10th of January 2013
Founding member of the PKK, and first senior female member of the organisation; while jailed, led Kurdish protest movement out of Diyarbakir prison in Turkey in 1980s; after being released, worked with PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in Syria; was a commander of the women's guerrilla movement in Kurdish areas of northern Iraq; later took a lower profile and became responsible for the PKK women's movement in Europe.

Paris Kurdish Women Killings - BBC News - Guney Yildiz - 10 January 13

Two Kurdish protesters have died in south-east Turkey from gunshot wounds received during clashes with Turkish soldiers on Saturday.  Protesters were demonstrating against government plans to build new military barracks in Diyarbakir province. ,

The building of new army posts in areas where Kurds are in a majority is seen by many as a threat to the peace process begun two years ago between the government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK. 

Frederike Geerdink, is a Dutch journalist based permanently in Diyarbakır. 

And an analysis and background by the BBC's Guney Yildiz.


BBC Analysis : Kurdish protesters killed in clashes with Turkish soldiers in Lice - Guney Yildiz

A couple of weeks ago we have been reporting about the Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan which are considering establishing an independent state. As world's largest nation without a state, Kurds aren't only living in Iraq. Actually majority of them live in Turkey. So how are they seeing the developments in Iraqi Kurdistan? Do they yearn for uniting with their brothers in Iraqi Kurdistan within an independent state? BBC's Tim Whewell and Guney Yildiz has been in Turkish Kurdistan to find out. He is now back with me in the studio. 
So, what do Kurds in Turkey think about is happening across the border in Iraq? 

BBC - Fearless Women in Turkish Kurdistan - Guney Yildiz

In the last week we've been reporting how the Iraqi-Kurdish peshmerga militia in northern Iraq have struggled to hold ground in the face of the attacks by Islamic State. But reinforcements have arrived in the form of other Kurdish fighters from across the border, the PKK..

BBC Newshour's Guney Yildiz has been speaking to Tekoşer Zağros the PKK commander who is in charge of their forces fighting against Islamic State in the town of Makhmour. 

We'll hear that in a minute but first who are the PKK.


PKK-HPG commander tells BBC: We are much better experienced than the Islamic State

Syrian Kurdish fighters are trying to put up a resistance against forces of Islamic State in order to defend the town of Kobanê (Ayn al-Arab).

BBC World Service: Kobani Kurds fight back against Islamic State

The imprisoned leader of the Kurdish rebel group, the PKK, has called for it to convene a new congress and bring an end to its armed struggle against Turkey.  Abdullah Ocalan said the nearly forty year struggle of his movement had become unsustainable. Tens of thousands of Kurds gathered in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir to hear Mr Ocalan's statement, read out by a group of Kurdish MPs, who'd visited him in jail on Thursday. The BBC's Kurdish Affairs Analyst, Guney Yildiz, says there are now hopes for a permanent peace.

BBC Analysis: PKK leader Ocalan calls for congress to end Turkey armed struggle

Kurdish politicians in Turkey have accused the army of instigating a clash with the Kurdish rebel group, the PKK, in the south east of the country, killing one of its members. The army insists the rebels fired first as BBC's Guney Yildiz reports:

BBC World Service: Turkish army and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) clashed despite ceasefire

Guney Yildiz, BBC News
Kenan Evren has never expressed regret for his role in the most brutal military coup in modern Turkish history.
It was initially welcomed by some sections of society who believed the coup would bring stability. But it came to be loathed by people across the political spectrum.
His name is associated with repression in the minds of left wingers, Kurds, nationalists and Islamists.
A referendum to change the constitution to try the surviving leaders of the coup was strongly backed by Turkey's voters in 2010.
As a symbol of military rule Evren remained a significant figure until the end of his life but there are many who will not regret his passing.

BBC Analysis: Former Turkish President and coup leader Kenan Evren dies

Northeastern Syria is one of the key battlegrounds in the Syrian conflict. It is an ethnically mixed area that over the past three years has regularly changed hands between the Syrian regime, the Free Syrian Army, various groups linked to Al qaeda , ISIS and the YPG - the Kurdish militia that has become a key ally of the US in the war against IS. Earlier this week - The Times- ran an article alleging that Kurdish forces are carrying out 'what appears to be a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Sunni Arabs' in the region. The author of that report is Hannah Lucinda Smith - so What have people been telling her? And what does YPG make of these allegations? 
Jiwan Efrin, is a representative of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) of Syrian Kurds in London. 

BBC - Allegations against the Kurds of Syria and PYD response

Turkish authorities have arrested 21 suspected members of the Islamic State group.
They were picked up early on Friday in a series of raids in Istanbul and the nearby town of Kocaeli, as well as locations near the Syrian border.
Three of those detained are foreigners who were allegedly planning to cross into Syria.
Turkey has been accused of not doing enough to stop the flow of foreign fighters across its long Syrian border.
The Turkish government rejects those accusations. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that the country had deported 1,300 foreigners thought to have links to IS.
The Turkish citizens arrested on Friday are suspected of recruiting foreign nationals to join the militant group.

Analysis: Guney Yildiz, BBC News

BBC Analysis: Turkey arrests suspected ISIS members recruiting foreign fighters

Cizre'den Bahattin Y.'nin BBC News'e verdiği röportajın tercümeden önceki ham hali - yayınlanmış İngilizce bağlanı adresini de buradan paylaşacağım. 

Cizre'den Bahattin Y.'nin BBC News'e verdiği röportaj-

Here are some of the stories, packages on BBC World Service that I have either participated covering as an analyst or helped producing them. 

guneyyildiz

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