MER Article Algeria Between Eradicators and Conciliators Since becoming president on January 30, 1994, Lamine Zeroual has taken significant steps that point toward “reconciliation” between the state and its Islamist opponents. Zeroual has moved to establish his authority, notably by appointing a new government and reshuffling the military command in the s Hugh Roberts • 10 min read
MER Article Clinton, Ankara and Kurdish Human Rights China makes the headlines, but US policies toward the top three recipients of US aid -- Israel, Egypt and Turkey -- are perhaps the most egregious examples of the failure of the Clinton administration to make good on its commitment to human rights. While the human rights situation in the Maryam Elahi • 3 min read
MER Article Kurdish Broadcasting in Iraq In the transition from exile to autonomy, Iraqi Kurdish parties have set up the first Kurdish-controlled television channels in the Middle East. Their broadcasts now reach more than half of the estimated 3 to 4 million people in “Free Kurdistan.” [1] Ann Zimmerman • 4 min read
MER Article City in the War Zone Saki Işikçi sits in a coffeeshop below a picture of the founder of the Turkish republic -- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk -- and ticks off the problems he faces as the deputy mayor of Cizre: bad roads, poor schools, not enough water, no jobs. The city’s monthly budget barely covers municipal salaries, and em Aliza Marcus • 10 min read
MER Article Mad Dreams of Independence Politics has always been a difficult and risky business for Kurdish nationalists in Turkey. The hegemony today of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), with its history of dogmatic Marxism-Leninism and its attachment to armed struggle, is very much a reflection of the refusal of successive Turkish nat Chris Kutschera • 10 min read
MER Article The Remains of Anfal The physical remains of the General Security Directorate’s victims are strewn throughout Iraq, buried anonymously in common graves. It is hard for anyone outside the Baath’s inner circle to estimate how many young men went before firing squads after summary trials, or sometimes no trial at all, between Andrew Whitley • 2 min read
MER Article The Kurdish Experience Numbering over 22 million, the Kurds are one of the largest non-state nations in the world. Their homeland, Kurdistan, has been forcibly divided and lies mostly within the present-day borders of Turkey, Iraq and Iran, with smaller parts in Syria, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The greatest number of Kurds Amir Hassanpour • 20 min read
MER Article From the Editors (July/August 1994) For many decades now, those states whose borders include and divide Kurdistan have alternatively tried to ignore, deny, manipulate and suppress widespread Kurdish demands for political rights. In this, the rulers have enjoyed the unstinting support of their great power patrons, the broad support of The Editors • 2 min read
Editor's Picks (March/April 1994) Association of Israeli-Palestinian Physicians for Human Rights. The Occupied Health Care System (Tel Aviv, 1992). Augustin, Ebba, ed. Palestinian Women: Identity and Experience (London: Zed Books, 1993). Bowen, Donna Lee and Evelyn Early, eds. Everyday Life in the Muslim Middle East (Bloomington, The Editors • 1 min read
Letters (March/April 1994) I want to congratulate you on the excellent January issue that finally came my way. If there were prizes for excellence in magazine publishing, this issue would surely get first prize. With a broken heart over what Edward Said called the “surrender,” I cannot help admiring your ability to knit toge (Author not identified) • 2 min read
On Being Silent In Cruelty and Silence, Kanan Makiya tells the story of the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and the March 1991 uprising against the Baathist regime through a collection of poignant personal narratives. Among the book’s virtues is that, while revealing the violence of the Iraqi regime, Makiya did not forget Fawwaz Traboulsi • 10 min read
Makiya, Cruelty and Silence Kanan Makiya, Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, Uprising and the Arab World (W. W. Norton, 1993). The absence of basic human rights and democratic freedoms in the Arab world for most of the post-colonial era, and the failure of the region’s inhabitants to successfully contest this deficit, has app Mouin Rabbani • 12 min read
