Kurdish officials are hitting back against Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has expressed “strong opposition” to a September referendum on establishing an independent Kurdistan in what is now Iraq.
The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet is reporting that supporters of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are organizing a political party to challenge the pro-Syrian Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), whose leadership is largely in prison.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called the upcoming referendum on Kurdish independence on Iraq “wrong” and “a threat to the territorial integrity of Iraq,” despite his country’s friendly ties with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
On Sunday, the Jews in the Kurdistan Region and the Diaspora, along with the State of Israel and the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Representative for the Jewish community Sherzad Omar Mamsani, issued a joint statement expressing support for the KRG’s decision to hold a referendum vote on their independence on September 25, 2017.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi issued a statement Friday rejecting the call by Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani for a national independence referendum, declaring that the Kurdish people cannot “decide its fate unilaterally.”
The autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan has announced an independence referendum to take place this September, in a move likely to anger officials in Iraq.
Concerns are growing amongst Iraqi Kurdish officials over the presence of Shiite-majority Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries in Northern Iraq where many territories remain controlled by the Islamic State.
Multiple Turkish media outlets are reporting that the United States deployed a new convoy of about 100 trucks to Syrian Kurds fighting the Islamic State in Rojava, or Syrian Kurdistan, this week.
Guards accompanying Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan violently attacked protesters in Washington, D.C. Tuesday who had congregated outside the Turkish ambassador to America’s residence, most Armenians and Kurds protesting Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian bent under Erdogan.
WASHINGTON – Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told Breitbart News that, while his country does not have “any problems with the Kurds,” they are not amenable to an independent, Kurdish state at the moment.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry warned that Ankara would not hesitate to bomb the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG/YPJ) should it seek to remain in the city of Manbij following the eradication of the Islamic State from that area. The YPG has been a longtime American ally, and the Pentagon is working to assert that it does not pose a threat to Turkey.
The Turkish government has issued a warrant for the arrest of Salih Muslim, one of the leaders of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD). The PYD’s military wings, the YPG and YPJ, are longtime American allies on the ground against the Islamic State in Syria.
As the operation to liberate the Iraqi city of Mosul of Islamic State terrorists continues, the civilians freed through the work of the Kurdish Peshmerga and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) did little to hide their joy at being rid of their oppressive regime.
Contents: Turkey’s Erdogan blames the EU for reneging on the refugee deal; With Turkey ‘left alone,’ Erdogan announces refugee plan conflicting with US plans; A major new flood of refugees starting to flee from Mosul in Iraq
Beirut, Lebanon – Turkish shelling and airstrikes killed at least 40 Syrians on Sunday, a monitor said, in the first significant civilian casualties in Turkey’s intensifying campaign in northern Syria.
Earlier this week, Turkey made a highly publicized demand for the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG and YPJ) to retreat east of the Euphrates after successfully conquering territory from the Islamic State. The YPG agreed, but Turkish troops shelled YPG locations on Friday anyway.
(REUTERS) – A suicide truck bombing at a police headquarters in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast killed at least 11 and wounded dozens on Friday, two days after Turkey launched an incursion against Islamic State and Kurdish militia fighters in Syria.
American officials have confirmed that Syrian Kurdish troops have agreed to stay east of Iraq’s Euphrates River, a demand imposed by the Turkish government. The Turks’ public concerns over Syrian Kurdish expansion come as the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, visits Ankara to reaffirm his solidarity with Erdogan.
The crackdown on journalists and media outlets with unfavorable outlooks towards the Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues in Turkey, where a Hurriyet reporter has been arrested for tweeting a rumor that the head of Turkey’s intelligence agency had been a suspect in last month’s failed coup.
The president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, declared in an interview with Swiss newspaper Neue Zuricher Zeitung that “Kurdistan is ripe for independence.”
The Iraqi military has announced that it is halting its operation to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State (ISIS), as they wait for Baghdad to send police and military reinforcements to continue capturing the villages surrounding Iraq’s second-largest city.
An explosion some outlets are attributing to a car bomb has struck the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir, the nation’s largest Kurdish population center.
A fighter for the Kurdish Peshmerga named Ferhang tells Breitbart News Daily with host Stephen K. Bannon: “We are very determined to fight the evil that is in front of us. The Peshmerga are fighting this evil for the world. That’s why I think it’s important for the world to support the Peshmerga against this evil.”
As the Kurds of Syria are moving ahead with plans to create their own federal region, the speaker of the Kurdistan parliament suggested partitioning Iraq might resolve its “age-old fears and tension.”
Images from Iraq reveal that vandals have painted a Kurdish flag over a seventh-century BC Assyrian relief in Dohuk, Iraqi Kurdistan.
#UnitedWeWin is a short documentary that follows four university students that travel to the front lines of Iraq to see what the international community is doing in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed Russia sent weapons to the Iraqi Kurds to fight against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).
Iraqi Kurdish leaders have announced an independence referendum in November, a day after President Masoud Barzani recommended holding one before the U.S. election.
The Iraqi government has nominated Yazidi Nadia Murad Basee Taha, who was abused as a sex slave by the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Turkey’s Kurdish population is demanding self-rule days after continued violence has killed many Turkish soldiers and Kurdish militants.
Russian media outlets are reporting that a high-ranking Islamic State commander has been captured after a U.S. special forces raid in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk.
Christians in Iraqi Kurdistan were determined to keep their Christmas Christian traditions, even though attacks from the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and al-Qaeda have decimated the population.
The brother of Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), claims Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani turned down two opportunities to meet with the Kurdish guerrilla chief while visiting Ankara, Turkey to discuss the fight against the Islamic State.
Russian airstrikes allegedly against Islamic State (ISIS) targets in Syria have forced airports in northern Iraq to close, stranding hundreds of Christians waiting to leave for Europe.
Masoud Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq, is currently in Ankara holding bilateral talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. The meeting will cover trade and the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS), and follows growing tensions between Turkey and Baghdad.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq, based in northeastern Erbil, has requested the Russian government keep its fighter jets out of its airspace when conducting missions against enemies of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in Iraq.
Turkey claimed it would not remove troops already in Iraq, but agreed not to send more as it continued to work with the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).
Before an international incident that involved Turkey shooting down a Russian fighter jet Tuesday morning, which purportedly violated Turkish airspace several times, Ankara’s forces were also engaged in attacks against Kurdish revolutionary forces in the southeast of the country.
Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani suggested in an interview this week that his forces, the Kurdish Peshmerga, could travel to Raqqa, Syria and participate in an assault to liberate it from the Islamic State (ISIS).
The Japanese government has announced that next year, it will open a representative office in Erbil, Iraq, the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq. The office will serve to expand Japan’s role in the region, as well as develop its close relationship with Kurdish leaders.
