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By Rauf Naqishbendi:
My dear friends,
I write you this email regarding Ekurd.net. If you have visited this site recently, you would have noticed the headline “Ekurd Daily acquired by another Kurdish group from Erbil”.
Let me say this is a meaningless acquisition for Ekurd.net which didn’t have an attractive value or revenue to warrant takeover by others.
Then, what this merger was about?
In my opinion, the reason for this deal was my last five columns as well, as Mr. Michael Rubin’s commentaries.
The real answer is about Barzani’s clan trying to mute the voice of their critics. They have money to buy out social media, but not enough money to buy me or Mr. Michael Rubin.
The founder of the Ekurd had emailed me when that happened, he thanked me for my contributions to Ekurd throughout years and told me that he had sold his website to another website in Erbil, and further he assured me that the new owner has committed to be politically independent, and he mentioned that the new owner asked for me specifically to continue contributing to the new website. This wasn’t true, they bought Ekurd.net to silence the voices of their critics. Since June, 6, the website has been dismantled and without any activities.
This deal is sad for it frustrates the voice of justice about the corrupt Kurdish leaders. The Ekurd was the only English website for the critics of Kurdish leaders, and now that is gone.
Now, we are left with no ground to exercise our independent opinions, I hope that a new independent website will be born to replace Ekurd.
