Category Archives: Political Theory

There is another factor to unite Barzani and Maliki

Mohammed Hussein

By Mohammed Hussein: Recent meetings between Iraqi Prime Minister, Nuri Al- Maliki, and president of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, Massoud Barzani, have posed many questions about these leaders’ simultaneous hostility and friendship. What unites them, and what makes them stand against each other are topics that have been discussed in some Iraqi and international media. But…

Undemocratic parties are failing all around the world…

Solin Hacador

By Solin Hacador: Radical protests in different parts of the world are emerging. A new way of doing politics is spreading throughout the world. The worlds’ politicians seem to have difficulty in understanding and managing the situation. It is quite interesting that these kinds of protests are functioning well without any leader or financial, material…

Arab Spring – Reintegration or further disintegration of the region?

By Mohammad Pervez Bilgrami: The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Levant, Iraq and Iran are the regions that were mostly conquered by Muslim armies at the time of the Rashidun Caliphs. They converted the whole swath of land to the religion of Islam. After conversion to Islam, the people of the region lived under…

What do we know about dictators? Totalitarianism and authoritarianism

Dr Daniel P

By Dr. Daniel P.: Democracy means freedom of the people in a nation to choose. The people have the power over the entire nation. It is up to the majority what the fate of the country will be. The exact opposite of this is the authoritarian and totalitarian types of governance. These have only one person…

Restore US democracy: Limit the power of invisible hand

By Rauf Naqishbendi: In a representative democracy the power of the people is delegated to their representatives mandating that, for the period of their incumbency, they act in unison with the good of the great body of people. When sympathy with a class of citizens or the influence of invisible hands is substituted for the…

Majority voice or the voice of oppressor?

By Diyar Aziz Shareef: Is majority rule a function of democracy, a technique to promote the public interest or, on the contrary, is it a tool to fulfill the interests of a political minority? Can the Kurdistan parliament be able to live up to its name (as the ‘people’s council’) if it is permanently dominated…

Democracy: Egypt’s 21st century pyramid built on sand

By Dr F R Hilmi: The US and international Occupy movements were modelled on the Egyptian and Arab spring revolutions which is why I see it as necessary to highlight the pitfalls of those movements and the pessimistic outcome they seem to bring about. The results of the Egyptian Presidential elections were announced on international…

I’m Kurdish, if I’m not political then what am I?

Kurdistan

By Veene Sulaivany: It goes without saying that, as Kurds, we are a highly politicized people. What I mean by this is, we are born into politics and become married to it at a very young age. How can we not be this way? And, in particular, how can those who have been and continue…

Murder of the mother of all democracies

By Dr F Hilmi: I will be brief in this article because I want readers to concentrate on the amazing facts and figures which prove without any shadow of a doubt that what is passed by western political elites as Democracy, Majority Rule, the Rule of the People is by no means so according to…

‘The Road Map to Negotiations’, by Abdullah Öcalan

Review by Mufid Abdulla: 13 years on and Öcalan is still in a Turkish prison on Emrali island. Öcalan’s ‘The Road Map to Negotiations’ is a collection of his writings that provided the basis for secret negotiations between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leadership from 2009 until they broke down in mid-2011….

Secularism, religion and women’s rights: a suggestion

By Razaw Abas Salihy:  The reason we have human rights is to protect every individual in society, whether they’re part of a group or not. Individuals are very often part of two parallel groups within a society e.g. female and Muslim. Therefore, it would make no sense for rights to have a hierarchy of importance,…

Evolution and the theory of God (part 2)

By Dr Fereydun Rafiq Hilmi: Political use of evolution theory Evolution theory as it stands, like Freudianism and Machiavellianism, has been utilised for political dogma and ideology to control the minds of the public. Most believers in evolution blindly recite a few slogans such as “Survival of the fittest”, “Natural Selection”, “Missing links”, “Our ancestor apes”…

Secularism and minority rights in Turkey

Secular rally in Turkey, 2007

By Ahmet Abidin Ozbek: In general, if religion is in good hands it can be good medicine but in bad hands it can be disastrous for millions. This is often an unfortunate reality of the practice of Islam – and often likewise of Christianity, Judaism and other organized religions. Most Muslim leaders, groups, organizations and…

Kurdistan – a viable state (part 3)

By Mufid Abdulla: Developments in Kurdistan and Iraq The Kurdish issue has been a central question confronting Iraqi governments ever since the state of Iraq was established in 1920. This problem has had both internal and external aspects. On the basis of our history, our Kurdish nation is differentiated from the Arab nation – linguistically,…

Kurdistan: a viable state (Part 2)

By Mufid Abdulla: Part 2 of a 3-part historical study International law developed to deal with newly-arising states The French monk Émeric Crucé (1590-1648) elaborated the idea of having representatives of all countries meet in one place to discuss their conflicts, so as to avoid war and preserve peace. He suggested this in his Nouveau Cynée  (1623) and…