Russia’s cooperation with the Kurds of Iraq and Syria in the fight against ISIL has been widely publicized by the Western media. However, less well-known is the fact that Russia’s relations with various Kurdish groups date back almost two centuries.
The demographic changes targeting the Kurdish residents of Syria’s Afrin city are a “disaster,” the Russian ambassador to Iraq told Rudaw last week. Turkey-backed groups have been accused of replacing Kurds with Arabs and Turkmens there.
