The Turkish President was subject to international criticism after his remarks at a gathering in Istanbul aimed at discussing women's rights and freedoms, in which he said that gender equality is "against nature". In his speech, Ergodan stated that Islam has defined a role for women in society, and that that role is motherhood. He also offered a strong admonishment to Turkish feminists, whom he says have rejected motherhood. Women's and human's rights activists have consistently criticized Ergodan and the AKP party since they came into power in 2003, claiming that Turkey has increasingly become authoritarian and politically conservative.

In this news article on the BBC, a PKK commander claims that while the both sides leadership desires to move forward with the peace process, the peace talks with Turkey are in danger of turning into conflict. Cemil Bayik, a PKK commander in the Qandil mountains, says that the Turkish government's treatment of Kobane shows that it still views the PKK and the Kurdish people as a bigger threat than ISIS. Meanwhile, a Turkish government official, Yasin Aktay, vice-chairman of the ruling AK Party, gave a statement saying that the PKK and the Kurds are using current time of instability to try to "upset the status quo", and try to set up a system of self-governance like Iraqi Kurdish groups. This article ends with dire warnings by both sides. Aktay warns that in the coming weeks and months, Turkey will actively try to prevent a "power grab" by the PKK in Kurdish towns. Meanwhile, Cemil Bayik says that unless the Turkish government changes its policies, the conflict between the Kurds and Turkey will continue, asserting that "if necessary the Kurds will fight against the Islamic State and the Turkish army."

A PKK commander tells the BBC that the peace process with Turkey is in danger of turning into conflict.

In this article for Al Monitor, a news site launched during the Arab Spring which brands itself as "the pulse of the Middle East", a physician from Hamburg talks about her more than 20 years in the Kurdistan Workers Party in a rare interview.

In this article for Al Monitor, a news site launched during the Arab Spring which brands itself as "the pulse of the Middle East", a physician from Hamburg talks about her more than 20 years in the Kurdistan Workers Party in a rare interview.

This article is a news report in Rudaw, an online Kurdish news network. On November 14, 10 members of the German Parliament unfurled the PKK's flag. This move was in support of both the PKK and Nicole Gohlk, a fellow MP who lost her parliamentary immunity last month after waving the PKK's flag at a pro-Kurd rally in Munich. According to the ten MPs, Germany should no longer classify the PKK as a terrorist organization, particularly in light of its contributions in the coalition against the Islamic State.

This is a report published on November 6, 2014 by the International Crisis Group about the current peace talks between Turkey's President Ergodan and leaders of the PKK. It discusses how after decades of conflict which cost tens of thousands of people their lives, neither Turkey nor the PKK believe that military victory is possible, and are meeting to discuss a peaceful resolution. However, the events in Syria has reignited ever-present tensions between the two groups, and a fruitful compromise between them is seeming less likely. In this report, the International Crisis Group details the parameters of a possible peace deal, and states that differences need to be put aside so that basic issues like "transitional justice, disarmament and decentralization" can be resolved.

This is a tweet of a drawing by Sazan Slemani, a Kurdish woman who is very active on Twitter in support of the female fighters of the YPG, a branch of the PKK. In the drawing, a female PKK soldier is depicted putting her hair up in a ponytail, as if in preparation for a battle, and as her hair flows down from her hands, it changes into the shape of a gun. While art critique is not exactly my forte, I found this image to be really moving. I thought it was particularly interesting how long hair, which typically symbolizes femininity, was paired with something traditionally masculine like assault rifles and war.

This article is partly a news report and partly a discussion of gender equality in the PKK. On October 27, rumors began to spread on social media that a Kurdish female fighter known by the pseudonym Rehana may have been beheaded by Islamic State militants in Kobani. Rehana became the face of the PKK's female fighters after a picture of her making the victory sign was retweeted hundreds of times on Twitter. An image of a beheaded woman whom IS fighters claim to be Rehana was posted on pro-IS social media sites on the 27th, but it is impossible to verify whether the photo is genuine. The author goes on to discuss the complicated history of gender equality in the PKK. Currently, the group has the largest female militia in the world, and has a history of feminism rooted in it's founder Abdullah Ocalan's ideology. However, the author cites claims made by Berfu Kiziltan about how while the PKK has historically recruited women as well as men, in its early days, recruitment was sometimes by force. The author also mentions the PKK's history of female suicide bombers, as well as a recent suicide bombing in Kobani carried out by a female PKK soldier.

This is an article published in The New Republic, an American left-leaning political magazine, in which the author, Bernard Henri-Levy, argues that the PKK should no longer be considered a terrorist organization. He cites four "factors" as evidence. First, that though the PKK committed terrorist acts in the 1970's, the organization renounced violence in 1999, and secondly, that it has transformed since then into an entity that advocates for the Kurdish State with "dialogue and confederation". Henri-Levy also claims that the PKK should not be considered a terrorist group because they have acted so effectively in the coalition against the Islamic State. Lastly, he argues that the organizations Marxist-Leninist roots have made it a strong supporter of moderate Islam, secularism, and gender equality, and that in order to support the spread of those ideals in the Middle East, Western powers should support the PKK.

This is an article published in The New Republic, an American left-leaning political magazine, in which the author, Bernard Henri-Levy, argues that the PKK should no longer be considered a terrorist organization. He cites four "factors" as evidence. First, that though the PKK committed terrorist acts in the 1970's, the organization renounced violence in 1999, and secondly, that it has transformed since then into an entity that advocates for the Kurdish State with "dialogue and confederation". Henri-Levy also claims that the PKK should not be considered a terrorist group because they have acted so effectively in the coalition against the Islamic State. Lastly, he argues that the organizations Marxist-Leninist roots have made it a strong supporter of moderate Islam, secularism, and gender equality, and that in order to support the spread of those ideals in the Middle East, Western powers should support the PKK.

Over the past few months, there have been dozens of articles published about how Kurdish women of the PKK have been engaged in combat against the Islamic State. In this article in the Hurriyet Daily News (a major Turkish newspaper), the author examines the PKK's claims about being an organization that practices gender equality. Rather unsurprisingly for a Turkish author, he argues that the PKK's history of terrorism, in particular its use of female suicide bombers, is ignored in recent news articles, and that the organization has a long history of abuses towards women.

After mounting domestic and international political pressure, the Foreign Minister of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu announced that Turkey will allow some Kurdish forces to cross the border into Syria to fight the Islamic State in the Syrian town of Kobane. Turkey will not allow all Kurdish forces to fight, and will only allow the Peshmerga, rather than the PKK, to cross the border. "Peshmerga" is a Kurdish word for armed fighters, but more specifically refers to nationalist soldiers for an independent Kurdish state.

This news report in International Business Times covers quite a bit of information, as a lot has happened during the past week in regards the conflict with ISIS. The US has declared support for the PKK and other Kurdish forces, because they are fighting against ISIS. Meanwhile, Turkey's President Ergodan, has condemned the US for supporting the PKK, as the US and Turkey are long-standing allies, and the PKK and Turkey have been embroiled in a decades-long conflict. Kurdish fighters are currently battling ISIS forces in the Syrian town of Kobani, and Turkey is opposing giving the fighters any weapons, and equating them with the PKK.

This timeline by Al Jazeera details the history of conflict between the PKK and Turkey from 1920 to 2013. I chose this article because I still felt I could use some more background information about Turkey and the PKK's relationship, as it has had a great impact on Turkey's participation in the coalition against ISIS. While I knew about the conflict up until the Gulf War, I did not know that it was still active and ongoing in 2013.

This is a news report by The Economist about the Turkish government's reaction to ISIL's assault on Kobane, a Kurdish town in Syria on the border of Turkey. This town is one of three enclaves that are governed by the Kurds. Turkey ceded the area to PKK control, but PKK leaders claim that by not assisting in the fight, the Turkish government is supporting ISIS, because it has a deep-rooted fear of any Kurdish autonomy.

A SENIOR commander of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a rebel group that has been fighting for Kurdish self-rule inside Turkey since 1984, declared on...

This is an opinion piece written by Cegniz Aktar, Senior Scholar at the Istanbul Policy Center, a director at the UN, and one of the leading advocates of Turkey's integration into the EU. In this piece, Aktar argues that Turkish politician "fearing the birth of a Kurdish nation-state more than anything but eager on the other hand to assert their regional supremacy, are ending up by alienating all three Kurdish communities" in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. He is referring specifically to President Ankara making a speech comparing the PKK to ISIL, a few days after stating that the PKK should be fighting ISIL rather than Turkey. Even though the Turkish government has been an economic partner of the Iraqi Kurds, they have offered them no military support, and have also preventing Turkish Kurds from joining the fight against ISIL. The Turkish government's fear of a sovereign Kurdish state is leading to extremely poor diplomatic outcomes.

This is an article for Hurriyet Daily News, an online newspaper based in Istanbul.On October 5, many neighborhoods on Turkey's border with Syria were evacuated. I thought this news article was interesting because it quotes a speech by Turkey's president in which he addresses his viewpoint on the PKK. The organization has been banned in Turkey and is considered a terrorist organization. He says that ISIS/ISIL and the PKK are equivalent groups, and that the PKK is using the current conflict with ISIS to manipulate public opinion.

This is an article for Hurriyet Daily News, an online newspaper based in Istanbul.On October 5, many neighborhoods on Turkey's border with Syria were evacuated. I thought this news article was interesting because it quotes a speech by Turkey's president in which he addresses his viewpoint on the PKK. The organization has been banned in Turkey and is considered a terrorist organization. He says that ISIS/ISIL and the PKK are equivalent groups, and that the PKK is using the current conflict with ISIS to manipulate public opinion.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi met with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Cairo this Saturday (September 13, 2014). He said that the US coalition to defeat the Islamist State should also combat "terrorist hotbeds" across the Middle East and Africa. Egypt, unlike many other countries in the area, has supported the United State's anti-IS military action.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi met with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Cairo this Saturday (September 13, 2014). He said that the US coalition to defeat the Islamist State should also combat "terrorist hotbeds" across the Middle East and Africa. Egypt, unlike many other countries in the area, has supported the United State's anti-IS military action.

John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, has been travelling around the Middle East trying to marshal support for the United States' coalition against ISIS/IS (called ISIL). He says that 10 countries have pledged to support the US effort. These countries include Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and the six gulf states (UAE).

John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, has been travelling around the Middle East trying to marshal support for the United States' coalition against ISIS/IS (called ISIL). He says that 10 countries have pledged to support the US effort. These countries include Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and the six gulf states (UAE).

This interactive map shows how the territory controlled by the Islamic State (IS) has expanded over the past year. Currently, the group is occupying sections of both Syria and northern Iraq. This map also shows the areas of northern Iraq which have been attacked by American fighter jets and drones. The most strikes have been at Mosul dam; they allowed Kurdish forces to re-take the strategic location.

This interactive map shows how the territory controlled by the Islamic State (IS) has expanded over the past year. Currently, the group is occupying sections of both Syria and northern Iraq. This map also shows the areas of northern Iraq which have been attacked by American fighter jets and drones. The most strikes have been at Mosul dam; they allowed Kurdish forces to re-take the strategic location.

The Mosul Dam is an incredibly important strategic location in the war between IS and Iraqi and Kurdish forces. This is because the dam controls water flow and generates electricity for most of Iraq. After it was captured by IS on 09/11/14, President Obama authorized air support for Iraqi and Kurdish forces, in response to the treat posed by the flooding of the Tigris river. The dam was recaptured, but the third largest dam in Iraq, the Fallujah dam, is still under IS control.

The Mosul Dam is an incredibly important strategic location in the war between IS and Iraqi and Kurdish forces. This is because the dam controls water flow and generates electricity for most of Iraq. After it was captured by IS on 09/11/14, President Obama authorized air support for Iraqi and Kurdish forces, in response to the treat posed by the flooding of the Tigris river. The dam was recaptured, but the third largest dam in Iraq, the Fallujah dam, is still under IS control.

The Mosul Dam is an incredibly important strategic location in the war between IS and Iraqi and Kurdish forces. This is because the dam controls water flow and generates electricity for most of Iraq. After it was captured by IS on 09/11/14, President Obama authorized air support for Iraqi and Kurdish forces, in response to the treat posed by the flooding of the Tigris river. The dam was recaptured, but the third largest dam in Iraq, the Fallujah dam, is still under IS control.