By Dr Shorsh Hassan and Harem Karem: According to the retirement law – number (27) of the year (2006) – an employee of the government is entitled to a pension if he has worked for at least 15 years and been a member of the pension scheme, contributing between 7% and 12% of his salary…
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Category Archives: Iraq
The Kurds and Peace: Kurds tend to forget the past easily
By Dr Aland Mizell: Throughout history, the Kurdish people have faced one incontrovertible fact of real politics. Kurds have no real predictable or long-term allies in the Middle East. Because of disunity among Kurdish people, they have often sought alliances with international powers, and most of the time these friendly allies decided it was in…
On the 25th anniversary of the Kurdish genocide
By Kawa Rash: Deriving from ‘Suratal-Anfal’ in the Qur’an, ‘al Anfal’ literally means ‘the spoils’ (of war) and the term was used by Saddam’s Iraqi regime to describe the 1988 military campaign of extermination and looting commanded by Ali Hassan al-Majid. However, the ruling Ba’athists distorted what the Qur’an says. ‘Anfal’ in the Qur’an does…
Notes on Kurdish issues
By Mariwan Pauls: Arab Iraqi Nationalism The Arabs’ (Iraqi or otherwise) hatred of us, the Kurds, is as alive as ever. I was listening to a few Iraqi commentators about Iraqi politics and their hatred and disapproval of anything Kurdish and Kurdish politics was shocking. (Or was it? Should we be surprised? Perhaps not!) It…
First oil from south of Kurdistan sold on international market
KT News: The first cargo of crude oil from an oil field in the south of Kurdistan has been sold on the international market. This has happened in defiance of the Iraq central government and against the background of its ongoing dispute with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Reuters quotes sources as saying that a…
Erbil delivers letter to Baghdad calling for resolution of disputes
KT News: The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has delivered what is described as a ‘final’ letter to the Iraqi government of Nuri al Maliki, asking it to resolve the outstanding issues between Erbil and Baghdad. The KRG has set up in a special committee in Erbil, comprising members of the two ruling parties and a…
Baghdad budget is for ordinary people and oil dispute is for the rich, says Gorran MP
KT News and Comment: A prominent Gorran MP in the Iraqi parliament has accused other Kurdish MPs of wrongly opposing Iraq’s budget because of the ongoing oil dispute. Latif Mustafa told Awene that, while the Iraq budget ‘belongs’ to ordinary people, the oil dispute between Baghdad and Erbil mainly concerns the corrupt politicians, oil contractors…
Al Qaeda and ex-Baathists ‘exploiting’ protests against Maliki
KT News and Comment: Southern Iraq continues to be convulsed every week by mass demonstrations called by pro-Sunni parties protesting at the authoritarian and sectarian policies of Maliki’s pro-Shia government. In Anbar and Ramadi, opposition forces are threatening to march on Baghdad to conduct their Friday prayers in the capital. This would amount to a…
Language barrier and the future of Arab-Kurdish relations in Iraq
By Sabir Hasan: The relationship between humans, starting from interpersonal relationships up to international relations, is established through communication. And the vehicle of communication is language, whether it is expressed verbally or in writing. Today’s complex Arab-Kurdish relations are mostly addressed and dealt with in Baghdad and, specifically, in the Iraqi Council of Representatives (the…
Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation; too little action taken against FGM
By HIVOS and WADI: Encouraging steps in Iraq The 6th of February was introduced by the United Nations as The International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Since then public awareness worldwide has grown. In a time when women’s rights and violence against women are discussed more than ever before, especially in…
Maliki imposes a curfew on Fallujah after army kills demonstrators
KT News and Comment: Iraq prime minister Maliki has imposed a curfew on the city of Fallujah after at least five people were killed today and 60 injured when troops opened fire on unarmed protestors. This was the first time protestors have been killed by the army since the current round of protests by Sunni…
Iraq government fails to protect Shia Turkmen
KT News and Comment: At least 35 people were killed and up to 200 injured in Tuz Khurmatu, Iraq, yesterday when a car driven by a suicide bomber exploded in the vicinity of a Shia Turkmen funeral. Tuz Khurmatu, 56 miles south of the city of Kirkuk, is mainly populated by Kurds and Turkmen. Local…
Support Rzhwan Amin, detained Iraqi journalist
By NUJ (Manchester & Salford Branch): The UK National Union of Journalists’ Manchester and Salford branch has launched a campaign in support of a political journalist who fled Iraq in 2010 after being threatened as a result of newspaper articles he wrote at the time of the elections. Rzhwan Amin (Jaf), who has been living…
Sunni Iraq engulfed in protests against Maliki
KT News: Mass protests against the Iraq government are continuing across the country, including in Mosul, Anbar and Ramadi. Ayad Allawi, leader of the Sunni opposition Iraqiya list, has called on the Iraqi parliament to dismiss the Shia-dominated government and set up a provisional government which would hold early elections. Ibrahim Jaafary, leader of the National…
What we might wish for on the eve of 2013
By Mufid Abdulla: For some people on the outside it might have looked like an easy time but, for ordinary Kurds in the south of Kurdistan, 2012 was a challenging year. Nonetheless (and despite the problems we have sometimes had in getting at the real truth), we can still see that our people are ‘up…
