Late into the night on Sunday on the shattered streets of Kobani, the Syrian Kurdish city devastated last year by battles with militants affiliated with the Islamic State, residents celebrated the outcome of the recent Turkish parliamentary election results , honking horns, cheering and firing their guns. The election, in which the Kurdish party surpassed a threshold for the first time to enter Parliament, was the latest milestone in a broader trend: As the Middle East unravels, at great human cost, from wars and sectarian strife, the Kurds have moved doggedly through the chaos to secure more rights and autonomy for themselves. Their electoral victory in Turkey was a historic watershed, a moment of political empowerment for the long-suppressed Kurdish minority, which fought a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state. The victory was celebrated in Kurdish areas across the Middle East, reverberating in the mountains of northern […]