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Jonathan Steele

Jonathan Steele is Chief Reporter for the website The ­Middle East Eye and a former correspondent for The Guardian. His most recent book is Ghosts of Afghanistan.
 (April 2017)

IN THE REVIEW

Turkey and the Kurds: A Chance for Peace?

The Kurds of Turkey: National, Religious and Economic Identities

by Cuma Çiçek
Questions remain about the Erdoğan’s long-term objectives. Does he need to suppress the Kurds because he wants a powerful presidency? Or does he need a powerful presidency in order to suppress the Kurds? If his campaign against the Kurds is a strategic shift rather than a mere tactical maneuver, then the Kurdish conflict may be one of those struggles that can never be resolved.

The Syrian Kurds Are Winning!

Kurdish fighters in the Women’s Protection Unit during their daily drills at Shilan Camp, in the border region of Andivar, Rojava, Syria, summer 2015

Out of Nowhere: The Kurds of Syria in Peace and War

by Michael M. Gunter
Anyone searching for a sliver of light in the darkness of the Syrian catastrophe has no better place to go than the country’s northeast. There some 2.2 million Kurds have created a quasi state that is astonishingly safe—and strangely unknown abroad. No barrel bombs are dropped by Bashar al-Assad’s warplanes. No ISIS executioners enforce the wearing of the niqab. No Turkish air strikes send civilians running, as Turkish attacks on Kurdish militia bases do across the border in Iraq.