Yezidi

Break down of relations between KRG (KDP) and the Yazidis.

BROKEN RELATION BETWEEN KRG (KDP AND THE YAZIDI’S

How the KRG Restrictions Harm Yazidi Recovery

 Some evidence about Sinjar and KDP policy regarding Yazidi`s

  1. Urgent call by Yazidi-Sinjar council and its YBŞ Self-Defense force
  2. Disproportionate Limits on Goods Entering, Leaving Sinjar
  3. Report Human Rights Watch: Iraq: KRG Restrictions Harm Yezidi Recovery (Human Rights Watch)
  4. Kurdish Officials Shut Down Group Aiding Yezidis (Human Rights Watch)

Continue reading “Break down of relations between KRG (KDP) and the Yazidis.” →

Conflict resolution

Vasiliki Scurfield addresses Newroz reception in Parliament

The Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) held an event in parliament on 17 March, to celebrate Newroz, the Kurdish New Year. The event was hosted by MP Mike Gapes. The speakers were Vasiliki Scurfield, the mother of Konstandinos Erik Scurfield, Michelle Allison, KNK UK women’s representative, Dr Alan Semo, PYD UK representative, and Dr Mohamed Kanyany, former KRG MP.

by Sofia Beatty

newroz parliament_vsAddressing a packed meeting in the House of Commons, Aysegul Erdogan, chairing, welcomed the speakers, with a special thanks to Vasiliki Scurfield, the mother of Konstandinos Scurfield, the ex-Royal Marine who died fighting with the YPG for the liberation of the Kurdish people. This year, said Aysegul, Newroz “takes on added significance, as this is the first Newroz since the victory of the Kurdish forces, the YPG and YPJ in Kobani, Rojava. This year, the fire of Newroz burns brighter than before. Newroz, for us Kurdish people, has a different meaning. To us, it means light over darkness, freedom over oppression, peace over war.” She praised the Kurdish spirit of resistance in the face genocidal acts against the Kurdish people, such as at Halabja. Continue reading “Vasiliki Scurfield addresses Newroz reception in Parliament” →

Conflict resolution, Peace process

Michael Gunter book “out of Nowhere” to be released April 2014

EUTCC secretary general Michael M Gunter’s latest book, Out of Nowhere,  is due to be released in April 2014 from Hurst Publishers. More details below:

“In mid 2012 the previously almost forgotten Syrian Kurds suddenly emerged as a potential game-changer in the country’s civil war when in an attempt to consolidate its increasingly desperate position the Assad government abruptly withdrew its troops from the major Kurdish areas in Syria. The Kurds in Syria had suddenly won autonomy, a situation that has huge implications for neighboring Turkey and the near independent Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq. Indeed, their precipitous rise may prove a tipping-point that alters the boundaries imposed on the Middle East by the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916.

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Conflict resolution

International Crisis Group publishes report on oil and Iraqi Kurdistan

The International Crisis Group, a organisation involved in international conflict resolution which provides analysis and advice to governments and intergovernmental bodies like the UN, EU and the World Bank, has published a new report called Iraq and the Kurds: The High-Stakes Hydrocarbons Gambit.

You can read the executive summary of the report below, and we have also made the report available for download here (pdf). Continue reading “International Crisis Group publishes report on oil and Iraqi Kurdistan” →