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By Dr. M. Koohzad: After the defeat of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in WWI (1914 – 1918), European victors dissected the world’s most potent Muslim Empire. In the middle of the Great War, the Allies predicted the result of the conflict and planned to take over by signing the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement. The two, a…
By Harem Karem: Last year’s wave of protests against corruption and foreign interference, across central and southern Iraq, marked a critical juncture in the country’s post-war trajectory; unprecedented in scale and strength, the protesters were resolute in pursuit of lasting change. Undeterred by the violent crackdown from state and non-state forces that resulted in hundreds…
By Arian Mufid: When the USA invaded Iraq they didn’t realise they were going to build a proxy state of Iran. Iraq has become a failed state through the last two decades of rule by different Islamic parties, all driven primarily by Iranian interests. The country of Iraq has been devastated and its resources wasted…
By Arian Mufid: When the American administration made a political decision to invade Iraq militarily, they never fully calculated the consequences and how bloody that war would be. The USA acted largely on the advice of the Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi who helped imbue their invasion plans with false optimism as to medium and…
By Arian Mufid: Iran’s mullah’s and their despotic regime are celebrating forty years in power. When the Shah of Iran left Iran in 1978 and handed over to Shahpoor Bhaktiar, it was a final concession made to stop Iran’s destruction. Ayatollah Khomeini was still in France when the world’s most powerful intelligence services decided to…
Kurdistan National Kongress (KNK) Statement: The Kurds in Iraq and Syria have been engaged in an epic battle against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria, an organisation that stands in opposition not only to the Kurds, but also to the region as a whole, in its attempts to create a Salafist system. This…
By Amy L Beam: 42-minute Interview with Amy L Beam, May 20, 2018, Mosul, Iraq. (Interview conducted in English with no translation to Arabic. Sorry for poor sound quality.) Amy (A): General Najim, can you explain your position and responsibilities? Najim (N): I am Major General, Commander of Nineveh province. A: What responsibilities does that…
By Payraw Anwar: Introduction The nuclear deal between Iran and P5+1 (the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — the United states, United Kingdom, Russia, France, and China — plus Germany) and the European Union was signed in the summer of 2015. On 8 May 2018 Donald Trump the president of the United…
By Rebwar Rashed: The earthquake on Sunday evening, 11 November, which struck a region between Iraq and Iran, is strictly a Kurdish region. In Iraq, this Kurdish area has always been subjected to extermination by the Iraqi governments, for instance during the Anfal of Saddam Hussein at least 182,000 Kurdish civilians were buried alive. In…
By Dr Jan Best de Vries: After World War 1 the present borders of Iraq and Syria were drawn by respectively England and France on the basis of the presence of oil fields in these areas, their former mandates after destruction of the vilayets under Ottoman rule. So neither these present western powers nor the …
By Dr. Rashid Karadaghi: Few issues have split the Kurdish house like the proposed referendum, which is planned for late September of this year in South Kurdistan. This article is not about endorsing or opposing the referendum because a referendum is the most basic right of any oppressed nation like the Kurds. Thus, no Kurd,…
By Arian Mufid: If it wasn’t for Churchill’s UK election defeat in 1945, Indian independence would not have been realised two years later. As it was, at midnight on 14-15 August 1947, India gained its freedom and “the Union Jack, emblazoned with the Star of India, began its final journey down the flagstaff”*. If it…
By Hogar Hadi Hasan: Referenda, from the perspective of political philosophy, are manifestations of direct democracy and since people vote directly they are a clear-cut legitimacy indicator. Very often, though, referenda are swayed by transient impulses rather than by deep and careful analysis and calculation. These very transient whims can be carefully manipulated by demagogues….
By Rauf Naqishbendi: With any conflict in Mesopotamia, it makes headlines and is of significant importance when the Kurds are involved, even to the United States. The reality is that the Kurds altered the balance of power in Mesopotamia after the US’s invasion of Iraq. Thus, they are to be reckoned with when defending Iraq…
By Manish Rai: The Iraqi military and its allies have nearly defeated Islamic State in its final and largest Iraqi stronghold of Mosul. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in his recent visit to Mosul said the defeat of Islamic State militants in Mosul is “inevitable”. Even Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has issued a statement…
