The three opposition parties held a meeting today in Sulaymani over the issue of delayed local elections to councils in the cities and towns of Kurdistan. The original date for the local council elections was January 30 2009: Three years have passed but still no new date has been set. Bookmark on Delicious Recommend on Facebook…
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Category Archives: KRG
Gorran Party holds transparent elections
News and Comment by The Kurdistan Tribune: Gorran’s internal elections began yesterday (Thursday) and more than five thousand voters have gone to ballot boxes to elect the council that will supervise the party’s local units. The Kurdish Institute for Elections, a civil organisation, has supervised this process. One of its spokespeople told local news agencies…
Iran deports Kurdish students
News from The Kurdistan Tribune: The Iranian regime has deported a group of Kurdish masters and PhD students. Saman Aziz, who was among the 34 students studying for a master’s degree at the Kurdistan University at Sine, told the local media: “On Wednesday 6 June, we were called upon to attend the local passport office…
Talabani will not approve Maliki’s removal
News from The Kurdistan Tribune: According to local news agencies, 170 signatures have been collected from members of the Iraqi parliament calling for the resignation of Iraq prime minister Nuri Maliki. These signatures have been forwarded to Jalal Talabani, the President of Iraq and PUK leader, but he has declined to accept them. Instead he…
Nechirvan Barzani’s association with media corruption … the Rudaw Company as an example
By Kamal Chomani: Financial corruption is a web-like network covering all corners of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and governmental institutions. Another, less discussed, kind of corruption is media corruption. Surprisingly, the partisan and shadow media are getting huge monthly budgets although they serve only the will of political parties, not the nation. Bookmark on…
What Barzani wants from the dispute with Maliki
By Mufid Abdulla: Over the past four weeks the atmosphere in the south of Kurdistan has reflected the war of nerves between the Iraq central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). If this situation continues the tensions will only deepen. Neither Kurdistan president Masoud Barzani nor Iraq prime minister Nuri Maliki – the two…
The secret assassination of former KDP leader Fakhir Mergasuri
Interview with Mirriam Mergasuri, widow of Fakhir Mergasuri By Lvinexpress.com* (Translated by The Kurdistan Tribune): Fakhir Mergasuri, one of the leaders of the KDP, had a big role in the KDP leadership and was responsible for branch 4 of the KDP in Slemani (Sulaymani) as well as the branch of Kirkuk. Fakhir Mergasuri is well-known for…
Erbil and Baghdad still boiling, despite the talking
News and Comment by The Kurdistan Tribune: For several weeks diplomacy involving all the political parties in the Iraqi parliament has intensified in an effort to solve the dispute between Baghdad and Erbil It seems as if, with every passing day, there are new political arrivals at Erbil airport. Three days ago Iraqi leaders from…
Which Independence?
By Kamal Chomani: If you ask any Kurdish youths, men, women and politicians about the Independence of Kurdistan, immediately they reply that it is their ultimate dream that will come true, sooner or later. But, only recently, a few journalists and intellectuals have posed the question: which Independence? There is no doubt, Independence has been…
More noise than substance: Response by Kurdistan president’s office to Maliki
News and Comment by The Kurdistan Tribune: On 26th May the office of the President of Kurdistan, Masud Barzani, responded to an interview by NRT station with Nuri Maliki in which the Iraqi prime minister voiced his distrust of Barzani and accused him of corruption. The flimsy response consists of several references to the Iraq…
Kurdish Spring! Is it coming?
By Kurd Khamkhoor: A lot has changed in the political and social landscape of southern Kurdistan over the past twenty years, but more has changed in the last two years than those twenty years combined. Before getting to the subject in hand, let’s make a quick refreshing trip down memory lane. After the Kurdish uprising…
Nokan Group and the PUK business empire
By Mufid Abdulla: Since 1991 the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leaders have considered themselves bound to an economic model which enables them to monopolise the Kurdish market, especially in Sulaymani and the surrounding areas. The major sectors of the Kurdish economy which today provide a good mark-up and return comprise the telecommunications and construction…
Censured ex-governor of Sulaymani moves to London
News and Comment by The Kurdistan Tribune: Dana Ahmed Majid’s conduct as the governor of Sulaymani (from 2005 to 2009) was twice censured by the audit office: For using public money for his office and close aides and for mismanaging money allocated to tackle the drought that hit the Sulaymani region’s countryside. These reports were…
KRG’s economic crisis – who will save them?
News and Comment by the Kurdistan Tribune: The economic and political instability in the Kurdistan Region has driven prime minister Nechirvan Barzani and other ministers to make several visits to Turkey over the past two weeks. As the battle of nerves between Baghdad and Erbil continues, business morale has plummeted in the south of Kurdistan….
Kurdish authorities arrest magazine editor to appease Islamists
By Reporters with Borders: Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate release of Hamin Ary, the editor of the Erbil-based Kurdish and Arabic monthly Chirpa (Al-Hamsah in Arabic), and the withdrawal of all the charges against him. He has been held since 7 May for reprinting an allegedly blasphemous article by Goran Halmat, a controversial Kurdish writer living in self-exile…
