By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 17 July 2025
How Much Responsibility Does the Syrian State Have for the Alawi Massacres?
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Tag Archives: European Union
Will Trump Succeed in Withdrawing From Syria This Time?
The Alawi Massacres in Syria: A Blip or a Rubicon?
Everyone Knows Much Less History Than They Used To
Britain’s Brexit Debate is Finally Over
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 15 December 2019
This article was published at QPosts
The victory of Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party, and the crushing defeat of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, is the beginning of the end of three years of turbulence in Britain. Continue reading
Iran Restarts Terrorism in Europe
Published at the New York Post
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 10 January 2019
Rally for MEK in Villepinte, near Paris, in June 2018. Photograph: Regis Duvignau/Reuters
The nuclear deal was supposed to chart a new course for Iran. But the Tehran regime remains as it ever was, including when it comes to committing acts of terror in Western homelands. Just don’t expect Europe to reconsider its policy of preserving the nuclear deal at any cost. Continue reading
American Intelligence Acknowledges Anti-ISIS Coalition’s Kurdish Partner is a Terrorist Group
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 27 January 2018
YPG/YPJ fighters raise the banner of the PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in Raqqa city on 19 October 2017 (YPG Press Office)
The Central Intelligence Agency has publicly recognized that the Kurdish partner force the United States-led Coalition against the Islamic State (IS) has been working with in Syria is a subsidiary of the terrorist-designated Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Continue reading
Is Britain Cracking Down on PKK Terrorist Activity?
Originally published at The Henry Jackson Society
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 16 December 2017
Pro-PKK demonstrators in Frankfurt, Germany, 18 March 2017, REUTERS / Ralph Orlowski
The BBC reported yesterday that on 7 December the Metropolitan Police Service arrested four people—two 17-year-old boys, a 38-year-old woman, and a 50-year-old woman—were arrested in the Haringey area of north London as part of a probe into terrorist fundraising, through money laundering and fraud. The terrorist group at issue is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and those arrested are believed to have contributed to the PKK’s finances through sale and distribution of one of the PKK’s most important propaganda instruments, the Yeni Ozgur Politika (New Free Politics) newspaper. Time will tell if this is a one-off or the beginning of a serious and long-overdue attempt to curtail the PKK’s propaganda-recruitment activity and fundraising in the West. Continue reading
Russia Takes Advantage of the Schism in NATO Between America and Turkey
Originally published at The International Business Times
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 9 October 2017
President Donald Trump meets Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House, 16 May 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Relations between Turkey and the United States hit a new low on Sunday 8 October. The U.S. State Department suspended “all non-immigrant visa services at all U.S. diplomatic facilities in Turkey”.
The Turkish government retaliated—citing concerns about the “commitment of the government of the United States to the security of the Turkish Mission facilities and personnel”—by “suspend[ing] all non-immigrant visa service[s] at all Turkish diplomatic facilities in the U.S..” Continue reading
Iraqi Kurdistan’s Independence Referendum and the West’s Middle East Strategy
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 27 September 2017
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) held a referendum on 25 September, and voted overwhelmingly—with nearly 93% in favour—for independence. The comparison with Brexit might have been overworked by all sides, but there was a familiarity: while the result itself was not a shock, the fact of the referendum itself came as a surprise to many in what one might call the global elite, which lectured in that endearing way that had such success in deterring Brits a year ago. Then as now, the effect was, if anything, to stoke the bloody-mindedness of a population that had considerable qualms but had enough pride to repudiate being harangued in those accents. Still, as with Brexit, it wasn’t as if the naysayers didn’t have a case, and now comes the really difficult work. Continue reading
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