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Turkey’s Kurdish policies provoke backlash everywhere

The US-Turkish deal on Manbij sparks a Damascus opening to Syrian Kurds; Iran scolds Turkey on PKK operations in Syria; the HDP faces violence and an “uneven” playing field in elections; Iran is caught in the middle between Russia and Saudi Arabia.

A tank belonging to Turkish soldiers and Ankara-backed Syrian Arab fighters is seen in the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin in northwestern Syria after they took control of it from Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) on March 18, 2018.
Turkish-backed rebels have seized the centre of Afrin city in northern Syria, Ankara said, as they made rapid gains in their campaign against Kurdish forces. A civilian inside Afrin said that rebels had deployed in the city centre and that the Kurdish People's Protection Un
A tank belonging to Turkish soldiers and Ankara-backed Syrian Arab fighters is seen in the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin in northwestern Syria after they took control of it from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) on March 18, 2018. — GETTY/Omar Haj Kadour

No preconditions in PYD-Damascus dialogue

This column wrote in August 2017, “Turkey’s preoccupation with beating back Syrian Kurdish control in northern Syria could open the door to some type of accommodation with Damascus.” Since then, we have covered Iranian and Russian efforts to forge a deal between the Syrian government and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) that would pass muster with Ankara.

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