Kurdistan Observer

US Ambassador Khalilzad Told Turkish Cihan news agency: “The Kurds are US’s strategic partner. The US had left bad experiences with Kurds behind due to the Algeria Treaty signed in 1975, but now they are on good terms and expect better relations. Once Kurds did not trust the United States, but that now they have become good allies."

The US Col. David Gray, in charge of security in the province of Kirkuk told the media that "Clearly, for the Kurds, Kirkuk is a strategic prize. They feel very strongly about bringing back their people to Kirkuk to undo the wrong that was done under Saddam's regime and the Arabization program."

• Kurdish Prisoners Revolt Over Inmate Hangings

• Letter By 56 Kurdish Mayors To Rasmussen: Save ROJ TV

Dec 28, 2005

• News Snapshot

The rogue Turkish regime indicated that it will allow private television stations to broadcast programming in Kurdish beginning next month, provided that these broadcasts are limited to 45 minutes per day!

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The President of Southern Kurdistan Massoud Barzani is expected to pay an official visit to Ankara today, reported the Turkish daily Hurriyet

• Kurds In Iraqi Army May Break Ranks

Dec 27, 2005

• News Snapshot

A delegation from Southern Kurdistan head by S. Barzani, Azad Berwari, Karim Sinjari, Safeen Dizayee and Kamiran Mufti arrived in Ankara Tuesday aimed at easing tensed relations with the Turkish regime. Barzani will only pay an official visit to the Turkish capital if received as President of Southern Kurdistan, reported Turkish Daily News.

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Turkish regime on Tuesday decided to launch an investigation to determine whether Co-Chairman of the EU Turkey Joint Parliamentary Commission Joost Lagendijk should be prosecuted for insulting Turkey's armed forces. Lagendijk had told a meeting a week ago in Istanbul that Turkish army loved to battle against PKK because the army considered that the fight boosted its value, reported AP

Dec 26, 2005

• Kurds Win Most Votes In Diaspora Elections

“The report we received from international observers was that there was fraud in three centres in Istanbul. The chief of the IECI mission in Jordan has sent a delegation to Istanbul. We will take a decision when the report is submitted,” said IECI official Farid Ayar. More...

• Greeting In Kurdish Acquitted

• Talabani: Rights Of The Kurdish People Must Be Guaranteed

• News Snapshot

Turkish police have arrested a nephew of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan on suspicion of links to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Anatolia news agency reported. It said the man, identified only as Mehmet A., was detained late Sunday in the southern town of Adana. He is accused of recruiting PKK fighters, the agency said.

Dec 25, 2005

• Bombs, Protests as Iraq Election Mood Sours

Meeting U.S. envoy Khalilzad in his Kurdish power base of Sulaimani, Talabani said: "Without the Sunni parties there will be no consensus government ... without consensus government there will be no unity, there will be no peace." More...

Dec 24, 2005

• News Snapshot

In the Kurdish city of Kirkuk, contested by Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, the Kurdish bloc won more than half the votes.

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The head of Turkish general gang reacted angrily to internet sites which defame Turkish military forces. Issuing a statement, Turkish gang said that the aim of those internet sites was to harm the honour of the armed forces, adding that yet they wouldn't reach their goals, reported the Turkish daily Sabah.

Dec 23, 2005

• President Talabani Goes Public On Spending

• Dutchman who aided Hussein regime convicted of war crimes

• How Did The Kurdish Bloc Do?

• To Some in Turkey, a Kurdish Beer Has the Flavor of Aversion

Dec 22, 2005

• Turkish Writers Fined For Insulting State

• DNO Finds Oil In Southern Kurdistan Well

Dec 21, 2005

• Sulaimani Shake-Up Gets Cool Reception

• Kurds Keep Options Open

• Stories In Turkish From Banned Kurdish

• News Snapshot

American Ambassador Belatedly Realizes That Iraq Will Not Work.
"It looks as if people have preferred to vote for their ethnic or sectarian identities," Khalilzad said. "But for Iraq to succeed there has to be cross-ethnic and cross-sectarian cooperation. Sectarianism undercuts prospects for success and increases the risk for conflict among sects."

Dec 20, 2005

• News Snapshot

Barzani Welcomes Relations With Israel. The President Of Southern Kurdistan Massoud Barzani denied that Israeli individuals were at Erbil's airport but added that it is not a crime to have relations with Israel. “Whenever the Iraqi government decides to normalize relations with Israel, we will open an Israeli consulate in Erbil,” he affirmed, reported Taakhi

• Syria Jails One Kurd, Dozens More Begin Hunger Strike

• Kurdish Rebels Warn Turkey Against Joint Military Action With US

• KDP of Eastern Kurdistan Condemns the statements of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

• Voting Irregularities Reported In Kurdish Areas

• British Officials Hunt For Iraqi Kurd Unlawfully Deported To Iraq

Dec 18, 2005

• Turkey Caught in Bind Over Novelist Trial

• Iraqi Army Tries To Reassert Itself

• Conference US: Supporting The Democracy And Kurdish Cause In Western Kurdistan

• News Snapshot

The Kurdistan Alliance leads a clear victory in Kirkuk According to unofficial results, 80 percent of the ballot boxes in the city were opened Kurdistan Alliance won more than 50 percent of the votes.

Dec 17, 2005

• Kurds Complain Of Election Roll Mix-Up

• News Snapshot

Hoshyar Zebari told Ilnur Cevik of the New Anatolian that Iraq has serious problems with Syria and warned the Damascus leadership that they are playing with fire. He said several Baathist terrorists are being given shelter in Syria and that the Syrians are allowing terrorists to infiltrate Iraq through their territory. He said 90 percent of the 450 foreign terrorists captured in Iraq say they entered from Syria.

• Iraq’s Elections Conceal A Divorce

Dec 15, 2005

• High Kurdish Turnout Sure To Garner Strength

Kurds answered to the call of their leaders and steadily went to vote amidst a celebratory atmosphere to help strengthen their position as the dealmakers in the next full-term government. More...

• News Snapshot

As lines of voters snaked out of two polling stations along the main road, and as celebratory gunfire resounded through the neighborhood, a group of children chanted Kurdish songs and waved Kurdish flags as they barreled through the middle of this village. By all appearances here, today's elections for national parliamentary seats may as well have been about Kurdistan and Kurdish dreams. Iraq, or the idea of Iraq, seemed as distant as the moon, reported New York Times.

• The Passing of a Great Kurdish Patriot, Dr. Ahmed Uthman

Dec 14, 2005

• Levin, Upton Want Permanent Residency For Kurdish Immigrant

• Sunni Sheikhs Flock To Kurdish City

The influx of dozens of BMW's and Mercedes wasn't new. But the dust-encrusted cars had ferried something unexpected to this Kurdish city - hundreds of Sunni Arab tribal leaders and Sheikhs. More...

• Kurds Concerned About Fraud

• Tarnished Democracy In Southern Kurdistan

Dec 13, 2005

• Iraqi President Says Will Not Seek re-Election

• Tugluk: The PKK and Ocalan are realities. You can't do politics if you ignore realities

• News Snapshot

In groundbreaking ceremonies attended by the US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, Massoud Barzani and some Sulaimani University professors and students, Jalal Talabani laid the cornerstone of the American University in Sulaimani. The American University will be the third one in the Middle East, following the American universities of Cairo and Beirut.

Dec 12, 2005

• Kurdish Youth Hold Key To Power In Elections

With less than a week to go, there are fears young Kurds will snub the polls in protest at corruption, poor services and lack of jobs and housing in their northern self-rule region. More...

• Michael Rubin: Kurds And Shia To Lose Seats In Next Election

• Kirkuk Braced For Showdown As Election Looms

• Veteran Politician Points To Nonviolence For Kurdish Aspirations

Dec 11, 2005

• Turkish Regime Kills 51 People In 11 Months

Bar of Adana, Head of Commission of Human Rights Association, Lawyer Mustafa Cinkýlýç, said that in the first 9 months of 2005, 4 people died under custody and at least 300 were exposed to torture and abuse. Cinkýlýç said that the number of people killed by policemen, soldier, ranger and private security guards in 11 months was 51. More.........

• Syrian Regime Disperse Kurdish Rights Demo

• Nashville "Little Kurdistan" To Again Be Site For Kurdish And Iraqi Voting

Dec 10, 2005

• A demonstration in Damascus to commemorate the international human rights day

• Hero Talabani: In a Fundamentalist Kurdish State I Will Not Live a Single Day

• Four Turkish Soldiers, Two Kurdish Guerrillas Killed

• Foreign Oil Deal Renews Debate On Kurd Autonomy

• Author The Turks Tried Gag Refuses To Rewrite History

The Turkish Government is afraid to stand up to a nationalist old guard, he told The Times. It is concealing information from its people. It is making only cosmetic reforms of repressive laws to win membership of the European Union. More...

Dec 9, 2005

• Kurdish President Offers Refuge To Christians

• Looking For A New Kurdish Policy

• News Snapshot