US envoy expected in Ankara for talks on Turkish-US ties, Kurdish rebels


ANKARA, Aug 23 (AFP) - 12h02 - A ranking US official is expected here Thursday for talks on bilateral ties and particularly measures to combat armed Turkish Kurd rebels holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq, a US spokesman said.

  

Interrogator Shares Saddam's Confessions



January 27, 2008

(CBS) For a man who drew America into two wars and countless military engagements, we never knew what Saddam Hussein was thinking. But you are going to hear more than has ever been revealed before.

After his capture, Saddam met every day with one man, an American he knew as "Mr. George." George is FBI agent George Piro, who was the front man for a team of FBI and CIA analysts who were trying to answer some of the great mysteries of recent history. What happened to the weapons of mass destruction? Was Saddam in league with al Qaeda? Why did he choose war with the United States?

As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, Piro is the man who came to know Saddam better than anyone, as they sat face to face in a windowless room.


  

Opening session of a new Kurdish parliament


Associated Pres - 4 June 2005 — Jalal Talabani, the first Kurdish President of Iraq smiles beside Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish region

  

Kurdistan not like other parts of Iraq



September 16, 2007

Four years ago, photographer Hal Yeager and I came home to Birmingham after nearly six weeks on assignment with an Alabama Army National Guard unit in northern Iraq.


  

Iraq's Kurdish Jews Cautiously Return to Homeland



December, 8, 2007 by Ivan Watson

All Things Considered,  Lana was a teenager when her family made a clandestine journey from Kurdistan to Israel.


  

KRG statement on first high-level talks with Turkey



1 May. 2008

Erbil, Kurdistan – Iraq (KRG.org) – A Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) delegation led by Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani today in Baghdad met with a delegation from the Republic of Turkey headed by Mr Ahmet Davutoğlu, the senior advisor to the Turkish Prime Minister; Mr Murat Özçelik, the Special Coordinator for Iraqi Affairs at the Turkish Foreign Ministry; and Mr Derya Kanbay, Turkey's Ambassador in Baghdad.


  

Father of modern Kurdish novel' laid to rest



Monday, October 15, 2007

Mehmed Uzun, a Kurdish novelist who was prosecuted for criticizing Turkey's former ban on the Kurdish language, was commemorated by thousands Saturday at his funeral in Diyarbakır.


  

Children of the repression


Turkish Kurd teenagers turn to the PKK after enduring years of brutality


Ian Traynor in Diyarbakir, Turkey - Monday June 5, 2006

Guardian

Sevder is seething. Growing up in poverty and squalor, he has seen schoolmates shot dead by Turkish security forces and had to put up with the vulgar taunts of Turkish policemen towards his mother and sisters. His grudges have been nourished by endless tales of family and friends burnt out of their villages in the hills and decanted into the slums of Diyarbakir.


  

Questions for Peter W. Galbraith



July 9, 2006
The Breakup
Compiled by DEBORAH SOLOMON

Q: Your new book, "The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End," argues that the Bush administration should stop insisting that Iraq can ever be a unified nation.


  

Turkey Rediscovers the Middle East



July/August 2007 | By F. Stephen Larrabee

Summary: In a departure from its traditional foreign policy, Turkey is now becoming an important player in the Middle East. Turkey's growing concern over Kurdish nationalism has brought Ankara closer to the governments of Iran and Syria, which also contend with restive Kurds at home. Although troubling, this shift could be an opportunity for Washington and its allies to use Turkey as a bridge to the Middle East.