The Kurds are often said to be the largest ethnic group in the world without a state. Kurdistan refers to an area consisting of parts of southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, northwestern Iran and northern Syria. Kurdistan, as one of the most mountainous regions in the world, cherishes its mountains with the saying ‘Kurds have no friends but the mountains’.

5 takeaways from the surprise election results in Catalonia, where the separatist dream suffered a setback.

More and more people are asking Ukraine to drop its defense and sit at the negotiation table with Russia. What exactly a deal would involve is largely left unsaid. But it would clearly involve freezing the conflict, resigning Ukraine’s occupied territory to Russia in exchange for an end to the fighting.

For over a century, Kurds have been trying to fight for their rights and freedom. Sadly, their quest has been largely characterized by human rights abuses and marginalization. Hindered by political persecution, their dream of independence has been gradually fading.

The war against Ukraine did not start in February 2022, but in the spring of 2014. And the root of the invasions goes back in time even more, as they were a delayed response to the collapse of the Soviet Union and earlier territorial claims. The online exhibition Borderlands - Ukraine in Historical Maps - with numerous maps and short commentaries, aims to shed some light on the historical backgrounds of the present war of Russia against Ukraine. It was curated by historian Harrie Teunissen and map curator Martijn Storms.

On Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 April you can visit the Waag in Amsterdam to see a selection of artist Jan Rothuizen’s drawings, which are best described as written maps or graphic reports. You can also put yourself ‘on the map’, and join in for collective map of the city centre with all its visitors.

Supporters of the Palestinians’ request for full membership in the United Nations asked the U.N. Security Council to revive their application for admission submitted in 2011. But the United States is again almost certain to block it. The supporters’ letter to the council president included the names of 140 countries that have recognized a Palestinian state.

Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, a small rock in northern Africa conquered by Spain in 1564, holds the title for the world’s smallest national border, measuring just 85 meters in length.

Politicians in Moldova’s Kremlin-backed breakaway region of Transnistria have appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to “protect” it against “pressure” from Chișinău.

In 2023, the world around de facto states and secessionist entities became more and more unstable. As the power structures that have sustained many of these entities “unfreeze,” windows of opportunity opened for changing the status quo on the ground - changes mostly pursued through force.

A bipartisan House delegation said the United States would stand by the island in the face of pressure from China, drawing connections between Taiwan’s cause and Ukraine’s.

What is stopping China from invading Taiwan? In the past, it was overdetermined that Beijing would not use force to compel reunification. Today, however, the military balance of power has shifted decisively. It is now something of a conventional wisdom that a Chinese invasion has become more likely than not.

A newly-published book explores the circumstances around the violence that accompanied Transnistria’s de facto secession from Moldova. Three decades later, finding new answers to old conundrums is key to preventing ongoing tensions from escalating.

As one of thousands of Turkish Cypriots, Sude Dogan is denied Cypriot citizenship because she is a child of a mixed marriage between a Cypriot and a Turkish parent. Tirelessly campaigning for citizenship rights of children in de facto states, she is under a ferocious attack by Turkish nationalists.

Some of the people who were forced to leave Ukraine after the Russian invasion have fled to Transnistria. Why are Ukrainians seeking sanctuary in a de facto state that receives financial and military support from Russia, and what is their status there?

It’s a tough sell. Tens of thousands of ethnic Serbs who live and work in Kosovo but stubbornly reject the country’s official currency have a week to ditch the dinar in their daily lives.

A large share of Transnistria’s economy, including most of its budget, depends on a structural subsidy it receives from Russia in the form of free gas. As Ukraine has promised to stop all Russian pipelines going through its territory by the end of 2024, how will Transnistria cope?