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By ANF News Agency: Prisoners’ health rapidly deteriorating The BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) has called on international public opinion to act as the hunger strike undertaken by political prisoners in Turkey reaches a critical stage. “The AKP Government’s ongoing pressure such as detentions against Kurds and democratic people have caused a big political crisis”,…
KT News and Comment: A summit meeting in Erbil of the three opposition leaders – of Gorran, the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) and Islamic League – was concluded today. This meeting was long overdue and it had been delayed because of the Gorran leaders’ recent overtures to the ruling Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Bookmark…
News Release By Human Rights Watch: (Beirut) – The Erbil Appellate Court should immediately set aside the October 7, 2012, conviction of an independent journalist who reported on alleged corruption in the regional government’s security agency. Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) authorities should conduct a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation into allegations that the journalist, Karzam…
By Michael Rubin: With the specter of Saddam removed, Iraqi Kurdistan has boomed. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has worked hard to attract foreign investment in the oil industry, hotel, and construction sectors. Erbil and Sulaymani are becoming the first cities in Iraq with real skylines. Scratch the surface, though, and the patina of progress…
KT News and Comment: The fall-out from the 1990s civil war between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) – waged, on opposite sides, by the current presidents of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq – continues to add salt to the victims’ wounds. Although the exact number of the casualties…
KT News and Comment: Shaho Saeed has resigned as the Gorran Party’s spokesman. This has occurred as Gorran experiences growing internal discontent, reflecting the fact that the Gorran grassroots and a new group inside the party are unhappy about what their leader is doing these days. Bookmark on Delicious Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Tweet…
KT News: The Kurdistan Institute for Elections (KIE) monitored local media coverage of significant corruption issues during the months of July and August and it has published a report on its findings. It says key objectives of this exercise were to: Bookmark on Delicious Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Tweet about it Subscribe to…
By Mufid Abdulla: Last week’s visit by Gorran leader Nawshirwan Mustafa Amin to Jalal Talabani at one of his rest houses (following the PUK leader’s return from medical treatment abroad) has shocked many of Nawshirwan’s friends and baffled foreign observers. What does this apparent reconciliation of two once bitter opponents mean for Gorran, the Kurdistan…
KT News and Comment: The Sulaymani high court has adjourned until 21 November the trial of two men accused of assaulting Awene editor-in-chief Asos Hardi. Asos Hardi was attacked by armed men in August 2011. Local police arrested four people and charged two of them. Bookmark on Delicious Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Tweet…
By Peace in Kurdistan Campaign: The Plaid Cymru annual conference, meeting on the weekend of 14th-15th September, has passed an emergency motion calling for the immediate release of Abdullah Ocalan, an end to Turkish military operations and the resumption of peace talks between Turkey and the Kurds. This is the first time that a leading British political…
By James M. Dorsey: The Kosovo Football Federation (KFF) and soccer-crazy Kosovars are not the only ones in anxious anticipation of this coming Friday’s executive committee meeting of world soccer body FIFA that is expected to decide the terms on which Kosovo will be allowed to play international friendlies. So will the Kurdistan Football Association…
KT News: “If lawyers can’t do their job for fear of arrest, that’s a country with no democracy or rule of law and a pariah among the nations of the world”. Human rights barrister Margaret Owen OBE last night addressed a well-attended London meeting of British lawyers and others opposed to Turkey’s mass political show…
KT News and Comment: Gorran MP Ismaeel Galali has resigned his seat in the Kurdistan parliament. In a resignation letter yesterday Galali cited health issues as the main reason for his decision. He also said that he does not want to spoil his legacy, having sacrificed a lot for the Kurdish nation. His resignation follows the…
KT News: Following the visit by a Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) delegation to Baghdad – headed by KRG natural resources minister Ashti Hawrami and under the supervision of Iraqi deputy prime minister Roz Nuri Shaways – Baghdad and Hawler have reached a preliminary agreement, due to be ratified by their respective cabinets, on the main points…
KT News and Comment: The young Kurdish citizen and writer Alan Sahibkran has sent an open letter to the president of Kurdistan which begins: “I am sending you this letter, staying away from slander or libel, to advise you on several issues concerning our region of Kurdistan”. The letter, published in Hawlati, goes on to…
