KT News: Kurdish peshmarga forces have recaptured the towns of Guwair and Makhmur from ‘Islamic State’ (IS) group jihadists, a senior Kurdish official told Reuters today. Asked how long the United States would have to continue airstrikes to help the Kurds defeat IS, Hoshiyar Zebari said: “As President Obama said, there is no time limit.”…
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Category Archives: Kurd news
Holocaust Museum condemns IS ‘genocide’ against Yazidi Kurds
KT News: As the US military launched air-strikes against ‘Islamic State’ (IS) positions close to south Kurdistan, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum condemned IS “crimes against humanity” committed against religious minorities in Iraq, calling the attacks on Yazidi Kurds genocidal. “Of greatest immediate concern is the fate of up to 50,000 Yazidi civilians estimated…
Kurdish PKK Forces Gather to Retake Mahmur Camp and Shingal
By Amy L. Beam, Ed.D: Fighting continued today at UNHCR Mahmur Camp in northern Iraq. ‘Islamic State’ or IS (also referred to as ISID, ISIS or ISIL) controls it from inside. Twenty IS are reported to have been killed. All residents have left the town. The men of Mahmur Camp remain in the mountains approximately…
Humanitarian Crisis Looming for Turkey’s Kurds in Mahmur Camp, Iraq
By Amy L. Beam, Ed.D: ‘Islamic State’ Invades Another Kurdish Town On August 7, 2014, at 6 PM, the town of Mahmur Camp, established 20 years ago by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for Kurds fleeing Turkey, was invaded by the organisation now calling itself ‘Islamic State’, known as ISID in Turkey (or…
Sirnak Supports Demirtaş for President; Erdoğan Too Little, Too Late
By Amy L. Beam, Ed.D: On August 10, 2014, Turkey will vote for a new President. The People’s Democratic Party (HDP) candidate, Selahattin Demirtaş is sure to win the vote in Sirnak, in southeast Turkey. This is the first time in Turkey’s history that citizens will have the opportunity to vote for a Kurdish President. There…
Appeal for US and international support for Kurdish Yazidi refugees
By Dr. Amir Sharifi: Open Letter to US President, UN General Secretary, Emergency Relief Coordinator, the Directors of NNICFF and UNHCR,WFP, WHO Sign the Petition The Kurdish American Education Society and Human Rights Advocacy Group join the International Rescue Committee, Save the Children, and the National Council of Churches to appeal to the US government…
Humanity should wake up to the cries of Vian Daxi
By Mufid Abdulla: As a result of the ISIS occupation of Shengal last Friday, the women, children and old people of this town fled to the nearby mountains and some have already died of hunger and dehydration, among them at least 8 pregnant women and 12 children. Vian Daxil, a Yazidi Kurd MP in the…
UN warns of ‘humanitarian tragedy’ following fall of Sinjar
KT News: The UN has urged the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraq central government to cooperate fully to deal with the latest humanitarian crisis, after the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) captured the town of Sinjar, west of Ninawa. “A humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in Sinjar,” the Special Representative of the UN Secretary…
Helen Ghassemlou’s reminiscences of her life with Abdul Rahman
By Sissy Danninger: German version newly available – Survey of other translations The project took three years, but at the beginning of August 2014 the German translation of Helen’s/Nasrin’s memoirs was finally published by LIT Verlag inVienna/Austria. Unfortunately the book could not be printed in time before the 25th anniversary of Dr Ghassemlou’s assassination on July…
Kurd YPG wins battle, ‘capturing several ISIS jihadist positions’
KT News: Kurdish forces in Rojava (north east Syria) have captured several positions of the ISIS jihadists, reports the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which says 35 jihadists and 15 members of the pro-Kurd People’s Protection Units (YPG) were killed in the fierce fighting. Kurdish fighters took several hills during the battle, which ISIS had previously…
Attacked Kurdish TV journalist suspects security services
Statement by Reporters Without Borders: Reporters Without Borders condemns Payam TV presenter Ayhan Saeed’s severe beating by unidentified assailants in Dohuk, in northern Iraqi Kurdistan, on the night of 27 July and calls on the Kurdistan Regional Government to conduct an independent investigation, one that does not rule out the possibility of a link to…
Cronyism still rules the PUK
By Mufid Abdulla: In this year’s Iraq parliamentary elections, the PUK won 21 seats and this kept them in a position to take the post of presidency of Iraq, like last time. We don’t know exactly why the PUK did well in the elections to the Iraqi parliament but not to the Kurdistan parliament and I…
Turkish Police Teargas Kurdish Families Enjoying Bayram in the Park
By Amy L. Beam, Ed.D: Ramadan, the 30-day Muslim fasting, ended on July 28 and was followed by Bayram, a three-day holiday of family visiting, festivities, and eating. Bayram holiday in the Muslim world is like Christmas in Christian countries. All work stops. Driving throughout southeast Turkey from Sirnak the roads are nearly void of…
This is Maliki’s war – he is responsible for this disaster
By Mufid Abdulla: On 10th June 2014 the world awoke to news of a huge disaster in the troubled area of Iraq. The criminals and thugs who call themselves ISIL (or IS, for ‘Islamic State’) had taken over Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, and also Tikrit. It was a tragedy and everyone asked: how could…
$100m Kurd oil reaches Texas and gets US approval
KT News: Despite previous US government objections to unilateral oil sales by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a tanker carrying 1 million barrels of crude Kurd oil has been cleared to unload its cargo at sea off Texas. The ‘United Kalavrvta’ has been at sea since leaving the Turkish port of Ceyhan in June. It was cleared…
