Much Ado About What? by Yavuz Baydar on Substack, August 14, 2026 Shaped by Erdoğan, Bahçeli and Öcalan, the law opens a wider debate on Turkey’s future — peace gesture or further regime consolidation? Turkey’s chronic “system crisis,” spanning over a decade and pushing the country deeper into hard‑core autocratic rule, has reached a notable… Read more »
Monthly Archives: August 2026
How Turkey’s PKK Amnesty Law Entwines Kurds’ Hopes with Erdogan’s Ambitions
The first legislation to emerge from direct negotiations with Abdullah Ocalan offers a path to ending Turkey’s war with the PKK while potentially giving President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the votes he needs to remain in power for a third term. France24 report on dissolution of SDF, August 26, 2026: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/turkey-says-dissolution-of-kurdish-led-group-crucial-for-syrian-stability/vi-AA2aYnrR?ocid=socialshare by Amberin Zaman, Al-Monitor, Washington,… Read more »
Adayaalam: The Illusion of Reform
The Continuing Erosion of Civic Space in the North-East by Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research, Jaffna, August 19, 2026 Journalism, activism, political mobilization, and memorialization remain at risk in the Northern and Eastern Provinces (North-East), and civic space continues to be under threat. In 2025, the Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research (ACPR) released a report… Read more »
India Today: 582 Skeletons, Including Children, Discovered in Sri Lanka Mass Grave
The remains are believed to be of civilians who disappeared during Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war, which broke out between government forces and the ethnic Tamil rebels, who sought an independent state. by Abhishek De, India Today, August 20, 2026 Excavation at a mass grave in Sri Lanka has led to the discovery of 582… Read more »
Turkey’s Peace Process with the Kurds
History, Challenges, and the Path Forward by Washington Kurdish Institute, September 26, 2025 The Kurdish people, a distinct ethnic and linguistic group native to the Middle East, have long aspired to self-determination. In the aftermath of World War I, the victorious powers initially floated the idea of an independent Kurdistan in the 1920 Treaty of… Read more »
The New Peace Initiative and Kurdish Perspective
by A.Kadir Yildirim, Edward P. Djerejian Center for the Middle East issue brief, Baylor Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, Hoyuston, TX, June 18, 2025 Background on Kurdish Conflict In March 2025, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) embarked on a groundbreaking peace initiative in Turkey to resolve a conflict that spans over four decades and… Read more »
MGR Remembered – Part 89
Fifth International Tamil Research Conference, Madurai – Jan 1981 by Sachi Sri Kantha, August 17, 2026 Kannan’s comment Fellow MGR biographer and pal R. Kannan had sent me his thoughts on Part 88 on July 27. It was, “I read Part 88 in one go; it was riveting. I wasn’t aware that a ferry had… Read more »
BTF: Chemmani Overview
by British Tamils Forum, London, July 30, 2026 BTF Chemmani Mass Graves – Overview of Forensic findings & International Legal Frameworks Chemmani Mass Graves An Interim Overview of Forensic Findings and International Legal Frameworks The forensic evidence unearthed at the Chemmani mass grave site points to potential violations across several major international legal regimes: •… Read more »
Threats to Civic Space in Sri Lanka
A perfect storm: Digitalisation, new laws, draft bills, and threats to civic space in Sri Lanka by Sanjana Hattotuwa in his blog, Colombo, August 18, 2026 Since 2023, Sri Lanka has enacted, circulated or in some way referred to at least 7 laws and draft laws that bear directly on what citizens and organisations can say,… Read more »
Why Eelam Tamils Must Read Robespierre
The Vortex of Virtue and Lessons of Revolution by Krishna Ambalavanar, Ezhugai Magazine, July 28, 2026 The French Revolution of 1789, which erupted at the end of the eighteenth century, remains a monumental watershed moment that permanently altered the course of global history. . Maximilien Robespierre emerged as the most central, influential, and intensely debated leader… Read more »
Contemporary Dimension of the Vaddukoddai Resolution
A Progressive Leftist Critical Review by Krishna Ambalavanar, Elugai News and in his blog, August 11, 2026 Introduction: History and Contemporary Relevance The Vaddukoddai Resolution, adopted on May 14, 1976, near Jaffna, remains one of the most defining milestones in the political history of the Tamil national struggle in Sri Lanka. Convened under the leadership… Read more »
Rebutting Ratnajeevan Hoole’s Rigmarole on Hindu Deities
by Sachi Sri Kantha, July 30, 2026 Introduction I was requested by a Hindu reader of my commentaries, to rebut the nonsense Prof Ratnajeevan Hoole had written about the activities of deities holy to Hinduism in his recent column entitled, ‘Down with impunity in Jaffna for sexual harassment’ in the Colombo Telegraph site,. in a… Read more »
ACF: The Muttur Massacre
Justice Delayed is Justice Denied by Action Contre le Faim, Groundviews, Colombo, August 4, 2026 2026 ACF report: ACF rapport-muttur-2026-en-web-compressed_74178155e0 Photo courtesy of ACF (from 2018) “For Muttur, and for humanitarians everywhere, we will never forget, and we will never give up.” Perrine Benoist, Action Against Hunger Co-Director General. “Just after the murders I went to… Read more »