Kurdistan

Israel is fighting a regional war in Syria

May 23, 2013

Source: RT The changing internal situation in Syria is putting a new set of plans into motion, which involve Israeli aggression against Syria. Not only have the US and its allies been trying to militarily buttress the retreating anti-government militias, but now they aim to create a new phase in the conflict where states start [...]

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Battle for Qusair raises threat of Syria partition

May 21, 2013

Source: France 24 More than two years after the conflict began, Syria today is totally transformed. While experts discuss the threat of partition, on the ground, Syria is effectively a divided country. “What the country is experiencing today is in fact a real partition – even if it’s not official,” said Syrian anthropologist Randa Kassis [...]

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Turkey takes a big leap forward over energy security

March 24, 2013

Source: National Last month I wrote how Turkey needed to rebuild constructive relations with its energy-rich neighbours. Two dramatic announcements later, and it seems to have done just that. But big obstacles still lie in the way of improving Turkish energy security: Baghdad, a Mediterranean island, and the Kremlin. On Thursday, Abdullah Öcalan, the leader [...]

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Turkey’s ‘secret-keeper’: spy chief Hakan Fidan

March 19, 2013

Source: France 24 The head of Turkish intelligence, Hakan Fidan, is the driving force behind the state’s clandestine peace talks with a jailed Kurdish rebel chief that aim to end a bloody three-decade insurgency. Low-profile Fidan, 45, was appointed to the top spy seat by close ally Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in May [...]

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Pipelineistan – 3 Energy Pipelines That Could Shake Up Geopolitics

March 12, 2013

Source: NJ Three of the most volatile parts of the Middle East—Iran, Iraq and Israel—are the scene of oil and gas initiatives that could shake up geopolitics there and beyond. The efforts center on three energy pipelines, at least two of which seem likely to be built. The first is an attempt by Iran to [...]

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‘Third point in the revolution’: Syrian Kurds

February 24, 2013

Source: NP As the civil war in Syria grinds on, one of the less-noticed developments has been the emergence of a de facto Kurdish autonomous area in the country’s northeast. Stretching across a chain of towns and villages, from the border with Iraq to the disputed town of Sere Kaniyeh (Ras al-Ain in Arabic), this [...]

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Will Kurdistan’s Energy Wealth Lead to the Next Iraq War?

December 18, 2012

Source: Time Playing tourists in one of the world’s most dangerous cities is not how we imagined we’d end up spending Tuesday, but there we were atop Kirkuk’s ancient citadel admiring – and mourning – the crumbling ruins of the five mosques that once occupied the plateau overlooking the contested city.”See, look,” says Akam Omar [...]

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Local militias prepare to benefit from Syrian collapse

December 12, 2012

Source: Gulf News Nation states look very neat on the map, with their borders well-defined by thick lines, each country shaded in one colour, showing how each state is different from its neighbours. Such maps give a clear impression that each nation state is a coherent unit, and the authority of the capital runs throughout [...]

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Kurds, Arabs and Turks

November 28, 2012

Editors Notes: Iraq/Syria are ethnic/ideological heterogeneous regions whose populations desire autonomy, a nation of their own. The formation of a new state in a major geostrategic location will not be created by the populous, but by internal/external proxy. Related: CIA operatives and special operation forces conducting missions out of U.S. Embassy located in Baghdad. CIA [...]

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Kurd commander threatens to fight Iraqi forces in disputed areas if troop movements continue

November 20, 2012

Source: Washington Post/AP The commander of Kurdish Peshmerga forces warned Tuesday that his troops might attack Iraqi government soldiers at “any minute” after the central government sent tanks and armored vehicles toward the disputed city of Kirkuk. The threat was the latest sign of increasing tension between the autonomous Kurdish region and Baghdad after the [...]

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Washington offers deploying U.S troops in Iraq’s disputed Kurdistan region

November 19, 2012

Source: Ekurd Kurdistan region ‘Iraq’,— An informed Kurdish source said on Sunday, that Washington entered on crisis line after Iraq forming Dijla forces between Baghdad and Erbil to end it, while offered to re-deploy the U.S. troops in the disputed areas and considered the armed clash with Kurdish Peshmerga troops as a “red line.” The [...]

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The Great Kurdistan about to be created

November 13, 2012

Source: Pravda The Kurds have come close to creating the Great Kurdistan. Iraqi Kurdistan is close to independence, and Syrian and Turkish Kurds are creating a territory under the unified control, while the Iranian Kurds get united. The Kurds reside in Turkey – 12-15 million, Iran and Syria – 7.5 million, and Iraq – 4-4.5 [...]

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Big Game In Mesopotamia

November 10, 2012

Source: Lragir Since its origin Armenia had been closely related with the country of Mesopotamia, and recent movement in the development of relations between Iraq and Armenia will be an important aspect of our foreign policy. Iraq is trying to return to some sovereign countries and play a more important role in the Near East [...]

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Turkey ‘has trust issue with US on intelligence’- Kurdish Region

October 22, 2012

Source: Hurriyet Daily Turkey no longer entirely trusts U.S. intelligence despite its apparent offer to help eliminate Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) figures, according to a prominent scholar, adding that Ankara has been convinced that the U.S. military presence in Iraq since the Gulf War has fed the militant organization. Washington has come to see the group [...]

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Kurds Amp Up Battle, Tactically Trying to Split Turkey’s Army

August 6, 2012

Source: Al-monitor With a large-scale operation still ongoing at Semdinli, the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party] is expanding its area of battle by attacking three outposts in Cukurca area two days ago. By persisting at Semdinli for two weeks now, PKK is trying to split the Turkish army. With its new operations, the PKK hopes to [...]

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Kurdistan reaches toward the sea

August 2, 2012

Source: Haaretz The weakening of the relevant states, alongside the tectonic sociopolitical changes taking place in the region as a whole, may end up changing the strategic map of the Middle East. The last year’s upheavals in the Arab world have somehow blurred the sweeping developments taking place in a no-less important though less well-known [...]

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Do you think it is not related to the energy wars?

June 29, 2012

Source: Hurriyet Russian energy giant Gazprom issued a brief statement on June 29 which actually touches on many political problems in the greater geography surrounding Turkey. It said that the company is ready to send more gas to Turkey if necessary, but from 2018 on Turkey could ask help from Azerbaijan as well. Reuters got [...]

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Israel smuggling weapons to Syria through Iraqi Kurdistan

June 10, 2012

Source: Press TV Israeli airplanes are smuggling weapons into Syria through Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Syrian sources told Press TV. According to the sources, Israel sends weapons to Iraqi Kurdistan, which are then smuggled into Syria with financial assistance from Qatar. Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani has facilitated the operations of illegal Israeli firms [...]

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The new Iraq (oil) war

May 30, 2012

Source: Aljazeera Iraq has virtually disappeared from the news cycle – displaced by the Arab Spring/Winter seesaw and the ongoing tragedy in Syria. But when Ashti Hawrami, oil minister of semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, delivered a particular explosive bit of news over a week ago at the regional capital Irbil, one could feel the tectonic plates [...]

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Iraq could slide back into civil war

May 10, 2012

The arrest warrant, issued by the Interpol at the request of the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government, against Iraqi vice-president and prominent Sunni leader Tareq Al Hashemi is seen by many in the region as a recipe for a another bloody civil war in Iraq. It is also interpreted as a further demonstration of how influential Iran [...]

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Iraq’s Coming Civil War

April 27, 2012

Source: Indepth Africa As the Obama Administration tries to hammer together an American withdrawal from Afghanistan, the body count from his disastrous retreat from Iraq is swiftly rising. Last week alone there were fourteen car bombings orchestrated by Al-Qaeda in Iraq, whose goal has always been a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis. The bombings, [...]

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AP Interview: Iraqi Kurd leader hints at secession

April 25, 2012

Source: AP The president of Iraq’s self-rule Kurdish region demanded Wednesday that Shiite leaders agree on sharing power with their political opponents by September or else the Kurds could consider breaking away from Baghdad. The warning by Kurdish President Massoud Barzani in an interview with The Associated Press underscores that Shiite domination in Iraq’s government [...]

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Oil rift deepens Baghdad-Kurds dispute

April 5, 2012

Source: UPI Tensions between Baghdad and Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish enclave have intensified after the Kurds halted oil exports in a payment dispute and the government signed a deal with BP to develop the Kirkuk oil fields the Kurds claim are theirs. “Oil is obviously at the forefront of every decision Baghdad makes and the [...]

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Iraq says Kurdistan smuggling oil through Iran

April 2, 2012

Source: The Daily Star Iraq’s Kurdish region, which has halted crude exports in a row with Baghdad, owes the central government more than $5 billion and is smuggling the oil it produces through Iran, Iraqi officials said Monday. “Kurdistan does not have any refineries to refine oil, so the biggest part is being smuggled outside [...]

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