Kurdistan Observer

Massoud Barzani, president of the KDP, said he hoped to see an independent Kurdistan in his lifetime. "The people of Kurdistan have a right to their own state," he said. More

Jan 30, 2005

• KDP and PUK Unprepared for Arab Iraq's Dirty Tricks in Sham Elections

• News Snapshot

Barzani: We Do Not Care about Turkey's Comments

Speaking to journalists Massoud Barzani said " Kirkuk is a Kurdish province with a Kurdish identity. Neither Turkey nor another country has no right to make any comment about Kirkuk or any other Iraqi province. We do not care about their comments. We are not bound by those words. These things do not work by threats. An independent Kurdish state will be formed, but I do not know the exact time. The preference of the Kirkuk public will be shown after the polls. A referendum will be conducted to show the public demand."

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Massoud Barzani

The suicide bomber approached workers putting up protective barriers around the voting centre in the Kurdish city of Khanaqin . The blast killed a child, three soldiers and four of the workers and wounded seven more workers.

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In Kurdish city of Dohuk, three mortar rounds were used as a bomb late Friday wounding four civilians, a police official said. Also, in Arbil in a bomb exploded late Friday near a college causing no injuries, witnesses said.

• Full Text Of Interview With Nechirvan Barzani

• Hungry To Vote In Iraqi Kurdistan

• Crimes against Humanity

Jan 29, 2005

• Ankara Still Sides with Saddam and Warns Kurds to Maintain Saddam's Legacy of Ethnic Clean

• Kurdish Fighters Help To Secure Mosul For Poll

• News Snapshot

At least four Kurds were wounded when two bombs exploded Friday night in the Southern Kurdistan city of Duhok near KDP offices, police said, reported AFP

• Vote casts spotlight on Nashville Kurds

Jan 28, 2005

• Nechirvan Barzani Rules Out Kirkuk Compromise

Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdish administration in Arbil, has ruled out compromise over the disputed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, reinforcing the growing assertiveness of the Kurds in the run-up to Sunday's election. More

• US Will Pay The Bill if Kirkuk Plunges Into Turmoil, Turkish PM Warns

Jan 27, 2005

• Turkey's Basbug Warns Kurds About Kirkuk Control

• News Snapshot

A suicide car bomber attacked the office of the KDP in the Kurdish city of Shingar, killing or injuring at least 20 people, an official of the Kurdistan Democratic Party said.

Jan 26, 2005

• Kurds Lay Out Conditions For Staying Iraqi

"We don't have anything against Arabs, but the provisional constitution stipulates that the problem should be resolved, that the Arabs should return to where they have come from and Kurdish deportees should return to Kirkuk." More

• Shia Kurds Go It Alone

• Kurds To Decide Who Wields Power

• How the U.S. Can Attack an Ally

• Kurds Saddled With Saddam's Men

Jan 25, 2005

• Former Kurdish MP Dr. Remzi Kartal To Be Extradited To Turkey

• Don't Take Kurds For granted, Iraq's Deputy PM Warns

• Syrian Kurdish Poet Goes On Hunger-Strike

• An Arab Party Based In Kirkuk To Boycott Elections

Jan 24, 2005

• Thirteen Injured As Turkish Police Clash With Kurdish Protestors

• Documentary Film About Disappeared People In Northern Kurdistan

Jan 23, 2005

• Talabani: We Have Received Assurance For Kirkuk

• Barham Salih Promises Kurds Trial In Halabja For "Chemical Ali"

Jan 22, 2005

• Deportees' Compatriot Wins a Month's Reprieve

Jan 21, 2005

• Kirkuk Comes To The Crossroads

• In Mosul. Peshmerga, are filling a security vacuum left after Mosul's police force collapsed in the face of an insurgent offensive last November. Listen to NPR

• 2500 People Protest '13-Bullet' Case With School Reports

• Group Heading To Nashville To Cast Ballots

• Dutch Court Blocks Extradition Of Kurdish Rebel

A Dutch appeals court upheld a decision blocking the extradition of Kesbir to Turkey, saying she ran the risk of being tortured. "The court's decision is that Kesbir as a woman and a prominent PKK member runs increased risk of being subjected to torture during her detention in Turkey. Apparently there is a discrepancy between what the Turkish government wants and what happens on a lower level in prisons and police stations," the judges said. More

Jan 19, 2005

• U.N. Blasts Japan For Deporting Kurds Back To Turkey

• Prospects for Kurdish Vote. The Two Main Kurdish Parties Are Expected To Win. Listen To NPR

Jan 18, 2005

• Amnesty Shock As Torture Prevention Group Is Closed In Turkey

• Kurdish Deportees Will Have Ability to Vote in Iraq Election

• A Kurdish Music Legend Passes Away

• Kurds Register In Nashville To Vote in Iraq Election

Jan 16, 2005

• News Snapshot

A KDP official denied Turkey's CNN-Turk television report claiming that a car bomb exploded near the parliament building in Arbil, killing at least seven people as Kurdish leaders Barzani and Talabani left a meeting to discuss the elections. The Kurdish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AP in Baghdad by telephone that a mortar shell exploded in a city park, causing no casualties or damage.

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The US announced on January 13 its support for Iraq's temporary administrative law to be applied completely, including the 58th article for those exiled from Kirkuk in Saddam's period to return the city. Talking yesterday to CNN Turk, Osman Koruturk, Special Representative of Turkey in Iraq, has warned that impositions in Kirkuk would lead to interventions.

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Two former members of the Baath Pary, voluntarily withdrew from participating in elections, Namiq Reqib Surci and Jewko Muhammad Kelhi, both enlisted on the Kurdistan Alliance ballot ticket, said that they will not participate in provincial elections in Mosul, reported Hawlatti

• Being united paid off, at last! … Xebat Editorial

• Press Release: Kurdish National Congress condemns the arrest of a Kurdish journalist

Jan 15, 2005

• Kirkuk Election Deal Tips Power To Kurds, Angers Arabs, Turkmen

• As Jan. 30 elections approach, Kurdish leaders vow their northern region will remain part of a federal Iraq. But they warn that stance could change if Baghdad fails to grant Kurds the autonomy they seek. NPR's Ivan Watson reports.

• Kurds Reach Tentative Deal To End Boycott of Kirkuk Elections

• Iraq Group Claims Killing of Cleric's Aide, 3 Kurds

• News Snapshot

Hoshiar Zebari, said that Baghdad most likely could do little to prevent any possible strives towards the formation of a Kurdish state in Southern Kurdistan after the January elections. Mr Zebari added that Iraq being a democratic country after the vote would do better off if it allowed its citizens to decide their future by themselves, reported Peyamner.

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Gunmen killed three officials of a leading Kurdish political party in an ambush in Mosul, a party spokesman said today. Unknown attackers opened fire on the men’s car yesterday afternoon, said Hashim Zibari of the Kurdish Democratic Party, reported Press Association.

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Ansar al-Islam claimed responsibility Friday for the assassination of a community leader Sheik Mahmoud Finjan who was working to get out the vote on behalf of Iraq's top Shiite cleric the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and "as a big supporter of the elections."Finjan was shot to death Wednesday as he headed home after evening prayers in a mosque at the town of Salman Pak southeast of Baghdad.

Jan 14, 2005

• Zebari: The Iraqi People are A Part Of The Arab Nation," But Not The Entire Iraqi People

• Turkmen Group Threatens To Boycott Iraqi Elections Over Kurdish 'Games'

• Leyla Zana Reaches Settlement With Turkey

• Let The People Of Southern Kurdistan Decide Their Destiny

• News Snapshot

In Norhtern Kurdistan, Tuncer Bakirhan was re-elected as a chairman of DEHAP. The congress, held at a sports hall in Ankara, saw many delegates and party supporters chanting slogans in favor of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, reported AFP

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An official from the PUK said four young Kurdish men were abducted on Wednesday afternoon. "Three Kurds were kidnapped in the Al-Sinai quarter in the south of Kirkuk after they closed their shops while the fourth, a civil engineer, was kidnapped close to the village of Al-Atchana, 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Kirkuk," reported AFP

Jan 13, 2005

• U.S. Tells Turks it won't fight Kurds

Jan 11, 2005

• The US Ambassador to Ankara's Remarks Regarding Southern Kurdistan

The situation that has evolved in northern Iraq of course is a historical result of the outcome of the first Gulf war and then the cooperative policy that the United States, the United Kingdom, and Turkey had in trying for 10 years to contain the regime of Saddam Hussein. The groups, the Kurdish groups worked with the United States during the course of the military operations in the spring of 2003 but I think that from that historical fact, people here in Turkey have built a huge edifice of interpretation that I think is grossly out of kilter with reality. More

• Children Of The Storm

Jan 9, 2005

• U.S. Considers Using Peshmergas To Target Sunni Insurgents

Jan 8, 2005

• News Snapshot

U.S. Ambassador: "The United States and Turkey are principally agreed on Iraq to remain an integral country and that is why we are opposed to Kirkuk’s inclusion into the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan and gave it (Kirkuk) an extraordinary status. As elections are under way in entire Iraq, Kirkuk should too be included in the elections. This is the common stance of the US and Turkey and we have told this to both Barzani and Talabani," U.S. Ambassador to Ankara Eric Edelman told Zaman daily in Istanbul yesterday.

Ambassador

Eric Edelman

• Zebari Interview : Shi'ites Post-Ballot Dominance Exaggerated

Jan 7, 2005

• US Military Apologizes: Dormitory Hit By Mistake

• Kurdish Nationalists Defend Coalition

• News Snapshot

At least five Kurds, whose identities were established by Mosul Police Department, were killed last Thursday in what the Kurdish residents of the city claim to be a systematic assassination of their fellow citizens in Mosul. The bodies were found in separate places inside as well as on the outskirts of the city.

Jan 6, 2005

• KRG Condemns US Military Raid On a Dormitory In Irbil

• Damaged Student Dormitory

• Massoud Barzani: Carrying Out The Poll Fruitless

Jan 5, 2005

• New electrical substations in Irbil

• Zebari: Kurds Will Participate In Kirkuk Polls

• News Snapshot

According to IsraelNN.com, Kurdish sources are reporting that Iraqi security forces have captured the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab Al-Zarkawi. Zarkawi is thought to be the leader of much of the anti-American, Islamist insurgency in Iraq and a local
commander for Al-Qaeda. While official Iraqi sources have yet to confirm or deny these reports, media outlets throughout the Middle East are repeating the Kurdish reports.

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According to Turkish media reports, Turkey's Gul once again warned the US in regard to Kirkuk stating that "if any change to the demographic structure of Kirkuk is allowed, it may lead to more serious problems".

Jan 4, 2005

• US, Turkey Review Touchy Iraq, Mideast Issues

• KNC: Kurds Are For An Independent Kurdish State

• News Snapshot

In a surprise visit to Southern Kurdistan, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said "there has been unlawful practices in Kirkuk against Kurds. Serious steps should be taken to remove these practices... it is important that the new government (Iraq) tackle this issue," he was quoted as saying after two-hours of talks with Masoud Barzani. Intriguingly, Armitage downplayed the displacement of Kurds when speaking to Turkish foreign minister Gul in Turkey. According to AFP, he told reporters that "there have been many segments of Iraqi society who have had their situation changed by force. The Turkmens are of course in this category and the Kurds themselves have been forced out, of particularly Kirkuk, to some degree".

Nechirvan Barzani Rules Out Kirkuk Compromise

Interview With Nechirvan Barzani

Who Won't Be Making Jokes About WMD

Israelis And Kurds Fight For Respect