Word: erbil
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish Autonomous Region of northern Iraq, is less than an hour's flight from Baghdad but almost a world away. While the insurgent-plagued airport road in Baghdad is known as the "Highway of Death," the road from the newly opened Erbil International Airport, plagued by nothing more dangerous than cyclists in spandex, wends through construction for a real estate development called "Dream City," a planned community of several hundred California-style detached single-family homes, a supermarket and an American school. Fueled by oil wealth from rich fields in the region, Kurdistan...
...progress in northern Iraq has come at a cost - and the Kurdish government may be paying for it now. While the Kurdistan Regional Government has a parliament and a president, the administration of Kurdistan is carved up between two rival political parties the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) in Erbil and the adjoining Dohuk governorates, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Suleymania Governorate. The two parties monopolize power in their respective territories, and their despotic tendencies threaten civil liberties and the fledgling democratic process, creating an environment that is rife with corruption and repression. Frustration at this dual monopoly...
...parties as an excuse to crack down on opponents and independent civil organizations, according to these groups. "Our members are regularly thrown in jail for seven or eight months at a time without cause," said Hadi Ali, the Minister of Justice, the token KIU minister in the KDP-dominated Erbil administration. "When they get out I tell them that they are lucky to be alive and to keep quiet...
...Ministries of Awqaf still exist in Kurdistan, and are still used to enforce political orthodoxy. "Instead of one big Saddam, we have a hundred small Saddams in Kurdistan," says mullah Ahmed Wahab, a member of the Iraqi parliament for the KIU and the head cleric of mosque in Erbil until he was fired by the Erbil Awqaf on the pretext that he held two jobs...
...Austrian citizen, criticized Masoud Barzani, who is both the President of Iraqi Kurdistan and the head of the KDP, and other members of the Barzani family, calling them "traitors to the Kurdish issue" in articles published on an opposition website run by Kurdish expatriates. When Dr. Kamal returned to Erbil last October, he was arrested and tried in secret. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for threatening the security of Kurdistan...