(Published: 2007-03-20 03:15 AM)
Over Christmas break, the author took his son to northern Iraq, which the U.S. had made a no-fly zone in 1991, ending Saddam's chemical genocide. Now reborn, Iraqi Kurdistan is a heartrending glimpse of what might have been.
(Published: 2006-08-13 07:06 AM)
Hero Ibrahim Ahmed spends half her time with the president in Baghdad, and half in Iraqi Kurdistan. So who exactly is the latest member of the Arab leaders' wives' club?
(Published: 2005-10-28 07:39 AM)
None of this would have been possible without the U.S.-led liberation of Iraq, an operation in which Kurds were proud partners. After the U.S. armed forces, our pesh merga was the second-largest member of the coalition.
(Published: 2005-10-28 07:20 AM)
(Published: 2005-08-05 07:57 AM)
A crucial national meeting of Iraqi leaders scheduled for Friday to resolve constitutional problems was postponed for two days because of an emergency meeting of the Kurdish autonomous parliament.
(Published: 2005-05-12 08:40 AM)
(Published: 2005-04-26 08:55 AM)
We undertake to rebuild a shattered country scarred by decades of tyranny. With unwavering resolve we support plurality, egalitarianism, and the political process.
(Published: 2005-04-20 03:30 AM)
President Talabani says he is against capital punishment and would not back an execution.
(Published: 2005-04-15 06:30 AM)
The choice of peace or war lies not with the Iraqis who ignored terrorism and intimidation to vote in their millions, the Iraqis to whom I am accountable. No, that decision lies with the terrorist minority that despises freedom and spurns every offered opportunity to enter the political process. The attacks on election officials, the suicide bombings of voters, and the cowardly attacks on brave Iraqis waiting in line to join our fledgling security forces are not the tactics of "resistance" or "freedom fighters" but of murderers and criminals.
(Published: 2005-04-14 07:31 AM)
Despite his lifetime of working for Kurdish rights, Talabani promised to govern for all Iraqis ''freed from the most horrific dictatorship.''
(Published: 2005-04-09 07:54 PM)
Sulaimaniyah court hears how Kurdish man staged “insurgent” attack on his Norwegian wife.
By Sirwan Ghareeb in Sulaimaniyah (ICR No. 117, 17-Mar-05)
(Published: 2005-04-09 07:48 PM)
Self-immolation is the last resort for women trapped in unbearable lives, and it seems to be on the increase. The Kurdistan Women's Union has launched an awareness campaign to try to persuade women not to take this drastic step.
"We’ve run a number of adverts to show women that no circumstances in life can justify a woman setting herself alight,” said Payman Izzadin, a spokesperson for the woman’s union.
By Azeez Mahmood in Sulaimaniyah (ICR No. 117, 17-Mar-05)
(Published: 2005-04-09 07:31 PM)
The debate over the new constitution could turn into the real “mother of all battles”.
By Kamran Al-Karadaghi in London (ICR No. 120, 07-Apr-05)
(Published: 2005-04-06 07:08 AM)
Iraq’s parliament on Wednesday chose former Kurdish rebel fighter Jalal Talabani as the first freely elected president in its history, paving the way for the creation of a new government next week......
"We are happy that the first elected president of Iraq is coming from a community that has been persecuted for years," Shiite MP Hussein Shahrastani said.
(Published: 2005-03-26 11:36 PM)
Jaafari: We will not decree anything from above. We are democrats. The deciding factor will be what a majority of the people's representatives decides to do -- in a free voting process.
(Published: 2005-03-01 05:59 AM)
The question is, How much of the country do Talabani and the Kurds want to reshape? The Kurds are holding out for at least six Cabinet posts, including head of the crucial Oil Ministry. They also say they are owed money from the U.N.'s oil-for-food program. A U.N. spokesman told TIME that $3.7 billion in Kurdish money was handed to the Coalition Provisional Authority. So far the Kurds have collected about $1.4 billion of that. They also want assurances that the Kurdish-dominated north will retain the autonomy it has enjoyed since the end of the first Gulf War, when the U.S. established a no-fly zone to protect the Kurds, and that the new Iraqi constitution will not impose Islamic law, as some prominent Shi'ite clerics have demanded.
(Published: 2005-02-24 04:05 PM)
Favourite for presidency insists on a federal, secular state
(Published: 2005-01-09 03:19 AM)
The following is a two-part report published by IrinNews on the upcoming elections in Iraq scheduled for the 30th of January. While Part I looks at Iraq in general part two specifically examines South [Iraqi] Kurdistan.
(Published: 2005-01-04 06:29 PM)
(Published: 2005-01-04 12:00 AM)
(Published: 2004-12-30 10:08 AM)
Many chemical attack victims say its mastermind should be tried and executed in Halabja, but others want him to confront consequences of his actions.
(Published: 2004-12-15 03:07 AM)
If spirited civic debate is a sign of a healthy city, then Kirkuk is in good shape. At a meeting last week of the interim council that governs Kirkuk and its surrounding province, its members shouted and called one another names. Various groups stormed out in protest.
"But no one got shot," said Army Lt. Col. Richard White, who works frequently with the council.
(Published: 2004-12-04 04:29 AM)
"The Kurds have forgotten their differences to defend the common interest," said Salahuddin Bahaeddin, head of one of the 17 factions that signed the election accord announced on Wednesday, the Kurdistan Islamic Union
(Published: 2004-12-04 04:21 AM)
(Published: 2004-11-18 07:47 AM)
To behave, act and think like a European takes centuries. It would be a tall order and implausible demand, however desirable and beneficial that maybe, to ask Turkey to enrol en-masse all of its military and civilian leaders in courses ranging from studies in European history, human rights, multi-ethnic societies in democracies and rights of nations for self-determination. They even may find it useful to enrol in courses in basic decorum such as tolerance and respect towards others.
(Published: 2004-11-06 12:00 AM)
The upcoming Iraqi and Kurdistani elections are one more window of opportunity that the Kurds cannot afford to lose. What they need is a full and aggressive partaking in the overall election process to send their elected officials to Baghdad and to make sure that the new Iraqi constitution would follow the same trail of the TAL and finally Kurdistan is recognized as a single federal territory within a democratic federated Iraq.
(Published: 2004-11-03 03:00 PM)
We are grateful for the support of all Americans in our liberation struggle. We have watched the world’s greatest democracy in action with deep admiration. We are determined to build democracy in Iraqi Kurdistan and Iraq as a lasting monument to our common cause and joint sacrifices
(Published: 2004-07-12 04:00 AM)
PUK leader on interim cabinet, Sadaam trial, death penalty, israeli rumours, federalism, and integration between two kurdish administrations.
(Published: 2004-06-19 09:56 AM)
Many young people in Iraq’s Kurdish north are disappointed by the new government and want full independence for Kurdistan. Talibani jovially said that young people will dream and it’s important to not crush their dreams, but it’s more important for them to understand that a unified Iraq is the only practical solution.
(Published: 2004-06-13 11:08 AM)
"The Kurdish parliament has decided to adopt a positive position toward the UN Security Council resolution because the entire world has expressed its respect for the fundamental law," said Roj Nuri Shawis, a vice president in Iraq's caretaker government and the Kurdish parliament speaker.
(Published: 2004-05-17 03:00 AM)
Kurdish peshmerga fighters even protect the American base and accompany soldiers on main roads.
(Published: 2004-04-10 07:51 AM)
While a robust military response from the coalition is unavoidably the immediate requirement, Iraqis must be empowered to assume a more active role in protecting their country and taking responsibility for their own fate. Iraqi political leaders must be unequivocal in facing their responsibilities. There is no margin for political opportunism in confronting terrorism and extremism in our midst. If the terrorists and extremists are seen to win in any way, seen in any manner to inflict setbacks upon Iraq's burgeoning democracy, then the whole of the Middle East could be set ablaze. If the terrorists lose, then there is hope not just for the stability of the Middle East but for the rest of the world and our common battle against terrorism.
(Published: 2004-04-04 12:08 AM)
This indecision is partially replicated in Washington, which is in no hurry to alarm its Turkish ally with too much talk of Kurdish self-determination in either Iraq or Syria. But "regime change," as those of us who favor it have always maintained, is not something that can too easily be manipulated. Colin Powell, who has always detested the policy, may have spent the past few days trying to reassure the Saudis that nothing too revolutionary is intended by American pronouncements about democracy. As usual, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Syria, and tomorrow in Iran, there are forces at work who intend to take these pronouncements with absolute seriousness. It would be nice if American liberals came out more forcefully and demanded that the administration live up to its own rhetoric on the question.
(Published: 2004-04-03 11:59 PM)
The conference named Barzani president of the NRC and decided to set up reconciliation committees in each of the country's 18 provinces.
(Published: 2004-03-27 11:00 PM)
The conference named Barzani president of the NRC and decided to set up reconciliation committees in each of the country's 18 provinces.
(Published: 2004-03-21 12:00 AM)
The Middle East has to change; it needs to go back to its noble beginnings, where humanity took its first baby steps in the fields of light that separated us from the beasts of burden.
(Published: 2004-02-07 12:00 AM)
I as a Kurd and as an Iraqi, I know, perhaps more than others, that war is devastating and should be questioned. However, for us, this war was to end the brutal war that has been waged against the people of Iraq. It was a war to bring us the opportunity of peace and freedom. And I will tell you unequivocally we are grateful to the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, Italy and So many other nations that have come from a far to deliver us from tyranny and fascism. Moreover, being here in Spain I must offer our profound gratitude to the Spaniards who have come to help in our hour of need, and paid with their lives for freedom and justice.
(Published: 2003-04-22 12:00 AM)
The transition in Iraq will not be easy, and must be assessed in its proper context. Iraq's decimated civil society - coupled with the many external influences - will inevitably make the transition a rather complicated process. The future of Iraq is of consequence not only to the people of Iraq, but also the wider Middle East and beyond. The stakes cannot be any higher: for those of us who would like the Islamic Middle East to aspire toward more democracy, as well as for those who seek to maintain the status quo.
(Published: 2003-03-21 12:00 AM)
"Today, we fight alongside you because in a world of cynicism, the U.S., and its genuine allies, understand that they cannot use the Kurdish dead to justify this war and then sell out the Kurdish living. We have been sickened to hear those who armed Saddam preach to us about the horrors of war, to listen to those who helped prop up the dictator prate about international law."
(Published: 2003-03-10 12:00 AM)
No one wants a war in Iraq less than the Iraqi people. But we don't have the luxury of being anti-war.
(Published: 2003-01-20 12:00 AM)
Speech presented by Dr Barham Salih Prime Minister, Kurdistan Regional Government - Iraq to The Socialist International (SI) Council, Rome, January 20th, 2003
What a difference a month makes . . .
Letter from Kurdistan: Holiday in Iraq
The Indispensability of Internationalizing the Kurdish Issue
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