Author: Bejne Gelavej

Internal Kurdish political disputes “really undermine” the power the Kurdistan Region holds in Baghdad, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran Victoria Taylor said on Wednesday. The two main ruling parties – the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) – have been at loggerheads for years but the relation between the two is at a historic low over over a variety of issues, with their disagreements hindering the political process in the Kurdistan Region but also playing out in Baghdad. Taylor suggested that the two parties should present a united front…

Kurdistan Region’s education ministry on Tuesday notified teachers in public schools, who have gone on strike for weeks over unpaid salaries, to return to class and start the new academic year.  The new academic year in the Kurdistan Region began on September 13 but most schools in Sulaimani and Halabja provinces remained closed after teachers refused to return to class without receiving their salaries. Teachers received their July salaries on Saturday and thousands of other civil servants have yet to receive payment for the month. The Education Ministry Council said in a statement on Tuesday that salary is “one of…

Bucharest warned Kyiv where in the Black Sea it is better not to go The President of the Republic of Moldova (RM) Maia Sandu met on Thursday with representatives of the agro-industrial sector and discussed existing problems with them. One of them concerns the supply of Ukrainian grain, which bankrupted Moldovan wheat producers. Sandu did not support the demand of the “Power of Farmers” association to impose a ban on Ukrainian exports. At the same time, the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture outlined red lines for Kyiv on the path of the grain flow. Bucharest has called Ukraine’s attempt to deepen a canal on the…

Iraq’s top military spokesperson on Monday said the drone that struck Sulaimani’s Arbat airport and killed three people came from Turkey, calling the attack a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity.   “On Monday, September 18, at 17:00 a drone entered Iraqi airspace through the border with Turkey and bombed Arbat airport in Sulaimani province,” Yehia Rasool, military spokesperson for the Iraqi prime minister said on X, formerly known as Twitter. The Sulaimani-based counter-terrorism directorate on Monday announced that three of its members were killed in an unidentified drone strike that targeted Arbat airport, 27 kilometers southeast of Sulaimani. Three other members were wounded…

Toronto, Atlanta (22/10 – 66) A recent, and eminently reasonable, proposal to pause the military confrontation between Russia and Ukraine was presented by Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto during the 20th IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, held in Singapore on June 3, 2023. Minister Prabowo, a retired and much-decorated General, suggested the two sides declare a ceasefire, to be followed by the creation of a demilitarized zone on the battlefield. The proposed truce would be monitored by United Nations peacekeeping forces, followed by a UN-monitored referendum to determine which country the disputed territories should join. Most third-world participants – and those from…

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani on Wednesday denied Turkey’s claim that members of a Syria-based Kurdish group were receiving training at the Arbat airport when it was hit on Monday. Three members of a Sulaimani-based counterterrorism force were killed in the drone attack. Three members of the Sulaimani-based Counter-Terrorism Group (CTG) were killed and three others were injured when a drone hit Arbat airport on Monday, according to the group. The Turkish foreign ministry claimed the next day that members of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) were receiving training at the airport during the “explosion.” When…

The Sulaimani health directorate on Thursday warned of a potential spread of cholera amid a spike in hospitalization cases due to vomiting and diarrhea, adding that they have already registered around 10 confirmed cases of the disease. “We hospitalize around 100 people for vomiting and diarrhea on a daily basis in the public hospitals and the private hospitals as well, but that does not mean they are all cholera,” Sabah Hawrami, head of the Sulaimani general health directorate, told Rudaw’s Horvan Rafaat and reporters, adding “the lab results of around 10 people have been confirmed as cholera by Baghdad.” Hawrami…

Turkey’s defense ministry announced on Tuesday that a soldier was killed in the mountains of the Kurdistan Region by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) a day prior. The ministry said in a statement that a sergeant was killed and another was wounded on Monday when an explosive device detonated in the Claw-Lock operations areas within the borders of the Kurdistan Region.PKK-affiliated Firat News Agency (ANF) reported that the group targeted five Turkish army positions on Monday and killed four soldiers in the Zap region.The PKK is an armed group that has fought for the rights of Kurds in Turkey. It is designated a…

The Norwegian oil firm DNO on Thursday announced that it had partially resumed the production of crude oil in the Kurdistan Region’s Tawke oilfield, selling it to local companies. The move comes amid ongoing disputes over the Region’s oil export which has been suspended since April.   Turkey stopped the flow of Kurdish oil through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline after a Paris arbitration court on March 23 ruled in favor of Baghdad, saying Ankara had breached a 1973 pipeline agreement when it allowed the Kurdistan Region to begin independent oil exports in 2014. Despite several talks between the Kurdish, Iraqi and Turkish…

Nine years ago, Islamic State (ISIS) militants brutally overran the Yazidi heartland of Shingal and committed atrocities including genocide against the minority ethnic group. More than 6,000 Yazidis were abducted and around 2,700 remain missing with little done to bring solace to the rescued. A day before the ninth anniversary, Yazidi women gathered at the Chamshko camp in Zakho, mourning the death of their loved ones and the unknown whereabouts of many others. Shame Deroo, a Yazidi genocide survivor who has lost 15 children and grandchildren is calling on the Iraqi and Kurdish government to help return their “skeletons” for…