By Arian Mufid: The time is ticking for the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) to hold its fourth conference. This will be the fourth conference since the organisation was founded in 1975 and the first in the absence of its founder, Jalal Talabani. When Talabani passed away, it was like when a father dies without…
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Category Archives: KRG
Gorran’s Fragmented Forces
By Arian Mufid: When Gorran’s founder addressed the movement’s first conference in 2016, he stated that he wanted it to be “a solid, coherent and structured organisation with a strong system which cannot be undermined by the disappearance of one or two leaders”. Nawshirwan Mustafa passed away on 19 May 2017 and subsequently Gorran suffered…
KRG’s Failure to Form Government as the Two Parties Fight for Posts
By Ismael Aziz: A couple of years ago Kurdish politics in the south of Kurdistan was awash with nice predictions. However, since then, with an end to the terrorist attacks of ISIS, but also the referendum disaster, political shocks and economic crisis and uncertainty, Kurdish politics today is at its lowest ebb among the…
2019: Kurds Should Be Confident
By Arian Mufid: Many of us Kurds were not sorry to leave the old year behind. In 2018 the nation awoke to the punishment and sanctions imposed by the Iraqi and Turkish military juntas as a result of the 2017 referendum. Kurdish politicians from the KDP and PUK have stumbled in 2018 and the people of…
Kurdistan Became a Paradise – for the KDP and PUK
By Ismael Aziz: After ISIS attacked the south of Kurdistan in August 2014, 1,700 Peshmergas were killed and 12,000 injured in the ensuing conflict. While the leaders of the two dominant Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) parties, the KDP and PUK, made visits to the battlefields to take selfies and show their presence for the sake…
Tragic Death of Young Kurdish Musician
By Arian Mufid: The Sulaymani police announced yesterday that the young man who won the Rwanga Solo Musician Award just a few days earlier, on 8th December 2018, had committed suicide in his home in the district of Sarchya Sulaymani. Rehad Hama Aziz was 18 years old and in his fifth year at the music…
The Ramifications of Latest KRG Voter Fraud Go Beyond the Election
By Michael Rubin: On September 30, 2018, Iraqi Kurds once again went to the polls to choose a regional parliament. Because citizens and officials lodged more than 1,000 complaints with regard to fraud, the Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission took three weeks to certify the results. Neither the results nor their certification surprised observers….
Why Are So Many Women Dying Violently in South Kurdistan?
By Gaziza Kadr Darwish: According to the leading Kurdish media outlet Rudaw, regarding the latest women’s issues data in the south of Kurdistan, during the last six months 109 women committed suicide, including 39 who shot or hanged themselves and 62 who set themselves on fire. Hawler city was listed as the main area for…
The Dirty, Dark Side of the Kurdistan Region Parliament Election
By Aras Ahmed Mhamad: Voting to elect a new Kurdistan region parliament will begin at 8am on September 30, 2018 and it will end at 6pm the same day. There are 3,085,461 eligible voters in the four cities of Hewlêr (Erbil), Slêmanî, Duhok, and Halabja distributed among 1260 polling stations, according to The Independent…
Stop the Turkish Invasion of South Kurdistan (Iraqi Kurdistan)
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…
The Future of Iraq
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…
Has the Iraqi Presidency Become a PUK Slush Fund?
By Michael Rubin: BAGHDAD—Political jockeying is well underway in Baghdad, as Iraqi political leaders seek the magic political formula which will enable formation of the Iraqi government. While a Shi’ite will take the premiership, Iraq’s most powerful post, the jockeying is on for other plum positions. Beyond key ministries—Foreign Affairs, Oil, and Defense, for example—two…
A Fifty-Seven Year Kurdish Revolution in Futility
By Rauf Naqishbendi: The Kurdish revolution in Iraq commenced in June 1961. Fifty-seven years in the making, it is one of the most protracted revolutions in the history of humankind, with tragic outcomes. This revolution was initially led by the Kurdish Democratic Party under the leadership of Mustafa Barzani. Ironically, Barzani didn’t believe in a…
‘Let Kurdistan Elections Be Held According To Applicable Laws And On Time’
Statement supported by 200 organisations and individuals: To: Kurdistan Parliament Presidency All parliamentary blocs Head of Council of Ministers All political parties Independent High Electoral and Referendum Commission Consular representatives of all countries in KRG Your Excellencies: it is the duty of all sides we should select a date for the election; please stop this…
