Iranian opposition figures believe that the confrontation between the street and the regime has entered its final stage, as the factors of collapse continue to accumulate. They argue that the regime is in a critical position, increasingly fearful of losing control entirely, which is driving it to resort to even greater violence. This, they say, makes the question no longer whether the regime will fall, but when?
Chants that no one previously dared to voice are echoing through the streets of Tehran these days, including “Death to the dictator,” shouted by protesters against the deteriorating economic conditions in the country, declaring their inability to endure the pressures they now face on a daily basis. Will the protests that began with merchants and were later joined by university students and broader segments of society lead to the fall of the regime?
Fakherddin Salih, a Kurd who returned to Kirkuk after 2003, is one of hundreds of Kurdish families threatened with eviction from their homes. For nearly a year, Salih and others guarded their homes, fearing forced displacement by the Iraqi army, pressured by "influential Arabs" seeking to reclaim residential and agricultural lands that the Ba'ath regime had granted them after seizing them from their original Kurdish and Turkmen owners. This is a deep-rooted and recurrent conflict over property, fueled by partisan interests and constantly shifting administrative and security power dynamics in the oil-rich province, which is home to a mix of…
On July 3, 2024, Dawood Youkhanna (72 years old), along with his family and other residents of the village of Miska in the Amedi district (70 km northeast of Duhok), fled their homes and abandoned their farms—their main source of income—after their village turned into a battlefield between PKK fighters and Turkish forces deployed in the surrounding area. The fighting caused fires that destroyed farmland and damaged many homes. “It’s been almost a year since we left. We’ve endured harsh conditions and still live with the hope of returning,” Dawood says in a low voice, expressing his hope that the…
As soon as Nineveh was fully liberated from ISIS in the summer of 2017, political movements started to emerge, particularly around the time of each election, regarding its administrative future. Representatives of minorities—including Turkmen, Christians, Shabaks, and Yazidis—repeatedly announced their desire to transform their areas (Tel Afar, Sinjar, and the Nineveh Plain) into separate provinces. These aspirations turned into formal efforts by political parties and forces, especially after the Iraqi Parliament voted on April 14, 2025, to approve the creation of Halabja Province—making it the fourth province in the Kurdistan Region and the 19th in Iraq. Minority Areas Nineveh spans…
