logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2012
28m 5s

What happened to the Kurdish spring?

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode
<p>Twenty years ago, the Kurdish region in Northern Iraq achieved effective autonomy after the first Gulf War, establishing a liberal constitution and a democratic assembly. The region is booming economically, thanks to its huge oil reserves. But things are not that simple on the ground. In February, there were protests in the city of Sulaimaniya against cor ... Show More
Up next
May 26
Sierra Leone: the diamond that saved a thousand lives
In 2017, five men digging in an open pit found the third largest diamond ever unearthed in west Africa. It was dubbed the Peace Diamond, in memory of the brutal civil war that had ravaged large parts of the region in the 1990's – a war driven in part by factions competing for con ... Show More
31m 26s
May 19
Victim or Accomplice? The Story of Jeffrey Epstein’s Pilot Girlfriend
Nadia Marcinko, originally Marcinková, was born in Slovakia and met Jeffrey Epstein as an 18-year-old model. Later, she became a successful aircraft pilot. For seven years, she was Epstein’s main girlfriend. And she’s one of four women that US prosecutors named in a 2008 plea dea ... Show More
45m 13s
May 12
Return to Khartoum: War, loss and hope
Since 2023, Sudan has been engulfed by a brutal civil war. More than 150,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced. The war began as a power struggle between the Sudanese military and the powerful paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The capital K ... Show More
29m 50s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2023
Iraqis and the consequences of the Iraq War
In March 2003, the United States led an invasion of Iraq that would topple Saddam Hussein's regime, but would have far-reaching consequences for the next two decades. No-one knows exactly how many Iraqis have died as a result of the war. Estimates are all in the hundreds of thous ... Show More
27m 1s
Sep 2022
How close did Iraq come to civil war?
August 2022. Political tensions in Iraq boil over, and peaceful demonstrations outside the country’s parliament turn violent. The sounds of gun and rocket fire return to Baghdad, and 30 people are killed. The violence ends when populist leader Muqtada al-Sadr tells his followers ... Show More
24m 21s
Jan 2023
Why are there so many armed groups in eastern DRC?
On Wednesday a small group of people attempted to protest on the streets of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. They said they were dissatisfied with the East African regional force which has been deployed in an attempted to restore peace in the region. The border regio ... Show More
20 m
Mar 2023
The Iraq War – 20 years on
<p>It’s twenty years since the US and UK invaded Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Kirsty Wark discusses the lead up to the war, the impact on the lives of Iraqis and the legacy.</p><p>Ghaith Abdul-Ahad left his job in Baghdad and became a journalist during the Iraq War in 2003. ... Show More
42m 15s
Aug 2023
After 39 years of armed conflict with Turkey, outlawed PKK militants may be weakened but not defeated, says author Frederike Geerdink
<p>Aug. 15 marks the 39th anniversary of the launch of the armed campaign by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party against the Turkish state. The group has evolved over the years, shedding its demands for Kurdish independence.&nbsp;Yet however much it rejects the nationalist label ... Show More
35m 3s
Sep 2023
Iraqi Kurdish scholar Mohammed Salih says violence targeting Kurds in Kirkuk revives ghosts of Saddam regime
<p>At least four Kurdish demonstrators were shot dead last weekend in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, raising the specter of Arab-Kurdish conflict. The bloodshed was triggered by an Iraqi federal court rejecting Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani's&nbsp;decision to let a Kurd ... Show More
24m 28s
Jun 2021
How will Mustafa Al Kadhimi rein in Iraq's militias?
Over 13 years, the US spent at least $21.7 billion training and equipping the Iraqi army, police and counter-terror forces. Then, in the space of a few days in the summer of 2014. it all collapsed. As thousands of ISIS fighters poured over the border from Syria, as many as 90,000 ... Show More
25m 37s
Dec 2023
Devrim Adam Yavuz, "Democracy and Capitalism in Turkey: The State, Power, and Big Business" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
While a positive correlation between capitalism and democracy has existed in Western Europe and North America, the example of late-industrializing nations such as Turkey has demonstrated that the two need not always go hand in hand, and sometimes the interests of business coincid ... Show More
1h 1m
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami