Editor’s note: This post is by Maria Fantappie, an analyst with the Carnegie Middle East Center. Neither the Los Angeles Times nor Babylon & Beyond endorses the positions of Carnegie's analysts, nor does Carnegie endorse the positions of The Times or its blog.

Inspired by events in Egypt, demonstrators in Sulaymaniyah -- northeast Iraqi Kurdistan -- recently renamed the city's central square Liberation, or Azadi, Square.

Whereas in the rest of Iraq demonstrators called for a variety of demands, in Kurdistan most of protesters were young and voiced their discontent against Kurdistan's traditional leadership. The future of these leaders now depends on their ability to regain legitimacy with these youth.

The protests served as a wake-up call for the region's two-party leadership: the Kurdistan Democratic Party, or KDP, led by Massoud Barzani, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, led by Jalal Talabani. Both parties have ruled Kurdistan since the establishment of a regional government in 1992.

The KDP and the PUK built their legitimacy on the struggle against Saddam Hussein's regime and the creation of the Kurdistan region. But Kurdistanis between the ages of 15 and 30 -- approximately 40% of the population -- grew up in an already semi-autonomous Kurdistan. Most of them only heard about the struggle against the former regime from their parents and grandparents.

They did, however, witness the armed struggle for power between the KDP and the PUK from 1994 to 1997, and have lived under two-party rule that dominates political representation, resource management and access to employment. They have little or no contact with the rest of Iraq, attend Kurdish universities, speak Kurdish better than Arabic -- and hold Irbil politically accountable before Baghdad.

In the eyes of this youth, the KDP and PUK have spent the past 20 years prioritizing parochial interests over the national good. 

Osama Nujeifi, a leading but controversial figure in the Iraqiya coalition, was elected speaker of the Council of Representatives last month with 227 of 295 votes. His election marked a first step in implementing an agreement that ended an eight-month deadlock in Iraq. The agreement gave Iraqiya the position of speaker of parliament, the National Alliance the position of prime minister — thereby leaving Nouri Maliki in office — and the Kurdish alliance the presidency, ensuring the return of Jalal Talabani.

The choice of Nujeifi as the Iraqiya candidate for the speaker’s position is not surprising: In the April elections, he garnered 275,000 votes — only Maliki and Ayad Allawi received more. But the choice is likely to prove controversial among Kurds.

Nujeifi and his brother Atheel Nujeifi, the governor of Nineveh province, are considered Arab nationalists and have long rejected Kurdish claims over Kirkuk and parts of Nineveh. Their outspoken views — as well as similar stances of other players within Iraqiya — were a key obstacle to the formation of an alliance between Iraqiya and the Kurdish parties that could have created an alternative to a State of Law government.

Turkey, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and an American ally, appears to be developing a synchronized security strategy with Syria, a partner of Iran and the Shiite militia Hezbollah, in a development that is likely to increase Western anxieties over Turkey's shift eastward.

Just a decade after Turkey and Syria nearly went to war over Syrian support for Kurdish militants, the two neighbors are working together to stamp out the most powerful rebel Kurd group, the Kurdish Workers Party, known by the Turkish acronym PKK.

On Monday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in Damascus to discuss a joint Syrian-Turkish security crackdown on the PKK, which maintains a strong presence in northern Syrian and southeastern Turkey. The Turkish press also reported on efforts to step up cooperation with Iraq and Iran in an effort to wipe out the PKK completely.

Even Syrian President Bashar Assad expressed surprise at the speed with which Turkish-Syrian relations have improved, according to an official Syrian report based on an interview the president gave last week to Arabic-language Turkish channel TRT TV.

"There is very great momentum and acceleration … so we can say that yes, we expected this, but we're very glad that the time was less than expected," Assad said.

Back in July, Turkish media reported that Syria had arrested over 400 Kurds thought to have links to the PKK, which is on both the American and European Union's list of terrorist organizations.

Is this uncharted territory in the 26-year war between Kurdish rebels and the Turkish government?

On Thursday evening, leaders of the Kurdistan Workers Party, known by the acronym PKK, held a news conference near one of their bases in the Qandil Mountains of northern Iraq to announce a one-month extension to their cease-fire with Turkey. 

The original ceasefire began on Aug. 13 after nearly three months of heavy violence that left at least 100 Turkish soldiers dead. The decision to renew might be attributed to the rebels’ continued hope that Turkey will make positive steps towards peace, such as stopping air bombardments and releasing of political prisoners. 

But in the past Turkey has continued military operations, ignoring the PKK cease-fires.

The historic town of Hasankeyf on the banks of the Tigris River in southeastern Turkey was once an important stop on the Silk Road connecting Asia to Europe, part of a rich history that sustains some 3,000 residents who depend on tourism to make a living.

But Hasankeyf will soon be completely submerged, along with its many archeological treasures, as the government hastens to complete a huge hydroelectric dam just 45 miles downstream.

On the foothills of a nearby hill, heavy machinery is busy constructing the foundations for a new town where the government plans to resettle the mostly Kurdish residents of Hasankeyf once the Ilisu Dam is completed, but support for the resettlement plan among locals is low.

“The authorities will pay us 30,000 lira ($20,000) for our homes but they want to charge us 70,000 lira ($46,850) to move into the houses up there,” said local retailer Muhyettin Talayhan, pointing to the machinery in the distance.

The massive 1,200-megawatt hydroelectric dam is part of a wider development called the South-East Anatolia Project (GAP), which, when completed, will be one of the largest regional projects in the world. The $32-billion project will provide much needed electricity, and, the government hopes, undermine Kurdish opposition groups galvanized by popular resentment over poverty and poor infrastructure.

A Ramadan cease-fire in the long-brewing war between Turkey and Kurdish rebels may have come to an end Thursday morning.

Authorities say at least eight people were killed and three injured in  southeastern Turkey when an explosion from a bomb or land mine struck a civilian minibus, according to news reports. 

The semiofficial Anatolia News Agency cited a local official as saying the explosion took place near the city of Hakkari, among the centers of a 26-year Kurdish insurgency against the Turkish government. 

The privately owned CNN-Turk channel said the explosion was caused by a land mine. 

Political difficulties have recently dashed hopes for peace between the Ankara government and the militant Kurdistan Workers Party, known by the Turkish acronym PKK.

Kurds in the country's southeast largely heeded a call to boycott last weekend's nationwide referendum on changes to the constitution, underscoring the rift between the country's Turks and its largest ethnic minority.

-- Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: In this picture taken  Aug 13, 2010, members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, are seen in the Qandil mountain range of Iraq. Credit: AP Photo/Yahya Ahmed

Convicted of terrorism, a Kurdish teenager is serving a seven-year, nine-month prison sentence in Turkey’s Prison E in Diyarbakir.

On October 9, 15-year-old Berivan Sayaca left her parents’ home in Batman in southeast Turkey to pay a visit to her aunt. She never came home. 

According to news reports, Turkish authorities charged that Sayaca stopped at a demonstration organized by the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, known by the acronym PKK, and threw stones at police. Her advocates deny that she attended the protest and say she simply passed through the crowd. They say the rally was coordinated not by the PKK but by the recently banned Kurdish political party Peace and Democracy, or BDP.

In densely populated and economically suffering southeast Turkey, pro-Kurdish protests are commonplace. On some occasions, youths have thrown stones and gasoline bombs at police, who respond with tear gas and water cannons, the BBC reported.

Amnesty International says that an anti-terror law passed by the current Turkish government in 2006 states that minors can be convicted of terrorism and sentenced to 50 years in prison.

With economic and political ties cemented over the last 12 months, the Syria-Turkey alliance has now appeared to move on to the realm of security. Reports from Turkish state media say Syria has arrested around 400 Kurds with links to the Kurdistan Workers Party, known by the acronym PKK, a move by Damascus seen as ending a once troubled security relationship.

The operation to round up several hundred Syrian Kurds began two weeks ago involving raids in the northeastern cities of Afrin, Aleppo, Qamishli, and Raqqa, reported the Anatolian News Agency last week. The state-run outlet also reported 11 Kurdish “terrorists” were killed in clashes with Syrian security officials as part of the operation. Kurds in Syria have for decades been marginalized and formal teaching of the Kurdish language is banned.

If you are confused about Turkey's current policy towards Israel, you are not alone.

The former Israeli strategic partner continues to demand that Israel be held accountable for last month's deadly raid on a Gaza flotilla, even as reports emerge that the Turkish foreign minister held a secret meeting Wednesday with an Israeli lawmaker in Europe.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu reportedly met with Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Israel's industry, trade and labor minister in an unnamed European capital in an effort to defuse the diplomatic crisis between the two nations, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

In the wake of the Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara aid ship, which left eight Turks and one Turkish-American activist dead, Turkey has taken a tough stance on Israel while trying not to jeopardize its good relations with the United States and Europe, or even Israel itself for that matter.

This week, it banned Israeli military planes from flying over Turkish airspace after reportedly canceling all defense contracts and joint military maneuvers. Despite all this, Ankara insists that it has no intention of severing ties with Israel, and even admitted to using Israeli drones to monitor Kurdish rebel movements in Northern Iraq.

“I still feel the fear,” Runak recalled as she told her story of undergoing genital excision at age 7.

The 26-year-old recounted her experience to Gola Ahmad Mohammad, an activist for the Assn. for Crisis Assistance and Development Cooperation (WADI). “When they tried to circumcise me, I ran away from one village to another to avoid the process. But they found me and brought me back home. I heard my mom when they were cutting a piece of my genitals say to me, ‘This will make you pure and the water of your hands become halal [permissible],”  indicating she would otherwise consider her impure.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mohammad shared that many girls and women who spoke to WADI stressed the deception and secrecy of the process as particularly painful. The excision also reverberates with immediate and permanent physical damage.

It most commonly involves the partial or total removal of the clitoris and/or the prepuce, also known as a clitoridectomy. Some adult women undergo the procedure in a more invasive manner though it serves no medical purpose.

While the procedure is practiced in various parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, it has begun to receive greater global awareness. On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch held a news conference in Irbil, Iraq, to rally international outcry against the  practice.

Anger over the executions of Iranian Kurds, including a woman, in Tehran's Evin prison Sunday continues to be felt in the Islamic Republic and is fueling violent demonstrations outside the country.

Iranian Kurds were reported to be staging large general strikes in Kurdish cities on Thursday while protests outside the Iranian embassies in the Danish and Swedish capitals spiraled out of control.

According to the Iranian opposition news website Jaras, the bazaars in the cities of Mahabad and Oshnaviyeh in Iran's West Azerbaijan province and in the Kurdistan province cities Sanandaj and Kamyaran were all closed Thursday in protest against the executions.

A video clip supposedly filmed in the Sanandaj bazaar Thursday shows the traditional market completely empty, its shops closed and locked down.

Reports have surfaced of renewed unrest in parts of Iran and protests at Tehran University after Sunday's execution of four Iranian Kurds, including a woman, and another Iranian activist for alleged terrorist activities.

Media reports said Iranian Kurds were planning protests in anger over the executions and the declaration of martial law in the cities of Mahabad and Sanandaj, which have predominantly Kurdish populations.

According to the independent Kurdish news website Aweenah, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani had made a secret visit to Tehran early Sunday in a last-minute bid to stop the executions.The website said Talabani, a Kurd, had been scheduled to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to ask him to intervene in the case and put the executions on hold.

But the executions went ahead, and Farzad Kamangar, Ali Haydarian, Farhad Vakili, Shirin Alam-Houli and Mehdi Eslamian were hanged after their convictions on various charges, including terrorism and waging war against God, according to Iranian state media.