As America Shuts Its Doors, Afghan Refugees Are Stuck in Turkey

For Foreign Policy VAN, Turkey—It’s been two years since Qadir fled Kabul, but the fear that someone will kill him for having worked with U.S. troops still haunts him in the Turkish city where his family has been allowed to stay and wait in hopes of reaching the United States. He doesn’t take the same way home from the odd jobs he can find and hasn’t called his relatives in Afghanistan since leaving. “I am afraid someone there will get my phone number in Turkey….Continue Reading “As America Shuts Its Doors, Afghan Refugees Are Stuck in Turkey” →

Turks head to Syria to defend Turkmen ‘brothers’

For The Middle East Eye: Nationalist and pro-rebel groups say they are inundated with calls from Turks keen to fight with Turkmen against Russian and Syrian forces ISTANBUL, Turkey – Tens of thousands of Turks have expressed a desire to cross the border into Syria and join Turkmen rebels fighting government and Russian forces in Syria, with hundreds already believed to have joined the battle. According to aid groups who have been funnelling aid to rebel areas, scores of potential recruits now want to go…Continue Reading “Turks head to Syria to defend Turkmen ‘brothers’” →

Turkmen caught between IS, Assad and Russian intervention

For The Middle East Eye: ISTANBUL – Turkmens’ role in Syria war dates back to start of uprising but has come to prominence since Russia began bombing campaign. At the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, thousands of Turkmen – long repressed under the governments of both Hafez and Bashar al-Assad – joined the Free Syrian Army, forming more than 10 brigades in northern Syria. Almost five years later they have withstood assaults by the Syrian army, have fled the horrors the Islamic State group,…Continue Reading “Turkmen caught between IS, Assad and Russian intervention” →

A Rock and a Hard Place: The Neglect and Abuse of Pakistan’s Tribal Areas

For The Boston Review: JAMRUD, KHYBER AGENCY, FATA, PAKISTAN – Kabir Afridi gingerly makes his way through the bustling bazaar in Jamrud, past hawkers offering everything from cheap cell phones and fresh fruit to heroin and American military boots and flak jackets. Located in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), along the highway between Peshawar and Kabul, the bazaar offers, among other things, items pilfered from the stream of trucks carrying supplies to American forces in Afghanistan. Few of the thieves are caught. And then…Continue Reading “A Rock and a Hard Place: The Neglect and Abuse of Pakistan’s Tribal Areas” →

Great game: Polls in Pakistani Kashmir smooth way for epic China pipeline

For The Christian Science Monitor: Gilgit, Pakistani-controlled Gilgit-Baltistan — Pakistan’s disputed Gilgit-Baltistan region, located above India’s Kashmir Valley and the site of a bitter war between India and Pakistan in the late 1990s, is today ground zero for a pending China pipeline to the Indian Ocean – a $46 billion project that represents Pakistan’s largest-ever foreign investment. It was also the site of elections earlier this month that saw Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League take a majority in the 24-seat assembly. Pakistan says…Continue Reading “Great game: Polls in Pakistani Kashmir smooth way for epic China pipeline” →

Pakistan’s war and loss of hope for those displaced

For Al Jazeera English with Fakhar Kakakhel: About one million people were forced from their homes by Operation Zarb-e-Azb a year ago – and few are able to return. Bannu, Pakistan – “I have no hope of going back,” says Farhadullah, 35, who fled Mir Ali with his five children last June ahead of Operation Zarb-e-Azb, Pakistan’s offensive against armed groups in North Waziristan. “They keep lying, they keep saying we have cleared the area, they keep saying we will get the [internally displaced persons]…Continue Reading “Pakistan’s war and loss of hope for those displaced” →

Grief not justice for Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan

For IRIN News: OSH, 26 May 2015 (IRIN) – Zahira doesn’t like to return to the site, a concrete slab which covers the entrance to the cellar where her twin brother Hassan hid. “Most of us women and children went to camps at the border [with Uzbekistan], but the men stayed behind to protect our homes,” said Zahira*. Hassan was among them. “I called him around noon and he said they were hiding in the cellar. I called again at 5pm and no one answered.”…Continue Reading “Grief not justice for Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan” →

Leaving ISIS

For The Boston Review: -Sanliurfa, Turkey: This time, Hammad did not expect to escape alive. He knelt on the side of a desert highway leading from Raqqa to Aleppo, fingers intertwined behind his head, where an ISIS fighter pointed a machine gun. “They told me I had committed a crime against Islam, against God,” he recalled of the five men who abducted him. We talked in Sanliurfa, Turkey, about fifty kilometers north of the Syrian border. A thin, wiry twenty-two-year-old with a penchant for chain…Continue Reading “Leaving ISIS” →

Hope and fear: Kyrgyz migrants in Russia

For IRIN News: OSH, 24 April 2015 (IRIN) – At a government-run centre for migrant labourers in the Kyrgyzstani city of Osh, 23-year-old Nurbek waits patiently for advice on how to return to Moscow. “My family has lived in Russia for more than 10 years, I want to go back to them,” he said. “I was deported 10 days ago after police said I’m on a blacklist. Now I’m hoping to be removed from the list.” Nurbek is one of around 1.5 million Kyrgyz –…Continue Reading “Hope and fear: Kyrgyz migrants in Russia” →

Why Syria’s Devout Oppose ISIS, as Told by a Cleric That Fled Their Rule

For The Huffington Post With Michael Kaplan: This February, we conducted a series of interviews in southern Turkey with those who have fled ISIS rule in Syria. In the city of Sanliurfa, we met rebel fighters, Islamic judges, and scholars, among them, Ahmed Saleh, a prominent imam from the Syrian city of Deir Ezzour. Saleh fled the city in June, 2014, a month before ISIS eliminated all rival groups and took control. Rebels spoke to us about how ISIS fought them instead of the regime….Continue Reading “Why Syria’s Devout Oppose ISIS, as Told by a Cleric That Fled Their Rule” →