By Michael Rubin: Kurdish history has had no shortage of tragedies, many of which were the result of foreign powers and beyond the control of the Kurdish people. Some tragedies have been self-inflicted, however, most prominent of which was the 1994-1997 civil war. After three years working to build the Kurdistan Regional Government and fill…
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Category Archives: PUK
PUK splits deepen
KT Report: Update: Barham Salih has since resigned from the PUK leading bodies. In a joint public statement issued yesterday, two of the main Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leaders, Kosrat Rasul and Barham Salih, announced that they want to hold a party conference as soon as possible and also warned their supporters to be…
PUK lost in their internal political sandstorm
By Mufid Abdulla: Last October the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leadership held a short general meeting plenum with the aim of filling the vacuum that caused their defeat in the 21/9/13 election, a result that has hugely disrupted the party. At that plenum they decided to hold the party conference on 31/1/14 to decide on how to…
Forming a new Kurdistan Regional Government – what government?
By Mufid Abdulla: The mood of the people is pretty grim and it’s easy to see why: it is four months since the parliamentary election on 21st September 2013 and the five biggest parties are still struggling to reach an agreement. Politically it has been one of the most depressing periods I can remember. The…
The nation is united in grief for our young journalist
By Mufid Abdulla: Kawa Germyani has left his mark on the south of Kurdistan in a way that few others have managed to do. His murder has plunged the whole nation into grief, as previously did the killings of Sardasht Osman and Soran Mama Hama. The life of this brave young journalist can become a…
Who was Kawa and why was he killed?
KT Report: Kawa Ahmed (also known as Kawa Germyani): assassinated at age 32, married since 2012, leaving a widow who is eight months pregnant. He was known for his anti-corruption investigative reports, particularly at a local level. Kawa was born into a poor family, and he lived in a small room with his wife. He…
Anti-corruption Kurdish journalist Kawa Garmyani murdered
KT News: South Kurdistan journalist Kawa Garmyani was shot dead outside his house in Kalar last night. Three days ago Kawa had announced on his Facebook page that he had documents relating to a corruption case that he was planning to write about in ‘Rayal’ magazine. Kawa was the editor of ‘Rayal’ and a correspondent…
PUK seeks to join ‘broad based’ Kurdistan Regional Government
KT News: At a meeting today the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) politburo agreed in principle to participate in the next Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Following the party’s big electoral setback in last month’s general election, it is reported that most politburo members present were in favour of the formation of a broad-based coalition government,…
Iraqi Kurdistan´s election held under undemocratic circumstances
By Shakhawan Shorash: The uprising of the Kurdish people against Saddam Hussein’s regime in spring 1991, followed by the mass fleeing of Kurds, United Nations (UN) Security Council resolution 688, and the establishment of the safe enclave north of the 36 parallel pushed the Iraqi regime away from the main part of Iraqi Kurdistan. The…
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan: Broken but not yet defeated
By Mufid Abdulla: How can this party get back in the game following the 21st September election debacle, with the loss of so many of its parliamentary MPs? That is the question posed by so many followers of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) I have spoken to. The PUK is living through an unprecedentedly…
PUK supporters fire their guns, but Barham Salih tells them to accept defeat
KT Report: Following the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan’s (PUK) electoral defeat on Saturday, a dangerous atmosphere has developed in the city of Suli. Last night PUK supporters came onto Salm Street in the city centre and started firing into the air. As a result 12 bystanders were injured and taken to hospital. The leader of…
Dana Saeed blames vote rigging and corruption for PUK poll defeat
KT News: A prominent Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) member has blamed a combination of ballot fraud in areas controlled by the Kurdistan Democractic Party (KDP) and “bad practice” by his own party leaders for the PUK’s poor showing in Saturday’s parliamentary election. In an article for ‘Awene’ entitled ‘Election and PUK’, former MP Dana Saeed Sofi writes:…
Barham Salih warns of difficulties ahead for the PUK
By Mufid Abdulla: Barham Salih has spoken publicly for the first time about his concerns for the future of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) – in an interview published today, as Kurds cast their votes for a new parliament for the south of Kurdistan. Observers have noted that Salih, a former prime minister of…
Where is the President?
By Dr. Sherzad Al-Khalifa: It is more than nine months since Jalal Talabani was moved to hospital treatment after suffering a stroke and, in that time, practically no credible report has been published about his health situation. The extraordinary thing is that his position as President of Iraq has been left vacant for all that period…
PUK loses its lustre
By Mufid Abdulla: During my recent visit to the south of Kurdistan, all I kept hearing from people inside the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) was about greed and patronage, and how the political culture inside that party has to change. The culture inside that party at the moment is gang culture. Talabani’s absence from…
