Wladimir van Wilgenburg
Dutch Kurds Demand Investigation Into Turkish Air Strike
"Kurds ask if Turkish and Syrian leaders can kill people unpunished, while the world looks the other way.”
Iran Concerned About Voter Turnout
The question is what kind of repercussions Iran’s domestic affairs will have for Iraq and the Kurdistan region. The split in Iran’s conservative elite, low turnout, and a focus on internal security Iran against dissent, could result in the decline of Iranian influence in Iraq. It could also mean more Iranian dissidents may flee to Kurdistan....
PKK Calls For Uprising After Turkish Warplanes Kill 36 People
“Last night’s attack was part of the attacks that Turkey has waged against Kurdish politicians and journalists.”...
Survey: Majority of Iraqi Kurds Against Crossborder Operations
Top Kurdish leaders have repeatedly said they will not use their armed forces,...PKK and Zoroastrianism
The idea that Kurds are actually Zoroastrians is not something new. Kurdish nationalists such as the Bedirkhan brothers tried to revive Zoroastrianism and Yezidism as the original religion of the Kurds in the 1920s and 1930s. By this the Bedirkhans aimed to separate the Kurds from their Muslim neighbors and give them a glorious pre-Islamic history that had once boasted many empires....
ICG Analyst: Turkey and PKK Blew Chances for Peace
“It has to be accepted that AKP has broken more taboos and has done more than any other government,”...Resurgence Of Kurdish Hizbullah In Turkey
One American expert told me that even if Kurds support Islamist parties, they are still Kurdish nationalists, and that therefore the government is making a miscalculation. One CNN Turk reporter asked Hizbullah why they do not focus on Istanbul, and a Hizbullah lawyer replied that their capital is in Northern Kurdistan and not in Turkey. ...From London to Zakho
The riots in Zakho will raise new questions in Kurdistan’s political debate about the nature of Kurdish society, and might be used by Islamic parties to play a bigger role in Kurdish politics. The Islamic parties are inspired by the successes of Islamic parties in the rest of the Middle East and North Africa, but they should not forget that these kinds of events can also backfire on them....
Dutch Minister Predicts More Turkish-Kurdish Tensions
“What happens elsewhere in the world, can be felt within the Dutch borders, and vice-versa,”...Author info
Wladimir van Wilgenburg
Wladimir van Wilgenburg studied the BA International Relations and
Political History and also finished the two minors Journalism and New
Media and Conflict Studies. This year he is busy with his masters
degree in Conflict Studies and Human Rights at the University of
Utrecht. He has been working as a freelance journalist and analyst for
Turkish, Kurdish, Dutch and American institutes and media outlets.
Recently he participated in a project of the NGO Pax Christi about the
future of the Dutch military.