Gorran holds its first conference

Gorran conference; photo Sbeiy

KT News:

A conference of the Gorran movement is taking place in Erbil, the capital of the south of Kurdistan, with the participation of 1100 members who have travelled from all over the region. This is the first conference held by Gorran, almost five years after its foundation, but it is not expected to elect a new national executive council.

The title of the conference is ‘The nationalisation of all Kurdistan institutions’, a reference to the historic division of the region between the two old ruling parties, KDP and PUK, who over the past two decades have maintained parallel administrations with their own security, militias, and so on.

However, many observers think it is unlikely that anything new will come out of this event, which has taken the form more of a rally than a conference. It is thought that the Gorran leadership is keen for a display of unity and believes that any voting could expose rifts inside the party.