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By Shakhawan Shorash: The uprising of the Kurdish people against Saddam Hussein’s regime in spring 1991, followed by the mass fleeing of Kurds, United Nations (UN) Security Council resolution 688, and the establishment of the safe enclave north of the 36 parallel pushed the Iraqi regime away from the main part of Iraqi Kurdistan. The…
By Mufid Abdulla: Gorran leader Nawshirwan Mustafa today hailed the start of a “new era” in south Kurdistan’s politics, after the electoral high commission confirmed on TV 95% of the parliamentary election results, showing that Nawshirwan’s opposition party has made a stunning leap forward. Gorran is now the second biggest political force, with 446,000 votes compared to…
By Mufid Abdulla: The political campaign for seats in the Kurdistan parliament has begun. For the second time since 2009, Kurdistan will go thorough the most intense competition between three main rivals – the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and Gorran (a breakaway from the PUK). But this election…
Interview with Pshtiwan Faraj*: Interviewed by Aras Ahmed Mhamad AA: Why do you think that the secular parties accuse the religious parties of being unpatriotic in national matters – and the religious parties accuse the secular parties of being enemies of God? PF: Last year I read ‘Iraq, The Borrowed Kettle’, a book by the…
KT News and Comment: Over the last two days, Gorran leader Nawshirwan Mustafa has published new documents on the history of the early days of negotiations leading to the establishment of a Presidency for Kurdistan. These memoirs go back to early 2004, after the collapse of the Iraqi government. The papers reveal the extent of…
By Shwan Zulal: Kurdistan Region president, Massoud Barzani, has set the date for the next Kurdish general election at 21 September 2013. Both parliamentary and presidential elections will be held on that date. The candidates running for president have not put their names forward yet, apart from one independent. On the parliamentary front, it is…
A delegation from the two ruling parties, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan Democrstic Party (KDP), has visited the headquarters of the Gorran movement. The main purpose for this visit was to ask the opposition party to agree to a delay to the Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections (due to be held before the end…
By Kamal Chomani: Although the date for the next Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) elections has not been set, given that the last elections were held on July 25, 2009, the next ones should be held by July 25, 2013. These might be completely different to previous elections held by the KRG. For the first time,…
KT News and Comment: Sources close to the Gorran leadership have spoken to KT about the party’s disappointment with last week’s meeting between the leaders of the ruling KDP and PUK and Gorran head Nawshirwan Mustafa. They say the Gorran leadership believes the ruling parties are “buying time and wasting time and not making actual…
KT News: The Gorran National Council finished their second round of meetings today. It attracted local Kurdish media attention for two main reasons. First, there was a report on the recent visit by Nawshirwan Mustafa to Masud Barzani in Saladin, when he was accompanied by Ali Bapir and Mohamed Faraj, leaders of two other opposition…
KT News and Comment: Several prominent members of the opposition Gorran movement are upset because they have not been asked to join the National Council set up by their leader Nawshirwan Mustafa. The local media has been full of reports this week of the resignations of three senior members who have complained about this. Is…
KT Comment and News: 29 active members of the Gorran party have announced their resignations in a joint statement to the south Kurdistan media. “From the beginning we began our political efforts and struggle for our Gorran movement with very clear hearts and minds,” they said. “Our mission was to achieve change for the deprived…
KT News and Comment: A summit meeting in Erbil of the three opposition leaders – of Gorran, the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) and Islamic League – was concluded today. This meeting was long overdue and it had been delayed because of the Gorran leaders’ recent overtures to the ruling Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Bookmark…
