Op-eds

The lifting of the United Nations’ Chapter 7 Sanctions against Iraq, imposed after executed dictator Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, may be very good for Baghdad’s international standing and image. But it does not mean the country is ready or mature enough to be free from Security Council or international supervision. In its...
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Unlike other weeks, I will not talk about politics or media, I will talk about an education beacon in Kurdistan that has not received much attention by neither parents nor authorities, simply because it does not teach in English, Kurdish or Turkish. It teaches in French. Amidst a normal Kurdish neighbourhood of the capital...
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The United States, Britain and their Western allies appear to have taken a collective sigh of relief following the landslide victory of moderate Hassan Rouhani in Iran’s presidential election. The Western powers are clinging to the sliver of hope that Rouhani, 62, will address Western and regional concerns about Iran’s controversial nuclear program, which...
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Did Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki get what he wanted out of his rare visit to Erbil? The symbolism of the visit was an important icebreaker after the visit of Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani to Baghdad last month. But the results of Maliki’s visit do not appear very fruitful. During Barzani met...
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Some bygone conflict between Kurdistan’s two ruling parties—The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (KDP)—seems to be resurfacing again. It has already started on social media and it might just as well translate into a full-scale conflict. The symptoms began to show immediately after the 38th anniversary of PUK’s...
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The relationship between politics and media in Iraqi Kurdistan has oscillated between bad and unhealthy. Neither political interests nor the media have managed to overcome their disabilities, failing to create a healthy relationship that would shape citizens who are educated, informed and aware of the place and region where they live. By political interests,...
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