KT News: Kurd leaders in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) have called for international help, including US air strikes, against ISIS (‘Islamic State’) jihadists who are mounting their biggest offensive yet in the region, seizing many villages and advancing on the city of Kobanê from three sides. Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for the PYD (Democratic Union Party)…
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Category Archives: Kurd news
Conditions in 11 Yezidi Refugee Camps in Turkey
By Amy L. Beam: Between Sept. 3 – 14, I visited the Yezidi refugees in their camps from Roboski to Diyarbakir. Yezidis fled from Shengal, Iraq, when Islamic State forces attacked them on August 3-4. There was a population between 700,000 and one million Yezidis living in the Shengal region in northeast Iraq on the…
Yezidis Beg for United Nations Help in Diyarbakir
By Amy L. Beam, Ed.D: On Sept. 15, I got an urgent call from an Yezidi in the Diyarbakir Shengal refugee camp. He reported their situation is dire without enough food, and he begged me to come there and tell the world of their plight. There are 4,500 Yezidis camping under open skies in Fidanlik…
Why the Gorran movement should deliver its promises
By Arian Mufid: With the formation of the new Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) cabinet, all eyes are on the Gorran movement’s ministers and members of the Kurdistan parliament. Gorran tends not to admit past mistakes but, over the past few months, it has tried to select good, qualified people for this eighth KRG cabinet. The…
Invitation to Safety Brings Hardship to Kurdish Population
By Rauf Naqishbendi: Since June of this calendar year when the outburst of the Islamist Caliphate commenced, the influx of refugees from areas taken over by these Islamist thugs were outpouring into Kurdistan region of Iraq. Kurdish leaders naively inviting these people to converge into towns, cities and villages of Kurdistan; and to blend with population…
Kurds will not be deceived by the new rule in Baghdad
By Arian Mufid: The main blame for today’s disaster in Iraq lies with former prime minister Nuri Maliki and his hostile policies towards the Kurds and Sunni Arabs. The terrible price of his sectarian rule was the explosive rise of IS which has in turn forced Mailiki to stand down. After several weeks of negotiating,…
Traumatized Ezidis Share Tragic Stories at Hilal School in North Kurdistan
By Amy L. Beam, Ed.D: I was planning on attending a wedding, not a funeral, this week in the village of Hilal. A Kurdish wedding is a grand, carnival-like, three-day community event with outdoor music, dancing, and eating from morning ’til midnight. But the wedding was cancelled. It would be an affront to flaunt a…
Why Obama’s Strategy to Defeat the Islamic State Won’t Work
By Glenn M Stewart B.A., M.A. Oxon: The recent statement by the Obama administration outlining a strategy to defeat the Islamic State issued in an attempt to cover its irresponsible but honest admission that it does not have a strategy to defeat the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq is inadequate at best and laughable…
Roboski: How a village of 1200 saved 20,000 Ezidi refugees with help of PKK
By Amy L. Beam, Ed.D: “If it were not for the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) helping us all along the way, there would not be one Ezidi left alive today.” This was the same litany I heard repeated from dozens of refugees in camps in Roboski, Hilal, and Şirnak, in North Kurdistan (southeast Turkey). When…
Peshmargas make strategic gain, recapturing Mount Zartak
KT News: Peshmerga forces made an important strategic advance yesterday by recapturing Mount Zartak in a battle that left more than 30 ‘Islamic State’ (IS) gunmen dead. The mountain overlooks the Nineveh province plain stretching to Mosul. IS terrorists who recently occupied nearby villages are now within reach of Kurdish firepower. Bookmark on Delicious Recommend…
The rise of IS in Iraq and Syria
By Arian Mufid: To understand what IS is about, one must also know who they are and their true identity. How did the world come a point that is, I think, similar to September 11th, 2001? The complex network of IS (also known as ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham) was born following…
Does Demonstrating Have Any Value in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region?
By Aras Ahmed Mhamad: A wave of demonstrations has started once again in many cities and towns, especially in Sulaimaniya province. After the increase in gasoline prices from 500 Iraqi Dinars to 900, locals are outraged and demand that Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) officials act effectively and decrease the price. Bookmark on Delicious Recommend on…
A sufficient defensive power is a neglected Kurdish right
By Shakhawan Shorash: The rebuilding of the Iraqi state was a difficult and complicated process, and the transitional steps were without reliable solutions to the underlying negative factors that had previously caused the conflict and war. The key problems were marginalized and there were several inadequate solutions to them. One of the mistakes was the…
Yezidi delegation and US Consul-General in Iraq discuss ways forward
By the Central Council of Yezidis in Germany: A lot has been done so far to help the suffering people in Northern Iraq. Today we know that most of this help does not get to the refugees. Some needs of the refugees have yet to be considered and as of yet, nothing has been done…
Mission NOT Accomplished: Rescue the Yazidi Women
By Osamah Golpy: Two major events coincided on June 10, 2014: the Islamic State (IS) overran Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq; and the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict took place in London, co-chaired by William Hague, the former UK Foreign Secretary, and Angelina Jolie, Special Envoy for the UN High Commissioner…
