Category Archives: Democracy

People-run debates before General Elections

Shwan Dizayee

By Shwan Dizayee : Watching the Europe Debate on British television last night made me think, are people really listening? Do Nigel Farage and Nick Clegg themselves know what they are saying, or is it all a rehearsed pantomime fuelled by the motive of securing seats in the 2015 General Election; whichever it is, one…

Denise Natali: Kurdistan seems to be following rentier states’ path

Interview by Mohammed Hussein: Dr. Denise Natali – Senior Research Fellow, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, Washington DC – talks about the problems of Kurdistan-Turkey oil contracts, rentierism and chances that an oil dependent economy can lead to dictatorship. MH: What is wrong with the (Kurdistan-Turkey) oil contract and pipe,  and why…

Murders of an ‘unknown’ kind in the ‘Other Iraq’

By Shenah Abdullah: You must have come across articles, books, blogs, advertisements, pictures and stories about the ‘Other Iraq’ where oil is ever flowing, the cities and towns are safe and secure, the people friendly and welcoming and the economy booming like never before under the leadership of the Kurdistan Regional Government—headed by Kurdish officials…

Threats to KRG democracy

Kamal Chomani

By Kamal Chomani: Twitter: @KamalChomani The economic development of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region has been overestimated by partisan and some foreign media outlets to the extent that only a few talk about issues of having an established democracy, freedom of speech and human rights. However, many argue about transferring the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG’s) model…