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Iraq

Turkey launches fresh airstrikes in Iraq as Erdogan renews threats for offensive

2024-05-07

[al-Monitor] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... launched new Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s against the positions of Kurdish turbans in northern Iraq, the Ottoman Turkish Defense Ministry said on Monday, as Ankara ramps up its threats of a fresh military operation in the region. The Ottoman Turkish Defense Ministry said 16 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in the strikes conducted in the northern Iraqi regions of Hakurk, Metina and Gara. Headquartered in Iraqi Kurdistan, the PKK has been fighting for Kurdish self-rule inside Turkey since 1984 and is considered a terror organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... A video shared on the ministry’s X account showed an F-16 fighter jet taking off from an unspecified airbase then hitting several targets in the region. Turkey’s counterterrorism operations are "continuing at an increasing pace," Defense Minister Yasar Guler said in an address to the Ottoman Turkish army’s top brass on Monday. The fresh strikes came as Ankara renewed its threats of a large-scale military offensive in the region. "It is not possible for us to feel safe as long as the PKK finds a breathing space in Iraq and Syria," Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Xanadu Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Pleasure Dome Palace decree. It has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... said later on Monday in a televised speech after a cabinet meeting in Ankara. "We will deliver the final blow to the separatist organization, whose maneuver room is shrinking." Turkey also accuses the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the main ally of the US-led anti ISIS coalition in Syria, of having ties with the PKK. Guler also issued a similar warning last week when he criticized an Iraqi Kurdish political party, as well as Iran, for what he described as their lack of action against the Kurdish hard boys. He said the PKK "moves, operates and trains its fighters freely" in the northern Iraqi province of Sulaimaniyah, which borders Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and is under the control of the Kurdish Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). He added that the PKK turbans were forced to retreat toward the southern parts of Iraqi Kurdistan by Ottoman Turkish military operations in the region, but that the Iraqi side was failing to take any action to counter them. "Thus, we have to do whatever is necessary, and we will do it," Guler said during a televised interview. Turkey, which maintains more than a hundred military outposts in northern Iraq, accuses the PUK — one of the two dominant political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan — of cooperating with the PKK. Turkey has kept its airspace closed for flights to and from the international Sulaimaniyah airport since April in a bid to increase pressure on the PUK, which is headed by Bafel Talabani, the son of late Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. The Iraqi central government designated the PKK as a banned ...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all... organization last month but stopped short of declaring it a "terrorist organization" — a long-sought demand by Ankara. Guler said the coordination between Ankara and Baghdad has increased since the move.

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Iraq

PUK to hold congress early next year, discusses dissolving politburo

2017-11-06

[RUDAW.NET] The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has discussed dissolving its politburo office and holding a party congress early next year following the death of its founder and the fall of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... a stronghold of the party, a bigwig told Rudaw on Saturday evening. The PUK’s leadership held a meeting on Saturday in Sulaimani, but no decision was made. Aso Mamand, a member of PUK’s politburo office, said the party’s congress will likely be held before the end of January, but before Newroz at the latest. Newroz is the Kurdish New Year, celebrated on March 21. Regarding the fate of the politburo, he said it was proposed to appoint an 11-member committee to replace the politburo with a mission to prepare for the congress and oversee party activities in the interim. Rudaw understands that Kosrat Rasul, the acting head of the party, is being put forward to head the new executive committee. Mamand said the PUK’s Leadership Council, the party’s highest authority, will meet again on Monday to make final decisions on the issues discussed on Saturday, including setting a date for the congress. The PUK has been plagued by rifts in its leadership. Last year, Rasul and his then deputy Barham Salih denounced what they called an unethical group within the party leadership and announced the formation of a decision-making body. In September, Salih broke from the PUK and established his own political entity, the Coalition for Democracy and Justice. In recent weeks, PUK leaders have received mounting criticism for the fall of Kirkuk. The party announced on October 24 that it had opened an internal investigation into what went wrong on October 16 in the oil-rich province. Rasul, who is also former vice president of the Kurdistan Region, and other senior PUK members, including family members of the late party founder Jalal Talabani, traded accusations of blame back and forth in the aftermath of October 16. Talabani’s eldest son, Bafel, has been widely reported as having negotiated a deal with Iranian Quds commander Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi officials that permitted federal forces to enter Kirkuk without strong resistance. Although he is a PUK member, Bafel does not hold any official role. He denies the accusations. The PUK is one of the two main ruling parties of the Kurdistan Region that has strong influence over the Peshmerga and security forces in the provinces of Sulaimani and Halabja.

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Iraq

Barzani to step down as Kurdish leader in Iraq

2017-10-30

[AlAhram] Massud Barzani, the president of the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq, told a closed-door session of parliament Sunday he was stepping down amid the fallout from a controversial independence referendum. Also Sunday, the Kurds agreed to surrender to Iraqi forces the strategic border post of Fishkhabur, through which pass oil export pipelines to Ceyhan in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... "After November 1, I will no longer exercise my functions, and I reject any extension of my mandate," the 71-year-old Barzani said in a letter read out to parliament in the Kurdish capital Arbil, a copy of which was obtained by AFP. "Changing the law on the presidency of Kurdistan or prolonging the presidential term is not acceptable," said the architect of the September 25 independence vote, which led to the Kurds losing to Baghdad's forces disputed territory and oilfields to which they had laid claim. "I ask parliament to meet to fill the vacancy in power, to fulfil the mission and to assume the powers of the presidency of Kurdistan", said the letter. Barzani said he would "remain a peshmerga" (Kurdish fighter) and "continue to defend the achievements of the people of Kurdistan". Barzani's letter was sent to parliament to decide on the provisional redistribution of the presidency's powers until a presidential election, for which a date has yet to be fixed. November 1 had originally been slated for both presidential and legislative elections in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, but these were postponed in the chaos that followed the referendum -- which returned a massive "yes" to independence. Sunday's parliamentary session was postponed several times amid political tensions. Dozens of men rushed at the parliament building late Sunday, hitting out at journalists, media reports and MPs reported. Police had gun sex to disperse them. The opposition Goran party which had sought Barzani's resignation and a "government of national salvation" opposes the redistribution of the presidency's powers. That plan was proposed by the major Kurdish parties, Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and its rival Kurdish Patriotic Union (PUK). Barzani "symbolises the failure of Kurdish politics, and the only thing left for him to do is to issue a public apology," Goran MP Rabun Maarouf said before the session began. KDP deputy Ari Harin spoke of an "international plot". Barzani had come under growing opposition from his detractors after he organised the referendum on Kurdish independence that triggered a deep crisis with Baghdad. The federal government deemed the vote unconstitutional, and its forces have since seized a swathe of disputed territory in the north from Kurdish fighters. Territory reclaimed from the Kurds in the sweeping operation included key oilfields in and around the disputed province of Kirkuk. On Sunday, a government source in Baghdad told AFP that a deal had been reached under which Baghdad's forces would deploy at the disputed Fishkhabur border post with Turkey after festivities in the area on Thursday. The loss of the oilfields, which provided income that would have been critical to an independent Kurdish state, sparked recriminations among the Kurds. Political life in Kurdistan is dominated by the KDP and PUK of Iraq's late president Jalal Talabani. Iraq's current president, Fuad Masum, is also a PUK member and had backed a push for dialogue between the Kurds and Baghdad before the referendum. After the vote, Masum said the referendum had triggered the assault on Kirkuk. Iraq's neighbours Turkey and Iran, which have their own Kurdish minorities, also strongly opposed the non-binding vote, and Ankara on Thursday said the Iraqi Kurdish offer for the referendum to be frozen was "not enough", instead urging the Arbil government to cancel it. French President Emmanuel Macron told Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in a phone call Saturday that "everything possible should be done to avoid fighting between Iraqis", the presidency in Gay Paree said. Barzani's move comes with Abadi's forces engaged in battles in the west with holdout jihadists of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group, assaulting what the premier called "the last den of terrorism in Iraq", al-Qaim on the border with Syria. The mandate of Barzani, the first and only elected president of the autonomous Kurdish region, expired in 2013. It was extended for two years and then continued in the chaos that followed the sweeping IS offensive across Iraq in 2014. Protesters storm Iraqi Kurdistan's parl. as Barzani resigns [PRESSTV] Angry demonstrators, some carrying clubs, have reportedly stormed the parliament of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region in the region’s capital city of Erbil as the Kurdish politicians approved a request by president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Massoud Barzani ... hereditary head of the Kurdish Democratic Party, maybe a little too close to the Medes and the Persians for most people's tastes... , to step down early next month. According to witnesses, protesters were angry at Barzani’s decision to resign from the presidency of the region. Some reports indicated that gunshots were heard as protesters, who claimed they were Peshmerga Kurdish fighters forced their way into the parliament building.

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Iraq

Row breaks out in Iraq over Kurd flag on Talabani coffin

2017-10-08

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A row has broken out over the use of the Kurdish flag rather than Iraq’s colors at former president Jalal Talabani’s funeral, at a time of Iraqi-Kurdish tensions. Social media is abuzz with chatter over the choice of flag at Friday’s funeral in Sulaimaniyah, Talabani’s fiefdom in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Central government figures and Iraqi Kurdish leaders including long-time rival Massoud Barzani ... hereditary head of the Kurdish Democratic Party, maybe a little too close to the Medes and the Persians for most people's tastes... attended the funeral ceremony in honor of Iraq’s first non-Arab president, who died in Germany on Tuesday aged 83.

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-Obits-

Former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani dies aged 83

2017-10-04

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, has passed away on Tuesday aged 83, Iraqi Television has reported. Talabani, a veteran leader of the Kurdish struggle for self-determination, stepped down as president in 2014, after a long period of treatment following a stroke in 2012. Talabani was born near Erbil, now the seat of the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq, in 1933. He was the first non-Arab president of Iraq, elected in 2005, two years after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

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The Grand Turk

The Kurdish dilemma

2017-02-01

[Hurriyet Daily News] It seems that Kurdish-origin voters are going to play an important role in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s upcoming referendum for a shift to an executive presidential system, while the Kurdish problem is also gaining importance in efforts to find a lasting peace in Syria. The latter concerns not only Turkey’s internal balances but also the overall political equation in the Middle East. At the regional level, a major byproduct of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq in 2003 was the development of an autonomous Kurdish region in the north, bordering both Turkey and Iran. Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) was established by the traditionalist Masoud Barzani-led Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), while the modernist Kurdistan Patriotic Union (PUK) leader Jalal Talabani was made president of Iraq. That was considered one consequence of the Iraqi Kurdish parties’ collaboration with the U.S.-led occupation forces after the Turkish Parliament rejected taking part in it.

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Iraq

Terrorist group planning to attacking Kurd HQ arrested

2014-12-14

[IraqiNews.com] The Security Council of Kurdistan Region announced arresting a terrorist group that is planning to attack the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan headed by the former President, Jalal Talabani, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party headed by the President of Kurdistan Region, Masoud Barzani.”

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Iraq

Gunmen assassinate PUK's element eastern Tikrit

2014-10-31

[Iraq News] Unidentified gunmen killed a member within the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan headed by the former President, Jalal Talabani. Security source stated to IraqiNews.com âSome unidentified gunmen opened fire against a member within the PUK in Tuz Khormatu district of eastern Tikrit in Salah il-Din to kill him immediately.â

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Iraq

Iraq Parliament Elects Fuad Masum President

2014-07-25

[An Nahar] Iraq's parliament on Thursday elected veteran Kurdish politician Fuad Masum as federal president, a move that paves the way for the much-delayed formation of a new government. He succeeds the ailing Jalal Talabani, who returned only five days ago from 18 months of medical treatment in Germany to serve out his tenure. Parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi announced that Masum, who was born in 1938 and became the first prime minister of autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan more than two decades ago, had garnered the most votes. Masum was almost guaranteed the job after Kurdish parties struck a late night deal to support him. Under an unofficial power-sharing deal, Iraq's Kurds traditionally get the post of president. Masum won 211 votes while his challenger only managed 17 in the second round, according to figures announced by Juburi.

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Iraq

Bombings Targeting Kurds Kill 17 in Iraq

2014-06-09

[AnNahar] A boom-mobile followed by a suicide kaboom hit offices of a Kurdish political party and security forces in Iraq on Sunday, killing 17 people, police and a doctor said. The blasts in the town of Jalawla, north of Storied Baghdad, also maimed 50 people, the sources said. Police Captain Farhad Rifat said the boom-mobile went off close to an office of President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party and a Kurdish asayesh security forces building. As emergency workers came to the scene, the jacket wallah entered the PUK office and detonated explosives, he said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, though suicide kabooms are a tactic mainly employed by Sunni Mohammedan hard boyz in Iraq. Violence is running at its highest levels since 2006-2007, when tens of thousands were killed in sectarian conflict between Iraq's Shiite majority and Sunni Arab minority. More than 900 people were killed last month, according to figures separately compiled by the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... and the government. So far this year, more than 4,500 people have been killed, according to AFP figures. Officials blame external factors for the rising bloodshed, particularly the civil war in neighboring Syria. But analysts say widespread Sunni Arab anger with the Shiite-led government has also been a major factor. And that, of course, was why the Kurds were attacked. Or not, as the case may be.

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Iraq

Kurds Say Iraq Presidency Their 'Right'

2014-05-05

[An Nahar] Iraqi Kurds have a "right" to the federal presidency, the country's autonomous Kurdish region said on Sunday, signaling the start of public jockeying for positions following parliamentary polls. President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, has held the position since 2006, but his term is at an end, leaving the question of who will succeed him in doubt. In recent years, a de facto agreement has emerged whereby the president has been a Kurd, the premier a Shiite Arab and the speaker of parliament a Sunni Arab. The federal presidency "is a right of the people of Kurdistan, and we affirm this right to the Kurdish people," the region's presidency said in an online statement. And it said that any nominee for the post must be approved by the Kurdish regional parliament -- a demand almost certain to draw the ire of Arab politicians. The claim over the post is seen by Kurds as an important symbol after decades of central government oppression before the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

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Iraq

Suicide bomb kills 20 in Iraq's Diyala

2014-04-29

[Xinhua] At least 20 people were killed and some 30 others maimed in Iraq's Diyala province on Monday when a suicide kaboomed the Kurdish civilians celebrating sick Iraqi President Jalal Talabani casting his vote, a provincial police source said. The attack occurred in the city of Khanaqin, some 165 km northeast of the capital Storied Baghdad. A jacket wallah blew up his explosive vest among a group of Kurdish people who gathered in front of the office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party led by Talabani. The corpse count could rise. The Kurdish people were celebrating while watching a video showing the Kurdish Iraqi president, who has been in Germany recovering from a stroke since the end of 2012, was casting his vote in early polls of Wednesday's nationwide parliamentary election. It's the second day of a two-day voting for Iraqi expatriates in 19 countries in the Middle East, Europe and North America to cast their ballots for a new parliament. The ethnically mixed city of Khanaqin is part of the areas in dispute between the Kurds, who want to annex it to their autonomous region, and the authorities in Storied Baghdad.

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