Kurdish Prime Minister Barzani working to establish peace between Turkey and Kurdistan Workers’ Party

Kurdistan’s politicians and citizens would like to see Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani successfully broker a peace agreement between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Turkey. It’s a bold move by Barzani, considering that the last peace agreement was mediated by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which has historically been an enemy of the Prime Minister’s party; the […]

Peshmerga deny Iraqi Army forces entry into Kurdistan

The Peshmerga stationed just outside Kirkuk have been chomping at the bit to get back into the city and contribute to security efforts there. However, they have been rebuffed numerous times by the Iraqi government. Now the Iraqi Army is requesting to enter Kurdistan in an effort to hunt down Islamic State militants. Deputy commander […]

KRG Prime Minister discusses Kurdistan’s future with Senator Lindsey Graham

This week, Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani met with United States Senator Lindsey Graham to discuss the many issues Kurdistan is currently facing. The two spoke in Erbil primarily about the continued efforts by the Peshmerga to subdue the Islamic State and the nearly 2 billion internally displaced people that have been affected […]

Kurdistan gears up for election season with an all new electoral registration staff

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has appointed 1,500 new employees to oversee voter registration for their parliamentary elections in September. Another 50,000 will be brought on under contract as well by the Kurdish electoral commission. When Iraq held its may parliamentary elections, widespread accusations of fraudulent voting practices were echoed throughout Kurdistan by several political […]

Iraqi Judge orders manual recount of parliamentary election votes

A panel of judges that were appointed by Iraq’s Supreme Court have ruled that the votes from the May parliamentary election will be recounted manually by appointees. However, the votes will only be recounted at locations where political parties filed formal complaints. The recount will start in Kirkuk this week. A statement released by the […]

Netherlands continues foreign aid efforts in the Middle East

The Netherlands Foreign Trade Minister, Sigrid Kaag, recently visited Kurdistan, Iraq and Jordan in a move to push rehabilitation efforts in the wake of Islamic State conflict. Primarily they will be focusing on the city of Mosul, further Peshmerga military advisory work and other humanitarian aid programs. Kaag addressed Netherlands press stating that, “It is of […]

Kurdistan has begun regulating water for conservation efforts

The Iraqi-Kurdistan city of Sulaymaniah has begun mandating the installation of meters that will record the use of water consumption in an effort to reduce waste. The director of water resources for the city, Sarbast Osman, reported that, “On Sunday, we will start installing water meters to record water consumption of households in Sulaymaniah. The […]

The United States looks to find cooperation with Turkey over Manbij

The United States is attempting to maintain its relationship with the Turkish government, especially now that the elections have concluded and Syria remains a major point of dispute between the two. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recognizes that current diplomatic relations are “difficult with the Turks,” but hopes future agreements of the Syrian city of […]

Drug use is on the rise in Kurdistan

Kurdistan Regional Government officials alongside various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are now claiming that Kurdistan and Iraq are in the middle of an illegal drug crisis. The number of citizens addicted to illicit substances has risen dramatically recently, authorities say this is due to several reasons. The leader of the Organization for Countering Drugs, Ibrahim Ramadhan, […]

Kurdistan representatives meet with US delegation to discuss the future of Iraq

A United States led delegation met with Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani over the weekend. The meeting was to discuss what role Kurdistan will play in helping eliminate the last remnants of the Islamic State as well as how the will contribute to the formation of the new Iraqi government. The delegation was […]

PKK ambushes Turkish patrol at extremely close range

Turkey is ramping up their anti-PKK and YPG operations in the Kurdistan region. Presently they are pursuing the PKK headquarters located in Qandil, a mountainous region in northern Iraq. According to reports, the Turkish military has setup 11 combat outposts on the northern Iraq/Turkish border and is using the forward operations points to launch patrols […]