The New York Times | Oct. 8, 2018
In an election that did not capture the attention of most of the world, residents of the semiautonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq voted in a parliamentary election last Sunday — a year after a failed vote for independence. The election, whose results have been hotly debated, is the latest chapter in the long and tortured struggle over control of the oil-rich region.
nytimes.com | By Aliza Marcus | Sept. 26, 2018
If the United States really wants stability in Syria, it needs to back the Kurds politically and practically, not just with weapons.
Ms. Marcus is the author of “Blood and Belief: The P.K.K. and the Kurdish Fight for Independence.
al-monitor | Makram Najmuddine |September 26, 2018
The most recent name to surface as a likely candidate for Iraq's premiership is Adel Abdul Mahdi, a former head of the Ministry of Oil and Ministry of Finance and a one-time vice president of the country. Following negotiations said to have involved Hezbollah, Mahdi now appears to have the support of two on-again, off-again rival parliamentary coalitions: the Sairoon Alliance of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Fatah Alliance of Hadi al-Amiri.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The KDP has nominated Fuad Hussein, former chief of staff to the KRG presidency, for the position of president of Iraq.
A native of Khanaqin, Hussein has lived much of his life in Baghdad and the Netherlands. He has a doctorate in international relations and speaks Kurdish, Arabic, English and Dutch.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein, he was put in charge of revamping the country’s education curriculum.
politurco.com | by David L. Phillips * | August 6, 2018
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered reciprocal actions against two US cabinet members, retaliating against a decision by the Trump administration to sanction Turkey’s Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu for the imprisonment of Pastor Andrew Brunson. The Brunson case is just one issue polarizing US-Turkey relations. More than 50,000 people, including Brunson, are jailed for supporting terrorism after the botched coup attempt in July 2016. Three US consular officials are wrongly imprisoned for supporting terrorism. Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 missiles violates NATO’s core principle of inter-operability. In addition, Erdogan helped Iran evade sanctions imposed to curtail its nuclear activities.