KT News: According to a local hospital in the City of Sulaymani, south of Kurdistan, on Friday 12 February a 28-year-old young woman committed suicide by strangling herself with a rope, apparently after news of her parent’s separation. On Monday 15 February, another suicide was reported in the village of Bardarash, near Erbil, after a…
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Catalan Election: Big Boost for Stateless Nations Such as Scotland and Kurdistan
KT News: Pro-independence parties in Catalonia have this week increased their majority in the regional parliament, winning 74 out of 135 seats, compared to 70 in the 2017 elections. While the Socialist Party, which favours Catalonia’s continued union with Spain, is the biggest single party, it will struggle to get enough backing from other parties…
Joe Biden and the Kurds
By Ahmed Hawarami: Biden is the US President closest to and most knowledgeable of the Kurds. He is the most sympathetic political character to the cause of the Kurdish people. Eighteen years ago, when he was an American Senator, he visited Kurdistan in 2002, before the fall of Saddam and the US invasion. He stated…
Congress of Opposition Voices in the South of Kurdistan Issues New Statement
KT News: The Congress of Opposition Voices movement in the South of Kurdistan has issued a statement addressed to the President of Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Parliament and the Iraqi Parliament and to all foreign embassies in Erbil, calling on them to intervene to stop the brutal repression by KDP and PUK forces of peaceful demonstrations…
Common Features of UK Referendum and KRG Referendum
By Arian Mufid: In 2005, the KDP leader and president of KRG, issued a statement that, if civil war breaks out in Iraq, then we are going to ask for our Independence. Masud Barzani repeated the same message during an interview with the BBC in July 2014, saying he was ready to hold a referendum…
Attempt to Murder Kurdish Activist in Erbil Has Failed
KT News: Kurdish activist Hawre Kurdi was brutally attacked on the night of 19th January by unknown assailants and is in hospital in a serious condition. During a press conference with local reporters his lawyer, Harem Rafat, confirmed that the aim of the attack was to kill Hawre Kurdi, and it had been well prepared…
PKK Should Realise Their Armed Struggle is Futile
By Arian Mufid: When Abdullah Ocalan the leader of the PKK was captured in Nairobi, Kenya with the help of all the international intelligence services including the CIA, Syrian Mukhabarat, Mossad, and the MIT, the Turkish military junta managed to jail him since February 1999. Since then, Ocalan has issued several books and diaries on…
KRG: Release the unlawfully detained journalists and human rights activists immediately
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) recent violations of fundamental human rights and freedom of expression is of grave concern to us, human rights defenders and activists. The KRG’s blatant disregards for the rule of law and violations of international treaties under PM Masrour Barzani leadership have reached a new level following the kidnapping of…
Kurdistan Region: The Scope of Electoral Reforms and its Implications – Report
By the Kurdish Institute for Elections (KIE): The scope of electoral reforms and its implications: Kurdistan Region political parties’ share in the upcoming elections (2021) Aram Jamal, Executive Director of KIE Dana Jamil, Elections Expert Review – Dr Harem Karem, Researcher in Democracy Executive summary This report examines the Kurdistan Region’s 2018 parliamentary elections…
Gebze Women’s Closed Prison – Political Prisoners Distress Call
By Gül Güzel: 45 arrested and convicted women, whose names I kept secret, wrote from Gebze Prison in Turkey. On the occasion of the Corona pandemic, detainees and convicts all over the world were released from prisons and in Turkey as well… However, political prisoners and convicts were excluded from this practice, other criminals were…
Turkey and Erdogan’s Dream of Empire
By Arian Mufid: Erdogan is going between west and east with his aggression. He looks at the past and thinks he can revive the Ottoman Empire in the region. What is going on in Turkey today is related to his personality and the way he was brought up in Turkey. This is a most important…
The Endless Cycles of Betrayals and Killings of the Kurds
By Dr. M. Koohzad: After the defeat of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in WWI (1914 – 1918), European victors dissected the world’s most potent Muslim Empire. In the middle of the Great War, the Allies predicted the result of the conflict and planned to take over by signing the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement. The two, a…
Recurrent Nightmares for Not Being Punished for Not Talking Kurdish in School
By Dr. M. Koohzad Generally speaking, all of the years at my elementary school were filled with joys of learning, positive energy, and good people. I am now an old retired professor. I advise my grandchildren to try hard to “enjoy learning.” Yet, there was a sad story that I have to tell in the…
Quo Vadis Iraq?
By Harem Karem: Last year’s wave of protests against corruption and foreign interference, across central and southern Iraq, marked a critical juncture in the country’s post-war trajectory; unprecedented in scale and strength, the protesters were resolute in pursuit of lasting change. Undeterred by the violent crackdown from state and non-state forces that resulted in hundreds…
