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Keyword: kurd

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  • In Turkey’s watershed election, it’s the Kurds who could tip the balance

    06/22/2018 9:03:57 AM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 8 replies
    Washington Post ^ | June 21 at 12:23 PM | Amberin Zaman
    Sunday, voters in Turkey will face a stark choice between two paths. One, embodied by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, entails a further descent into authoritarianism and a deepening of ethnic and sectarian divides. The other, represented by the opposition, offers the potential for national reconciliation, a return to parliamentary democracy and an easing of tensions with the West. The stakes have never been higher. Opinion polls show a deeply polarized nation, split between the pro-Erdogan camp and an opposition bloc led by pro-secular presidential candidate Muharrem Ince. Not only will the outcome affect the Turkish people. It also will determine whether...
  • Brother: Iranian Kurdish Dissident Has ‘Hours’ Before Execution

    06/22/2018 6:46:37 AM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 9 replies
    VOA News ^ | June 21, 2018 8:15 | Michael Lipin
    IRBIL, IRAQ — A brother of an Iranian Kurdish man sentenced to death for belonging to a Kurdish nationalist group says the dissident has told a lawyer that he has hours to live after being transferred back to death row.Speaking exclusively to VOA Persian on Thursday, Amjad Hossein Panahi said his detained brother Ramin Hossein Panahi was moved to death row at a prison in the northwestern city of Sanandaj in the past day. Amjad Panahi, who is based in Germany, said Ramin met with defense lawyer Hossein Ahmadiniaz on Thursday and told the lawyer that he expected to be executed...
  • Turkey election board moves ballot boxes in Kurdish provinces, prompts fears of fraud

    05/28/2018 7:40:23 AM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 3 replies
    Kurdistan 24 (K24) News ^ | 5-27-18 | Ari Khalidi
    ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Citing “security reasons,” Turkey’s top electoral board decided on Sunday to move some ballot boxes in at least 19 provinces from which the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) traditionally gets most of its votes, party officials said. Moving or merging the boxes meant that hundreds of thousands of voters in different villages, towns, and city centers would have to go elsewhere to cast ballots instead of their local polling stations on June 24, the day Turkey’s challenged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan set for snap general and presidential elections. On Saturday, HDP lawmaker Mithat Sancar of Mardin visited...
  • Turkey bans nine books on Kurds, ranging from genocide, Barzani, and Mahabad to Ezidi faith

    05/14/2018 5:57:32 AM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 7 replies
    Kurdistan 24 ^ | 5-13-18 | Ari Khalidi
    ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish authorities recently banned nine translated books of various scholarly subjects about the Kurds, the owner of an Istanbul-based publishing house that released them told Kurdistan 24 on Sunday.A local Turkish court in the Idil district of the Kurdish province of Sirnak deemed the books’ content in contravention of the anti-terror and press laws, citing articles that deal with “terrorist propaganda.”Editor and founder of the publisher Avesta, Abdullah Keskin, said over the phone that a ruling by the court dated back to September last year. However, he was notified of it on Friday.“To be seized, collected,...
  • Turkey’s pro-Kurdish HDP names jailed leader as presidential candidate

    05/07/2018 3:19:44 PM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 4 replies
    Al-Monitor ^ | May 6, 2018 | Cengiz Candar
    Turkey’s top Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas, one of the few names who proved he could challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s charisma, has decided to run in the June 24 presidential elections, seemingly undaunted by the bars of his prison cell.Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) announced Demirtas’ candidacy May 4. “Our candidate is Selahattin Demirtas, who is being held as a hostage in Edirne Prison,” HDP Co-chair Pervin Buldan was quoted by Hurriyet Daily news as saying in a statement. Turkey’s westernmost province of Edirne is the farthest point from the predominantly Kurdish southeast where Demirtas’ main constituency is located. Demirtas ran...
  • Kurdish parliament speaker declares resignation in protest of misgovernment

    12/26/2017 7:22:14 AM PST · by Texas Fossil · 13 replies
    Xinhua ^ | 2017-12-26 20:52:09 | Editor: Yurou
    The parliament speaker of Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan declared resignation on Tuesday, protesting the deterioration of political and economic situation in the region and the use of force against anti-government demonstrations. "I officially announce my resignation from the post of Parliament Speaker, and will continue my work in the parliament within the opposition group," Speaker Yousif Mohammed from the Gorran Movement said at a press conference in the city of Sulaimaniyah in northeastern Iraq. Mohammed accused the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) of using force to suppress the demonstrations that erupted in the Kurdish region amid widespread anger over unpaid...
  • Baghdad Agrees To Ship Kirkuk Oil To Iran

    11/12/2017 1:35:44 AM PST · by BeauBo · 22 replies
    OilPrice ^ | 10 Nov 2017 | Zainab Calcuttawala
    Tehran and Baghdad have reached an agreement on a plan to export oil from Kirkuk in northern Iraq to Iran... Until recently, all oil from the fields around Kirkuk was shipped to the Turkish port of Ceyhan via a pipeline owned and operated by the Kurdistan Regional Government. ...With the Kurdistan autonomous region heavily dependent on oil revenues, chances are the government will seek to come to a mutually beneficial agreement with the central government in Baghdad.
  • Armed Conflict in Syria: Overview and U.S. Response

    10/20/2017 5:42:30 AM PDT · by Retain Mike · 6 replies
    U.S. Naval Institute ^ | October 19, 2017 | Carla E. Humud, Christopher M. Blanchard, Mary Beth D. Nikitin
    Since late 2015, Syrian president Asad and his government have leveraged military, financial, and diplomatic support from Russia and Iran to improve and consolidate the Syrian government’s position relative to the range of antigovernment insurgents arrayed against them. These insurgents include members of the Islamic State, Islamist and secular fighters, and Al Qaeda-linked networks in Syria. While Islamic State forces have lost territory to the Syrian government, to Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups and to U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters since early 2016, they remain capable and dangerous. The IS “capital” at the Syrian provincial capital of Raqqah has been...
  • The Observer view on the Kurdish referendum

    10/01/2017 8:08:28 PM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 2 replies
    The Guardian ^ | Saturday 30 September 2017 19.05 EDT | none stated
    It can be argued that Kurdistan’s regional government (KRG) was ill advised to hold a referendum last week on creating an independent state. It may be the case that Masoud Barzani, veteran leader of the Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, is a foolish dreamer whose desire to bequeath a personal legacy has trumped common sense. It is conceivable that, had Barzani backed down, the government in Baghdad would have abandoned decades of hostility to Kurdish aspirations and entered into good-faith negotiations. This is the Middle East, after all. Anything is possible.
  • Tillerson says Kurdish independence referendum is illegitimate

    09/30/2017 6:14:20 AM PDT · by huldah1776 · 36 replies
    The Washington Post ^ | Sept 29, 2017 | Mustafa Salim, Karen DeYoung and Tamer El-Ghobashy
    BAGHDAD — The United States on Friday declared illegitimate Monday’s Kurdish referendum on independence, as the Iraqi government imposed a ban on international flights to airports operated by the Kurdistan Regional Government and Iraqi troops prepared to seize the semiautonomous region’s border controls. “The United States does not recognize the . . . unilateral referendum,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in Washington’s first substantive statement on the vote, in which nearly 93 percent of voters in the Kurdistan region approved declaring an autonomous state in northern Iraq. “The vote and the results lack legitimacy,” Tillerson said, “and we continue to support...
  • Bolton: U.S. Should Support Independence for Kurds, ‘State of Iraq as We Have Known It Doesn’t Exist

    09/28/2017 3:13:32 PM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 23 replies
    Breitbart ^ | 28 Sep 2017 | John Hayward
    Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton joined SiriusXM host Raheem Kassam and co-host Steve Bannon on Thursday’s Breitbart News Daily to talk about Kurdish independence and the future of Iraq. “The Kurds are one of the largest ethnic groups in the world that has never had a nation in contemporary times,” Bolton explained. “Just two days ago, they held a referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan and voted well over 90 percent for independence. I think the United States should support independence for the Kurds. They’ve been friends of ours in the struggle against Saddam Hussein and the struggle against international terrorism. I...
  • With prophetic implications, the Kurds, known as the Medes in the Bible ... (Not My Blog)

    09/27/2017 7:14:58 AM PDT · by tired&retired · 44 replies
    Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog ^ | June 17, 2014 | Joel Rosenberg
    The Kurds, generally, are Sunni Muslims, but they are not ethnically Arabs. Indeed, many Kurds have a deep hatred for the Arabs. Several decades ago, the world create a special, protected, autonomous region for the Kurds in the north region of Iraq, after Saddam Hussein repeated attacked and tried to destroy the Kurds, including with the use of chemical weapons. Ultimately, many Kurds want to create an independent country of their own, uniting Kurds living in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. Yet each of those national governments strongly oppose the creation of an independent Kurdistan. What’s fascinating is that the...
  • Syrian Kurdish commander: We're ‘ready to engage’ with Damascus (Interview, SDF Chief Commander)

    09/26/2017 5:55:42 PM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 3 replies
    Al-Monitor ^ | September 26, 2017 | Amberin Zaman
    RAQQA, Syria — Mazlum Kobane is the chief commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and, as such, the chief interlocutor of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS). The 45-year-old commander, widely known as Gen. Mazlum, is at the helm of the campaign to retake Raqqa, the self-styled capital of IS, which is in its final stages. Kobane, who displays an avid interest in politics beyond his military skills, has earned himself fame in Washington, where his name is frequently mentioned at various panels. Coalition officials who know Kobane are full of praise for the SDF commander, who...
  • Iraqi Kurdistan referendum: High turnout in independence vote

    09/25/2017 8:03:08 PM PDT · by BeauBo · 21 replies
    BBC ^ | 25 Sep 2017 | BBC
    Large numbers of people have taken part in a landmark vote on independence for Iraq's Kurdistan region, amid growing opposition both at home and abroad. Votes are still being counted, with a big "yes" victory expected. Kurds say it will give them a mandate to negotiate secession, but Iraq's PM denounced it as "unconstitutional". Neighbours Turkey and Iran, fearing separatist unrest in their own Kurdish minorities, threatened to close borders and impose sanctions on oil exports. The referendum passed off peacefully across the three provinces that make up the region, and turnout was estimated at about 72%, according to the...
  • Time for Britain to fix its mistake: how Kurdistan became part of Iraq

    09/22/2017 12:43:51 PM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 7 replies
    Telegraph Company (UK) source K24 in KRG of Iraq ^ | 21 September 2017 • 8:15am | Noreldin Waisy
    Kurdish journalist Noreldin Waisy explains why Britain should recognise an independent Kurdistan in the upcoming referendum Relations between Kurdistan and Britain go back nearly a century. However, it is a tragic and sorrowful history. Kurds hold Great Britain, more than any other party, responsible for their inclusion in the state of Iraq. We hope that the United Kingdom will support us: that you will correct an old, hoary mistake, when the better judgement of men such as Churchill was circumvented through determined bureaucratic manoeuvre.
  • Story of a Kurd from Raqqa who fights to free his hometown

    09/19/2017 5:45:10 PM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 4 replies
    ANF News ^ | Wednesday, 20 Sep 2017 | HIVDA HEBUN
    Ezed Mihemed Ehmed is a Kurdish youth from Raqqa. He was 15 years-old when his family fled Raqqa after ISIS invasion. At that time he wanted to join the YPG ranks but was refused because of his young age. His family sent him to Turkey because they thought the conditions were better than Syria. After only 5 months Ehmed returned to his country. As soon as he turned 18 he joined the YPG and now all he wants is to return to the city where he was born and raised. “Real heaven for a person is the land where he...
  • Take Turkey's Kurdish group off the US terror list for good

    09/19/2017 5:20:14 AM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 19 replies
    The Hill ^ | 09/18/17 01:37 PM EDT | Kenneth R. Timmerman, opinion contributor
    A Belgian appeals court on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling tossing out an 11-year old complaint against a number of Kurdish politicians because of their alleged ties to the Kurdish Workers Party, the PKK. The 2006 complaint, filed at the behest of the Turkish government, sought to jail 36 Kurdish politicians, many of them living as political exiles in Belgium, under Belgium’s counter-terrorism laws. A lower court tossed out the case last November, but the Belgian state prosecutor lodged an appeal following vigorous protests from the Turkish government, which leaks bullets whenever someone mentions Kurds. The court found that...
  • Turkish gov’t jails 47-year-old Kurdish bus driver in Agri; for wearing ‘Kurdistan’ T-shirt

    08/26/2017 1:52:30 PM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 10 replies
    Stockholm Center for Freedom ^ | 26 Aug 2017 | SCF
    Turkish government has arrested Mahmut Kahraman, a 47-year-old Kurdish bus driver, for wearing a T-shirt with the inscription ‘Kurdistan’.  Kahraman was accused by a Turkish court in Doğubayazıt district of Ağrı province of ‘propagating for a terrorist organisation.’It was reported that Kahraman was stopped by Turkish police as he passed by the municipality of Ağrı’s Doğubayazıt district because he was wearing a T-shirt with the inscription ‘Kurdistan’. Anti-terror police units were dispatched to the scene afterwards and detained Kahraman.Following three days in detention, Kahraman was referred to a local court with a demand for his arrest, and he was jailed...
  • Interview with Arash Saleh, the Representative of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan

    07/01/2017 3:47:34 AM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 2 replies
    Washington Kurdish Institute ^ | June 27, 2017 | Ari Goldman
    WKI: Could you tell us about the status of Kurds in Iran?Arash Saleh: Let’s briefly view some information about Kurds. The majority of Kurds are residing in four western provinces of Iran. Sanandaj, Kermanshah, West Azerbaijan, and Ilam are the main Kurdish populated provinces in Western Iran. Kurds are 12% of Iranian population. Sometimes 14% have been mentioned which tells us that Kurds in Iran could be more than ten million. There are about two million Kurds in other places of Iran, Eastern Iran, Northeastern Iran and Northern Iran. So there have been Kurds that have historically immigrated.They still are...
  • YPG Commander Hemo: We don’t accept Turkey's presence in any form (Syria)

    06/30/2017 11:22:31 AM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 5 replies
    ANF News ^ | Friday, 30 Jun 2017, 12:06 | News Desk
    YPG Commander Sipan Hemo said: “We don’t accept the Turkish state’s presence or invasion in this region in any form. I want to stress that we don’t recognize their alliances either. Our goal and struggle to liberate the Azaz-Jarablus area will continue.” YPG Commander Sipan Hemo spoke to the Yeni Özgür Politika newspaper and, stating that the Turkish state’s presence in Rojava/Northern Syria is illegitimate and to the disadvantage of the peoples therein, said: “They are invaders in every way. Nobody can turn away from this reality. The fact that their goal is to defeat the Rojava Revolution does not...