http://www.ekurd.net News about Kurds and Kurdistan Thu, 23 May 2013 12:03:05 GMT ListGarden Program 1.3.1 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/invest919.htm LONDON,— Iraqi Kurdistan's crude oil sales to world markets, deemed illegal by Baghdad, are set to rise by nearly 50 percent next month as trucks start deliveries to a second export terminal in Turkey, industry sources in the region said on Wednesday. Crude exports from the Taq Taq oilfield in the autonomous Kurdistan region to Turkey's Mersin port started at a trickle in early January and have risen to just over 40,000 barrels per day (bpd). They are expected to hit around 60,000 bpd by the end of June as trucks unload at the neighbouring Dortyol terminal in southern Turkey. Oil lies at the heart... Thu, 23 May 2013 06:01:53 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-23-06-01-53 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/state7096.htm By Bashdar Ismaeel: As the Middle Eastern socio-political landscape has unraveled in recent years, it has transformed the one-time frosty relations between the Iraqi Kurds and Turkey into one of the most important alliances in the region. The Arab Spring and the rapidly changing power makeup of the Middle East may have played a key part, but money and the power of economy have echoed louder. Trade between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey is reaching unprecedented heights, none more so than in the field of energy. The booming economy of Kurdistan is underpinned by its status as... Thu, 23 May 2013 06:14:44 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-23-06-14-44 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/turkey4696.htm DIYARBAKIR, Turkey's Kurdish region,— Diyarbakir 8th High Criminal Court has sentenced former editor in chief of Kurdish daily Azadiya Welat, İbrahim Güvenç, to ten years three months and 22 days in prison for allegedly spreading propaganda on the sixth issue of the daily. Güvenç was also served with a pecuniary penalty of 16,500 TL. Azadiya Welat's current editor in chief, Aydın Atar, is also being tried by Diyarbakır 8th High Criminal Court on the grounds of spreading propaganda for an illegal organization. Atar's trial is still going on. In August 2012, a court in the southeastern Kurdish... Thu, 23 May 2013 09:20:46 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-23-09-20-46 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/state7097.htm CANNES, France,— Iraqi-Kurdish director Hiner Saleem is in Cannes with Un Certain Regard title My Sweet Pepperland. Iraqi-Kurdish filmmaker Hiner Saleem has revealed he is developing an epic love story spanning two decades and the Middle East. The director is currently in Cannes with My Sweet Pepperland, about a local police chief and teacher who challenge a drugs baron in the remote Kurdish Khwakork border area, which screened in Un Certain Regard on Wednesday. ‘It will be a fresco of the Middle East revolving around a love story unfolding over the last two decades in the region... Thu, 23 May 2013 12:02:51 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-23-12-02-51 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/syriakurd795.htm Bashdar Ismaeel: With the death toll from the Syrian crisis rapidly surpassing 80,000, over 4 million displaced Syrians forced to live in poor conditions and the human catastrophe deepening on a daily basis, the continued discussions in America and Europe about the trespassing of “red lines” and what action should follow is an insult to the suffering of the Syrian people. When will the conflict be considered a crisis worthy of firm action? When the whole region is embroiled in the conflict, when the death toll surpasses 100,000 or even 200,000 or when most of Syria lies in rubble? The point is... Thu, 23 May 2013 06:58:12 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-23-06-58-12 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/kurdlocal1282.htm Iran calls the shots on PUK leadership issue. Slêmanî: Iran has proposed a temporary leadership council for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in the absence of its ailing leader Jalal Talabani, and has preconditions for approving the party’s number two as Iraq’s president, officials said. The PUK, the partner of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), has been without a leader since Talabani – who is also Iraq’s president -- suffered a critical stroke in December and was flown to Germany. Since then, five senior PUK delegations have visited Iran... Thu, 23 May 2013 08:10:39 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-23-08-10-39 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/state7094.htm ERBIL-Hewlêr, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',— President of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Massoud Barzani reacted to the detention of 75 members of the Syrian Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), who were close to him, by the Democratic Union Party (PYD). When the PYD, known as the PKK’s [Kurdistan Workers Party] Syrian extension, did not release the detainees by nightfall, Barzani closed the Iraqi-Syrian border. According to reports, Barzani has ordered some special units of his Peshmerga forces to the Derik region on the Syrian border. Tensions rose after the PYD, which... Wed, 22 May 2013 07:00:05 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-22-07-00-05 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/turkey4695.htm ANKARA,— Turkey is looking to sign commercial contracts this year with Russian and U.S. companies operating in Iraqi Kurdistan for joint oil and gas exploration, Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told Reuters. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan last week discussed U.S. concerns about Turkey's deepening energy ties with Iraqi Kurdistan during meetings in Washington with President Barack Obama. Minutes before his departure for Washington, Erdogan announced that a Turkish company already had a contract in place with U.S. energy company Exxon Mobil but declined to provide details until... Wed, 22 May 2013 16:59:54 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-22-16-59-54 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/state7095.htm ERBIL-Hewlêr, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',— Iraqi Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani has warned the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), for declaring itself as the representative of the Kurdish population in Syrian Kurdistan (Western Kurdistan), a move that is likely to deepen tension that has escalated between Barzani's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the PYD in recent days. “No one can declare itself the representative of Kurdish people in Syria before elections are held. We will not permit such initiatives. If they [PYD]... Wed, 22 May 2013 09:25:32 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-22-09-25-32 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/syriakurd794.htm Syrian Kurdistan, - Tensions erupted again between rival Kurdish parties in Syria supported by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) of Turkey and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Iraq on Saturday, May 18, when the security forces of the PKK-affiliated Democratic Union Party (PYD) arrested 74 members of the KDP-supported Democratic Party of Syria. The 74 members reportedly underwent training in the camps controlled by the KDP in Iraq, before sneaking into Syria from Iraq. After the arrest, the KDP reportedly closed down the parts of the border near the Tigris River at the Faysh... Wed, 22 May 2013 07:29:39 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-22-07-29-39 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/invest918.htm ERBIL-Hewlêr, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',— Iraq’s Kurdistan Region intends to build a second pipeline for oil exports to Turkey, following Ankara’s agreement with US oil giant ExxonMobil for joint oil exploration in the autonomous enclave, an oil official in Erbil said. Ali Balo, oil advisor in the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said that the pipeline would daily export 500,000 barrels of heavy crude – requiring special buyers – from oil fields in the districts of Akre, Shekhan and Bardarash. He said that would be in addition to another oil pipeline into Turkey, with a daily capacity of... Wed, 22 May 2013 08:40:57 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-22-08-40-57 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/govt2188.htm By Hiwa Osman: Iraq’s volatile security situation and the central government’s failure to resolve ethnic and religious tensions are dividing the country into three de facto regions: The autonomous Kurdistan Region in the north, a turbulent “Sunni triangle” in the middle and a Shiite center and south. Every development on the political front is followed by security incidents. The causes of insecurity have been identified by nearly all sides, but by the look of things no party in Iraq is seriously interested in fixing security. Everyone notes that the unstable security situation is caused by: the shaky... Wed, 22 May 2013 09:09:04 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-22-09-09-04 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/state7093.htm HALABJA, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',— I must admit I knew nothing about the existence of Kurdistan before arriving at Sulaimaniyah for a film and video workshop. My only knowledge of the Kurdish people was through scathing adjectives used to describe the armed struggle of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party. After my first workshop day at the American University in Iraq, I googled “Kurdistan” to find that the organization’s core group at its inception was made up largely of students. Then there was the talk of Halabja and its importance to the Kurds. Halabja felt like both a coat and an armour. It spoke... Wed, 22 May 2013 06:40:42 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-22-06-40-42 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/kurdlocal1281.htm Despite progress, banks in Kurdistan region remain underdeveloped and mistrusted. Erbil: Due to a traditional mistrust of saving money at banks and a banking system still largely in its infancy, most people in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region prefer to keep their money at home. “People don’t trust banks because there is no guarantee that their money will be safe,” says Rizgar Hassan, a 41-year-old shopkeeper in Erbil. Hassan acknowledges that he needs a bank account to keep his savings and enjoy other benefits, but like many other Iraqi Kurds he still remains reluctant... Wed, 22 May 2013 08:48:18 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-22-08-48-18 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/state7092.htm ERBIL-Hewlêr, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',— The Kurdistan Regional Government is very saddened to learn of the death of Richard Beeston, an outstanding journalist and loyal friend of the Kurdish people. A foreign correspondent and editor of 30 years, Richard was one of the first reporters to witness the chemical attack against the people of Halabja in 1988. His reporting helped to expose the massacre to the international community and to the public, at a time when Iraqi Kurdistan was little known, oppressed and isolated from the world. Richard spoke about what he saw in Halabja many times... Wed, 22 May 2013 06:27:56 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-22-06-27-56 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/syriakurd793.htm By Dr Kamal Mirawdeli: The Times newspaper persistently criticizes Obama for his ‘failure’ to support the Syrian Opposition and passionately calls for the supply of lethal weapons to the Syrian Free Army to end the despotic dictatorship of the Ba’thist regime of Bashar Assad. I wrote some comments in the free space provided by the newspaper, on a recent such article by the Times, but unsurprisingly it did never appear!! I do not want here to dwell on the past attitudes and positions of the Times and West regarding Assad and other past and present dictatorial and fascist... Tue, 21 May 2013 06:20:27 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-21-06-20-27 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/govt2186.htm BAGHDAD,— Iraqi parliament speaker, Osama al-Nujaifi said on Tuesday, that he will not hesitate to take any constitutional action if necessary to find an alternative for the position of President, Jalal Talabani. The Supreme Judicial Council demanded Osama al-Nujaifi to take legal action on Talabani's absence from his post since last December after suffering from a stroke, , through the implementation of Article 72 of the Iraqi Constitution, which identified certain period of absence from the position, and that this demand is based on the text Article I of the Public Prosecution Law No. 159 of 1979... Tue, 21 May 2013 12:26:10 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-21-12-26-10 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/govt2187.htm BAGHDAD,— Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki welcomed on Monday May 20 the possibility of establishing a region in the western provinces if its citizens wished so. However such a procedure should be undertaken according to legal and constitutional measures. He considered this demand to be “natural”, provided that it’s not achieved “forcefully”. “Advocates of war reached an impasse in dealing with us, with religious dignitaries, and tribesmen. If they want to establish a region of their own, we welcome such a suggestion”, said Al Maliki. He revealed that “it was natural to establish... Tue, 21 May 2013 12:43:26 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-21-12-43-26 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/article184.htm By Gerald A. Honigman: Certainly a country which can invent the Iron Dome can come up with a better stone ... Many Jews have already been killed or seriously wounded by Arabs throwing stones and boulders at their cars, persons, or property. Among the dead and seriously wounded have been very young children. Arabs have laughed at Israel's feeble response--soldiers not being allowed to deal with Arabs who seek to maim or murder the way any other would-be assassin would (or should) be handled. Sensitive about world opinion, Israel continues to court disaster by allowing its people... Tue, 21 May 2013 12:09:13 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-21-12-09-13 http://www.ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2013/5/kurdlocal1280.htm Unidentified gunmen kidnap Peshmerga element in Mosul. Mosul: One of Kurdish Peshmerga elements in central of Mosul city was kidnapped on Tuesday, indicating that the abduction took place while he was in a leave, a security source in Nineveh said. “Unidentified gunmen kidnapped an element of Kurdish peshmarga while he was in a leave from one of the restaurants in Jameaa area , he was wearing a civil uniform,” the source said. “The mobile phone of the kidnapped is closed since the accident,” he added. Nineveh province is experiencing deteriorating security situations due to... Tue, 21 May 2013 12:49:52 GMT ekurdnet-2013-05-21-12-49-52