Turkey-Daesh: Is the Honeymoon Over?
Muhamed Hassan How do we evaluate the relationship between Turkey and Daesh after the deadly Istanbul explosion that is ‘caused by Daesh suicide bomber’? To start with, the relationship between the two has never been in the open. Conspiracy theories are awash with rumours regrading the implicit detente between Turkey and Daesh. Until recently, Turkey […]
HRW on Iraq: Ethnic Fighting Endangers Civilians
A report by Human Rights Watch released on January 13, 2016. Kurdish and Shia Turkmen armed groups have repeatedly harmed and endangered civilians in clashes in Iraq’s Tuz Khurmatu district, in Salah al-Din province, since October 2015. The armed groups have killed, wounded, and abducted civilians and destroyed scores, if not hundreds, of homes and […]
Neglect May Do What Daesh Didn’t: Breach Iraqi Dam
The New York Times – MICHAEL R. GORDON More than 16 months after Iraqi and Kurdish forces reclaimed Mosul Dam from Daesh fighters, the structure faces a new threat: the danger that it may collapse because of insufficient maintenance, overwhelming major communities downstream with floodwaters. In the worst-case scenario, according to State Department officials, an estimated […]
Iraqi Kurdistan: Lack of Democracy Overshadows Dream of Independence
Muhamed Hassan Iraqi Kurds are hungry for independence. If things had not turned sour after Daesh seized Mosul in summer 2014, the kurds would have probably got not far from declaring a referendum for independence. They believe that Kurdistan should not have been part of Iraq since the declaration of Iraq’s state in the Sykes-Picot […]
Who Stole the Mysterious Baghdad Battery?
Mohamed altaher – arabic.rt With the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iraq has lost many of its rare archaeological treasures, including the astonishing “Baghdad Battery” which — to this day — remains a phenomenon for which scientists have found no satisfactory explanation. This precious historical and scientific artifact, meticulously crafted in materials with distinct chemical […]
IRAQ: What Lies Ahead in 2016?
By Muhamed Hassan, Jan 3, 2016. After more than a decade of mismanaging the economy, public sector workers in Iraq and their counterparts in the private sector are going through a period of deep anxiety and worry of the unknown in 2016. Employees of all disciplines are distraught that sooner or later the country might […]
Masarat: Report on Iraqi Minority’s Rights Violations
Masarat has launched the English copy of its firs report about rights violations of Iraqi minorities, which consists of 144 pages. Regularly, a report will be issued each three months to uncover Iraqi minorities sufferings after Nineveh province and other parts of Iraq fell to ISIS. The report focuses on five minorities: Turkmen, Yazidis, Christians, […]
Basra Wednesday, 23 December 2015 The Employee Commission of the Southern Oil Company held a large demonstration on the morning of 17 December in front of the Office of Financial Supervision in the Al-Ashar area of Basra, protesting the pay stop for workers’ and associates’ earnings, as well as the failure of the financial arm […]
Iraq: Daesh Atrocities Fuelled by Decades of Reckless Arms Trading
Source: Amnesty International, December 2015. Decades of poorly regulated arms flows into Iraq as well as lax controls on the ground have provided the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS) with a large and lethal arsenal that is being used to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity on a massive scale in Iraq and […]
Messy Missions: Uncoordinated Diplomacy Takes Iraqi Kurdish Political Crisis to the World
Kawa Sheikh-Abdulla Niqash – Sulaimaniya Three diplomatic missions left Iraqi Kurdistan over the last fortnight. But they only served to demonstrate the political infighting in the northern region to the rest of the world. In early December three different delegations left the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan for international destinations. The diplomatic missions had a […]
Choosing to Return? Prospects for Durable Solutions in Iraq
OXFAM Executive Summary – December 2015 Nearly ten months since the earliest reports of returnees in parts of the country, a humanitarian crisis of significant proportions remains. Whilst more than 415,000 individuals have returned to their place of origin since conflict has subsided, approximately 3.2 million Iraqis are displaced inside Iraq, with more expected to face […]
Cultural heritage in times of conflict in Syria and Iraq: a case for prosecution?
By Toon Bijnens, ICSSI The Hague, December 2015 In a landmark case for cultural crimes, the first person charged with the destruction of cultural heritage appeared recently before the International Criminal Court (ICC), the international tribunal with the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for crimes against humanity. Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi is an alleged extremist militant accused […]