KT News: The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has prevented Salih Muslim, co-leader of the Syrian Kurdish PYD, from entering the south of Kurdistan, according to reports. Salih Muslim had been waiting at the border to go and attend a memorial to his son who died recently in fighting with jihadists. However he has not been…
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Yearly Archives: 2013
Paris murders: Turkish cover up
KT News: Turkish authorities have failed to give French investigators into the murder of three Kurdish activists information about the prime suspect’s links with Turkey, according to a Reuters report. The magistrate in charge of the case is about to lodge a formal appeal for information from Turkey about Omer Guney, a Turkish immigrant who has…
Why is reading novels good – and how can they change our world?
Interview with Pishtiwan Faraj, PhD Candidate: Interviewed By Aras Ahmed Mhamad Part 1 AAM: What is your definition of the novel? What is the significance of this genre? PF: Well, my definition is that a novel is usually a long and complex fictional story that tells an imaginative human experience through a sequence of events…
Did Turkey use chemical weapons against Kurds?
KT News: Voice of Russia carries an interview with Raci Bilici, head of the Diyarbakir branch of the Human Rights Association, following the discovery of 300 mass graves in eastern Turkey, believed to be of Kurds who may have been victims of chemical attacks during the prolonged struggle between the Turkish army and the Kurdish…
Significant decrease of FGM in Iraqi-Kurdistan – new survey data
Press release by WADI: In several Iraqi Kurdish regions female genital mutilation (FGM) has declined significantly within a decade. During the last six months, the Iraqi-German NGO Wadi has collected data on the prevalence of female genital mutilation in the areas of Suleimaniyah, Halabja, Raniya, Goptata and Garmyan. Having discovered in 2004 that FGM was…
Hopes for an effective new KRG cabinet fast fading
By Mufid Abdulla: One month on from the September 21st Kurdistan Regional parliamentary elections, voters are still awaiting the formation of a new government. Unfortunately the political parties are not doing enough to meet their expectations. There is still no sign of how the new government will be formed. Gorran – now the second biggest party in…
Observers’ report criticises KRG election irregularities
KT News: International observers have criticised the conduct of the Kurdistan Region’s parliamentary elections which took place on September 21st. In an extensive report to the United Nations, EU parliament, Swedish government and parliament, as well to as the Iraq government and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the Swedish Green Party observers describe widespread irregularities and…
Iran: 5 year sentence for Kurd labour organiser
KT News: Kurdish labour activist Wafa Qaderi was this week sentenced to five years in prison by the First Branch of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj. Wafa was charged with attempting to “illegally organise workers” and threatening the “territorial integrity of Iran” – the latter charge is often raised against activists…
Lawyers of Rojava: We have freed ourselves from the dirty law of the regime
By The Rojava Report: One of the most significant developments of the revolutionary struggle in Rojava has been the institution of a new system of law and the opening of people’s courts. The Rojava Kurds did not have any legal rights, and now they are laying the groundwork for an alternative system of law that…
12 Kurds die in battles with jihadists
KT News: 12 Kurds from the YPG (Committees for the Protection of the Kurdish People) in Rojava (Syria) died yesterday in battles with al Qaeda-linked terrorists, according the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Kurd fighters were protecting their villages in the Hasake province from attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the…
Kurd protests promised against Turkey’s ‘wall of shame’
KT News: The Turkish government is building a wall on the Kurd-populated areas of its border with Syria. This wall would create a 2 metres high barrier between the Kurdish districts of Qamishlo in Syria/west Kurdistan and Nusaybin in Turkey. The authorities are saying the wall is needed to deter smugglers and al Qaeda fighters…
On Terror
Interview with Amjed Rasheed: Interviewed by Aras Ahmed Mhamad AAM: How do you define terrorism? Who is a terrorist? AR: The term ‘terrorism’ or ‘terrorist” is ‘problematique’and relative. For instance, the states, as social structures, exercise what Weber calls it “a legitimate violence”, but why are states’ aggressive actions labelled as being “legitimate violence”? I…
Great values of successful communication
By Aras Ahmed Mhamad: How many months have 28 days and how many of each species did Moses take into the Ark? Take a wild guess! How many times have you told your friends or parents ”You did not make yourself clear?”, ”why didn’t you tell me that”, ”if only you’d told me”, ” you…
Kurdish children are forced into child labour or self-employment
By Solin Hacador: Kurdish child labour or self employment in Amed and many other parts of Northen Kurdistan is increasing on a daily basis. This very heart-breaking issue denies Kurdish children their basic human rights, such as the right to education, to play with friends and to live in a healthy environment. It is obvious…
Challenges of Translation
Interview with Ata Omer Salih: Interviewed by Aras Ahmed Mhamad AAM: How would you define translation? What’s the importance of translation in this commercial and technological world? AOS: Translation can accept many different definitions according to the field it is offered in. Most translation theorists agree that translation is understood as a transfer process from…
