic State seeking to address Turkish concerns about arming Kurds on its border.
(Reuters, 6/22/17)
2017 Jun 26, In eastern Syria 57 people were killed in an air strike believed to have been carried out by the US-led coalition on an Islamic State prison in the town of al-Mayadeen. Syrian Kurdish forces said they seized a new district from the Islamic State in Raqqa.
(AP, 6/27/17)(SFC, 6/27/17, p.A2)
2017 Jun 28, Turkey’s military said its forces retaliated with an artillery barrage overnight and destroyed Kurdish YPG militia targets after the group's fighters opened fire on Turkey-backed forces in northern Syria.
(Reuters, 6/28/17)
2017 Jun 30, In Turkey Orhan Mercan, the AKP's deputy head in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province, was shot in front of his home this evening and died of his wounds in hospital. Turkey blamed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
(Reuters, 7/2/17)
2017 Jul 1, In Turkey militants killed Aydin Ahi, deputy head of the AKP in the Ozalp district of Van province. Turkey blamed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants. An airstrike by the Turkish military killed five PKK militants preparing an attack on an army base in Mardin province. In separate air strikes the army also five PKK fighters in southeast Bingol province and another four militants in the Metina region of northern Iraq. Another three PKK militants were killed in clashes in the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakir, Hakkari and Sirnak.
(Reuters, 7/2/17)
2017 Jul 5, The head of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said that Turkish military deployments near Kurdish-held areas of northwestern Syria amounted to "a declaration of war", signaling the risk of a major confrontation.
(Reuters, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 6, Iraq's Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani said that there was no turning back on a bid to achieve an independent Kurdish state, but he would pursue it through dialogue with Baghdad and regional powers to avoid conflict.
(Reuters, 7/6/17)
2017 Jul 11, In northern Syria a US-backed, Kurdish-led militia captured al-Ukayrshi, where extremists had once run a training camp named for Osama Bin Laden.
(AP, 7/11/17)
2017 Jul 17, Turkish-backed rebels clashed with Kurdish fighters from a US-backed alliance in northwestern Syria in escalating violence between the two sides.
(Reuters, 7/17/17)
2017 Jul 27, Turkey's parliament stripped two pro-Kurdish lawmakers of their parliamentary status, further reducing the presence of the HDP, the second-largest opposition party in the general assembly.
(Reuters, 7/27/17)
2017 Jul 28, Turkish authorities arrested British citizen Joe Robinson (24) while he was holidaying on the country's western coast on charges of working with a Kurdish militia. Robinson had served with British forces in Afghanistan in 2012 and travelled to Syria in 2015 to work as a combat medic in the YPG.
(AFP, 7/29/17)
2017 Aug 1, A Kurdish official said the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are on the verge of seizing full control of the southern neighborhoods of Raqqa.
(Reuters, 8/1/17)
2017 Aug 1, A Turkish military vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in southeast Diyarbakir province, killing two soldiers. Separately three PKK militants were killed in the southeastern province of Tunceli after being identified by a drone.
(Reuters, 8/1/17)
2017 Aug 29, Iraq's ethnically-mixed Kirkuk province, long claimed by both the Arab-led central government and the autonomous Kurdish region, voted to take part in a vote on Kurdish independence slated for next month.
(AP, 8/29/17)
2017 Sep 8, Turkey's pro-Kurdish political party announced the release from prison of lawmaker Ayhan Bilgen, a former spokesman for the People's Democratic Party (HDP), pending a trial on terror charges.
(AP, 9/8/17)
2017 Sep 9, Turkey said its security forces have killed 99 Kurdish militants, including a high-ranking one, in operations in the southeast over the last two weeks.
(Reuters, 9/9/17)
2017 Sep 12, Iraq's parliament voted to reject a referendum on Kurdish independence planned for Sept. 25, authorizing the prime minister to "take all measures" to preserve Iraq's unity.
(Reuters, 9/12/17)
2017 Sep 13, Israel's PM Netanyahu said his country supports Kurdish independence ahead of a key referendum on the matter.
(AP, 9/13/17)
2017 Sep 14, Iraq's parliament voted to remove the governor of Kirkuk, a staunch supporter of Kurdish independence, following a request from PM Haider al-Abadi just days before a referendum on whether to split from Baghdad. Governor Najmaddin Kareem said he was not going anywhere and Kurdish leaders vowed to carry on with the vote planned for Sept. 25.
(AP, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 18, Iraq's supreme court ordered the suspension of a September 25 referendum on the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan, as legal and political pressure mounted on the Kurds to call off the vote. Clashes erupted in Kirkuk between Kurds and Turkmen amid preparations for the referendum.
(AFP, 9/18/17)(SFC, 9/20/17 p.A3)
2017 Sep 21, The foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran and Iraq voiced concerns that a Kurdish referendum on independence would endanger gains Iraq has made against Islamic state, and reiterated worries of potential new conflicts in the region and agreed to consider counter-measures against the planned independence referendum.
(Reuters, 9/21/17)
2017 Sep 22, In northern Syria thousands voted in predominantly Kurdish regions to elect heads of local communities as part of the minority Kurds' efforts to move closer to a federal system within Syria.
(AP, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 23, Turkey said it would take security and other steps in response to a planned independence referendum in northern Iraq's Kurdish region that it called a "terrible mistake", as a Kurdish delegation was in Baghdad for talks on the crisis.
(AP, 9/23/17)
2017 Sep 24, Kurdish region’s Pres. Masoud Barzani said that while the Sep 25 vote will be the first step in a long process to negotiate independence, the region's "partnership" with the Iraqi central government in Baghdad is over.
(AP, 9/24/17)
2017 Sep 24, Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard launched a military exercise in its northwestern Kurdish region one day ahead of Iraqi Kurds voting in an independence referendum, in a sign of Tehran's concerns over the vote. Iran also closed its airspace to flights taking off from Iraq's Kurdish region following an Iraqi request.
(AP, 9/24/17)
2017 Sep 25, Iraqi Kurds cast ballots in their autonomous region and in a wide sweep of captured territories on whether to seek independence from Baghdad, a historic vote that has also raised tensions and fears of instability. A 73% turnout approved the referendum by 93%.
(AP, 9/25/17)(SFC, 9/28/17, p.A3)
2017 Sep 25, Iraq’s parliament demanded that troops be sent to disputed areas in the north controlled by the Kurds since 2003 as the autonomous Kurdish area staged a referendum on independence.
(AFP, 9/25/17)
2017 Sep 25, The governorate of Kirkuk declared an overnight curfew in the Iraqi oil city as tension simmered following a referendum on independence organized by the local Kurdish authorities but rejected by the central government in Baghdad.
(Reuters, 9/25/17)
2017 Sep 25, Turkey took the Kurdish television channel Rudaw off its satellite service TurkSat, in the country's first response to a Kurdish independence referendum in northern Iraq. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara would close its border with Iraq's Kurdistan region over an independence referendum and threatened the Iraqi Kurds with blocking their key oil exports.
(Reuters, 9/25/17)(AFP, 9/25/17)
2017 Sep 26, The Arab League called on Iraqis to renounce their differences and open comprehensive dialogue to avoid clashes following a controversial independence referendum held by the country's Kurds.
(AP, 9/26/17)
2017 Sep 26, Thousands of Iranian Kurds marched in the streets to show their support for an independence referendum staged by Kurdish authorities in neighboring Iraq, defying a show of power by Tehran which flew fighter jets over their areas.
(AP, 9/26/17)
2017 Sep 26, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Iraqi Kurds would go hungry if his country halts the flow of trucks and oil across the border with northern Iraq and warned that all military and economic measures were on the table against its neighbor.
(Reuters, 9/26/17)
2017 Sep 27, Baghdad piled pressure on Iraq's Kurds, demanding they cancel their vote for independence while parliament urged the Iraqi central government to send troops to take control of vital oil fields held by Kurdish forces. Final results released today showed nearly 93 percent in favor of independence, and 7.3 percent against.
(Reuters, 9/27/17)
2017 Sep 27, Turkey said it will suspend flights to the northern Iraqi cities of Erbil and Sulaimaniya starting on 1500 GMT on Sep 29, in response to a Kurdish independence referendum held earlier this week.
(Reuters, 9/27/17)
2017 Sep 28, Iraqi officials said all foreign flights to and from the Kurdish capital Arbil will be suspended from Sep 29, as Baghdad increases pressure on the Kurds over this week's independence referendum.
(AFP, 9/28/17)
2017 Sep 28, Turkey advised its citizens to leave Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region before flights to the area are suspended. Turkey said it had stopped training peshmerga forces in northern Iraq in response to a Kurdish independence vote there. Turkey also threatened potentially crippling restrictions on oil trading with Iraqi Kurds.
(AP, 9/28/17)(Reuters, 9/28/17)
2017 Sep 29, The Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq refused to relinquish control of its border crossings to the Iraqi government.
(Reuters, 9/29/17)
2017 Sep 29, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said Iran has banned the transportation of refined crude oil products by Iranian companies to and from Iraq's Kurdistan region, after Tehran vowed to stand by Baghdad following the region's vote for independence.
(Reuters, 9/29/17)
2017 Sep 29, In Iraq the last international flight left Erbil airport as the Baghdad government imposed an air ban in retaliation for an independence vote by Iraqi Kurds that has drawn widespread opposition from foreign powers.
(Reuters, 9/29/17)
2017 Sep 30, Iran's state television reported that Iranian and Iraqi central government forces are to hold joint military exercises near their borders, as part of Tehran's effort to support Baghdad after the Kurdish independence referendum. Media reported that Iran has embargoed exports and imports of fuel products to and from Iraqi Kurdistan in response to the region's controversial independence referendum.
(Reuters, 9/30/17)(AFP, 9/30/17)
2017 Sep 30, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said Iraqi Kurdish authorities would pay the price for an independence referendum which was widely opposed by foreign powers.
(Reuters, 9/30/17)
2017 Oct 2, A Kurdish official said Iranian and Iraqi forces staged joint military exercises near the border with Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.
(AFP, 10/2/17)
2017 Oct 3, Iraq's parliament voted on "a formula to halt financial transactions" with the Kurdistan region, in retaliation for last week's independence referendum, without specifying if the vote was binding on the government. Kurdish lawmakers did not show up for the session.
(Reuters, 10/3/17)(AP, 10/3/17)
2017 Oct 3, Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region said it is calling presidential and parliamentary elections for Nov. 1, as the Kurdish leadership cements its case for independence. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would impose further sanctions on northern Iraq over the vote.
(Reuters, 10/3/17)
2017 Oct 3, Iraqi Kurdish leader and ex-Iraqi president Jalal Talabani (b.1933) died in Germany, a week after Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region held a referendum on independence.
(Reuters, 10/3/17)
2017 Oct 4, The presidents of Iran and Turkey vowed during talks in Tehran to work closely together to prevent the disintegration of Iraq and Syria and to oppose the Iraqi Kurds' drive for independence.
(Reuters, 10/4/17)
2017 Oct 5, France offered to mediate in a political crisis pitting Iraq's government against Kurdish regional authorities, and promised to maintain a military presence there until Islamic State was defeated.
(Reuters, 10/5/17)
2017 Oct 5, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Turkey would "soon" close its border crossing with Iraqi Kurdistan and airspace after the disputed referendum on independence. Turkey's state-run news agency said security forces have killed five suspected Kurdish militants in an operation close to a tourist resort near the Mediterranean coast. Two militants escaped.
(AFP, 10/5/17)(AP, 10/5/17)
2017 Oct 9, Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi warned there could be a "civil war" over the Kurdish-administered city of Kirkuk if talks over Kurdish independence are left unresolved. Iraq's central government ordered the Kurdish-based cellular network operators to relocate their headquarters Baghdad.
(AP, 10/9/17)(AP, 10/10/17)
2017 Oct 10, Iraq's Oil Ministry ordered the restoration of an oil pipeline from the city of Kirkuk to Turkey that would bypass the country's northern Kurdish region in the wake of the area's pro-independence referendum.
(AP, 10/10/17)
2017 Oct 11, An Iraqi court ordered the arrest of senior Kurdish officials responsible for organizing an independence referendum. A court in east Baghdad issued warrants against the chairman of the vote's organizing commission Hendren Saleh and two other members.
(AP, 10/11/17)
2017 Oct 13, The Iraqi army launched an operation to retake Kurdish-held positions around the disputed oil city of Kirkuk amid a bitter row with the Kurds over a vote for independence last month. Kurdish forces overnight moved back their defensive line around the oil region of Kirkuk by 2 km (1.2 miles) to reduce the possibility of friction with nearby Iraqi forces.
(AFP, 10/13/17)(Reuters, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 15, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters rejected a warning from an Iraqi paramilitary force to withdraw from a strategic junction south of Kirkuk, which controls the access to some of the region's main oilfields. Kurdish media said the three official border crossings between Iraq's Kurdish region and Iran have been closed. One semi-official crossing remained open. Iran denied the reports.
(Reuters, 10/15/17)(AP, 10/15/17)
2017 Oct 16, Iraqi government forces captured the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk, responding to a Kurdish vote on independence with a bold lightning strike that transforms the balance of power in the country. Several Peshmerga and members of the Iraqi forces were reported killed in an overnight clash south of Kirkuk. At least 25 Kurdish fighters were killed in the clashes. Kirkuk is of the most ethnically and religiously diverse cities in Iraq and located just outside the autonomous Kurdish zone.
(Reuters, 10/16/17)(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 16, Iraqi forces pillaged and torched Kurdish districts in the multi-ethnic town of Tuz Khurmatu following clashes with Kurdish fighters. Locals later said at least 11 civilians were killed in "indiscriminate attacks" as heavy weaponry was used in densely-populated areas of the city.
(AFP, 10/24/17)
2017 Oct 16, Trading sources said Iraq's Kurdistan has shut down some 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) of production from major fields Bai Hassan and Avana due to security concerns after a flare-up in tensions with the central government. Iraq said it was considering using security forces to prevent Kurdistan from shutting down output from the oil area of Kirkuk.
(Reuters, 10/16/17)
2017 Oct 16, Turkey announced that it is closing its airspace to flights to and from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region and have Baghdad take control of the Iraqi side of its main border crossing.
(AP, 10/16/17)(Reuters, 10/16/17)
2017 Oct 17, The Baghdad government recaptured territory from Kurds across the breadth of northern Iraq, making startlingly rapid gains in a sudden campaign that has shifted the balance of power in the country almost overnight.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 18, A senior Iraqi commander said Kurdish Peshmerga forces have retreated to positions they held in northern Iraq in June 2014 in response to an Iraqi army advance into the region after a Kurdish independence referendum.
(Reuters, 10/18/17)
2017 Oct 19, Kurdish officials said about 100,000 Kurds have fled the Kirkuk region for fear of persecution since Iraqi armed forces retook disputed territory after a Kurdish independence vote rejected by Baghdad.
(Reuters, 10/19/17)
2017 Oct 19, A Baghdad court issued an arrest warrant for Kosrat Rasul, the vice president of Iraqi Kurdistan, on charges of "provocation" against Iraq's armed forces. The UN expressed concern at reports of forced displacement of civilians, mainly Kurds, and the looting and destruction of their houses and businesses in northern Iraq.
(AFP, 10/19/17)(Reuters, 10/19/17)
2017 Oct 20, Iraqi forces shelled Kurdish military positions north and south of Altun Cupric, a town of about 9,000 people just outside the country's autonomous Kurdish region. Organized Kurdish forces responded with rocket fire. Iraqi forces took control of the last district in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk still in the hands of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters following a three-hour battle.
(AP, 10/20/17)(Reuters, 10/20/17)
2017 Oct 20, In Syria the Kurdish-led force that expelled the Islamic State group from Raqa hailed a "historic victory" in the devastated city's stadium and vowed to hand over power to a civilian administration.
(AFP, 10/20/17)
2017 Oct 24, Parliament in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region decided to hold legislative elections in eight months after they were delayed amid tensions with the central government in Baghdad over disputed territories.
(AFP, 10/24/17)
2017 Oct 25, Kurdish authorities in Iraq offered to put an independence drive on hold, stepping up efforts to resolve a crisis in relations with Baghdad via dialogue.
(Reuters, 10/25/17)
2017 Oct 27, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi ordered a 24-hour suspension of military operations against Kurdish forces in northern Iraq. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have reached an agreement to stop fighting in northern Iraq, although the status of any ceasefire remained unclear.
(Reuters, 10/27/17)(Reuters, 10/29/17)
2017 Oct 29, Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters started a second round of talks to resolve a conflict over control of the Kurdistan region's border crossings.
(Reuters, 10/29/17)
2017 Oct 29, Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani confirmed his intention to step down on Nov. 1 and asked parliament to take measures to fill the presidential power vacuum.
(Reuters, 10/29/17)
2017 Nov 1, Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani departed office, leaving his nephew to reconcile with the central government in Baghdad, with regional neighbors and with rival Kurdish parties after a failed referendum on independence.
(Reuters, 11/1/17)
2017 Nov 2, Iraq's Kurdish region said it has offered a joint Kurdish-Iraqi deployment at a strategic crossing into Turkey with the participation of US-led international forces as part of a compromise with Baghdad. This came hours after Iraqi armed forces threatened to resume military operations against the Kurds, accusing them of delaying the handover of control of borders and taking advantage of negotiations to bolster their defenses.
(AP, 11/2/17)
2017 Nov 2, In southeastern Turkey clashes between Turkish security force members and Kurdish militants in three mainly Kurdish provinces killed eight security force members and 31 militants.
(AP, 11/2/17)
2017 Nov 12, A powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake late today near the Iraq-Iran border killed over 530 people across both countries. Iran's western Kermanshah province bore the brunt of the temblor. In Iraq, nine people were killed and 550 were injured, all in the country's northern Kurdish region.
(AP, 11/13/17)(Reuters, 11/14/17)(AFP, 11/26/17)(AP, 1/11/18)
2017 Nov 16, In northern Iraq two Turkish soldiers were killed and one was wounded in northern Iraq's Avasin Basyan region by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
(Reuters, 11/16/17)
2017 Nov 16, In Iraq a KDP lawmaker said Kurdish lawmakers are returning to Baghdad in hopes that their presence in Baghdad will bring the prime minister to the negotiating table.
(AP, 11/16/17)
2017 Nov 20, Iraq's Supreme Federal Court ruled that the Sept. 25 Kurdish independence referendum was unconstitutional and the results void. Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government called on the international community to intervene and help lift sanctions imposed by the central government in Baghdad in retaliation for a September referendum on Kurdish independence.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Turkey said Syrian Kurdish fighters have attacked a Turkish observation post in the northern Syrian province of Idlib with mortar rounds. There were no casualties.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 21, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi said the Islamic State had been defeated from a military perspective but he would only declare final victory after IS militants were routed in the desert. A suicide bomber detonated a pickup truck loaded with explosive killing 32 people at a marketplace in Tuz Khormato, a contested town claimed by Baghdad and the Kurdish region.
(Reuters, 11/21/17)(AP, 11/21/17)(SFC, 11/22/17, p.A2)
2017 Nov 21, A Syrian Kurdish militia accused Turkish forces of "aggression and escalation" in the Afrin region, which it controls, on Syria's northwestern border with Turkey.
(Reuters, 11/21/17)
2017 Nov 24, Turkey said that US President Donald Trump told President Tayyip Erdogan he had issued instructions that weapons should not be provided to Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria, and that the Turkish government hoped to see that order carried out.
(Reuters, 11/24/17)
2017 Dec 1, In northern Syria Kurdish-led authorities held local elections in areas they control, pushing ahead with autonomy plans opposed by both the government of President Bashar al-Assad and by Turkey.
(Reuters, 12/1/17)
2017 Dec 2, French President Emmanuel Macron with Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of Iraq's Kurdish region. Macron says France will "do everything" to help preserve Iraq's unity and the recognition of the rights of Iraq's Kurds through new negotiations.
(AP, 12/2/17)
2017 Dec 3, Iraqi Kurdish officials said around half of the Yazidis kidnapped by the Islamic State group three years ago are still missing. Some 6,417 Yazidis were abducted by the jihadists from August 3, 2014.
(AFP, 12/3/17)
2017 Dec 3, Syria's main Kurdish forces declared that they have successfully cleared areas east of the Euphrates river of Islamic State militants, with help from the US-led coalition and Russian forces.
(AP, 12/3/17)
2017 Dec 5, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Iraqi federal and Kurdish regional judiciaries are violating the rights of Islamic State suspects with flawed trials, arbitrary detentions under harsh conditions and broad prosecutions.
(Reuters, 12/5/17)
2017 Dec 7, In Turkey Selahattin Demirtas, the jailed co-leader of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was remanded in prison for at least two more months at the opening of his trial on terrorism-related charges.
(Reuters, 12/7/17)
2017 Dec 11, Turkey's armed forces said its warplanes hit Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq and killed 17 of the group's militants.
(Reuters, 12/11/17)
2017 Dec 17, Turkey's president slammed a US-backed Syrian Kurdish militant group and said he'll clear his country's border with Syria of "terrorists".
(AP, 12/17/17)
2017 Dec 18, Protesters in Iraqi Kurdistan torched offices of the main political parties and security services as anger at the authorities boiled over in the wake of a failed independence push. Several thousand people across the region took to the streets to air their ire.
(AFP, 12/18/17)
2017 Dec 19, In Iraq three people were killed and more than 80 wounded as Kurdish protesters, angered by years of austerity and unpaid public sector salaries, took to the streets in a second day of violent unrest amid tensions with Baghdad.
(Reuters, 12/19/17)
2017 Dec 20, Protests raged for a third day in Iraqi Kurdistan despite a clampdown by security forces after five people were killed as ire exploded at the calamitous fallout from an independence vote. Leading Kurdish opposition movement Gorran withdrew its ministers from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and its member Yousif Mohamed resigned as parliament speaker. The Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal), another opposition party with a smaller presence in parliament, also withdrew from the government.
(AFP, 12/20/17)(Reuters, 12/20/17)
2017 Dec 25, Serbia extradited to Turkey a Kurdish political activist, defying a recommendation by the UN Committee against Torture. Cevdet Ayaz had requested asylum in Serbia earlier this year after fleeing Turkey, where he had been sentenced to 15 years in prison over alleged activities against the constitution.
(Reuters, 12/26/17)
2017 Dec 25, In Turkey two soldiers were killed and another was wounded in an attack by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the southeastern province of Hakkari. Separately, one soldier was killed and two others were wounded in northern Iraq when a grenade detonated by accident.
(Reuters, 12/25/17)
2018 Jan 2, Iran re-opened two crossings with the Iraqi Kurdistan region that it had closed after a referendum in favor of independence in the Kurdish area.
(Reuters, 1/2/18)
2018 Jan 6, In France thousands of Kurds marched in Paris to demand "truth and justice" five years after the slayings of three Kurdish activists on Jan. 9, 2013, in Paris.
(AP, 1/6/18)
2018 Jan 13, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will oust Kurdish militants from Afrin, northern Syria, as the military shelled the area from across the border.
(AP, 1/13/18)
2018 Jan 14, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country will launch a military assault on a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria "in the coming days" and urged the US to support its efforts.
(AP, 1/14/18)
2018 Jan 17, Syria's dominant Kurdish party called on the UN Security Council to act quickly to ensure the safety of Kurdish-controlled territories in the country's north, including an enclave that Turkey has threatened to attack.
(AP, 1/17/18)
2018 Jan 18, Iraq signed a contract with British energy giant BP aimed at more than doubling production from oil fields in the northern province of Kirkuk that were retaken from the Kurds last year.
(AFP, 1/18/18)
2018 Jan 18, In northern Syria mortar fire on the town of Azaz, held by Turkish-backed rebels, wounded at least 14 people in a psychiatric hospital. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor of the war, said the mortar rounds were fired by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed alliance dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). The fire came after Ankara bombarded the adjacent Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin for five straight days ahead of a threatened invasion.
(AFP, 1/19/18)
2018 Jan 19, Turkish artillery fired into Syria's Afrin region in what Ankara said was the start of a military campaign against the Kurdish-controlled area. Turkish newspapers said 20 buses carrying Free Syrian Army rebels crossed from Turkey into a Turkish-controlled part of northern Syria, on Afrin's eastern flank.
(Reuters, 1/19/18)
2018 Jan 20, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi met with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region's PM Nechirvan Barzani for the first time since conflict broke out over a Kurdish independence referendum. Abadi renewed his conditions for lifting restrictions imposed on the Kurdistan region after the referendum.
(Reuters, 1/20/18)
2018 Jan 20, The Turkish military launched operation "Olive Branch", its second major incursion into Syrian territory during the seven-year civil war. Turkish jets bombed the Kurdish-controlled city of Afrin in northern Syria. Afrin is now home to at least 800,000 civilians, including many who arrived fleeing the fighting in other parts of Syria.
(AP, 1/20/18)(AFP, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 21, Turkish warplanes hit 45 targets in northern Syria's Afrin region. Turkish ground forces pushed into Afrin province, after launching artillery and air strikes on a US-backed Kurdish militia it aims to sweep from its border.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 21, In Syria a rebel commander said around 25,000 Free Syrian Army rebels are joining the Turkish military operation in northern Syria with the goal of recapturing Arab towns and villages seized by the YPG Kurdish militia almost two years ago.
(Reuters, 1/21/18)
2018 Jan 22, Turkey intensified its offensive against Kurdish militia targets in Syria as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed there would be no stepping back in a campaign that has stoked concern among Ankara's allies and neighbors.
(AFP, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 22, A 2nd Turkish soldier was killed in action in Turkey's military offensive on a Kurdish-held enclave in northern Syria. Turkish shelling killed three people in the Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn.
(AP, 1/23/18)(Reuters, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 23, The Kurdish-led authorities of northeast Syria called for mass mobilization in defense of Syria's Afrin region against a Turkish military offensive.
(Reuters, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 23, Turkey shelled Qamishli and other towns along the Syrian-Turkish border as Turkish forces press into a Syrian Kurdish enclave for the fourth straight day. 24 civilians, 24 Kurdish fighters, and 25 Turkish-backed Syrian militiamen have been killed in the clashes in Afrin since January 20.
(AP, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 24, In Cyprus some 350 Kurds burned images of the presidents of Turkey and Russia as they marched on the US and Russian embassies in Nicosia to protest Turkey's "invasion" of a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria.
(AP, 1/24/18)
2018 Jan 24, Turkey's president vowed to expand its operation against Kurdish forces in northern Syria toward the town of Manbij, which would bring Turkish troops and their Syrian allies closer to US forces supporting the Kurds against the Islamic State group.
(AP, 1/24/18)
2018 Jan 27, In France several thousand people have rallied in Paris to support Turkey's Kurds and protest a Turkish military incursion into a Kurdish-controlled enclave in Syria.
(AP, 1/27/18)
2018 Jan 27, German police shut down a tense demonstration in Cologne, after around 15,000 Kurds took to the streets to protest Turkey's offensive in northern Syria.
(AFP, 1/27/18)
2018 Jan 27, Turkey said the United States has pledged to stop supplying weapons to a Kurdish militia in Syria, calling on Washington to immediately remove its troops from a Syrian town of Manbij that Turkish forces plan to target.
(Reuters, 1/27/18)
2018 Jan 28, Turkey seized a strategic outpost from Kurdish militia in Syria. Turkish air strikes killed three people in one family early in Afrin. President Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey will "clean" its entire border with Syria in a sign that the Turkish offensive on the Syrian Kurdish YPG group in northern Syria's Afrin region could be extended further. The Syrian government said that Turkish shelling of the Kurdish-held Afrin region of Syria had seriously damaged the ancient temple of Ain Dara.
(AFP, 1/28/18)(Reuters, 1/28/18)
2018 Jan 29, The Iraqi parliament voted to lift sanctions imposed on banks in the Kurdistan region over an independence referendum.
(Reuters, 1/29/18)
2018 Jan 29, In Russia delegates arrived in the Black Sea resort of Sochi for peace talks aimed at ending the Syrian conflict, but hopes of progress were dimmed after the main opposition group and the Kurds said they would boycott the event.
(AFP, 1/29/18)
2018 Feb 2, In Turkey two people were killed after rockets were fired at two border towns in Hatay province from the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin across the border.
(AP, 2/2/18)
2018 Feb 3, The Turkish military said two of its soldiers have been killed in Syria and a third was killed on the Turkish side of the border in an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen.
(AP, 2/3/18)
2018 Feb 5, In Lebanon hundreds of Kurds protested against Turkey's military offensive in Syria's Kurdish enclave of Afrin.
(AFP, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 6, In Syria shells hit a camp for internally displaced Syrians near the Syrian-Turkey border in Idlib province, killing at least one person. The Kurdish YPG said in a statement posted on its social media networks that Turkey was behind the attack and that accusations that the YPG had carried it out were lies.
(Reuters, 2/6/18)
2018 Feb 9, Turkish warplanes bombarded Kurdish militia targets in Syria's Afrin region. A monitor said the strikes killed seven fighters and two civilians. A Kurdish official and top member of Afrin's civil administration, Hevi Mustafa, said the Turkish offensive had killed 160 people so far.
(Reuters, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 9, Human Rights Watch said in report that the Kurdish Asayish police force in Iraq last year executed dozens of Islamic State fighters in their custody and disposed of their bodies in a mass grave northwest of Mosul.
(Reuters, 2/9/18)
2018 Feb 10, A Turkish military helicopter was "downed" and two soldiers killed in northern Syria during Ankara's offensive on Syrian Kurdish militia there. Kurdish fighters downed the chopper in Raju, northwest Afrin.
(AP, 2/10/18)
2018 Feb 11, Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party elected two new leaders, one of whom replaced its charismatic jailed co-chief Selahattin Demirtas, ahead of elections in 2019. Former MP Sezai Temelli (54) was voted by party delegates to replace Demirtas while Pervin Buldan (50) was elected co-chair as well.
(AFP, 2/11/18)
2018 Feb 11, Turkey continued its operations in northern Syria, targeting YPG areas with air and artillery strikes. Turkey's military announced the death of another soldier in its operation against a Syrian Kurdish militia. The announcement brought to 31 the number of Turkish soldiers killed since the operation started on Jan. 20.
(AP, 2/11/18)
2018 Feb 13, Shells hit the center of a Syrian Kurdish enclave where Turkey is carrying out an offensive, landing near the area's only hospital and killing one person.
(AP, 2/13/18)
2018 Feb 16, In Syria six civilians suffered breathing difficulties and other symptoms indicative of poison gas inhalation after an attack launched by Turkey on the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin.
(AP, 2/17/18)
2018 Feb 18, A senior Syrian Kurdish official said Kurdish forces and the Syrian government had reached a deal for the Syrian army to enter Afrin, and that it could be implemented within two days.
(Reuters, 2/19/18)
2018 Feb 19, Syrian media reported that militias allied to the Syrian government will enter the Afrin region to help Kurdish forces end a Turkish offensive.
(Reuters, 2/19/18)
2018 Feb 19, Turkey's foreign minister warned that Turkey's military would confront any Syrian government forces entering the northwest Afrin province to protect Kurdish YPG fighters.
(Reuters, 2/19/18)
2018 Feb 22, The Turkish army struck a convoy entering Syria's Kurdish-held Afrin region, which Ankara said carried fighters and weapons, but Kurdish forces said was made up of civilians entering with food and medicine. At least ten people were wounded and one passenger was killed.
(Reuters, 2/23/18)
2018 Feb 24, Czech authorities arrested Saleh Muslim (67), a top Kurdish politician, at the behest of Turkey, where a court has charged him with sedition.
(Reuters, 2/25/18)
2018 Feb 26, Turkey formally asked for the extradition of one of the most prominent leaders of the Syrian Kurds, who was detained by Czech police at the weekend at Ankara's request.
(AFP, 2/26/18)
2018 Feb 27, A Czech court released prominent Syrian Kurdish leader Saleh Muslim, wanted by Turkey on terror charges, prompting outrage in Ankara which said the move showed "support for terrorism".
(AFP, 2/27/18)
2018 Mar 2, Turkey requested that German authorities detain and extradite wanted Syrian Kurdish politician Salih Muslim, the former co-chair of the Democratic Union Party, or PYD.
(AP, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 3, Turkey's PM Binali Yildirim said Turkish troops have captured a strategic village in the Kurdish-held enclave in northwestern Syria, tightening the grip on the area in the sixth week of its offensive on the area. Turkish air strikes killed at least 36 pro-regime fighters backing Kurdish militia in Syria's northwestern Kurdish enclave of Afrin.
(AP, 3/3/18)(AFP, 3/3/18)
2018 Mar 5, In northwest Syria at least 13 civilians were killed in Turkish shelling on the town of Jindaris, as Turkish forces try to press their advances on the Kurdish-held Afrin enclave. Another 3 civilians were killed in Turkish shelling near Rajo, also in Afrin.
(AP, 3/5/18)
2018 Mar 8, Turkish media reported that the government has asked Sweden to arrest Syrian Kurdish leader Saleh Muslim, Ankara’s third attempt to get a European state to detain and extradite him in just over a week. A Swedish source said Muslim had been in Stockholm but had already left the country.
(Reuters, 3/8/18)
2018 Mar 8, Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition forces entered the town of Jinderes, in the southwest of the Afrin enclave, where they were engaged in street clashes with Syrian Kurdish forces.
(AP, 3/8/18)
2018 Mar 10, Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels battling Kurdish militia in northern Syria advanced to less than two km from the flashpoint town of Afrin. Turkey and allied Syrian opposition factions now held 60 percent of the Afrin region.
(AP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 11, Turkish warplanes reportedly destroyed at least 18 targets belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/11/18)
2018 Mar 13, Iraqi authorities said they were lifting a nearly six-month air blockade imposed on Iraqi Kurdistan in response to its holding of an independence referendum.
(AFP, 3/13/18)
2018 Mar 13, Turkey's military said Turkish troops and allied Syrian opposition fighters have begun a siege of the Syrian Kurdish-held town of Afrin.
(AP, 3/13/18)
2018 Mar 14, Turkey turned up the heat on Syria's Afrin, launching deadly strikes on Damascus loyalists deployed around the Kurdish enclave and closing in on its main city. Turkish bombing raids killed 10 fighters loyal to the regime.
(AFP, 3/14/18)
2018 Mar 15, In northern Syria hundreds of residents of the Kurdish enclave under Turkish assault trickled out of Afrin's center toward neighboring villages amid an intensifying offensive. Senior Kurdish official Omar Alloush, who played a key role with the United States in implementing its post-Islamic State policy in northern Syria, was found dead in his apartment in northern Syria.
(AP, 3/15/18)
2018 Mar 18, Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies swept into the northwestern Syrian town of Afrin, raising their flags in the town center and declaring full control after an eight-week campaign to drive out Kurdish YPG forces. The Kurdish administration of the Afrin region indicated that Kurdish-dominated forces fighting Turkey-backed groups in the area will shift from direct confrontation to guerrilla tactics.
(Reuters, 3/18/18)
2018 Mar 19, Iraq sent money to pay salaries of state employees in the Kurdish region for the first time since 2014, although a dispute over how much it will send the Kurds in future remains unresolved.
(Reuters, 3/19/18)
2018 Mar 20, Direct international flights resumed from Sulaimaniyah airport in Iraqi Kurdistan, a week after Baghdad lifted an almost six-month-long blockade on the region's foreign air links.
(AFP, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 20, Turkish authorities detained more than 100 suspected Kurdish militants on suspicion of planning illegal demonstrations or plotting attacks for the Newroz spring festival.
(Reuters, 3/20/18)
2018 Mar 22, Turkish jets attacked suspected Kurdish rebel camps across the border in northern Iraq, in an operation that reportedly "neutralized" nine militants.
(AP, 3/22/18)
2018 Mar 23, The Kurdish PKK rebel group said it is withdrawing from the town of Sinjar in northern Iraq, a move that follows threats of attack from Turkey.
(AP, 3/23/18)
2018 Mar 27, Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi said government armed forces will prevent Kurdish militants based in northern Iraq from staging cross-border attacks against Turkey.
(AP, 3/27/18)
2018 Apr 7, Turkey's military said some 108 Kurdish militants have been "neutralized" in operations targeting southeast Turkey and northern Iraq over the past week.
(AP, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 19, Turkey's parliament said it had stripped two lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish opposition HDP of their parliamentary status, further reducing the party's strength in the assembly two months ahead of elections.
(Reuters, 4/19/18)
2018 Apr 29, Syrian government forces captured four villages east of the Euphrates River in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour after rare clashes with US-backed Kurdish-led fighters. Six SDF fighters were reported killed. Syrian troops tightened the noose around a major Palestinian refugee camp held by Islamic State militants in southern Damascus where hundreds of civilians face an uncertain future. State media said the government and rebels have reached a deal to evacuate opposition fighters from an area of southern Damascus near the site of a regime offensive against jihadists.
(AP, 4/29/18)(Reuters, 4/29/18)(AFP, 4/29/18)
2018 May 6, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised new military operations against Kurdish militants along its border in Syria and Iraq as he presented his election manifesto.
(AP, 5/6/18)
2018 May 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a brief meeting in Moscow with Nechirvan Barzani the prime minister of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 15, The Iraqi election commission said that initial results from Kirkuk indicated a win for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a historic Iraqi Kurdish party.
(Reuters, 5/16/18)
2018 May 16, Gunmen in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk were besieging several polling stations containing election staff, four days after a national vote.
(AP, 5/16/18)
2018 May 26, In Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli hundreds demonstrated in response to a call by Kurdish authorities for global protests against Turkey's military presence in the flashpoint Afrin region.
(AFP, 5/26/18)
2018 May 30, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said Turkey and the United States agreed on a three-step plan for withdrawing the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia from Syria's Manbij.
(Reuters, 5/30/18)
2018 Jun 2, Turkey's military said overnight air strikes by Turkish warplanes had "neutralized" at least 15 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq as well as in Turkey's eastern provinces of Tunceli and Siirt. Two Turkish soldiers were reported killed and one soldier severely wounded after a rocket attack by the PKK to a military construction vehicle in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 6/2/18)
2018 Jun 5, The leading Syrian Kurdish militia said it would withdraw from Manbij, easing fears of a direct clash between NATO allies Washington and Ankara over the strategic northern town.
(AFP, 6/5/18)
2018 Jun 8, Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq detained Ali Bashar (20) on suspicion of raping and murdering Susanna Feldman (14), a Jewish girl who went missing May 22 in Germany.
(Reuters, 6/8/18)
2018 Jun 8, Turkey's defense minister said Turkish and US soldiers will patrol the key northern Syrian town of Manbij as part of a deal reached this week for the withdrawal of a Syrian Kurdish militia.
(AP, 6/9/18)
2018 Jun 10, Turkey's military said it hit more than a dozen Kurdish militant targets in air strikes in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 6/11/18)
2018 Jun 14, Human Rights Watch said that Turkey-backed rebels in northwest Syria's Afrin have seized, looted and destroyed Kurdish civilians' property after taking control of the region in March.
(Reuters, 6/14/18)
2018 Jun 18, Turkish and US soldiers started independent patrols in northern Syria along the line separating Turkish-controlled areas from the town of Manbij where Ankara says Kurdish militia fighters are based.
(Reuters, 6/18/18)
2018 Jun 19, Three Turkish soldiers were killed in bomb attacks blamed on the PKK in the southeastern provinces of Siirt and Sirnak.
(AP, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 20, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish militants fired on military vehicles, killing two soldiers and wounding another. Turkey's warplanes carried out air strikes in northern Iraq, killing 10 militants in the Avasin-Basyan and Sinat Haftanin areas and destroying weapon stores and shelters.
(Reuters, 6/20/18)
2018 Jun 30, The Turkish military carried out airstrikes in northern Iraq's Avasin Basyan region, killing four Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 6/30/18)
2018 Jul 1, Turkey's military said eight Kurdish militants have been killed in air strikes in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey this weekend.
(Reuters, 7/1/18)
2018 Jul 11, Turkish authorities detained 16 people in the mainly Kurdish southeast for suspected links to terrorism. Three of the detained were French nationals.
(Reuters, 7/12/18)
2018 Jul 16, The political arm of the Syrian Democratic Forces militia said it would work to set up a unified administration to consolidate its authority in northern and eastern Syria. The Kurdish-led SDF holds around a quarter of Syria.
(Reuters, 7/16/18)
2018 Jul 21, Iranian media reported that at least 10 Iranian border guards were killed in an overnight attack by unidentified gunmen near the town of Marivan, a Kurdish area near the Iraqi border.
(AP, 7/21/18)
2018 Jul 23, In Iraq three teenage gunmen stormed the governor's headquarters in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, opening fire and killing one employee before being shot dead by Kurdish security forces. The assailants' motives were unclear.
(AFP, 7/23/18)(Reuters, 7/23/18)
2018 Jul 28, The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council said it has agreed to work with the Syrian government on ending seven years of violence in the country and setting up a roadmap for Syria's future. The SDC is the political wing of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that controls wide swathes of northeast Syria.
(AP, 7/28/18)
2018 Aug 10, Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard reportedly killed 10 militants late today in a Kurdish region near the border with Iraq.
(AP, 8/11/18)
2018 Aug 16, Turkish officials said four soldiers have been killed in violence in the southeast where troops are battling Kurdish rebels, three of them as a result of a friendly fire in Adiyaman province.
(AP, 8/16/18)
2018 Aug 25, Turkish authorities banned a protest vigil marking the forced disappearances of hundreds of people in the country's southeast decades ago. The Saturday Mothers activist group was set to hold its 700th meeting in Istanbul. The group has gathered since 1995 to demand justice for those who disappeared during the ongoing conflict between Turkish security forces and Kurdish insurgents.
(AP, 8/25/18)
2018 Sep 4, Turkey told the United States that Kurdish militants must completely abandon Syria, as violence in the rebel-held northern Syrian enclave of Idlib escalated.
(Reuters, 9/4/18)
2018 Sep 6, In Syria the political wing of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces announced the start of a unified administration for its territory, a move that would consolidate its authority in northern and eastern Syria. The SDF wants the seven-year war to end with a federal system that secures minority rights, including for Kurds.
(Reuters, 9/6/18)
2018 Sep 7, A court in Istanbul has convicted a former co-chairman of Turkey's main pro-Kurdish political party of "engaging in terror propaganda." The court sentenced Selahattin Demirtas to more than four years in prison after finding him guilty.
(AP, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 8, Iran's Revolutionary Guards launched deadly missile strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Fifteen people were killed in the rare cross-border attack on the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran.
(AFP, 9/9/18)
2018 Sep 8, Iranian media reported that authorities have hanged three Kurdish prisoners after years in prison.
(AP, 9/8/18)
2018 Sep 8, In northeastern Syria clashes erupted between US-backed Kurdish fighters and Syrian troops in the center of the city of Qamishli. Kurdish forces said seven of its fighters and 11 Syrian military were killed in the clashes.
(Reuters, 9/8/18)
2018 Sep 11, The Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance, advanced inside Hajin, east of the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border. Over the last 24 hours 27 jihadists and 10 SDF fighters were killed in the fighting for the Hajin pocket.
(AFP, 9/11/18)
2018 Sep 14, In France about 15 Kurdish activists burned the Iranian flag in front of Iran's embassy in Paris and broke some windows with stones. Some of the attackers were arrested.
(Reuters, 9/15/18)
2018 Sep 15, The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Force entered the eastern village of Bagouz held by the Islamic State group where intense clashes were ongoing.
(AP, 9/15/18)
2018 Sep 29, In Syria the Raqqa Internal Security Forces, set up by the Kurdish-led SDF, killed two members of an Islamic State sleeper cell and detained five others.
(Reuters, 9/30/18)
2018 Sep 30, Kurds voted in a parliamentary election in their semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq. On October 21 authorities said the Iraqi Kurdish party behind last year's ill-fated independence referendum won the most seats in parliamentary elections held in the autonomous Kurdish region. The Kurdistan Democratic Party won 45 seats, 12 short of an outright majority in the 111-seat body.
(Reuters, 9/30/18)(AP, 10/21/18)
2018 Oct 1, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey aims to secure control of the region of northern Syria east of the Euphrates river, removing the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia from the area, and to clear Iraq's Sinjar and Qandil regions of Kurdish militants.
(Reuters, 10/1/18)
2018 Oct 2, Iraq's lawmakers met to elect a new president after a dispute between the two main Kurdish parties delayed the vote, eventually forcing them to choose among 20 nominees. Veteran Kurdish politician Barham Salih (58) was elected president by parliament and sworn in. He then tapped Adel Abdel Mahdi (76) for the difficult task of navigating the country's tangled politics to form a government within 30 days.
(AP, 10/2/18)(AP, 10/3/18)(AFP, 10/3/18)
2018 Oct 3, Eight Turkish soldiers were killed and two were wounded after a roadside bomb in the southeastern province of Batman was detonated by outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.
(AP, 10/4/18)(Reuters, 10/6/18)
2018 Oct 26, A Turkish court sentenced a German man to six years and three months in prison for membership in a terrorist organization. The Turkish prosecutor accused Patrick K. (29) of being a member of the Syrian Kurdish YPG, considered by Ankara to be a branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 28, The Turkish army struck Kurdish targets in northern Syria east of the Euphrates River. Artillery strikes hit positions belonging to the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Zor Moghar.
(AP, 10/28/18)
2018 Oct 31, Iraq's Shi'ite paramilitaries, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), said in a statement that they had killed two IS commanders in the border area who were responsible for an attack last week on US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces along the Iraq-Syria border.
(Reuters, 10/31/18)
2018 Nov 6, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that joint patrols by US forces and a Kurdish-led militia in northern Syria are "unacceptable".
(AP, 11/6/18)
2018 Nov 9, Airstrikes by Turkish warplanes "neutralized" 15 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 11/10/18)
2018 Nov 16, Iraq's central government said it has agreed with Kurdish authorities to resume oil exports from Kirkuk, a year after federal forces seized the lucrative fields.
(AFP, 11/16/18)
2018 Nov 20, The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) urged Turkey to swiftly process the legal case of Selahattin Demirtas, the ex-head of the pro-Kurdish opposition, saying his pre-trial detention had gone on longer than could be justified.
(Reuters, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 21, A Turkish court sentenced 74 people, including soldiers, to life in prison for their role in the July 2016 attempted coup. Three men, accused of being members of the PKK, were jailed for life for a March 2016 car bombing that killed 36 people and wounded 344 in a crowded transport hub in Ankara.
(Reuters, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 23, In eastern Syria around 500 IS fighters burst out of the fog shrouding an area in Deir Ezzor province near the border with Iraq to launch a deadly assault where SDF fighters and coalition advisers are based. At least 61 jihadists and 51 civilians, mostly their relatives, died in the violence along with 92 fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
(AFP, 11/24/18)(AFP, 11/26/18)
2018 Nov 30, A Turkish court ruled that the former leader of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition remain in prison, after top EU officials last week called for the politician's swift release.
(Reuters, 11/30/18)
2018 Dec 4, A Turkish appeals court has upheld the terror propaganda conviction of Selahattin Demirtas, the former head of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition party.
(AP, 12/4/18)
2018 Dec 10, In Syria the Kurdish-led SDF pushed deeper into Hajin, the Islamic State's last remaining stronghold, and took full control of an abandoned hospital on the edge of town.
(SFC, 12/11/18, p.A4)
2018 Dec 14, Syrian Kurdish parties said that Turkish threats to attack northern Syria amounted to a "declaration of war" and urged world powers to prevent an assault on the region.
(Reuters, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 14, The Turkish military said it had killed eight militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in air strikes targeting the Zap, Hakurk and Haftanin regions of northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 20, Britain, Germany and France, three of the United States' main allies in the war against the Islamic State group, reacted with alarm to President Donald Trump's decision to pull US troops out of Syria. Analysts said the US decision to pull troops out of eastern Syria will leave the Kurds exposed to Turkish military threats and forced to cooperate with Damascus.
(AFP, 12/20/18)
2018 Dec 28, Syrian troops deployed in support of Kurdish forces around Manbij, a strategic northern city, in a shift of alliances hastened by last week's announcement of a US military withdrawal. The deployment creates a regime buffer arching across northern Syria that fully separates the Turkish army and its proxies from the Kurds.
(AFP, 12/28/18)
2019 Jan 2, Pres. Donald Trump said the United States would get out of Syria slowly "over a period of time" and would protect the US-backed Kurdish fighters in the country as Washington draws down troops. US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which include Kurdish fighters, captured the Syrian town of Kashmah.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 3, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara and Baghdad would deepen cooperation against terrorism after tensions last month over Turkish air strikes against Kurdish militants in Iraq.
(AFP, 1/3/19)
2019 Jan 5, The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces handed over IS fighters and civilians from Kazakhstan to their country. This included five fighters, 11 women and 30 children.
(AP, 1/7/19)
2019 Jan 5, In eastern Syria a missile attack by the Islamic State group killed at least one Kurdish fighter and wounded two British soldiers embedded with them.
(AP, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 9, A Syrian Kurdish militia said its fighters earlier this week captured eight foreign fighters with the Islamic State group in eastern Syria, including an American teenager. The YPG identified the 16-year-old American teenager as Soulay Noah Su.
(AP, 1/9/19)
2019 Jan 9, In Turkey a pro-Kurdish party legislator said 162 prisoners across Turkey have joined a hunger strike in a show of solidarity with an imprisoned opposition legislator who has been refusing food since November.
(AP, 1/9/19)
2019 Jan 13, US President Donald Trump threatened Turkey with economic devastation if it attacks a US-allied Kurdish militia in Syria.
(Reuters, 1/14/19)
2019 Jan 15, Senior Kurdish official Bedran Ciya Kurd categorically rejected a "safe zone" that the Turkish president says his troops plan to set up in northern Syria.
(AP, 1/15/19)
2019 Jan 19, In Turkey thousands demonstrated in the Kurdish-majority southeast to support Leyla Guven (55), a detained lawmaker from a pro-Kurdish party who launched a hunger strike in November.
(AFP, 1/19/19)
2019 Jan 21, In northern Syria an Islamic State suicide bomber targeted a joint convoy of US and allied Kurdish forces, marking the second attack against US troops in less than a week. Five members of the Kurdish-led force were reported killed.
(AP, 1/21/19)(AFP, 1/21/19)
2019 Jan 25, A Turkish court released Leyla Guven, a Kurdish lawmaker who was jailed last year for criticizing Ankara's military operation in Syria. She has been on hunger strike for nearly three months and still faces trial and up to 31 years' jail over charges of terrorism leadership and propaganda for her opposition to Turkey's incursion into northwest Syria's Afrin region.
(Reuters, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 25, Turkish forces shelled YPG militia positions in the northern Syrian region of Tal Rifaat for a third consecutive day.
(Reuters, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 26, In northwestern Iraq Kurdish protesters stormed a Turkish army position in the Shiladzeh region late today to protest the deaths of four civilians they said were killed last week in Turkish bombardment. One Kurdish protester was killed after Turkish troops opened fire on the demonstrators.
(AFP, 1/27/19)
2019 Jan 26, Turkey's Defense Ministry said a Turkish military base in northern Iraq has come under attack by Kurdish militants. At least 10 people were wounded when protesters stormed the Turkish military camp near Dohuk in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, burning two tanks and other vehicles.
(AP, 1/26/19)(Reuters, 1/26/19)
2019 Jan 28, In eastern Syria Kurdish-led fighters pressed their assault against the Islamic State group, boxing the jihadists into a tiny last pocket of land along the Euphrates River.
(AFP, 1/28/19)
2019 Feb 1, A Turkish court sentenced two Kurdish politicians to lengthy jail terms on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization and disseminating terrorist propaganda. Former parliamentarian Gultan Kisanak, arrested in 2016 when she was the joint mayor of Diyarbakir, was jailed for 14 years and three months. Sebahat Tuncel, who had also served in parliament, was jailed for 15 years.
(Reuters, 2/2/19)
2019 Feb 7, In Syria a Kurdish-led force arrested 63 suspected militants in the city of Raqa during an operation against jihadist sleeper cells.
(AFP, 2/7/19)
2019 Feb 8, Kurdish officials said there was no progress on repatriating dozens of French nationals, including accused Islamic State fighters, women, and children, from prison camps in northern Syria.
(AFP, 2/8/19)
2019 Feb 9, The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it had begun to seize the last four-square-km (one-square-mile) patch from the jihadists in eastern Syria.
(AFP, 2/9/19)
2019 Feb 10, An SDF official said the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have seized ground from Islamic State in a fierce battle to capture its last enclave in eastern Syria.
(Reuters, 2/10/19)
2019 Feb 11, Dozens of Turkish police blocked a march by pro-Kurdish opposition lawmakers in Istanbul that was organized in solidarity with hunger striking MP Leyla Guven, who was released from prison last month.
(AFP, 2/11/19)
2019 Feb 12, Germany's top security official banned two publishers for allegedly belonging to a banned Kurdish organization. Publishers Mezopotamien Verlag und Vertrieb GmbH and the MIR Multimedia GmbH were banned because they support the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AP, 2/12/19)
2019 Feb 13, In Turkey pro-Kurdish lawmaker Leyla Guven (55), on hunger strike for more than three months, was brought to a hospital but went home by ambulance after refusing treatment. She has vowed to continue her fast until the government allows Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan to hold regular meetings with his lawyers and family members.
(AFP, 2/13/19)
2019 Feb 15, In a commander with the Kurdish-led force fighting the extremists said the offensive on the last enclave held by the Islamic State group in eastern Syria has been blunted by the discovery of hundreds of civilians still living there. IS militants clung to their last square km (mile) of land in Baghouz.
(AP, 2/15/19)
2019 Feb 17, A spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said Islamic State militants are preventing more than 1,000 civilians from leaving Baghouz village, a tiny area in eastern Syria still held by the extremist group.
(AP, 2/17/19)
2019 Feb 19, A senior adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flatly rejected the idea of giving Syrian Kurds a measure of autonomy, saying such a move would open the door to the partition of the country.
(Reuters, 2/19/19)
2019 Feb 22, In eastern Syria Kurdish-led forces said they would complete the evacuation of thousands of civilians from Islamic State's last redoubt, and welcomed a White House reversal of President Donald Trump's decision to pull out all US troops. Some 2,000 people were believed to remain inside Baghouz.
(Reuters, 2/22/19)(AP, 2/23/19)
2019 Mar 2, In eastern Syria Kurdish-led forces battled jihadists defending their last village as operations to flush out the Islamic State group resumed after several days of humanitarian evacuations.
(AFP, 3/2/19)
2019 Mar 2, In northern Syria the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration said in a statement that 283 Syrians, suspected of belonging to the Islamic State, had been set free because they have "no blood on their hands".
(AFP, 3/3/19)
2019 Mar 11, In eastern Syria Kurdish-led forces slowed an assault to retake a last scrap of land held by the Islamic State group after hundreds more people surrendered. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) killed dozens in continuing clashes with Islamic State fighters at Baghouz.
(AFP, 3/11/19)(Reuters, 3/11/19)
2019 Mar 12, In eastern Syria Kurdish-led forces said more people were surrendering from the Islamic State group's last scrap of territory, after overnight air raids and shelling ravaged jihadist outposts. Hundreds of jihadist fighters and their families surrendered and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said the battle was as good as over.
(AFP, 3/12/19)(Reuters, 3/12/19)
2019 Mar 16, In eastern Syria US-backed forces battled Islamic State group fighters Saturday as the holdout jihadists clung to the last dregs of their crumbling "caliphate." The latest fighting broke out after the Kurd-led force attacked IS positions inside Baghouz. The SDF said around 32 jihadists, including at least four senior IS figures, were killed in the battle.
(AFP, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 16, Two Turkish soldiers were killed and eight others were wounded in a clash during operations into northern Iraq. Six militants, including a woman, were "neutralized" during the operations.
(Reuters, 3/16/19)
2019 Mar 17, In Turkey Kurdish activist Zulkuf Gezen died late today. He was one of scores of detainees on hunger strike in support of a Kurdish lawmaker in Diyarbakir. He reportedly hanged himself after 12 years in prison on charges of membership of the PKK Kurdish militant group.
(AFP, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 18, Syria's the defence minister warned that government forces will reclaim control of northeastern areas controlled by the US-backed Kurds, whether by force or through reconciliation.
(AFP, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 18, Turkey and Iran carried out a joint operation against militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Turkey's eastern border.
(Reuters, 3/18/19)
2019 Mar 24, In Turkey thousands of supporters of a pro-Kurdish party gathered in Istanbul to celebrate the Kurdish New Year and to attend a campaign rally for local elections that will test the Turkish president's popularity.
(AP, 3/24/19)
2019 Mar 30, In Turkey the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, said in a statement that 53 people were detained in Istanbul overnight in the lead-up to the March 31 municipal elections.
(AP, 3/30/19)
2019 Mar 31, In northwest Syria one Turkish soldier was killed and another was wounded in a mortar attack on their position. Turkey's military launched retaliatory fire. Turkey said the attack was carried out by the Kurdish YPG militia in the Afrin region.
(Reuters, 3/31/19)
2019 Apr 5, Turkey's official news agency said prosecutors have launched a terror propaganda investigation into Adnan Selcuk Mizrakl, the newly-elected mayor of Turkey's predominantly Kurdish Diyarbakir province.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 10, Turkey's Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) ordered that individuals sacked by an emergency decree during purges after a 2016 failed coup could not take up their posts despite being elected. Five districts and towns in the Kurdish-majority southeast were affected.
(AFP, 4/11/19)
2019 Apr 11, Syrian Kurds announced a deal with Baghdad for 31,000 displaced Iraqis, mostly women and children, to return from camps in northeastern Syria to Iraq.
(AFP, 4/11/19)
2019 Apr 11, Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party said it would appeal to electoral authorities to annul elections in five districts and towns after some of its successful candidates were blocked from taking office after a March 31 local vote.
(AFP, 4/11/19)
2019 Apr 13, Syrian Kurds repatriated 25 women and children from Iraq's Yazidi minority after freeing them during the final push against the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 4/13/19)
2019 Apr 19, Four Turkish soldiers and 20 armed assailants were killed in clashes between the military and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) near the border with Iraq.
(Reuters, 4/20/19)
2019 Apr 30, In northwestern Syria, the government's air force dropped dozens of barrel bombs in rebel-held parts of Hama and Idlib provinces killing at least one woman and wounding others. Syrian Kurdish militants carried out an attack in a Turkish-controlled region in northern Syria killing a Turkish soldier and wounding three others.
(AP, 4/30/19)
2019 May 26, Several Kurdish lawmakers and thousands of prison inmates in Turkey ended their hunger strike after a call from jailed militant leader Abdullah Ocalan, 200 days after the protest was launched.
(Reuters, 5/26/19)
2019 May 27, Turkey's military launched an operation with commandos, backed by artillery and air strikes, against Kurdish militants in a mountainous area of northern Iraq.
(Reuters, 5/28/19)
2019 May 28, Iraq's self-governing Kurdish region elected a new president in a parliamentary vote boycotted by a key opposition party. Former prime minister Nechirvan Barzani will follow his uncle Masoud Barzani in office.
(AP, 5/28/19)
2019 May 29, Turkish warplanes and attack helicopters struck targets in the mountains of northern Iraq. Two Turkish soldiers died from wounds sustained in a bomb blast. The military "neutralized" four militants in the latest action, bringing the total to 19 on the 3rd day of “Operation Claw".
(Reuters, 5/30/19)
2019 Jun 5, Kurdish authorities in northern Syria said they have transferred eight US women and children who were captured with the Islamic State group back to America.
(AP, 6/5/19)
2019 Jun 8, Turkey's Defence Ministry said a total of 43 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) had been "neutralized" as part of an operation Ankara launched in northern Iraq 13 days ago. Separately, the Interior Ministry said two PKK members, one of whom was on Turkey's wanted list, were "neutralized" in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province, as well as five others in the eastern Tunceli province.
(Reuters, 6/8/19)
2019 Jun 10, The prime minister of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, Nechirvan Barzani, was sworn in as its president, filling the most powerful regional office, vacant since 2017 when his uncle quit after a failed independence bid.
(Reuters, 6/10/19)
2019 Jun 11, In northern Iraq the Kurdish parliament named Masoud's eldest son Masrour Barzani (50) as the region's new premier after seven years as its top security official. He succeeds his cousin Nechirvan (52), sworn in as president the previous day.
(AFP, 6/11/19)
2019 Jun 16, In Syria fires engulfing vital wheat fields across the northeast have killed at least 10 people over the last 24 hours. Kurdish authorities claimed the blazes in Hasakeh province were set deliberately.
(AFP, 6/16/19)
2019 Jul 9, An ambush by Kurdish militants killed three Revolutionary Guard members in western Iran.
(AP, 7/12/19)
2019 Jul 10, Iran's Revolutionary Guards launched deadly strikes against "terrorists" across the border in Iraqi Kurdistan. The two-day operation killed at least one civilian.
(AFP, 7/12/19)(AP, 7/12/19)
2019 Jul 12, Turkey started "Operation Claw-2" late today to destroy caves and shelters used by members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in the Hakurk region. The operation began with commandoes, air strikes and artillery.
(AP, 7/13/19)
2019 Jul 17, In Iraq a gunman opened fire inside a Turkish restaurant in the northern city of Irbil, killing at least one Turkish diplomat stationed in Ankara's consulate. Kurdish security forces later said a Turkish diplomat and a civilian were killed and another civilian wounded in the attack.
(AP, 7/17/19)
2019 Jul 18, Turkey launched airstrikes against Kurdish rebel targets in the Qandil mountains region in northern Iraq, after the killing of Turkish diplomat Osman Kose there a day earlier. Airstrikes killed alleged planners of the attack against Kose and continued the next day against alleged PKK targets in Iraq's Karajak region. A 2nd attack on July 24 hit another vehicle carrying senior members of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AP, 7/19/19)(AP, 7/25/19)
2019 Jul 19, In northern Iraq an unmanned aircraft dropped explosives on a base belonging to Iran-linked Shi'ite paramilitary groups, killing at least one person. Two Iranian military commanders were killed. US officials later confirmed that Israel was responsible for the bombing in Amirli, Salaheddin province. A Turkish soldier was killed and six wounded in an operation in northern Iraq during clashes with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 7/19/19)(AP, 8/23/19)(SFC, 8/24/19, p.A4)d
2019 Jul 20, Iraqi Kurdistan's security services said they had arrested a man for assassinating a Turkish diplomat in the regional capital Erbil on July 17, and believed the suspect was the brother of a lawmaker in the Turkish parliament.
(Reuters, 7/20/19)
2019 Jul 26, Turkey's top court ruled that 10 academics had their rights violated when they were sentenced on charges of disseminating terrorist propaganda for signing a 2016 petition calling for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast.
(AP, 7/27/19)
2019 Jul 27, Turkey's Defense Ministry said it had "neutralized" 34 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq in air strikes on July 17-19. The Defense Ministry said it had "neutralized" a total of 255 PKK militants in operations in northern Iraq since May 27.
(Reuters, 7/27/19)
2019 Aug 5, Turkish and American military officials met in Istanbul for negotiations about establishing a safe zone in northeastern Syria to address Ankara's concerns about US-allied Syrian Kurdish-led forces in that region.
(AP, 8/5/19)
2019 Aug 11, Iran arrested renowned anthropologist Kameel Ahmady, a dual British-Iranian national, on unspecified allegations. The Iranian Kurd was born in the western city of Mahabad and was granted British citizenship in 1994. He has been living in Iran for the last 14 years.
{Britain, Iran, Kurds}
(The Telegraph, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 18, Syrian state media and an opposition war monitor said government forces have gained more ground in the country's northwest, almost reaching the western outskirts of Khan Sheikhoun, a major rebel-held town. A car bomb killed one member of a security force and wounded two others in the Kurdish-controlled city of Qamishli.
(AP, 8/18/19)(Reuters, 8/18/19)
2019 Aug 19, Turkey removed from office the elected mayors of three cities in the mostly Kurdish-populated southeast region over their alleged links to rebels, replacing them with government appointees.
(AP, 8/19/19)
2019 Aug 23, A Turkish offensive entered its third phase in which troops aimed to destroy PKK caves and shelters in the Sinat-Haftanin region of Iraq.
(AP, 8/25/19)
2019 Aug 25, Turkey's official news agency reported that three Turkish soldiers were killed in northern Iraq in clashes with Kurdish militants.
(AP, 8/25/19)
2019 Aug 27, In Syria insurgents launched counterattacks in areas recently taken by government forces in the country's last remaining rebel region in the northwest. The Kurdish-led regional administration in northern Syria said the main US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia has begun withdrawing its fighters from Ras al-Ayn, a town near Turkey's border. Members of the militia known as YPG withdrew with their heavy weapons three days earlier.
(AP, 8/27/19)
2019 Sep 3, A spokesman for the Kurdish-led US-backed force in Syria says they have carried out a patrol near a border town with Turkey to select fortifications to be removed soon.
(AP, 9/3/19)
2019 Sep 8, US and Turkish troops conducted their first joint ground patrol in northeastern Syria as part of a so-called "safe zone" that Ankara has been pressing for in the volatile region. Turkey hoped the buffer zone, which it says should be at least 30 km (19 miles) deep, will keep Syrian Kurdish fighters away from its border.
(AP, 9/8/19)
2019 Sep 12, In southeastern Turkey Kurdish rebels reportedly detonated an improvised explosive device on a road near the town of Kulp, killing four people and wounding 13 others.
(AP, 9/13/19)
2019 Sep 21, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed frustration with what he said was the United States' continued support for Syrian Kurdish militants.
(AP, 9/21/19)
2019 Oct 2, In northeastern Syria hundreds of Kurds demonstrated in protest at their minority community's "exclusion" from a United Nations-backed committee tasked with drafting a new constitution for the war-devastated country.
(AFP, 10/2/19)
2019 Oct 4, In northern Syria the US-led coalition and Turkey conducted their third joint patrol, part of a plan designed to defuse tensions between Ankara and the Syrian Kurds.
(AP, 10/4/19)
2019 Oct 5, Turkey's president threatened to launch a military operation into northeastern Syria, where US troops are deployed and have been trying to defuse tension between Washington's two allies — Ankara and the Syrian Kurds.
(AP, 10/5/19)
2019 Oct 6, President Donald Trump announced his decision to pull back US troops from northern Syria. The White House issued a late-night statement that it was effectively abandoning the Kurds who did most of the fighting alongside US forces to drive Islamic State extremists from northern Syria.
(AP, 10/7/19)(AFP, 10/7/19)
2019 Oct 7, Syria's Kurds accused the US of turning its back on its allies and risking gains made in the fight against the Islamic State group as American troops began pulling back from positions in northeastern Syria ahead of an expected Turkish assault.
(AP, 10/7/19)
2019 Oct 9, Turkey launched a military operation against Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria with air strikes hitting the border town of Ras al Ain. Turkey's state-run news agency said Turkish artillery units are shelling suspected Syrian Kurdish forces targets across the border in the Syrian town of Tal Abyad.
(Reuters, 10/9/19)(AP, 10/9/19)
2019 Oct 10, The European Union says that the Turkish offensive in Kurdish-held areas of Syria is setting back any hope for progress toward ending the conflict.
(AP, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 10, Turkey pressed its assault against US-allied Kurdish forces in northern Syria for a second day, pounding the region with airstrikes and an artillery bombardment that raised columns of black smoke in a border town and sent panicked civilians scrambling to get out.
(AP, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 10, Turkish police launched criminal investigations of Kurdish lawmakers and detained dozens of people for using social media to question the military's cross border incursion into Syria, in a crackdown against those who criticized the assault.
(Reuters, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 10, A Turkish provincial governor's office said two children and their mother have been killed by mortar fire from Syria into Turkey. This followed a separate announcement from neighboring Sanliurfa province, where a 9-month-old boy, a girl (11) and an adult male were killed in mortar attacks. The Turkish Defense ministry tweeted that it hit targets in Syria in retaliation.
(AP, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 12, The main Kurdish-led group in northern Syria is calling on the US to carry out its "moral responsibilities" and close northern Syrian airspace to Turkish warplanes.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Iran offered to engage Syrian Kurds, Syria's government and Turkey in talks to establish security along the Turkish-Syrian border following Turkey's military incursion into northern Syria to fight Kurdish forces.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll among Syrian Kurdish-led fighters battling a Turkish offensive has risen to 74, most of whom have been killed in the Tel Abyad area.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 13, Kurdish forces long allied with the United States in Syria announced a new deal with the government in Damascus, a sworn enemy of Washington that is backed by Russia, as Turkish troops moved deeper into their territory and President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of the US military from northern Syria.
(NY Times, 10/14/19)
2019 Oct 13, In northern Syria hundreds of Islamic State supporters escaped from a holding camp in amid heavy clashes between invading Turkish-led forces and Kurdish fighters. 780 IS supporters fled a camp for the displaced in the Syrian town of Ein Issa. US President Donald Trump ordered all US troops to withdraw from the north to avoid getting caught in the fighting. Approximately 1,000 US troops in Syria are not leaving the country entirely, but are trying to avoid becoming embroiled in the conflict.
(AP, 10/13/19)(AP, 10/17/19)
2019 Oct 13, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said the incursion into Syria will stretch from Kobani in the west to Hasaka in the east, going some 30 km (19 miles) into Syrian territory.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 13, The United States said it is poised to withdraw some 1,000 troops from northern Syria after learning that Turkey planned to extend a military incursion against Kurdish foes further south than originally planned.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 14, Pres. Donald Trump spoke directly to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan to demand an immediate ceasefire in Syria while announcing a series of punishments for Ankara that critics saw as an attempt to save face. Trump announced sanctions aimed at restraining the Turks' assault against Kurdish fighters and civilians in Syria. A US official said the approximately 1,000 US troops being withdrawn from northern Syria will reposition in Iraq, Kuwait and possibly Jordan.
(The Guardian , 10/15/19)(AP, 10/15/19)
2019 Oct 15, The UN said Turkey could be deemed responsible for summary executions by an affiliated armed group of captured Kurdish fighters and a politician, acts that may amount to war crimes.
(Reuters, 10/15/19)
2019 Oct 16, President Donald Trump said US troops are "largely out" of a region of Syria where Turkish forces are attacking Kurdish fighters.
(AP, 10/16/19)
2019 Oct 16, The UN Special Envoy for Syria said there must be a cessation of hostilities between Turkish troops and Kurdish fighters as the world is "extremely alarmed by the humanitarian consequences of the crisis".
(AP, 10/16/19)
2019 Oct 17, The US and Turkey agreed to a five-day cease-fire in the Turks' deadly attacks on Kurdish fighters in northern Syria. Tts effect was largely to mitigate a foreign policy crisis widely seen to be of Pres. Trump's own making.
(AP, 10/18/19)
2019 Oct 18, The Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria accused Turkey of violating a US-brokered cease-fire that went into effect overnight, as fighters from both sides clashed in and around a border town that has been one of the fiercest fronts in the Turkish invasion. A spokesman for the Kurdish-led fighters said they were not withdrawing from Ras al-Ayn because Turkish forces are still besieging and shelling it.
(AP, 10/18/19)
2019 Oct 19, In Syria Turkish-backed Syrian fighters clashed with Kurdish-led forces in several parts of the northeast, with some crossing the border from Turkey to attack a village. Both sides blamed each other for fighting that has rattled the US-brokered cease-fire.
(AP, 10/19/19)
2019 Oct 20, In Syria Kurdish fighters evacuated the northern town of Ras al-Ayn. Turkey wants the Kurdish fighters to move away from the Turkey-Syria border, pulling back 20 miles (32 km) to the south. The cease-fire is to end Oct. 22 evening. One Turkish soldier was reported killed and another wounded after an attack by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in northeast Syria's Tel Abyad.
(AP, 10/20/19)(Reuters, 10/20/19)
2019 Oct 22, The presidents of Russia and Turkey met in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi, hours before a five-day cease-fire between Turkish troops and Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria was set to expire.
(AP, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 22, Regional offices in Turkey said the government has replaced four mayors from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) with state officials, part of a widening crackdown on local councils controlled by the party.
(Reuters, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 23, Russian military police began patrols on part of the Syrian border, quickly moving to implement an accord with Turkey that divvies up control of northeastern Syria. The Kremlin told Kurdish fighters to pull back from the entire frontier or else face being "steamrolled" by Turkish forces.
(AP, 10/23/19)
2019 Oct 23, In Switzerland a Syrian Kurdish man set himself on fire in front of the United Nations refugee agency's headquarters in Geneva. Security guards doused the flames and the man was then taken by helicopter to a hospital in Lausanne that specializes in treating burns.
(AP, 10/23/19)
2019 Oct 23, President Donald Trump said he will lift sanctions on Turkey after the NATO ally agreed to permanently stop fighting Kurdish forces in Syria and he defended his decision to withdraw American troops.
(AP, 10/23/19)
2019 Oct 24, In northern Syria a car boobytrapped with explosives detonated, wounding four people in the town of Tal Abyad, taken by Turkish-backed forces from Kurdish fighters during Turkey's invasion. Syrian news reported that Turkish forces and their allies attacked Syrian government troops in northeastern Syria, killing some of them, and that they also clashed with Kurdish-led fighters.
(AP, 10/24/19)
2019 Oct 26, Kurdish fighters wounded six Turkish soldiers amid a shaky truce in northern Syria south of Ras al-Ayn. One of the wounded soldiers died the following day.
(AP, 10/27/19)
2019 Oct 27, The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they had worked with the United States on a "successful" operation against Islamic State, in an apparent reference to reports that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is believed to have been killed in a US military operation in Syria.
(Reuters, 10/27/19)
2019 Oct 27, The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it had agreed to withdraw more than 30 km (19 miles) from the Turkish border, an announcement welcomed by Damascus which said Turkey should now end its "aggression" in northeast Syria.
(Reuters, 10/27/19)
2019 Oct 28, Syrian Kurdish forces said they are increasing security at prisons and detention facilities holding tens of thousands of Islamic State militants and supporters, including foreigners, following the death of the extremist group's leader in a US military raid.
(AP, 10/28/19)
2019 Nov 2, In northern Syria car bomb went off in the town of Tal Abyad, killing 13 civilians. Turkey's defense ministry blamed Syrian Kurdish fighters for the attack A Kurdish-led force said Christian fighters will now oversee security in a northern Syrian region that has witnessed fighting between Turkey-backed fighters and Kurdish-led militiamen.
(AP, 11/2/19)
2019 Nov 12, Turkey's Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Syrian Kurdish fighters have failed to vacate areas along the Turkish border despite agreements with Russia and the United States, and says he will raise the issue with US President Donald Trump.
(AP, 11/12/19)
2019 Nov 12, Turkish forces conducting a joint patrol in northern Syria under a Russian-Turkish deal fired live rounds at protesters near the mainly Kurdish town of Kobani. Two people were reported killed and seven others injured near the town along the Syrian-Turkish border.
(Reuters, 11/12/19)
2019 Nov 13, The president of Iraqi Kurdistan travelled to Baghdad for talks with senior officials just hours ahead of a special parliament session to discuss weeks of deadly anti-government demonstrations. Nechirvan Barzani met with PM Adel Abdel Mahdi in Baghdad.
(AFP, 11/13/19)
2019 Nov 15, Turkish police detained four mayors over their suspected links to Kurdish rebels, as part of an ongoing crackdown on the country's pro-Kurdish party.
(AP, 11/15/19)
2019 Nov 16, In northern Syria a car bomb exploded in the town of al-Bab, Aleppo province, controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters, killing at least 18 people and wounding several others. Turkey’s Defense Ministry blamed the main Kurdish militia, known as the People’s Protection Units.
(AP, 11/16/19)
2019 Nov 16, Turkey removed four more mayors from their posts as part of a widening government crackdown against the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), and replaced them with state appointees.
(Reuters, 11/16/19)
2019 Nov 17, Turkey's defense ministry said authorities have captured a Syrian Kurdish YPG fighter suspected of a car bomb attack in the northern Syrian town of Al-Bab a day earlier, which killed 18 people and wounded 30 others.
(Reuters, 11/17/19)
2019 Nov 22, American-led forces and their Syrian Kurdish allies carried out their biggest joint operation against the Islamic State in Syria since President Donald Trump ordered a pullback of US forces there. Coalition officials said the operation captured dozens of militants.
(AP, 11/23/19)
2019 Nov 23, Vice President Mike Pence visited Iraq to reassure Iraqi Kurds of US support after President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria drew criticism that Washington had betrayed its Kurdish allies there.
(Reuters, 11/23/19)
2019 Nov 27, It was reported that Kurds will allow Syria to try war prisoners. The Kurdish SDF were currently holding more than 10,000 militants.
(SFC, 11/28/19, p.A2)
2020 Jan 15, Turkish airstrikes inside Iraq targeting members of an outlawed Kurdish rebel group killed at least four minority Yazidi fighters allied with the rebels.
(AP, 1/16/20)
2020 Jan 26, The German military resumed training Iraqi troops in the country's Kurdish north, about three weeks after it was suspended following the US killing of a top Iranian general in Baghdad. The Bundeswehr has about 90 soldiers in Irbil. Germany's training mission in central Iraq is still suspended.
(AP, 1/26/20)
2020 Mar 9, In Turkey Selcuk Mizrakli, the ousted mayor of the mainly Kurdish Diyarbakir province, was sentenced to more than nine years in prison for membership of a terrorist organization.
(Reuters, 3/9/20)
2020 Mar 26, Norway extradited Muslim cleric Mullah Krekar to Italy, where he was sentenced last July to 12 years in prison for planning terror. He had been found guilty of attempting to overthrow the Kurdish government in northern Iraq and create an Islamic caliphate.
(SFC, 3/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 29, In Syria Kurdish-led forces put down riots by Islamic State militants in a prison in the country's northeast, hours after the extremists knocked down doors and dug holes in walls between cells in the northeastern city of Hassakeh. A Syrian Kurdish official said a number of prisoners managed to escape.
(AP, 3/29/20)(AP, 3/30/20)
2020 Mar 30, In northeastern Syria imprisoned Islamic State militants broke into riots again near the city of Hassakeh. Kurdish forces again fought and restored order as US forces dropped light bombs to illuminate the area.
(SFC, 3/31/20, p.A2)(SFC, 4/1/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 31, In eastern Turkey an explosion damaged a natural gas pipeline and halted gas flows from Iran. Authorities suspected the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
(SFC, 4/1/20, p.A2)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Kurds
End of file.
