Kurdistan

22 years ago today, the former Iraqi regime ordered its air force to bombard the Kurdish town of Halabja with chemical weapons, instantly poisoning to death 5000 men, women and children. I went to Halabja for the first time in the spring of 2006 to pay my respects to the dead. I [...]

Salahadin, Erbil – Reports from Mosul indicate that hundreds of Christian families are fleeing the city after a series of terrorist attacks directed at them. The local government of Mosul has never, not even once, not even for a little bit failed to disappoint their constituents.
One of my earliest memories of interacting with [...]

Dear friends,
The last couple of weeks have been quite busy for the Alliance for Kurdish Rights campaign, one of our earliest projects. Aside from a complete redesign of our website, we just launched our latest video, which we’ve worked very hard on

Over twenty one years ago, the Saddam regime attacked the town of Halabja with chemical weapons, instantly poisoning to death 5000 men, women and children, mostly civilian. Some survivors were taken to Iranian hospitals just on the other side of the border, one such survivor, only four months old at the time was adopted [...]

Years before the Saddam regime targeted civilians on their Kurdish identity, it targeted people with associations to the Barzan tribe (Mizori Balla, Sherwanis, Dolamaris and of course Barzanis from the village of Barzan). Some 8,000 Barzani males over the age of 13 were trucked away and buried in mass graves in 1983. These individuals were [...]

While there were terrorist attacks in Baghdad, the three Kurdish provinces Erbil, Slemani and Duhok are calm. Friday Iraqi Arabs visited Northern Iraq to relax and enjoy the safety and calmness. Popular places are Bekhal, Shaqlawa, Ankawa and Rawanduz. On the day before Ramadan, people in Hawler (Arbil) visit entertainment parks like Family Fun or [...]

It’s with great passion that we finally launch this initiative.
We are a group of students, journalists, and activists from various Arab states who are concerned for and supportive of Kurdish human rights as well as the conservation of Kurdish history and culture. Due to injustices faced throughout the Middle East, many Kurds have found a [...]

Amnesty has an alarming article about security officials in Iraqi Kurdistan abusing their powers and the human rights of others:

[Source] Security forces in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region operate outside the rule of law and regularly abuse their authority, according to a new Amnesty International report.
During a fact-finding mission to the Kurdistan Region in 2008, Amnesty [...]

I have recently posted another article from BBC about missing bodies that were found in acid wells. Those bodies belong to people who lost their life during the conflict that took place in the 90s between Kurdistan Workers Party (aka PKK) and Turkish army. Those who died were killed by ‘unidentified’ people during the daytime, [...]

This request is an urgent one. I personally am very passionate about the usage of any media to tell a story, it’s the most empowering thing. So you can imagine why I’d request for your help in pushing this forward; reading the “dream” alone is inspirational as it is:
“My dream assignment would be to work [...]