No longer can the PYD militants shake hands with Bashar Assad and continue their on-off relationship with DAESH to expand their territory. Moving forward, the group will play defense and try to keep what they have.

The U.S.'s assumption that Syria's YPG will contribute to the international coalition in the fight against DAESH will put the U.S. into trouble due to the terror organization's separatist strategy in northern Syria and southeastern Turkey

The HDP made significant progress in the political arena, but it must keep in mind that a toxic mix of violence and cross-national alliances will not secure legal status for their voters.

The fact that regional powers have been able to create a modest framework alone deserves some credit. They could, after all, help develop an Islamic language to discredit radical groups' terrorist agendas.

The PKK faces an existential crisis of having unleashed hell on Turkey's Kurds, the organization finds it increasingly difficult to fuel nationalist sentiments by expanding its territory in Syria.

Moving forward, Kobani will be remembered as a transit route for terrorists and weapons as opposed to a glorified resistance-hence the Kurdish winter. Would the Kurdish nationalists hear Mr. Barzani out?

Reaching an agreement with Moscow and Washington on the Syrian civil war and fighting ISIS, the PKK and PKK-affiliated PYD in the region is the main topic on Ankara's agenda.

The growing power of the PKK and the PYD in northern Syria will remain a source of tensions between Turkey and the U.S. until Washington starts to understand what exactly concerns Ankara

Unlike in the aftermath of World War I, none but the Middle East's own children are to blame for the turmoil that the region experiences today.

The turbulent and unstable state of the Middle East invites us to reconsider every possible option in order to reach longstanding stability and cooperation.

No need to say that this will create a substantial additional bill for energy-dependent countries like Turkey, and multi-pronged strategies shall be prepared beforehand to ensure energy security.

Turkey should recognize that the neighbors with which it will likely share its longest borders are not Syria and Iraq, but Kurdish political entities.

Turkey’s mediation efforts in the most recent political crisis in Lebanon in January 2011 are driven by the assessment that a possible conflict would directly threaten Turkey’s interests.

The birth pangs of a new human geography and geographic imagination are being felt across the Middle East. As the ethnic and sectarian models of cultural and political identities are being questioned, new patterns of cultural affinity and association are emerging with a new sense of shared history and common geography.         

It may look like a paradox, but the current standoff between Turkey and northern Iraq could turn into an opportunity to solve the Kurdish problem in Turkey and the region. Turkey's increased efforts to fight Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorism has the full backing of all the related actors: the Turkish public, the political establishment, security elites, regional actors and international public opinion. The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government should seize this opportunity and start a process of national reconciliation and healing.  

The escalation in attacks by the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) on Turkish troops and civilians has brought Turkey to the brink of war with the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, has declared that unless action is taken against the PKK, Turkey will act unilaterally. Despite the intensifying rhetoric, however, the crisis may be an opportunity to find a lasting solution to the Kurdish problem in Turkey and the region